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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?

Having lost to the Calgary Dragons in the western conference finals, I’ve got to pull for the Dragons in the finals. So at least everyone in New Orleans can say that we lost to the best, the Challenge Cup champions. Also, Calgary had a rough start to the season, like we did in New Orleans, we both were able to start playing some good hockey and move into playoff spots. I’d like to think that if Mike Izzy didn’t start going crazy in the playoffs and scoring on demand, the Specters could have been the western team in the finals this season.

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4. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min)
Alternate Reality: Physicists and other smarties believe that this reality is just one of infinite realities existing alongside this one in parallel. Take us over to one of those realities in which everything is the same but these S50 playoffs have unfolded differently. What happened in this reality's playoffs and who's in the Challenge Cup over there?

In my alternate reality there isn’t all that much difference to the S50 playoffs. The only real major change to this reality, is that after the wildcard round and the conference semi-finals, Calgary Dragons forward Mike Izzy unexpectedly retires from hockey after his team advances to the conference finals. No one knows why Izzy decided to hang up his skates in the middle of a playoff run, and Izzy refuses to talk to media or anyone else for that matter on why he called it quits when he did. The Dragons were in shambles after this, and the exact opposite of what happen in our reality, happened in this one. NOLA swept the Dragons and went on the do the same to the Tampa Bay Barracudas. Oisin Fletcher and Richard Physt lead the way to the Specters winning their first SHL title. Fletcher and Physt both retired on a high note after they raised the Challenge Cup over there heads.

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7. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min)
As competition ramps up for the playoffs, players (both those still in and those eliminated) work extra hard to improve areas of their game that are lacking. What one area of your game do you really needs to focus on improving and how will this benefit the team?

Being a rookie in the SHL this past season, Lyle knows he has quite a bit of areas that he needs to improve on. During his rookie season posted 1 goal and 14 assists, those numbers aren’t terrible, but Lyle has always wanted to be a contributor on the offensive side of things. So, Lyle’s focus will be on improving his game on that side of the ice. He’ll be looking to work on his shooting in attempts to get his very low shooting percentage up, which was an abysmal 3.23% during the 50 games in the regular season. Lyle if poised to take on a bigger role next season, with Oisin Fletcher and Richard Physt both hanging up the skates, so Lyle really hopes that the hard work he plans to put in during the offseason will benefit the team during S51’s regular season and hopefully the playoffs as well!


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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?

I think I have to go with Mike Izzy here, for sure. He has been dominate in each round of the playoffs so far, and the way he played against us Spectors in the conference finals, he has shown he has taken it to the next level in these playoffs.

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

Again, having faced off against Kata Vilde in the conference finals during these playoffs, I have to give the Dragons net-minder the edge here. Even though Lyle did score his first every SHL playoff goal against Vilde, Kata had the last laugh with the series sweep over Lyle and his Specters.

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?

I think that this will be a very high scoring series. We’ve got the best team from the regular season going up against the best team in the playoffs. I’d be surprised if one team ran with this series, although with the way Calgary has been destroying every team they go against, so if I had to pick a team that could run away with it, it would be Calgary.

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

After looking at both teams, I think I have come up with my favourite name. There were quite a few to choose from, so I’ll give a couple of honourable mentions, Shooter McGavin (both of them) and Van Morrison both get mentions here, because I like the movie Happy Gilmore and the music stylings of Van Morrison. But my pick is Maui. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but will be heading there for the first time in the new year. So I picked Maui, cause it makes me happy that I get to go there soon.

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

If I had to pick just one of those things, I'd have to really think long and hard about choosing between the chicken parm sandwich and the tray of cookies. I really don't see myself every needing a custom feet pic, so that comes off the list first. I'd definitely be down for some stick and puck, but I know my old bones would most likely be hurting after that. So that leads me to either the chicken parm or the cookies, which I'm going to give the slight edge to the chicken parm sandwich. Now I'm hungry, thanks for that.

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