1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?

If you focus just on the offensive stat line, Horvat’s season was not much better than last. It’s when you take in the rest of the data you begin to see the improvements. Most of it is due to the improvements the team has made across the board, but there are some areas of improvement that can be credited to him. As a defensive defensemen, it was those statistical areas where he saw the biggest jump in his game. Blocked Shots and hits were both areas where he improved. After consulting with the coaching staff after the abysmal season prior, they found some areas to work on and it seems that that work has paid off. He did spend some time working on some offensive areas as well, and saw minor improvements by generating better chances in the offensive zone and by improving his Power Play abilities as well. All around, Horvat saw a better season than last.

2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Well, dang. Your team didn't make the finals this season - my condolences to you. Are you and your teammates planning on watching the finals even though you're not in it? If so, what are your watch parties like? If not, are you still following the finals or trying to ignore it completely? What are you and your teammates doing together (if anything) instead of following along? (if you're on Hamilton or New Orleans, or either of the 2 SMJHL teams that soon will be playing in the finals - congrats and sorry :p this one isn't for you!)

It came down to the last days of the season to find out if Texas made the playoffs, and they ended out missing out. This left a bitter taste in their mouths. Due to the current world climate, they have spent the playoffs in Zoom calls, comparing how they would have fared versus the teams that knocked them out. The distance has made for some interesting watch parties. Watching Ivan Maximus @thiefofcheese put down entire cheese boards delivered from Amazon, and Noah Brusky @BrewskyBoy drink himself stupid before the end of the first period makes me wonder how they will be ready for next season. I am sure that they will get better once the playoffs are over and they can hopefully focus on their own skills again. Missing the playoffs by such a small margin was tough for the entire team. Even management has been having a rough go of it. Nobody has actually seen @dankoa in over a week. When he logs into the party it’s just a dark screen with the sounds of crying in the background.

4. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
S54 IIHF Predictions - with one FHM IIHF season under our belt, we've got a bit more of a sense of how the tournament might play out in the new sim engine. What are your predictions for the S54 IIHF or WJC tournament - how do you think your team will fare this season? Who do you think are the biggest contenders to take home the hardware and why?

This is a tough one. We have a full IIHF tournament, sure, but we also have a complete redistribution as well, so all that information is effectively useless. Most of the league has built their players to be useful for their SHL teams, with little to no energy spent on making sure they will fit into their international roster. We could see teams with very high TPE levels fair far worse than teams with less simply because their team makeup does not mesh well. I think that this tournament will be the big lesson for IIHF GMs. When looking at Russia specifically, we are not the strongest team out there, and probably on the lower end if I am being honest. They have seen some very active players leave the team, or the league all together. On the flip side to that, they have seen a boom in young prospect joining their ranks. They may not be competitive now, but they will get plenty of time to see how their players work together and give their players time to grow together. 

8. Written (150 words min.) or Graphic, 3 TPE
With only one champion in the SHL and the SMJHL per season, that means the other 26 teams came up just a bit short (or a lot short). Team owners know that fans can get frustrated by shortcomings, so they're always trying to keep optimism high in the fan base. Written option: give an excerpt from an ousted team's owner's press conference at the end of the season focusing on the team's bright future or however they can keep fans' optimism high. Graphic option: the team has rented a billboard in town with an inspiring message to fans to keep optimism high; show the billboard (must include team logo and whatever the optimistic message is).

Well Texas, it’s another season without playoff hockey. I know, it sucks, and it makes for very, VERY long off seasons. An off-season of watching rivals succeed, getting chirped by friends and family in other cities, and just generally feeling down. I am here to lift your spirits and tell you that I think this is the last time you are going to feel this way for quite some time. Sure, we barely missed the playoffs, but look at the improvements the team has made, and with a young roster at that! This is a team with an average draft season of S48. Barely 5 seasons removed from creation. The other teams in the division are on the other side of that. Most are heavily into regression and may be looking at their last windows of opportunity before this young roster knocks them out of the playoffs for quite some time.

13. Written, up to 4 TPE Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.

c. The Specters won both regular season matchups, but Hamilton finished with better team stats overall. Do regular season head-to-heads provide an accurate forecast for a playoff series? (answer predictively if it hasn't happened yet; reactively if it has.)

I think it does. The head-to-head gives a look at how certain matchups perform against an opponent. Both teams are great, obviously, but the matchups at a personnel, or line level matter more than the overall talent on the team. If one teams 2nd line can find success while the top lines are evenly matched, that’s all the difference it will take.

16. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is now completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

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