1. CW TRIVIA +3
Nike

2.  Written +3
Back in my day the SHL was quite a different league than it is today. And back in Season 1, I can only imagine how much different it was beyond that. When I joined in the mid-teen seasons, the SHL was a much smaller, tighter group, but we still had lots of fun. Discord didn’t exist. Players weren’t created with a player tool. We did all of our updates by copying and pasting links. We made lines in STHS, not FHM. Only GMs really got to watch live streams and we read lines of codes to try and figure out who had scored and how. And despite all of that, I really look back endearingly about the early days of the SHL. It was easier to get to know everyone. I mean, when there’s less than a dozen teams and the member count is that much lower, you kind of learn who everyone is and the things that brought them to simulation hockey. And that’s pretty damn cool.

3. Written +3
The Syndicate last won the SHL Challenge Cup in S57. The Syndicate have been one of the top performing teams for the last 10 seasons or so but have had quite a few long runs to the Challenge Cup stopped short by some of the other top teams in the league. However, the S57 Syndicate ran through the regular season with more than 50 wins and a top flight roster including a number of likely future hall of fame players. Between Westbroek, Smeb, Minamino and Kennedy, the roster would give some of the best SHL teams of all time a run for their money. However, it wasn’t the quickest or easiest runs to the cup for the Chicago folks. The elusive 16th win came after losing a few games down the stretch. With 8 total losses through the playoffs, it was a hard fought victory to bring home the hardware. The current Syndicate roster has all of the tools to replicate another Cup run like the team in S57, but we have to push to continue competing deep into the playoffs.

4. Written +3
Millions of years ago, the Dino Hockey League roamed the earth. But the hockey players at the time of the Dino Hockey League, the players that walked the earth were merely prehistoric humans, like the flintstones. And while the cavemen were the rougher than the hockey players that we knew today, they still had a bit of skill. The equipment was a lot different than it is these days as well. And while the players were skating on blades made not of metal, but really thin stone (yeah, they were about as slow as you would imagine) they were having a ton of fun competing. The Charlestown Cavemen were the top team in all of the Dino Hockey League for many years. In fact, Charlestown was known for some of the most prehistoric fighters in all of the league’s history. Freddy “Dino” Flintstone was the top performer for the Cavemen. He was a rough and tumble kind of guy. He was known to use his long bone to bash his opponents over the head and sneak in for a quick and easy goal behind the defense.

11a. Written +2
Hamilton wins again. Are any of us really surprised? I know that its cool to hate on the league for not having parity and all of that, and it’s hard for me to be overly critical considering I’ve been on a top Chicago team for my entire career, but we can also all agree that it would be really fun to see Hamilton fall off a cliff. And while I’m a true believer in winning culture and teams that work harder deserving more success, its just hard to really enjoy the same team being in the finals every single season. Let’s just hope we can have more variety soon.


12. Milestones +1
Milestones +1 https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3185143

13. Written +3
Wait, we get to talk about parity again this year? What a wonderful surprise. I really enjoy talking about this every season. It’s almost as if the league has figured out a way to make all of our favorite things come to life each year. Honestly, I don’t mind that some teams are traditionally more talented than others. That’s the way that competition should work. Those that work hardest and make the most of their opportunities get rewarded with consistent success. However, the SHL has started to resemble the NBA in many ways. In that, the freedom of players to move between teams and a salary cap that isn’t quite as tight as some might like has made it so that players don’t have to stick around with franchises that are not providing them team and player success and go to greener pastures. I think the likelihood that we see another season of one of the top teams in the Challenge Cup next season is still very high and its going to be a number of seasons before we see a cup that doesn’t include the general suspects like Hamilton, Texas, Chicago or Buffalo. And there’s not anything wrong with that generally, its just that it’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy when those teams are bolstered by players that want to play for a franchise that is known for success when they have an opportunity to transition.