This season was a bit transitionary for Foley and the Blizzard. They were looking to get younger, headlined by Jon Forty-One getting offloaded in the offseason, as well as the influx of young talent due to the FR Finn-Rhys trade the offseason prior. While it is easy to enter the season without goals beyond "score" especially when the final goal of a cup seems further to reach than before, Foley came in looking to adjust his approach to his overall game. After a downyear following a near 40 point season, Foley either wanted to score more, or defend... more? Better? Either way he wanted to improve in some part of his game. Offensively, he put up the exact same numbers with somewhat better efficiency, and better 5v5 production compared to last year, but his defensive game showed some slight regression. So like, not ideal but he had fun. Playoffs shouldn't be mentioned, as the further rounds the Blizzard reach the less points Foley seems to be able to contribute. I came into this expecting to list positives for the score sheet but I will fall back on my previously established "transition" year excuse.

On a personal note, since I do want to touch on something positive, I was officially named Co-GM of the Carolina Kraken to start the season and it's still kind of hard to believe. There's a large degree of pride I take in getting that role and it's something that officially happened this season, so it felt right to mention it.

There are two realistic options for changing up playoffs. 8 or 12 teams. FHM just makes any other option impossible. With that in mind I think an 8 team playoffs makes the most sense. While there is some degree of "engagement assistance" in letting every team get in for a developmental league, that assistance makes sense under there being equal odds for each team to make the playoffs. If we keep a 12 team playoffs that isn't possible. The top 3 in each division would make it, but with 14 teams there would end up being 2 divisions where missing is impossible, and conversely there would be 2 divisions where there would be teams with the possibility of missing the playoffs. With the divisions for the new teams undecided, there is an unfortunate reality that wherever the new teams are placed, there will be teams missing the playoffs. Since HO has the power to determine those positions, they therefore have the power to decide who makes the playoffs. That simply has to be a non-sequiter for any kind of playoff alignment, as there shold be some kind of equality in terms of teams who can make the playoffs regardless of the divsion.

I've had the fortune of having two careers that were both purely in STHS or FHM. Saying careers is a little bit disengenuous, since I have my current career now, and then I had 1 season in the SMJHL in the STHS era. To avoid just regurgitating history and saying "I did good in FHM, bad in STHS, that again," I'll swap it up and ask if we had FHM in 2018, and STHS in 2020 (the two years I created players). If we had FHM in 2018, that frankly wouldn't change anything with my experience. Watching games is a major boon but the major reason I went inactive was a lack of earning, and the immaturity that came with missing a single task which lead to losing all momentum in sticking with the site. Career wise, I feel Veikka Toivanen would have had a bit more runway, as the aforementioned boon for FHM would have kept me a bit more engaged than I ended up being, so I would've earned a bit more. But in the end of it all, trying to keep track of capped vs. uncapped TPE, and being young just made it unrealistic.

On the other hand I feel confident I could've stuck it through with STHS was around today for the same reasons I wouldn't have stuck with old SHL w/ FHM. I came into Axel Foley's career with a more mature approach, and was ready for the grind. While I want to credit some of my return to the live streams I think the positive enforcement of the Kraken would be around even without live sims, and that would keep me coming back for more. A part of creating again was a confidence I could stick it through for a career, so if I could do that without seeing the sim engine the first time around, I could sure commit to it again.


b. The continued dominance of Buffalo has to be the most impressive. Nothing against Chicago, but they have recently put together a great team to get over the hump and when you compare that to NOLA's immediate success entering the league it falls a bit flat, even though they aren't being directly compared to NOLA. On Buffalo's end they have continually been one of the top team on sites and have shown an incredible knack for drafting well, improving at the margins, etc. in order to get to this point. They have shown the ability to improve their team in every way possible. Through trades, free agency, or drafting steals (that they later trade to struggling teams for overpays, it's a vicious cycle, really). That combination makes it hard not to respect Buffalo's success more, though it's not to suggest Chicago is anything to laugh at as they are also a top team in the league.

c. Buffalo be copy and pastin' n' shi'. That's (mostly) ironic, and I don't want to nitpick their site demeanor since a lot of people do that already, and if you go across every team in the league I'm sure you could someone that gives you cause to paint a whole team as bad in some way. For Chicago I want to nitpick the logo. The Chicago Syndicate implies a whole group of people undertaking crime and things like that, but the logo is just one dude. Is that guy just one dude named Syndicate in Chicago? Why aren't there some disembodied heads or shadows behind him that give off the vibe that there's backup. Completely loses the intimidating vibe with just one dude staring you down in an alleyway when you just wanna go play hockey.

Bababooey

I'm a man who knows how to wine, dine, and have a good time. Using all of Luke's money is a sure way to have a good night out so I might just start by going to an overpriced theme park. That'd probably cut through half of our available funds. Beyond that, maybe I could spot him for some ice cream and a ride out on the town (in a taxi, of course). In all reality after spurging on theme partk tickets, and the associated fast passes, I'm already dipping into my own funds for that ice cream. Am I showing my anger over spending well above budget to get drunk at a theme park? I'll let you decide.

https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3084693