Task 1

Verification

Task 2

a. Atlanta had a very good playoff run to get themselves in the Challenge Cup finals, but if I had to bet on the series before it started, I would have put my money on Chicago. I think they have the better team and they’ve been there before, they know what it takes to win.
b. It’ll be cliché to say, but you have to just play simple hockey. Don’t force a play that’s not there and you won’t get the puck turned over. If you are able to make the simple play, it’ll usually result in a positive outcome, and if it doesn’t the damage is significantly reduced since there are no risky plays being tried to get something going.
c. Discipline is a huge part of the playoffs. At a time when goals are at a premium, you do not want to be giving your opponents any opportunity to score. Reducing the number of penalties you take not only allows for your opponent to have less powerplays, but it also allows your team to get into a rhythm 5 on 5 and not constantly having to shuffle things up to kill penalties.
d. I don’t know much about FHM and how the tactics work, but I would assume that balanced might be the way to go. It’ll probably allow the players to have an overall better approach to the game. However, this probably works best with their deeper lineup. If Atlanta has players who aren’t as good, the sheltered minutes could have their better players on the ice more often. Just have to hope fatigue doesn’t impact their play.

Task 3

a. This is a tricky thing to plan for, because you want to defend well but knowing guys can jump in at any time makes it tricky. Quebec likely has to take a more man on man defensive approach to make sure these guys are constantly being watched. If you start to collapse in the zone these guys will jump in and could hurt you back door or make plays.
b. You can’t really do anything about this besides play good defense. Really high shooting percentage are generally not sustainable, so taking away high danger areas of the ice will be your best bet. If you don’t give them any good looks and they still manage to score, well then that’s a good shot, but you don’t want to give them easy chances to bury goals, because they’ll make you pay.
c. Going into the playoffs sometimes its better to be the hot team than the better team. We’ve seen a lot of runs where the team that gets hot at the right moment can easily make a deep run and even win. That being said, the finals is a different game, there are more nerves, the consequences are magnified and everybody plays tighter. Both teams are good and can make their own luck, will be an interesting one to see.
d. If you’re Newfoundland the most important thing is probably not to get too comfortable and complacent. Even though there’s a ton of recent success, you have to go in there with the mentality of wanting to win it all as if it was your first. For Quebec, you just need to think you’re the underdog, you’ve got nothing to lose, and you go out for the kill. They’ve been a top team, so there’s no reason they can’t win it either.

Task 5

This is an interesting question, and honestly pretty difficult to answer. I think a lot of people will argue that the Challenge Cup is harder to win than the 4 Star Cup, however I don’t really know if that’s the case. The SMJHL is unique in how it is run and the rules around players. Having a TPE cap means most of the discrepancies between players is very small, and that makes it even harder to win a cup. Not to mention, the lifetime of players playing in the SMJHL is very short, so higher turnover means a lot more difficulty to build a quality team in a shorter period of time.

Perhaps the way to see it is building a team capable of winning the 4 Star Cup is easier than building a Challenge Cup contender, but to actually win the 4 Star Cup is harder due to the lower discrepancy in talent amongst players.

Task 7

+2 Milestones

Task 18

The playoffs were quite a surprise this season actually, mainly because I was not expecting the Steelhawks to make as deep a run as we did. We were one of the bottom playoff teams and we managed to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, beating an incredible Buffalo team which we probably should have lost to. On top of that, it was nice to see some new teams make a deep run and have a playoff impact, like the San Francisco Pride and the Atlanta Inferno. Having more diversity is showing us that there is more parity coming into the league, which should give everyone a breath of fresh air and be hopeful that their team could make a run and possibly win a cup.