About a week before the season was about to start I was demoted to the 2nd line because we acquired an amazing defenseman in Dominic Montgomery. Up until then I had high expectations. With point totals in the high 20s and aspirations to win the rookie of the year award.

Neither of these did or will happen now of course. But I still think I did fairly well. I still saw plenty of ice time. I had hoped to reach 20 points but ended up just short. I at least did good in one personal goal I had set out to win. Which was to have a 1.5+ takeaway to giveaway ratio. And I nailed it with 1.52. So that is a nice result to know that my new build and training worked out.

I did notice that I lost a lot of races for the puck. Which can be attribute to the insane speeds some of the opponent forwards can reach. I do not think I will focus much on speed this season as I have reached a good level. But if I keep losing the puck because I'm slow then something has to be done about it.

I'm gonna make it easy for myself and write about the expansion draft from New England Wolfpack's point of view.

New England has had a rough off season so far. We lost out co-GM to an expansion team. We just barely missed the playoffs. And then out head GM was fired. But luckily the team is still optimistic! We sold off a bunch of star players at the end of the previous season. This made it a little easier for me to choose who to protect. We were able to protect almost all of our actives.

I believe that we will lose one forward and one defenseman to expansion teams. But it is hard to say who for each position. Igor Volkov is a potential, as he is our top exposed defenseman that is still active. But Egger could also be taken as an inactive but still reliable body. On the forward side I think either (Clean) Andrei or Rafe Ulrich will be lost. Andrei suddenly turning "inactive" is what put him on the exposed list. And Ulrich is a full inactive but like Egger he is not bad and can easily fit 2nd or 3rd line duties for either expansion team right away.

For IIHF I have to, unfortunately, vote that the US will be in the final game yet again. It is just how it has been and how it will be until more nations can build up their roster to contain all 1000+ TPE players. The USA is pretty much an SHL team at this point. And better than some of them.

If we look at the silver and bronze medals I think Czechia will take the silver. They are a strong team that can make it to the final game without too much trouble. But they have no chance against the USA.

On the bronze side of things I choose to believe in my fellow countrymen and predict that Sweden will take it home. Probably against Canada. Canada is also a very good team. But the huge influx of rookies in the last few seasons have improved team Sweden ten-fold. And as we all keep growing with actives, we are definitely reaching the medal rounds.

I'm gonna have to say that the Buffalo Stampede has the better defense in this series. Not only are they better at holding on the the puck in battles against the boards, but their takeaway numbers are also better than New Orleans. For me the final nail in this decision was the shots against. Buffalo has allowed a vastly lower amount of shots against, and also goals against.

Yes, home ice is very important for both of these teams. I would dare to say that the first team to lose on home ice will also lose the entire series. On the scoreboard they are two extremely even teams. Any edge they can get, be it home ice or bribed referees, will be critical.

The toughness aspect will only have an affect on the amount of penalty minutes served by New Orleans. Having a tough and physical squad is not necessarily bad. But in today's hockey speed and puck handling is where it is at. And Buffalo is definitely not a team you want to be giving power plays left and right. Because they will take advantage of it.

My favorite player name is Hippo Passamus on the Buffalo Stampede. I like it because I think it is a very clever name with the play on hippopotamus. The hippo is also an extremely dangerous animal. So putting that in the name in itself warns the opponents to stay away. Or be run over.

tritritrivia