verification word: corncob

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Honestly, I think when you really crack open the mechanics of what makes FHM tick, it's not dissimilar to a lot of the things that we say about real hockey teams playing in real hockey leagues. There's something to be said about the intrinsic knowledge of what it takes to win in the post-season that is instilled in teams that consistently get there. You see it all the time in hockey conjecture in real life--"this team has the skill to win, but do they have the longevity that you need in the playoffs?" More often than not in real life, this is due to a ramping up in physicality and a lessening of whistles in the post-season, but within the framework of FHM, I think it's fair to say that the sim obviously takes into account chemistry and likely also takes into account experience. A player that's done it before probably has some sort of hidden value to them that a fresh face in the playoffs just doesn't. In that way, Winnipeg and New England's continued post-season success almost feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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Montreal showed us that really, my point about the potential intrinsic value of playoff experience might just be true. In the cases of Philly, New England, and Winnipeg, a lot of the pieces shuffle, but every new playoff team has pieces from the previous one building that playoff experience in the young guns. With Montreal though, they didn't just pull the plug, they pulled the plug *hard* and went straight into a scorched earth rebuild. Was that the right move? Hard to say just yet because we may still see Montreal suddenly turn into the 80s Oilers and absolutely obliterate the league. But there's definitely value in keeping the vets around to build chemistry and maybe drag your young guys to any sort of playoff appearance at all... If there *is* an intrinsic post-season experience value at play in this sim, then any experience is better than a full throttle rebuild that robs the entire team of their ability to bounce into positions of success. We'll have to see where Montreal realistically goes from here.