awils


a. It's the first challenge cup final but they've come very close a lot of times in the past, so it's not like they have no playoff experience, and Chicago has been one of the top teams for a while but fell short in the playoffs, so it's a tough call but I would bet on Chicago because they have the better roster on paper.
c. There is no doubt that discipline will play a big role in this series, like in any other, because about 30% of goals are scored with a man advantage, however Chicago also played more games in this playoffs, so it's not a significant difference and it's hard to predict which team will be more disciplined.
d. As always I think the more balanced attack is more likely to win, but it's not because of the way their coaches distribute ice time per se, it's because when you need to shelter some players on your team as opposed to running balanced lines, it's a sign that your roster depth might not be as good, so you are the underdog in the series.


For players, the 4 star cup is definitely more difficult to win because you only get like what, 3 or 4 chances at best? And if you are on a rebuilding team, you might never even come close to winning it. For GMs/coaches, I believe the challenge cup is more prestigious. Much has been said about SMJHL being about user retention first, and while being a contending team helps with that, it's not the main goal for most gms in the league, while if you're an shl gm, your main goal is to build a contender and ultimately win the cup. There are also more teams in the shl, so statistically you are less likely to make a deep playoff run, rebuilds take a lot longer, and the cost of mistake is much higher, as we've seen in the past, one bad trade can set your franchise back for many seasons.


+2 tpe https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3212016


I predict that Canada and Sweden will be the #1 seeds in their groups with a 10-0-1-1 and 7-2-3-0 records respectively. Last year's winner USA will not make it out of the Round Robin though, so that will be the biggest surprise. Kev Kevens will lead Team Canada in scoring with 18 points in 12 games, while Ryu Jones will be the leading point getter with 19 points in 12 games, including 10 goals in 12 games. I'm feeling pretty confident about these predictions for some reason, and it's definitely not because I'm writing this after the RR has already ended. I hope that we can finally bring gold back to Canada though after falling just short the last few seasons, we need to get gold #5 for Adam Barron, and also for many veterans on the team who are deep into regression, and this might be one of their last chances to win it.


Congratulations to Chicago, it's a little surprising that they won the cup given their long history of choking in the playoffs, but I guess it was somewhat expected because they were also the presidents trophy winners this season. I would say there were a lot of upsets in this playoffs though unlike previous seasons, for example, Hamilton beating Buffalo (again), Atlanta sweeping Tampa Bay in round 1, Baltimore not even reaching the conference finals and consequently Atlanta making the challenge cup final, San Francisco beating Los Angeles in round 2 was also something that not many people predicted. All in all there were a lot of surprises/upsets in this playoffs.