Championship Week - Total 17 TPE (in case I miss a trivia)

1. Trivia - 3 TPE (I hope)

Verification Word: Spelunk

2. Grab Bag - 2 TPE

b) I think that you have to go straight after Rashford. Sure you can try to stop the other members of his team who can bury his passes, but that still leaves him more open to take his shots. I think that you always have to lock down the best player the best that you can in order to fully shutdown the offence. If the other guys can't get the puck to him, they will be thrown off into having to play the game into a different plan than they had. (91 words)

c) One thing from talking to goalies is that they feel a lot more in the flow when they're getting more shots, and it's clear that BASE PACK is really feeling the groove right now. I think that if I were coaching, I would be emphasizing less on peppering him with shots and more on doing things that will be difficult to make it see, or react. Clogging the front of the net so he can't see the puck will make him have to start guessing, and allow opportunities for tips to re-direct the puck late enough that he can't react. (100 words)

4. Playoffs Shmayoffs (230 words) 3 TPE

Chad Nickelback has been pretty lucky in his young career to have had a ton of success in getting into playoffs, coupled with some deep runs, and (unfortunately) falling just short of the ultimate goal of getting the trophy.

This year was a bit of a different feel from the beginning of the season through to the end. Chad just didn't seem to have the same oomph or dedication to the team that he had had in the past, and that showed with his stagnation and slowing down of the improvement of his play on the ice. This carried through to the playoffs where he didn't help out the team as much as he needed to.

With a first round exit this year, Chad had much more time to reflect, and it was not something he had held well. Being used to success, Chad returned into himself and was a bit of a shell of uninvolvement with the rest of the team and took a lot onto his own shoulders. He let the team down, and as it turns out, it was the current squad's last kick at the can. When Nickelback emerged from writing depressed songs in his mansion, he found out that he had been traded. Back up north to Canada he goes to try and turn his career around and help bring another team to the playoffs.

6. Haiku Highlights - 2 TPE

One more playoff run
Again, failing to succeed
Traded to Dragons

7. Milestones - 3 TPE

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18. 2 TPE (127 Words)

Honestly, these playoffs have turned out to be a little bit of a surprise to me. I had expected some bigger things out of teams like Montreal who had led the East through the season. I had fully expected them versus Winnipeg in the final and we didn't get that becasue Montreal took an early bow out to losing to New England in the Second round in what I would consider an upset.

Then to follow up the favored East team in my pool with Philadelphia coming in and dominating the finals is something I didn't expect at all. I had them taking an early dive but they proved me wrong, pushed through, and really showed that they were a well built team ready for playoff success.

22. Written, 2 TPE, Hope and Hapiness (152 words)

It sounds so stupid, but since I've been completely embroiled in a project at work, and spent a fair bit of time sick recently with whatever that cold that's going around is, I'm going to have to say I'm really jazzed to have finally cleared the final Mythic Boss of this raid in WoW and to get our cutting edge achievement. It's always a bit of a grind, but with everything else going on, it took a lot more out of me this time, and I felt a huge surge of joy and relief when that chickenbird finally died. We beat a raid team who has always been super rude to us and tried to shittalk us a bunch, and always feels good to top them.

Now it's just looking on the horizon with my project going live at work in about a month and a half, so that'll just feel great.