The most surprising event of the season was San Francisco extending their first round playoff series against the Toronto North Stars to seven games. I imagine most people, had there been predictions for that round, would've predicted a sweep in Toronto's favor. Mayyyyybeeeeee Toronto in 5 games. But I highly doubt many (anyone) would've predicted a seven game stressful series. San Francisco's roster is worse overall, they're worse on offense, they're worse on defense, they're worse in goal, they were much worse during the season, they essentially had no advantages over Toronto. And yet they won three games out of seven! that's almost half! Another surprise was Chicago missing the playoffs. They are a good team so how could they have missed playoffs! shaking my head my head at FHM playoff structure; it's a shame that a team that talented had to miss out, but such is life I guess. The Great Lakes division isn't shaping up to be any easier next season, either.


The progression of Norway has been slow and steady since around S49/S50. We started to get an influx of new creates, including a lot of max earners, and as those players begin to peak, this team should be really scary in the near future and I think we take another step towards that this season. We're probably not quite ready for the gold medal contention, but as we saw in the SHL this season with Texas and Toronto, leaps can happen pretty quickly so I'm hoping we'll surprise a bunch of people one of these seasons. We have stars like Eko van Otter and Andreas Kvalheim still at high TPE while younger players like Samuel Michaud, Adam Scianna, Daniel LaForest, Axel Meszaros, and a bunch of even younger players are skyrocketing upwards. I reckon we'll fare a little better this season than last, and we'll keep repeating that until we cement ourselves as finals contenders. Perhaps this season Latvia will win the whole thing. 


For this I'll choose a player who is already at the end of their career and about to ride off into the sunset - DeMaricus Smyth. The two things that'll really help your case for making the Hall of Fame would be an extremely high peak and excellent longevity - and Demaricus Smyth has both. At this point, it seems a distant memory, but Smyth was a perennial MVP candidate as a forward back in the late S40s, winning the award in uhhhh i want to say like S47 I think? After this impressive peak, Smyth changed position to defense and continued racking up stats throughout the S50s. In the late stages of his career, as a member of the expansion Atlanta Inferno, Smyth reinvented himself again as a gritty mean tough guy defenseman, collecting at least one Turd Ferguson award, consistently finishing top 3 in penalty minutes, and setting the all-time single season hits record for any player. The peak alone was probably enough to get Smyth into the hall of fame, but the added longevity and versatility through reinvention have absolutely locked this in stone. 


Gotta go with Mitchell van der Heijden here purely based on the challenge cup winning goal back in season uhhhh 54 I think? for New Orleans. Kid's got the clutch gene. I'll also go with Monkey D Luffy, who I think scored a similar challenge cup winning goal in season 55. On defense, I'll go with Samuel Michaud, whose ability to get breakaways would keep options open for a risky maneuver late in the game. And uhhh I guess Alexander Selich too why not. 


S58 Milestones - 3 TPE 


I would like to thank my co-GM @goldenglutes for being an excellent co-GM and helping me out with things and contributing to the LR culture and doing everything that a co-GM should do. sometimes is awake and asleep at weird times which is kind of cool, keeps things spicy throughout the day.

= 16 TPE