1. Personal reflection: 3 TPE
This was Mat Smith's first season at the 425 cap and 3rd season overall. He started off pretty slow, allowing many goals and having a low save percentage, but as the season went on he got better, finishing with a .920 save percentage, good for 5th in the league. His goals against average of 2.38 also places him in 5th, but where Smith really shone was his win-loss record. In 41 games played, Smith won 31 of them, 6 of which were shutouts, losing only 5 in regulation and 5 in an overtime or shootout. This is really a testament to how the team in front of him performed as well, as the Citadelles finished first in the league by a wide margin, with 107 points. Overall Smith says he is very happy with his performance this season, and is looking forward to next season in which he will likely split starts more evenly with current backup Tyler Ward.

2. New skater or goalie role: 2 TPE
What the SHL is really missing is the ability to create a player who is really slow and old, yet is favoured by the coach anyways. I have a hard time deciding on whether it should be called "coach's pet" or "pylon," but either way what it is, is a player who's skating can't go above 5, and the rest of their skills can't be above 7 either, besides the physical ones maybe, and FHM will force them to be played 15-20 minutes a night, definitely more than any young star or especially rookies. Their age to start will be 28, which means that in their 10th season they'll be 38 and still deployed the same way. Oh, and they start getting hit by regression 5 seasons in instead of 10.

3. Offseason charity: 3 TPE
This offseason, when Mat Smith isn't on the ice either practicing or playing with Team Finland at the WJC, he can be found at the animal shelter, taking care of and playing with all of the dogs looking for new homes. There's a few hilarious photos on Twitter that you can find of 15 dogs on leashes each trying to pull Smith in different directions while he's trying to control them, all while wearing roller skates of course. When asked if Mat Smith would be adopting any of them, he responded with "well I already have six dogs at home and I don't know if my roommates would be happy if I brought home another." Then he paused and knelt down next to a golden retriever, "but look at this face, who can say no to that? Realistically I'm expecting to have three more by the end of the summer," he said with a laugh.

4. Haikus: 2 TPE
Championship week;
Nobody seems to like it;
But I think it's fun.

Best team in juniors;
Quebec City Citadelles;
Next season we'll win.

It is the finals;
Syndicate versus Steelhawks;
May the best team win.

Offseason is here;
For all the unlucky teams;
Which means Worlds is soon.

5. Best eliminated team (2 TPE)
I'm going with the obvious answer for best team that didn't make the finals, it has to be my team, the Quebec City Citadelles. They finished with 107 points in 66 games, which is a points per game of 1.62, the best since the season 53 Detroit Falcons, who had 84 points in 50 games for a points per game of 1.68. They also ended up winning the Four-Star Cup, I might add. The biggest thing that upsets me is that the Citadelles really should have been in the finals, I'm not saying that they definitely would have beat Anaheim or Vancouver in the semis, but they would have had a much better chance than if they had to play the 2nd seed in the semis as the #1 seed, which they did.

12. Many topics (3 TPE)
a. It's hard to say who will win in the finals, obviously I'll be cheering for the Chicago Syndicate since they're the team that drafted me, but as the defending champs Hamilton is a really scary team, and usually one of the favourites to win. I think this series will go to seven games either way though.
c. I have to go with the Syndicate for the superior branding. First of all because you can't argue in any way that Hamilton, Ontario is in any way better than Chicago, and if you try there will be 2.7 million angry Chicagoans at your doorstep, which 600 thousand Hamiltonians could never stop. Chicago is known for many things, the sports, music, food, culture, and gangsters, while nobody outside of Canada knows Hamilton exists. The yellow is also a much better and more unique primary colour than Hamilton's generic blue, and a mobster could easily beat a hawk in a fight.
d. If I can't choose all of the above, it's hard to refuse that lap dance from Hugh Jazz. I'm not gay, and I don't know anything about Hugh Jazz other than the name, but that sounds like it would be classy af, get some jazz music going and sit back and let him do his thing.

15. Trivia (hopefully 3 TPE but all I need is 1)
Verification word: Chicago