There were a couple points in the season that surprised me. The biggest thing was the final southwestern playoff spot. After LAP and TEX, I just kind of assumed that New Orleans would be able to pull out and ride their top defensemen to non-basement finish. Clearly I overestimated their depleted forward core, and underestimated the losses of Cain and Claude, as well as the gain of Antonescue in San Francisco, since they made the playoffs ahead of the Spectres. Another major surprise for me was the emergence of the three rebuilding teams in the Atlantic division. Baltimore specifically, were major surprises for me as I figured they didn't have the top-end talent to take the step ahead of Tampa Bay feat. Fiddler, Fitted, and Ronlain, or ahead of NEW with Eller, Yxskaft, Clapper (partially) and Bruchevski. I wouldn't say there were very many surprises at the top of the league. In the Great Lakes division it was a given that a great team would miss, and I still expected Edmonton to be good despite their cap constraints, though I'm sure there are plenty of fellas eating crow over the expectation they would be hampered due to not being able to splurge on a big free agent.


Call me biased but I think there are a few Blizzard greats that could retire today and end up in the Hall of Fame. The two players I am thinking of are Tor Tuck and Tony Pepperoni. I admittedly don't know the history of the great Tor Tuck, but I do now they are the oldest player still in the league and are soon approaching retirement. In the pre-FHM era, where they spent most of their career, they accumulated 100 goals, and 500 points in 750 games. That's as a defensemen. Tuck spent almost their entire career with Edmonton, and is apart of multiple cup wins. They should 100% be in the hall of fame. Another name I mentioned is Tony Pepperoni. Pepperoniis the leading all-time Blizzard scoring champion, also has two cups to his name, and is up there in terms of overall league scoring. He leads the prolific S43 class in scoring as far as I know, is accomplished as a co-GM. There isn't a whole lot not to love with Pepperoni. I can't think of a reason either of these two living legends shouldn't be in the hall of fame.


In the regular season I'm not sure how many things I could really 'do' different. Offensively it is up there with my best junior seasons, and defensively it was still good enough to get the team into the playoffs, thought that required a bit of leaning on the rest of the team. Going into next season I am going to have a concentrated effort dedicated to improving defensive play, as well as physical attributes. Defensively, I'm alright with everything that went on this season, but just like last offseason I feel there is a lack of care put into skating and strength type attributes. One too many time did I see "Axel Foley beat to the corner by [name]" during sims so improving agility, speed, and acceleration are at the top of my list moving forward. When it comes to getting to the finals? There's a lot to improve. Really, offense, defense, skating, I just flatout sucked in the 'loffs this season. It's kind of tough to go through last season against Winnipeg, where I finished T-3rd in team scoring, to then finish T-last in team scoring. I'm not really sure if there any changes I can make beyond just hoping I preform better in-sim, but I am going to earn everything within my power to have the best attributes headed into the playoffs next season. That's my goal.

I don't think there is anything Buffalo needs to do to get a leg-up on Hamilton. They are much closer than their records would make you believe. In the regular season, Roach and Hernandivic were... struggling, to say the least. And they spent most of the season without deadline-addition Dick Clapper, who is elite in his own right. With their goaltending advantage, and strong offense, as well as top-end defensive talent, they are right there with Hamilton. This series is about as 50/50 as it can get, and at this point it might just come down to coaching and goaltending.

15. Max 3 TPE
Milestone Claims for 3 TPE

Last time I did this, I gave a shoutout to Overdoo. Since then he called me an alien for a PT? That's a pretty weird ass way to pay someone back so I have two reasons to not go back to praising him this time smh. But he also rocks, and he should know that @overdoo. Other than Overdoo I got some ez choices for who to talk up.

@FuzzSHL you drafted me, you've given me advice, you took a chance on even signing me to get me into Carolina in the first place. Can't thank you enough for being a stand up dude who balled out for a championship as my GM. Wouldn't be here without him.

Zombiewolf. Updaters, baby. I want to brag about making a lot of money here and I don't want Zombo to see that or else he will threaten to cut my pay again, so he ain't tagged. Legit though, dedicated as all hell as my boss and despite the jokes the work he puts in is wild for how many seasons in a row he has to take charge.

I want to avoid shouting out current teammates since that seems so obvious so I'm going to shout-out a technical ex-teammate in @JT3. Before my rookie season I wanted to spent more time in the Edmonton locker room and JT was extremely active and welcoming despite his retirement being on the horizon. Shit, he's still popping in and talking hockey (dirty french fan but he makes up for it elsewhere). Even though we lost him last season and I never truly shared the ice with him, he's still an absolute homie.