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?
This season was a tough one for Toronto, and by extension, Bobby Lane. We really struggled to score through the first 20 or so games. I believe it took around 20 games before Lane had his first point of the season. Not a single skater in Toronto hit either the goal or assist milestone. I’m sure that’s fine, and totally acceptable for the league. Individual goals? Why bother? Narratively, I’m going to attribute my players poor season to an injury that required surgery, but was put off until the offseason, because my player is stubborn and thought he would be fine to play through it. The reality is the league has issues that I think need to be addressed regarding parity, TPE distribution, and update scale. There is nothing I can do better next season, as a user. I do as much as I can. As a player, I guess Lane is rehabbing his injury, then back to training.
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2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
This offseason will be extra exciting, as it features the rare expansion draft! Write about how you think the expansion draft will play out, either for one or both of the expansion teams or from an SHL team's perspective.
The way these things typically go is you have one team that tries to build a more competitive team in the immediate, while the other builds more for the future. I think building for the immediate is generally a mistake, unless you are able to stack the draft in your favor, and/or have free agents lined up who are planning to sign with you. I think it is especially unwise if your team is in the East. You need to have an extremely good team to compete in the East. In the West, I think it is more likely you will be able to legitimately compete and make a deeper playoff run sooner. In either case, I still believe it is wiser to draft for the future. We saw this pretty clearly with the Portland/Buffalo expansion. Portland drafted and traded with the future in mind, and were looking really good until an unfortunate tampering punishment. Buffalo built to try to compete and they were bad for a long time.
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3. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)
It's too late for this go-around of expansion, so hypothetically - should there be SHL franchises in other continents? I saw some interesting European proposals in the PT. Should these - or proposals for any other continent that's not North America - become a reality in the SHL?
I think introducing teams outside of North America is a mistake. We have so little left in the league that grounds it, makes it feel realistic. I get that travel time isn’t a thing, and doesn’t matter for teams. I understand wanting to represent Europe, or other continents given that the SHL has a fair number of international users. At the end of the day, part of the appeal of the league, for me, is that it has some semblance of realism. Treating it as a simulation of reality matters to me. It is unrealistic for teams across the globe to compete on a daily basis. From a realism standpoint, it’s kind of silly. If we’re worried about having cities represented that can support a professional hockey team, I think it makes more sense to looking at either moving SMJHL teams to smaller markets, to free those markets up for SHL teams, or consider putting SHL teams in cities that already have SMJHL teams.
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12. Podcast, 3 or 4 TPE
Record a mini-podcast on any of the below topics!
- Highlights of the S55 season (on or off the ice)
- S55 playoff round-up
- S55 Challenge Cup/Four Star Cup finals Breakdown
- S56 predictions
1 person Mini-Pod: 3 TPE for 5 minutes or 4 TPE for 7 Minutes
2 person Mini-Pod: 3 TPE for 6 Minutes or 4 TPE for 8 Minutes
Post the direct link to your podcast.
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.
a. Both of these teams have stacked defenses - which team do you think has the defensive advantage in this series?
The answer is Buffalo. If the question is anything other than goalie, the answer is Buffalo. Their team is stacked from top to bottom. I don’t really see them as comparable. They may perform at a similar level, but the TPE levels are plainly in Buffalo’s favor. Some other teams might be close, but I don’t think anyone in the league has more TPE in their skaters.
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b. In the two regular season matchups, each team won once at home. Do you expect the results to reflect a home ice advantage in this series?
I hear that home ice advantage is a thing. Or, at least, people around the league treat it like it’s a thing. I don’t actually know if it matters in FHM, but I would guess it does. In the Finals, the home team won the first 4 games. Then, game 5 and 6 were both won by the away teams. I would never count on home ice advantage to be the decider, but it is probably worth considering. I would marginally favor the team who plays more home games, I suppose.
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c. Based on FHM player ratings, New Orleans has higher average ratings in bravery, aggression, and fighting? Will that toughness have any impact on this series?
Maybe a slight impact. I doubt their average is much higher than the rest of the league. The vast majority of players are built with 5 aggression, 9-11 bravery, and 5 fighting. I don’t expect that New Orleans is far off from this, and certainly not enough for it to be something I would consider an advantage or disadvantage. I think a lot of these can also be offset with team/line strategies.
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d. What is your favorite name from a player appearing in this series? Why do you like that player's name?
Listen, Poopity Scoop is an all-time classic SHL name. On top of being a really good player, he’s a damn good d-man. By far my favorite name on Buffalo, and I’m not usually a fan of silly meme names. On New Orleans, I like Jimmy Slothface. It’s weird. Is that just a name, or does it also describe his player? I don’t know, but it makes me smile.
Rich
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