I wholeheartedly love the SHL, potentially more now than even when I was first introduced to it in 2019.  The SHL is so much more than just a simulation league based on a game.  That may have been what drew all of us in, but the retainer is...and always has been, in my opinion, is humanity.  Communication.  The yearning of human interaction albeit in a digital space.

Being part of the SHL is very much like being part of a very large family.  Sure, there are brothers and sisters and cousins if you will that you may not get along with at every step of the way, yet still we all get along.  Regardless of your faith, or age, or what pronoun you choose to call yourself we all choose to be here, together and we care.  We love.  We respect and admonish all the same.

Sure, years ago when the site and community was in its infancy there was a lot of things that were intolerant and just downright ignorant, but, as we grew so too did the site.  The bonds that we share here between users transcends the teams that we play on or the games that we play.  In the years since this site was created, and definitely in the few years since I joined here...I have seen strangers become friends.  Friends become basically family.  We have even lost some, though never forgotten, who's passing affected each and every one of us.

In the locker-rooms of discord and DM's with each other we share life stories and events.  We check on each other and laugh at stupid jokes.  We bicker and fight when we don't agree on something and then turn around and mend over a game of Dungeons and Dragons.  If someone comes in and really tries to drop bigotry or other sorts of foolishness everyone rallies together because we believe in something....and that things can be better.


If not by blood or by other definitions, that makes us here, Family.  A continued and extending conglomerate of individuals who not only enjoy hockey, but enjoy communion.


Sure, there are things that are going to be annoying like PT's and parity and other metrics that can be measured, but that isn't the end all be all reason we are all here.


So to ask how much I enjoy the SHL right now?  I don't.  I don't enjoy it.


I love it.