1. Chill
2. Written, up to 4 TPE - Grab Bag: Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.
a. Winnipeg made the finals last year and came up just short against the Forge. Last year, their offense ran through Mikko Rashford - this year, their top line has been much more of a balanced attack, with Gonzo Gobbledygook and Lias Ekholm-Gunnarsson stepping up hard. Does this make Winnipeg a stronger team, or would it be better to spread this firepower out and run multiple scoring lines?
- When your offense runs through one person it is much easier for the other team to target that individual player and shut down an entire offense. So I would say that WPG is much better this year than last year with the fact that multiple players posses high threat. Lets see if it does them any good.
b. New England finds themselves in a similar situation to Winnipeg's last year: star winger Petr Svoboda has an absurd 30 points in 23 playoff games at the time this is posted. 18 of those are goals, 12 are assists: how do you shut this guy down?
-The same way WPG got shut down last year. Put a few men on the guy and just keep him down with physicality and making NEW make sub optimal passes to him if they insist on going that route. It is not too hard to gun down one leader. If WPG adops PHI strategy from last season they should be able to come back and win this whole cup.
c. Olof Karsikko has made 823 saves in these playoffs, nearly twice the number of saves made by Winnipeg's Rebecca Montagne. What can New England do to help their tendie out? Or should they settle on a strategy of allowing their goalie to face a high volume of low-danger shots to get in the zone and stay hot? Alternatively, how can they rattle Montagne?
-New England already has a plan set in motion. If you look at their defense and offense the number of shot blocks have been insane. The whole point is that everyone gets together to put their body in front of the goal. This is a team sport and you have to put everything on the line for the cup. If the shot blocks continue on pace then its crazy to think just how many shots NEW has faced to get them this far. And where does that stop?
d. If it ain't broke don't fix it: Who you got? Who wins? Why?
-Winnipeg should have it. They are overall stronger and took fewer games to get to this point. Their players should be hungry after failing to win the last two appearances but they have to contend with this New England team that has taken all their series to game 7 and just used pure GRIT to get them here.  It is going to get scrappy and I hope winnipeg can hang with the rest.

3. Written, 3 TPE, History Repeating (150 words min.)
Tell me about something good that happened in your SHL career which you hope will happen again! What is it, what will it look like? Did it happen to your current player or one of your former players? What can you do to stack the odds in your favor?
-I have had two players in this league and both players have won a cup with a team in the northeast. That being said, I had exactly one season with my last player where I went PPG and it was a great feeling to actually attain that in the sim. You watch as your player builds up the ability each season and you hope that eventually you will strike gold and get that legendary Point per game season where everything clicks. I was mostly inactive at the time, but was still following my player. Now as a defense player who is focusing on shot blocking and takeaways I will not have a  chance to reach that milestone with this guy, but my goals have changed. I want to block so many shots that my goalie can take a snooze in the middle of the game and come out winning. To do that I just need to bolster my defense skills and be ready to watch those numbers roll in.

5. Written, 3 TPE, Blood on the Ice (150 words min)
Continuing with the branding wars: this year's final features the return of the glowing bear god against a fresh opponent - a mighty wolfpack! This one seems slanted in the bear god's favor, but don't count the wolves out so easily! Tell me who wins and why! The arena and the rules of the fight can be whatever you desire. Get creative!
-A bear god is just a solitary thing. It could be huge, it could be ferocious, but it is alone. There is no one to watch its back. Last year it was an even match up, two giant creatures facing each other. This year it is no contest. I give this one to the wolves any day. The bear is just too big and too alone to handle an entire pack of wolves bearing down on it and overwhelming the poor god creature. It does not matter where you put this legion of animals to face the god, they will win. The bear needs space to fight and the more space you give the pack the more they will harry and harass the bear god until it just gives up and lays down to accept its fate. The only way the bear god wins is if the whole pack has to make a frontal assault, but then that would not be much of a fight. The wolfpack is stronger together. Aweoooooo!

Milestones 3 TPE https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3358015