Since I get to go on yet another all expenses paid trip to a homestand in the finals, I’m choosing to go to Tampa Bay. I think it would be nice to get out of cold Canada for a little bit and get down to Florida for some sunshine. I’d wake up early and take a charter boat out fishing for some marlin and sharks. I’d make sure to have enough Vodka to really make it a party. I’m hiring a ton of strippers to come hang out on the boat as well. It’s going to truly be a party boat. Vodka, strippers, and stripers. Perfect. Then, afterwards I’d take a quick nap and then head out to the game. You know, I’m ordering all the top flight drinks while at the game. I’m even bringing my favorite stripper. Afterwards, I’d hit the town and party for a while, probably stay out most of the night before finally crashing in my waterfront penthouse suite. I’d probably wake up the next day and do it all again.


In the alternate reality playoffs, the Toronto Noth Stars are your Challenge Cup Champions. Mika Kandinsky and Mikhail Lokitonov both score over 40 points in the playoffs carrying their team on their backs. A lights out playoff run from Harry Carpet is what really seals the deal for Toronto. After taking the Barracuda to seven games, the North Stars rally and put up a ton of goals to snag the win. From there on, Harry Carpet goes nuts and has a save % of .962. With the offense of the Dragons stymied by a brick wall in net, it leaves Mika and Mikhail the opportunity to absolutely scorch the competition leaving the Dragons slain in their wake. Harry Carpet would go on to win playoff MVP for stopping on average, 50 shots per game. This would be so Toronto could focus on offense, which is what they do best. The rebuild would be declared over, and Toronto would be crowned champions. Then Mika woke up from his dream and was back in the hotel with the strippers.


One area of my game that I know I need to improve on in the offseason is my defense. I want to be a dominant two way player, and while I feel pretty confident in my game, I know defense is one aspect I can definitely expand on. I want to have the puck on my stick more and more, and I know how much work it takes to get the puck back from the opponent at this level. So I’m going to be working extra hard on my defense so that my positioning and awareness away from the puck will be improved for next year. With more defensive anticipation, I can make plays to break up the opponents’ possession and get going down the ice in the other direction, quickly. I’m going to do this by watching a lot of old game tape and see if I can predict any and all puck movements by the other team before they happen. I want to see if I can start to detect the play happening 3 passes ahead of the current play. Then, I’m going to get out on the ice in practice and try to apply that vision and forward thinking. I think anticipating the right plays to happen will be the biggest addition to my defensive game. It will also make me a lot stronger on the counter attack.


I think as far as rule changes go, that offisde calls needs to be looked at urgently. For one thing, I don’t think offside should be a challengeable call at all. I think that if a ref isn’t able to catch offsides, then it wasn’t a big deal and probably didn’t effect the play in any way. So, first thing is first, is that the offisde challenge should be abolished completely. After that is out of the way for the short term, I think the entire rule needs an overhaul. Here is my proposal: Once the puck crosses the red line, offsides is voided. Once the puck enters the zone, offsides will come back into effect. If the puck comes out, the team must tag up before re-entering the zone. It is now a penalty to have any player to enter the other team’s zone before the puck crosses the red line. I think this change would give the play more flexibility while also not promoting cherry picking. Basically, once the puck is on that side of the zone, it’s open game. But once the puck crosses the blue line, the classic offside rule is back in play until the puck is cleared from the zone. In which, it resets back. Any offensive player who was in the zone at the time of the clear must now skate out of the zone and will not be permitted to touch the puck until they leave the zone first.


Mikhail Lokitonov is without a doubt the best player I've ever seen who has not been to a Challenge Cup Finals. ML is the most dominant player in the league. He’s an absolute man-beast. His last 4 seasons saw him score, 61, 54, 62, and 67 points! He’s absolutely incredible on the ice. He does it all, he hits like a monster throwing over 200 hits per season. He plays heavy minutes and is used in all situations. He is a player that makes everyone around him better. For an example, Mika Kandinsky scored 62 points as a rookie while playing on ML’s right wing. That is the ML effect at work there. It’s incredible that such a good player has seen so little success in the SHL. Until this season, ML had never won a single playoff series. I think it is obvious that ML is easily the best player who has never seen a Challenge Cup Finals series.


I think Mike Izzy is set to have a better series than Gunnar Soderberg. Soderberg might be hot coming into the series, but Izzy has all of the experience in the world coming into it. I think Izzy’s leadership and experience is going to give him a pretty big edge over Soderberg in the series and I won’t be surprised to see Izzy outscore Soderberg by at least 7 points in this series.


16 tpe