S74 Championship Week! 1/21 DEADLINE

S74 Championship Week! 1/21 DEADLINE

JamesT
Moderators
Cozy Connoisseur

#14

01-10-2024, 06:46 PM (This post was last modified: 01-16-2024, 01:08 PM by JamesT. Edited 1 time in total.)

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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.

Keven

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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. Two old faces are back in the ring, proving reports of the dynasty’s demise were greatly exaggerated! Pick either of our finalists, and tell me what about them impresses you the most!

b. Upsets were a theme this year - which of our finalists had the more difficult road to the promised land and why?

c. Which of the finalists had the more impressive conference finals victory, and why?

d. If it ain't broke don't fix it: Who you got? Who wins? Why?

a. I will be talking about the Winnipeg Aurora as they have a resurgence of sorts in the playoffs. After having an okay regular season (they started off the season not that well) they picked it up after trading away Mads McBride to the Texas Renegades. My initial thoughts were WPG was just looking to fold the regular season and just coast along. However, they have played extremely well and are now just 4 wins from capturing another challenge cup.

(79 words)

b. I will go with the New England Wolfpack out of the two teams that had a tougher road to the finals. NEW had to go 7 games against a very tough Hamilton Steelhawks team and then defeated the Buffalo Stampede (whom I picked to make the East finals in my bracket) and then beat the PHI Forge who are a very tough team consistently.

(64 words)

c. The New England Wolfpack had the more impressive conference finals win because of the competition they faced. Between PHI and NEW it was probably a 50/50 as for which team would come out on top. For the West conference finals, I would assume most people had Winnipeg beating SFP (even though I had Edmonton making the finals and then winning the cup, I guess anything can happen in the playoffs).

(71 words)

d. I will go with the Winnipeg Aurora to win this series and defeat the NEW wolfpack once again in the finals to capture their 2nd cup in as many seasons and establish themselves as one of the premiere teams in the SHL. TPE wise, WPG has the stronger roster (they are ranked 1st overall for team TPE so that should give them the edge) they also were able to defeat NEW the last time these two teams faced each other in the cup finals as well.

(85 words)

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3. Written, 3 TPE, Haven’t I Seen This Before? (150 words min.)

Despite being the 8th and 10th ranked regular season teams in the league, our finalists from Winnipeg and New England represent two of the most dominant teams over the past several seasons. What do you think is the secret to their success? What can other teams learn from them? Which one is more likely to be back again next year?

I think both WPG's and NEW's secret to their success and making it to the cup finals once again is their coaching and experience with being in the playoffs. I believe line chemistry plays a huge factor and these teams have had a fairly consistent roster for a while now so their chemistry should be excellent. They have also both won in the past so their management and players know what it's like to win and can draw on that experience. It helps that both teams don't really have a weak spot in their lineup and can confidently roll their lines. I think out of the two teams to potentially make it back to the cup finals in S75 would have to be the Winnipeg Aurora, since I believe NEW will have some players retiring so they will have some gaps to fill in their lineup. I don't believe WPG will have much roster turnover after this season ends so they should be a strong contender again next season.

(169 words)

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5. Written, 3 TPE, Upset City (150 words min)

An impressive string of upsets took place this season, especially in the West with San Francisco’s Cinderella run. Which upset series impressed you most, why, and what in that series sticks out most in your memory? For the purposes of this task, any series won by the lower seed is an upset.

I think most people are going to say SFP beating EDM was the biggest upset of the S74 playoffs and it was! Edmonton was poised to repeat as cup champs again and after sweeping the Minnesota Monarchs, they probably saw SFP as an easy opponent to potentially sweep as well. But oh boy were they in for a shock, Edmonton lost the first two games on home ice and after that probably were shell-shocked as to how that happened, The first game was an overtime loss and overtime losses are always a tough one to recover from (especially in the playoffs). Edmonton showed they were still rattled from that initial loss since they went on to lose G2 by a 7-2 score. Edmonton showed some fight by winning the next game in SFP 8-3, but the 2-0 lead was too big to climb as the final nail in the coffin came in G6 when SFP won in overtime 2-1 where they were outshot 45-33 by Edmonton but still came out on top. Many playoff brackets were broken when this happened (mine included) and it showed how upsets can happen in the FHM 8 era.

(194 words)