1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

Wheeler

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?



I think that currently whatever winnipeg have been doing throughout the season and the playoffs have been working for them so it is hard to argue against their strategy of putting those 3 players together when it has gotten them all the way to the finals. Spread out attacks are definitely harder for opposing teams to deal with but that is all a theory and Winnipegs theory of stacking them is working out so props to them.



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?



When you have a single player driving the offence as hard as this guy has been doing it, you really got to make sure you plan around him and shut him down as that will shut down a lot of New Englands offence. To do that, i'd make sure you line up your best defensive line against him and let your other offensive players feed on the rest of the team.



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?



I dont think that there is too much that New England can do to help out their goalie here against Winnipeg, but I know Karssiko from playing with him in Los Angeles and he will be just fine. I think that New England should just be focused on providing enough offensive support for Karsikko.


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?

Well a good thing that happened in my career with Joans was definitely winning the Challenge cup, and luckily for Joans it happened 3 different times! It would be great for Joans if he could achieve that again but coming to the twilight of his career, he definitely should stay happy with what he was able to accomplish. I think now for Joans it is more about cementing his legacy in the SHL as one of the greatest offensive dmen to play the game. He already broke the record for Career goals by a defenceman and he is closing in on the Career points record as well, which he is hoping to break in the next couple of seasons before retiring. I think having another 40 point season would be a dream for Joans, and one that is not too out of reach of accomplishing, but he will have to have a better offensive season than he did last season. Don't know hos possible it will be with regression kicking his ass.

6. Written, 2 TPE, Hopeful Haiku  (5 words min.)

Write a haiku telling me what you hope to accomplish in Season 71! A haiku is a three line poem where the first line is five syllables, the second is seven, and the third line is five again. None of your lines may rhyme with each other.

Big Offensive Year

Jonas to score forty points

Crack six hundred points

7. Milestones, up to 3 TPE

Milestones are folded in with CW. So just link your Milestone claim as task 7 for up to 3 TPE towards your 16 total.



Milestones

17. Written, 2 TPE - The Procrastinator Special! (100 words min.)

Congratulations, procrastinator!  Through my most gracious scheduling error, you’ve won a special task! [TEAM] has won it all! Were the playoffs as you expected this year, or were there some surprises? Who were you hoping would take it - Winnipeg's redemption tour or the fresh-faced Wolfpack? What did you like or not like about this season?

I think considering the winner of the Challenge cup, there were definite surprises in the playoffs, especially on the eastern side of things. I just personally did not expect New England to come all the way and win it all. If i am being honest I did not even expect them to make it out of the first round, although I'd have to check my bracket again. Props to them for defying all the odds throughout the entire playoffs and achieving what most ( or at least what I) did not think was possible. Winnipeg definitely must be seeing their window slip away, as they've made it to the finals 2 years in a row as the favourites but have lost both times. I think they need to keep it going because they will find success.