S77 Championship Week

S77 Championship Week Due: Sunday, July 28th @ 11:59 PM PST

ThisSeemsFishy
SMJHL GM
Posting Freak

#111

07-20-2024, 08:03 PM

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2. Lasse Zeigler and Nathan Cormier each come into these finals tied for the most assists in these playoffs at 21. Who do you think will have more impact as a playmaker in this series?

I’ll have to give the edge to Nathan Cormier of the New England Wolfpack on this one. When it comes to playmakers you need to take a look at who their teammates are and how they’re playing. Lasse Zeigler has 1 linemate currently in the top 10 in goals and that’s Chris Valentine. Now while Valentine is ranked number 1, two other players are ranked 3 and 4 and that’s Cormier’s teammates Ivan Lacksamus and Bruno Tooyo. Now while they don’t all play on the same line, there isn’t much stopping New England from loading up with a line of Cormier, Lacksamus and Tooyo.

104 words - 2 TPE

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3. Ivan Lacksamus is once again leading his team in points and has already tied Aaron Wilson’s record for career playoffs points at 242. While they are not the only one in New England to be producing points, do you think Texas should worry about Lacksamus who seems completely unaffected by their age?

I think Texas definitely needs to guard Lacksamus closely. They say with age comes experience and Lacksamus has no Lack(samus) of experience in the playoffs. He’s reached 30 points in the playoffs 5 times so far and is sure to reach 30 this season only being 1 point away at the time of writing. When it comes down to elite playoff performers, you have to look at Lacksamus as the prime example. Texas, comparatively has much less experience overall, being a much younger team. I think the key to victory for Texas will be finding a way to shut down Lacksamus. Otherwise his experience will be overwhelming for the Renegades. On the flip side, New England has lots of scoring threats who will make it difficult for Texas to focus in on Ivan Lacksamus. They won’t be able to just throw there best defenders at Ivan and call it a day.

151 Words - 3 TPE

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4. Hodor and Seamus O'Slapahan have both been important parts of their teams offensive but they also have a noticeable lead in blocked shots in the playoffs. We know that one goal can change the game so each block is one puck on goal less to worry about, but can one person do it all or should the rest of their teams follow their example and start focusing more on blocking shots?

While it’s definitely beneficial to have a player willing to throw their body in the way to block shots at every given opportunity, it might be worth it for the rest of the squad to get involved too. Having the entire weight of the shot blocking duties on one guy is going to wear them down much faster. But if you spread that out amongst the entire roster, you’ll have less chance that someone could pick up an injury. Yes, yes I know, no one has been injured in the entire history of the SHL for some miraculous reason. But would you want to be the first? If Hodor and Sheamus O’Slapahan’s teammates were more willing to block shots, we wouldn’t need to have this conversation, and the total goals scored in these finals would also drop as a result. I’m sure the respective goaltenders would be thankful as well.

150 Words - 3 TPE

Total TPE - 8/8