In a year that seemed like deja vu, Wagstrom was highly disappointing, failing to achieve the 60 point mark, barely hitting 25 goals, and not seeming like a top player in the league or even his team. Who knows what it is; maybe he just doesn't gel on an all scoring line, maybe he's better when he's flying solo or has more defensive minded folks to back him up. Maybe he tried too much to focus more on defense and neglected improving his declining offensive output. He has proven he has the skills in IIHF, so it's a mystery why his offensive prowess from international play does not carry over to the SHL. The Rage deserve better out of him, so he will focus perhaps on improving his passing next season; if he can't put the put in the back of the net, he needs to at least do more to help his teammates. That assists column and that points column need to improve going forward.

Here's a wonderful, terrible, awful idea; have 1 and 2 play each other in the first round in a winner takes all game, while all the other teams play a best of 21 series. There should only be one good team in the playoffs, it's only fair to the bad teams right? Then, now down to six teams, they all go into a division and play some round robin games, with the best team and the bottom two teams moving on. The top team must beat both of the bottom two teams to move on to the finals, or else those two teams will be in the finals; since the top team has such an advantage in skill, they should have to work harder right? Then, a single game faceoff will decide the finals, with no overtime in case of a tie, just directly to a shootout because I can.

I would say Seattle is an excellent candidate for a bubble city, as they have an SHL team and have some competent leadership, one of the few places in the States that was on their game when COVID-19 started spreading. They also have tons of food options and a nice city skyline for players to observe, it’s not in the middle of nowhere, so hopefully the players won’t feel like they’re locked away from the world. What would they do in there? Bring in all sorts of movies and video games, line up food trucks just for them like the NHL did, set up a basketball court for some change of pace physical activity, have them Zoom with fans to keep them engaged even if the games have to be viewed remotely. They could also have the best training facilities nearby, separate from the game rinks, so the ones who want to take it serious can practice between the games.
This is Canada’s year, at least according to the tests, so I imagine they are the favorites to win the gold. They should have no troubles making it to the medal round barring any shocking surprises, and then no further trouble eliminating the teams on their side of the bracket to get to the gold medal game. I would expect Sweden and USA to put up a fight; after eliminating the United States in a thrilling upset last year, Sweden is probably looking at having to do it again to get to the semi finals. They got a really unfortunate group pairing with both USA and Canada on their side so it will be very difficult. On the other side, it will be a real scrap between a Great Britain and Japan to get the other slot in the gold game. Monkey D. Luffy is expected to carry Japan once again, and can be watched as one of the top players in the tournament. His points output should at least be top 3 in the IIHF, and he is always a player to watch out on the ice.
I would say, even though Hamilton were the winners, the best player on the ice was easily Monkey D. Luffy. He was the reason for Buffalo’s success, really someone that stands out above the crowd. With an astonishing 30 points over the playoffs, he was a threat to make something happen every time he set foot on the ice. Nobody on Hamilton was even close to 30 points, so despite them being the champs, I don’t see how you can make a case for anyone but Luffy. There just was only so much he could too, but there is not a time in recent league history that we have seen someone with such a prolific scoring ability at this time of year.
Verification: Sunday