Quote:1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min)
VIP Status babyyyyyyyy - your player has been invited to attend one of the first homestands of the CC finals as a VIP guest - all expenses paid, front row seats, any hotel you want - and it's all on the Commissioner's dime! Are you going to Games 1 and 2 in Tampa or Games 3 and 4 in Calgary? Why are you picking there? And what are you going to do in that city to run up Eggy's tab?? (This is the same prompt as last year but we've got different cities! be creative! Don't re-use what was written last season)

Disheartened by being swept, Fox is left with a tough decision. On one hand, why would he want to go see Games 3 and 4 in the city of the team that he got swept by? Well, Fox does happen to be a huge fan of chicken parm, so visiting the notorious Big Parm would be a classic. However, there's only one real choice here, and that's Tampa. Fox couldn't turn down a trip to see his pal Nik Evans. All expenses paid? Come on 'Cuda, let's go have ourselves a nice dinner and get you ready for Games 1 and 2. On second thought...Fox had a better idea. With Calgary in town preparing, Fox pulled a few strings and decided to get the Dragons together and take them out to celebrate knocking off the Specters. Rumor had it Izzy was a fan of beer, so Fox could only hope that the hangover would be too bad for Izzy to deal with in Game 1.

Quote:2. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min)
After a slow start to the regular season, the Dragons have surged of late and have rallied around the #CalgaWe notion of togetherness. On the other side, the Barracuda battled through a difficult East and are led by a very strong young core. Which team are you personally rooting for to take home the Challenge Cup and why?

As you could probably see from the first prompt, I'm personally rooting for the Barracuda. While I have a lot of respect for Esa and Izzy and have some of my J guys in their system, I just can't find it in me to root for the team that knocked Fox and the Specters out of the playoffs. The Barracuda have been up and down over the past few seasons and honestly deserve something to go right for them. Heck, they shelled out for two players that helped get them to this point. It might take them actually winning the cup to give them a little more peace of mind from that trade.

Quote:3. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min)
Are there any changes to the playoff format you'd like to see implemented? More wild cards? Move to a single-elimination to bring about even more chaos? 999-game series to minimize chaos? Be creative!

While you may be looking for creative, my idea is a little more tame but I think would make a little more sense. As it stands right now, 5 teams from each conference makes it into the playoffs. This makes for some odd matchups to begin with 3 teams having a bye and 2 teams playing a play-in series. Firstly, I'd limit the playoffs to 8 teams instead of 10 and get rid of divisions again. W1vW4, W2vW3, E1vE4, E2vE3. Best-of-7. Here's the catch: double elimination. The "lower bracket" would stay within conference, so west teams would never face east teams before the finals. The "lower bracket" would also be Best-of-5 instead of Best-of-7 like the "upper bracket." The conference finals would be Best-of-7 with no advantage, and the finals would be Best-of-7. This is not feasible with SimonT as is, so.

Quote:12. Written, up to 5 TPE Pick up to 5 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words to qualify.
A. Each team enters these finals with a red hot superstar - longtime league legend Mike Izzy for Calgary and surprise breakout star Gunnar Soderberg for Tampa Bay. Which of these players will have a more dominant finals?

B. Kata Vilde and Benjamin Blue are two of the best goaltenders in the league - which team has the advantage in net?

C. Do you expect this to be a high-scoring series or a low-scoring series? A mix? Do you think it'll be competitive or will one team run away with it?

D. What's your favorite player NAME on either team? why? (note: not who's your favorite player. which player name)

E. If you could choose any one of the following four options, which would you pick? 1. A chicken parm sandwich from Esa 2. A tray of cookies from c00kies 3. A custom feet pic from JSS 4. An hour long stick and puck session with Jepox

A) Calgary has only lost 1 game the entirety of the playoffs so far. While I believe this will end, I think Izzy will still find a way to put on the best performance of his career to date and make it as hard as possible on Tampa to succeed in taking home the Cup.

B) The advantage in net at the moment has to go to Kata Vilde. 12-1-0 in 13 starts this postseason, .931 save percentage and an even 2.00 GAA. Vilde has the hot glove in the playoffs, so for TBB to come away with the series, Blue will have to find a way to top Vilde, which is going to be quite the task.

C) Looking at the goalie stats heading into this series, this will likely be a very low scoring series. However, I think SimonT likes to go against the grain in these scenarios, so I would expect scoring to be up in this series compared to the previous rounds of the playoffs. Only time will tell how it will truly play out though.

D) Maui. I mean, come on, there's just something about a mononymous name that makes that person that much cooler. "What jersey are you buying?" "Maui." "Maui who?" "Just Maui." There are some other names that are close, but ultimately Maui takes the cake (or, in essence of the series, he takes the parm) in this one.

E) While the first two options sound really enticing (and the last two......uh), I'm gonna have to go with a chicken parm sandwich from Esa. I am a slut for some chicken parm and would do some pretty terrible things for some chicken parm right about now. I hate that I'm doing this during lunch, too. Stupid CW making me hungry. I hope you're proud!

Quote:15. Casual Member Special, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer - SEND ANSWER IN PM TO "PT DIRECTOR" (tagged below)
A. As defined by draft class, who is the oldest player in this series?
B. What is the name of the Calgary Dragons' Arena?
C. Name 3 previous names of the Tampa Bay Barracuda franchise
D. From these two teams, which player had the most PIMs in the S50 regular season? (Look, I'll even give you a link to the index right below this code box. When I posted the link directly, it auto-corrected the colon + slash into a partial frown face; it looks funny and the link still works so i'm leaving it)

**Important**: Send the answers to username "PT Director" with the subject of the message titled “S50 CW" - Do not send it to my personal account; those will not be graded. Do not post the answers in here; you will not get credit for the task.

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