Did 17/16 because I forgot it was 16 TPE and not 15. Math hard. Gonna claim 16.


The alternative reality I want to explore is the one where the other teams all won; New Orleans, Calgary, Buffalo, and Manhattan. Out of those two teams in the East I think I'd be inclined to go with the reigning champions despite their mild letdown of a regular season. I think the staff out there could really identify some weaknesses in Buffalo and it's hard to ever count out Luke Thomason in a single game. In the west, I expect Calgary to outmatch the Specters, but only barely. New Orleans beating Los Angeles would have been controversial but a team that could take games off of Los Angeles could definitely hang with Calgary too. I think in the finals we'd see Manhattan edge out Calgary again, for similar reasons as to why they'd take down Buffalo, but the ability of Calgary's goal scoring shouldn't be underestimated by any means and they could pull off the cup run.
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I expect the East to be a bloodbath, with so many of the league's top players spread between New England, Buffalo, and Manhattan. All three teams have an excellent group of GMs and coaches working hard to figure out how that TPE can all be used as well. Of those, I think Buffalo is the most promising team to contend for the cup next year. Their core is 5 players from the top 3 of seasons 44, 45, and 46, they have a competent goalie coming up in Doyle, and the addition of Kalakar / Matt Kholin gives them 8 total players over 1600 TPE (top 50 or so in the league). That's a stacked roster, and they're definitely at the start of a quality championship window. I think that the title will definitely be from the east next season and if it's not Buffalo, it's because New England took them out on the way to the title.
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My money for individual award winner in the next few seasons is Skao Anazibf winning the Aidan Richan Trophy for being the most improved player of a season. Anazibf is a 900+ TPE 4th string center already, with a user that will be in it for the long haul. I expect as we see Robert Phelps dip farther in to regression the young Skao will rise to the occasion on the third line, eventually adding a lot of value as he reaches higher TPE levels and is getting to match up against lower level opponents or tired opponents who have had to deal with the other two high level centers on the roster.
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Jimmy Wagner was actually called on to come out and be on the set of the new Black Panther movie that has some components set in Wakanda. He's been working on his accent off and on this season and is expected to have a few spoken lines in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Chadwick Boseman and Wagner are both apparently really excited to meet each other and Boseman wants to go skating with him some time this summer when Jimmy is in Los Angeles visiting his sister for a few months. The movie doesn't have a release date set.
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a. How can the best player in this series not be Flacko Lagerfield? While he's a bit more one dimensional than other top players in the league, he is above everyone else in one thing that he's looking to do: Score. Points leader and offensive game rating leader in the regular season. If Hamilton wins, it's through him.
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b. I'd be betraying everything I stood for if I said speed, acceleration, and agility weren't going to come out on top, right? I think that the speed and ability to utilize open space makes for incredibly effective players, and while some semblance of balance in a build will always be good, if you're gonna max one thing, why not pick the one that generates the most chances.
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c. The ideal fantasy team is obviously the top guys from this season and from the last few seasons: Flacko Lagerfield, Robert Phelps, and Tony Pepperoni all generate points in massive quantities as forwards. Gabriel Johnson was nearly a point per game scorer this season and would be a great offensive defenseman and Troy McClure III would be great at shoring up the defensive side of things. In goal I'd prefer Edmonton though, the 1a/1b combo of Tuck and Spector was very impressive this year with a sub 2.5 GAA.
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d. Blizzards, snow, and winter time are all amazing. Commuting in the snow is a small price to pay for the joys of cozy evenings, sledding, and ice skating. Snow especially is a critical part of this, between the snowball fights, sledding, catching snowflakes on the tongue, and beauty that it can provide.
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verification: fucktheAAMC