The biggest story line in the Simulation Hockey League this season is the number of hits Patrick Shepherd has so far this season. In season 57 Patrick had a whopping 8 hits over the entire season. He is a big bodied physically stronger player and just could not land a hit no matter how many times he tried. After the season he felt that he needed to address this issue if he was going to take the next step. He went about it in the only way possible, get a bunch of punching bags and place them at various points around the rink and practice skating into them. This ground breaking new training regiment has already shown its amazing effect. Through 1/3 of the season, Patrick already has 19 hits and is still racking them up. At this pace he may end the season with as many as 50 hits which would just be a ground breaking stat that the rest of the SHL would have to take note of going forward. Opposing coaches and scouts will always have to keep in the back of their minds that Patrick Shepherd might hit someone this game maybe like once or twice.