1. Most people in my shoes would be ecstatic. I had a hell of a season: 65 points. Good for top 5? in the league, something close to that. But I am disappointed as there was nothing more I wanted than to be the points leader of the season. For so many games of the season I was so close, at one point only 3 points between Luffy for #1. But unfortunately at the end of the season I couldn't close, going pointless in so many games when those behind me caught up and eventually overtook me. The biggest dagger of all was Aaron Wilson, test simming me to hit close to if not over 100 points but then at the very end taking the lead for points in the entire SHL. Maybe I'll reach that illustrious mark some day, but this season it was not it. Regression starts now, which is just going to make it harder every season.

2. The expansion draft has already happened because I'm lazy, but I am going to pretend like I have written this before it happened, but we all know that's not true. I think whoever has the first pick, (Seattle) will do better simply because they get to take a 2000 TPE player from Buffalo, either the dumb choice in Michael Scarn, as he would then have the ability to walk in FA, or the smart choice in Cassius Darrow, a defence-man who still has time on his contract and either will play for Seattle or will be traded for picks/prospects. In this case, Tig made the obvious choice of taking Darrow, and as it stands, albeit, its only been a single day since the draft, all signs are looking like Darrow will be a part of the starting lineup once the season begins. I can't say for sure, but both seem to be looking forward to build a(nother) legacy for Seattle together. Once you get past the half way mark of the expansion draft, however, it's kind of a crapshoot as your praying that the in-actives you have selected, come back and update for you, else you are stuck with corpses that will eventually get overtaken on the depth charts as the team begins to come to life.

3. Expansion into other continents seems like an awful idea. Imagine the travel time in between each game. Having a SMJHL team in Anchorage is already absurd in my opinion, with the next closest team being most likely Kelowna. If the SMJHL is akin to the AHL, they must be taking buses everywhere. Imagine taking a bus from Alaska all the way to the BC and then having to continue down into the US. With COVID and everything going on these days, even getting allowed into different countries to play must be a nightmare. It might be cool to have an entire European division of the SHL, but one where European teams play against each other and dont play against North American teams.

4. Who even answers this question and doesn't name their own team? Of course I have to say the best team that didn't make it was Hamilton, just purely because of my own bias. And if we lose to the team that doesn't even become the eventual cup winner, well then we lost for nothing. Buffalo better step up big here tomorrow morning and take the win in game 7, otherwise I will be doubly disappointed in the playoffs. Yea last year NOLA beat Hamilton, but I wasn't on the team yet and neither was my friend Guy Zheng. It's a whole new team now, and with supporting cast members Wilson and whoever apricots player is "we got a fucking squad now" x4.

5. My predictions for the upcoming tourney this week are pretty safe. I'm going to go out and say either Canada, the US, or Great Britain gets gold, and the other teams listed still medal. In my predictions for TPE, I went Canada - Gold, USA - Silver, and GB - Bronze, but honestly that's a biased pick from me and I think the USA would be more favoured over Canada. Returning as an Alternate Captain, once again, I will be leading the team as the highest TPE player, depending on what the file is looking like, most likely at around 2070 TPE, with at least 70 of it banked in order to make regression easier for me. This years GB squad, according to goldenglutes the IIHF GM, (not gonna tag, cause there's no point) is the strongest that they have ever had, and considering they gold Silver last year, they are looking to do even better this season.

16. Clapper