Ruslan Zaporozhets has had a hell of a year. With all of the off ice shenanigans, expansion, and moving around the lineup, its been a year. The Toronto North Stars are a strong regular season team and were coming off of a run to the conference finals where they took their rival Buffalo Stampede to game 7. This season, Zapo's production fell again. He is no longer in the near point per game level. Stargang had a great regular season with 90 points, but the end didn't come out so well being swept by the Hamilton Steelhawks. I think the only good thing about this season for Ruslan was meeting Ye Lin. Having a solid partner to enjoy the summer's with outside of hockey might just be the kind of change that this son of a Cossack needs to return to his career highs. Time will tell how far he will go.


Well, lets take a look at this all. For teams that should have a strong showing, i'd say the USA, Switzerland, and even quiet Norway have been solid for the last couple years and it would not surprise me for them to be at the top again. Austria is a bit of a wild card as they have been young for the last couple seasons and this could be a a good year for them. Czechia worries me as well as they had a good amount of players retire last year who may not be on the roster this go around. As for those i don't think will do well? Latvia always seems to suffer sadly and i have not heard much buzz about their team. Russia has been mediocre for the last bit too. Hell Great Britain has not been good since their last bit of medaling. Who knows though. Look at Japan's gold medal team, they weren't top five in the round robin but an amazing team all knockouts.


a: Lets be real, i hate playing for a strong team with zero success. But these two here earned it. CHI went through SFP, TEX, and then CGY. Texas is a high caliber team, Calgary is always a tough one, and even the Pride are a tenacious bunch. On Buffalo's side they battled NEW, HAM, and ATL. New England is a young team, Hamilton is so good, people want to lower the requirements to be called a dynasty. Atlanta might be a little on the down swing but its hard to call them bad when they make the conference finals.

b: I'd say Buffalo's continued dominance from building up back around the early S40s in STHS and carrying all the way through to the start of FHM. It is absolutely amazing to see a team so well built and getting the success they have worked so hard to have. Damn, just too good.

c: I usually rag on Hamilton as the colours seem so drab, dark, and just kind of mediocre. Maybe that is why they work so hard to be an amazing team on ice. If their colour scheme had something other than a Grey-Blue, White, and full on Grey they would stand out more. Honestly this is purely a nitpick.

d: God you are going to ask me that? For Chicago it feels easier for me. Martijn Westbroek has lead the Syndicate in scoring in all but two seasons during the entire FHM era including their one and only cup. If this team, that took the more slow build approach to their expansion draft way back in S46 has yet to retire a player's number to the rafters, it will be Martijn Westbroek.


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Stargang


S60 Milestones