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Verification: Alvin


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a. Yes Seattle had a great run last season led by their goalie Willie Miller. I did noticed they added a few great pieces during the offseason, especially that three way trade with Los Angeles Panthers and Edmonton Blizzard when they landed three quality players. Defenseman Jonas Kahnwald, center Luukas Lilja and winger Jimmy Wagner. After that trade i fully expected Seattle to be the main contender for winning the cup.

b. Yes i agree, it is surprising to see Manhattan Rage in the finals against Seattle Argonauts. I think the main reason for their success is their first line unit who absolutely delivered. Leb Lebedev, Tomas Lind and Robert O. Speedwagon is a line that every team dreams of. I think luck is also a huge factor and apparently you do not need a 1000+ goalie to beat opponents in a playoffs series.

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In my opinion the best team that did NOT win the the Challenge Cup was the Toronto North Stars. They had a dominant regular season, finishing second in points, but with the best goal difference, a plus 134. They scored 320 goals, the most of any team. Videl Vador lead among scoring leader, 59 goals. Dogwood Maple scored 54 goals and finished 3rd. Having two topscorers in one team is pretty remarkable. Jimmy Larkin-Conway had 68 assists, Ty Murphy 64. Those 4 players all had around 100 points. Dogwood Maple and Yuuto Kira Cloudera Jr finished with a plusminus of +70, the best in the league. Dogwood Maple had 346, 5 more than Videl Vador. They both had more than 80 shots (!) than the first player from another team. The Toronto North Stars offensive was absolutely on a roll. They continued their strong play in the playoffs, beating Tampa easily in the first round, 4-1. They also started strong against Montreal, 2-0, but than suddenly lost 4 straight games, with a couple of blowout games too. I think the reason for this is the difference in goalie, Montreal has a rising goalie star, where Toronto plays with a former goalie star who is rapidly deteriorating.


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+3 TPE - Milestones

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In real life i live in the Netherlands. 2015 was a special year for a dutch hockey fan, as in that year every hockey minded fan followed the story of one particular hockey player, named Daniel Sprong. He could be the first ever player, born in the Netherlands, that could be drafted in the NHL. Daniel’s hometown is Amsterdam, as a 4 year old he played against 12 and 13 years old. The development program in the Netherlands is low and so his family decided to move to Canada. Daniel was 8 years old when he left the Netherlands. Although he no longer lived in the Netherlands, the story was still big news here. After he got drafted in the second round and played for the Pittsburgh Penguins he was nominated for young talent of the year. Although he didn’t win it was very remarkable that he got nominated, since ice hockey is not a huge sport in the Netherlands. It certainly helped promoting the sport a bit. Since this day i am still following his career closely and i am happy for him that he still plays in the NHL as he already played for four different teams (Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Washington and Seattle)


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The SHL playoffs never go as expected, although i rightly predicted Seattle Argonauts to win the cup. That wasn’t a big surprise. The fact that Manhattan Rage got into the finals is a bit surprising. Another team that surprised me was the Calgary Dragons. A very good regular season, followed by a solid playoffs run, stopped by the eventually winners. Concerning FHM 8, i am not convinced yet that is the right simulator. The amounts of goals scored is still way too much and goalies absolutely getting no love in this league. The league should really start thinking about using an other sims as this one really starting to frustrate.