My goal this season for Nick Brain was 51 points or more. I achieved this goal by getting 56. I also wanted our team to achieve the goal of making the playoffs, and we achieved that. Despite that though I think this season was a bit of a disappointment. I felt the Jets could've finished 10th in the league or thereabouts, but we seemed to struggle to get enough big wins in the regular season to get past teams like LA or New England in the standings, plus Nick was suppressed in the playoffs by tight Chicago checking and held to like 2 or 3 points.

Next season's goals depend a lot on offseason moves. I would like Nick to get 67 points if its a 66 game season, but its hard to tell what the Jets will achieve in the regular season, especially after Barron got dealt. If the Jets make a couple free agent pickups that we couldn't last year then we've got something. Hopefully we can finish 10th in the league and win a surprise playoff matchup.

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Season 50 will be a super memorable one, as the reverse sweep that Calgary dealt to Tampa Bay ended up setting several big events in motion that led to a lot of changes in the league, even to a few teams that weren't directly involved. Season 46's Buffalo vs New Orleans clash is a big favourite for me though, as it was the first SHL playoff series I really paid attention too, and had some bizarre real-life parallels to the NHL Cup finals between Washington and Vegas, including the finish where the cursed team climbed the mountain and beat the expansion upstarts.

New Orleans vs Hamilton in Season 54 was also notable as a mild upset, with Hamilton's tactics being undone by New Orleans  to give them their first ever Cup, and preventing the team from being perma-jinxed. Had NOLA lost that they may not have been able to win again for quite a while, so it was a good storyline bit for them.

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Ok so first round would feature all 12 teams taking each other on in the first round, producing 6 winners. 1 seed would face 2, 3 seed would face 4, and so on. 6 winners would then make it to the second round, which would feature two matchups of a three team Crash Bash hockey royale (where three teams play simultaneously on a super large rink with 3 goals forming a triangle). The two winning teams would advance to the finals. The four losers would face off in a 4 team Crash Bash hockey royal (on a super duper big rink with 4 nets), and then the winner of that game would advance to the finals for a 3 team matchup. The 18th ranked team in the league would then ambush the winners right after the Cup, be allowed to steal 10 players from teams that lost in the playoff, and would face the four-way winner in a normal hockey game, where the playoff victor has to start their backup in all games.

This would still be only slightly worse than what actually happens.

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The best candidate for a playoff bubble city is obviously Hamilton. Setting aside any opinions about the Steelhawks, its a city that no one in their right minds would ever visit, thus limiting general tourist exposure and probably lower virus numbers. (Hamilton's current total is below a 1 in 1000 case rate across their whole population of five hundred thousand plus.).

Hamilton, being a boring blue-collar city that kinda sucks, would also lack certain forms of entertainment that could put enterprising players in trouble, such as casinos, alcoholic watering holes of high class, and burlesque venues. Hamilton's idea of a strip club is probably several multiple time 40 year old divorcees with stretch marks in a basement using a support beam as a dance pole. Therefore the players could stay in their hotel room, focused and hungry on the task at hand. Compared to cities like New Orleans or New York or Los Angeles which have nothing but trouble and distractions, and Hamilton would be the logical choice.

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The one that comes to mind for me is the Bird n' Bison Burger. This would be a take on the legendary McGangbang sandwich, a special order from McDonald's which is a Quarter Pounder burger patty and a McChicken patty under the same bun. The Hamilton Steelhawk part would obviously be the chicken patty, while the bison burger would be an infinite improvement over the Quarter Pounder "beef" patty. This sandwich would also contain lettuce, thinly sliced tomatoes, red onions, and pickles, topped off with salt and pepper on the tomatoes and a nice creamy dill sauce. The side would be fries and onion rings, plus a genuine draft root beer (or genuine draft regular beer) brewed locally in either Buffalo or Hamilton. I feel this meal would sell well if it was reasonably priced instead of concession bullshit priced, and would become a potential staple food in arenas worldwide after these playoffs.

Just missed the cut: Buffalo jerky seasoned exclusively with salt, and a whole roasted Steelhawk chicken.


I would've thought Chicago could've made it here, even though I had Buffalo/Hamilton down for the finals. Westbroek, Danny and Parker Smeb, and goaltender Tibuk Soonika were in destructive form in the regular season, and the Chicago bench bosses have adopted the top team strategies of high physicality and aggressive forechecking to great effect. Unfortunately they got caught in the wild and wacky vortex that was the Challenge Cup Semifinals and got eliminated. Honourable mention to Calgary, who seemed to get screwed by playoff seeding and fell short of even the semifinals. They had the best team in the West and Kata Vilde having an up year instead of a down year. They'll be back though.