I don’t really have any strong like for one team over the other. I wouldn’t really say I’m rooting for them, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet on Tampa. I wouldn’t be confident in it, but I favor them slightly. I think Calgary has relied to heavily on Mike Izzy, and Kata Vilde. The production of these two is unlikely to stand up to anyone, regardless of how good they are. Tampa is a solid team. I had them as one of my favorites to make it to the finals. I think they have a slightly more balanced attack than Calgary, and that will serve them well in this matchup.

As much as I want to go all-in on the chaos, I’ll do something only a bit chaotic. We don’t have quite the right number of teams for this to work correctly, I think, but who cares. First, we have an upper bracket and a lower bracket for the tournament. The two lowest teams in the standings who qualify for the playoffs start in the lower bracket. The rest are matched up in the upper bracket like normal. Any team in the upper bracket that loses is dropped down into the lower bracket. All of the lower bracket matchups are one game, the loser is eliminated. The final two teams in the lower bracket will play a best of three. All of the upper bracket matchups will be three game series. The winner of the upper bracket will then face the winner of the lower bracket in a grand final. This grand final will be a 5 game series for the Challenge Cup.

Kristian Eriksson is arguably the best player in the history of the SHL. He is also a critical part of the S35 Toronto North Stars team that broke their long cupless history. The team was long overdue. Eriksson and Harter both needed a cup to complete two excellent careers. Coincidentally, the Toronto North Stars also have maybe the best active player who has never been to a Challenge Cup final, in Mikhail Lokitonov. For Loki, I don’t think you can hold not winning a cup against him. He has been one of the, if not the, best players in the league. This is a team sport though. One player can not do it all on his own. He’ll be recognized for his individual excellence, and I think that will be enough for most people. If he’s this great on a team with depth, then maybe you start to talk about his inability to win a cup.

The Carolina Kraken are a good team with a lot of good players. That doesn’t mean we don’t have things to work on. Bobby Lane, like a bunch of the other Kraken players, likes to shoot the puck. That’s great and all, but we could use some guys that are a bit better at passing. That will for sure be the thing that Lane works on this offseason. The hope is that it will make our offense more dynamic, and allow for more flexibility when playing with line combinations. Having guys that can both shoot and pass at a high level might let us try some more interesting forward groups that might not have worked so well this season. Hopefully, Lane can be that passing and shooting threat, making him a bit more difficult to defend. My hope is that this will allow his linemates to focus more on the things they are good at, creating more scoring opportunities.

Mike Izzy is the more likely of the two. I highly doubt he continues to play at the level he did leading up to the finals though. Shooting 25% is unsustainable, so that has to drop off. Still, I think he is the better player, so I would bet on him over Soderberg.

I give Blue a slight edge. Vilde is playing at a very high level, and along with Mike Izzy, is a huge part of what got the Dragons here. However, I think Blue is the better individual player. Both teams have solid defenses in front of them. Vilde has faced fewer shots. It’s close, but I take Blue.

I don’t think it will be low scoring, but I don’t think it will be particularly high scoring either. Both teams have solid defense and solid goaltending. Neither team is really defined by huge offensive production, or incredible defense, or goaltending that carries them. They’re both solid, all-around teams. I think it should be pretty competitive.

Both Shooter McGavin and Otis B Driftwood are very good names. I think I take Otis because of where the name comes from. I only knew the name from the Rob Zombie horror movies.. However, Slappy said on his podcast, the name actually comes from a Groucho Marx character. So, I hope someone else might read this and learn a little something.

I guess I’d take the chicken parm. I don’t usually like to eat cookies. Feet don’t really do anything for me. Sorry JSS. And I’ve never played hockey, so I wouldn’t really get anything out of an hour session. It may not be my go-to, but I have enjoyed a chicken parm sandwich in the past. So I’d take another.