1. Trivia 3 TPE
tarte


2. Grab Bag 3 TPE
a. This sure is an exciting matchup and a welcoming one. Willie Miller has been having a JS Giguere run for Seattle, who knows if he's got some tank left. Atlanta is an absolute wagon and the far superior team on paper. My heart says the Miller Argonauts but my head picks the Atlanta Inferno.

c. I'd say depth is more valuable in the regular season than in the playoffs. Don't get me wrong, it's still important but if your superstars don't perform there's so much a 3rd line can do. If you're Seattle you keep on relying on your goalie to bail you out and hope to capitalize on every chances you get. Atlanta will dominate the puck possession game, just gotta not get frustrated.

d. It's always case by case. You generally don't want to depend on your PP to get goals. But Seattle defensive play style do frustrate the opposing team and making them take bad penalties. Atlanta has a ton of vets on their squad, I don't see them falling in that trap. Their power play can't get really worse so that's a good thing. You're already getting a ton of offense 5 on 5, advantage has to be on the Inferno side.


4. League vs. League 3 TPE
I have been around since s39, I've seen my share of bad and great teams. The s54 Tampa Bay Barracuda has to be the worst roster ever. It's no easy feature to get 0 wins and they did it, we saw teams like Edmonton and Minnesota recently tanking on purpose and still get 5+ wins. The best player for the Cudas that season was a young Michael Fitted at 668 TPE. Only 6 players were above 425 TPE and most of them were probably inactive who didn't unbanked. You can't tell me a capped SMJHL team couldn't win a best of 7 against that. I can think of 2 junior teams that could get the job done. Season 38 Prince George Firebirds was pretty much an all star team after the huge trade deadline trade with the Mammoths. Out of the 22 players, maybe 2 or 3 weren't capped. The early 60s saw some great Newfoundland teams with elite FHM knowledge from their management. They probably would swept those poor cudas.


7. Milestones 2 TPE
https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3258609


15. IICAN See the Future 3 TPE
I was part of the cinderella Switzerland run this past tourney. We had a young roster and still somehow won the whole thing. This time around we've lost our captain and best d-man, so a repeat or even qualifying for the round robin seems unlikely. Sweden should bounce back after a terrible s65 performance. The team with the best talent pool to pick from finished in 12. You have to think heads will roll getting similar results. Canada should once again be in the picture for a medal. Great roster and a manager having ton of experiences with lines combination. So of the 8 teams who made it past the round robin in s65, I see 5 of them making it again. I hate doing this but my Switzerland, Czechia and Ireland will miss in favor of Sweden, Japan and Germany. Canada is my safe gold medal pick, Finland getting silver and USA bronze


18. Procrastinator Special 2 TPE
You couldn't really ask for a better outcome for the first season in the FHM 8 era. Besides the live sims being absolutely garbage, the results we got this season were encouraging. We were a bit worried about goalies numbers this season but just saw Willie Miller carried his team on his back to the Challenge Cup finals, something we haven't seen since the STHS years. Atlanta was an incredible team, nice to see Hamilton didn't somehow BAP'd them.  For me the Seattle run gave me a motivation boost that we can get surprises. It's only a season and meta builds have yet to be found but hopefully things keep trending on the right way.