1. Verification Word (3)

9. (1)
Montréal has been in a rebuild for a while now and all their first overalls and their early picks will hopefully soon start to blossom. The next couple seasons will be critical for them and I think it will soon be a matter of winning it all or losing all their players and having to start again. I guess Toronto and Tampa are ahead of them but it has to get better for the Patriotes soon, right?

12. (4)
With how the "preseason" has been going, it seems we can expect some big surprises in this season's tournament. Latvia hasn't been a powerful nation for quite some time now and have the best record of every team with 6 wins and only one loss. They had some really convincing wins, notably against Canada, who's always considered a powerhouse in the IIHF. Canada isn't the only nation who's had a disappointing start to their tournament; we got used to seeing the United States and Finland high in the rankings and now they sit comfortably in the middle of the pack. It's not catastrophic by any means and, again, it's only preseason, but it's surprising to see those teams below the likes of Latvia. The USA have been on the struggle bus for a few seasons now it's true but they always have great rosters so it's always a surprise to see them underperform like that.

As far as France is concerned, I guess I don't have much expectation. We acquired a lot of young talent but it will take time for us to be in our prime and I'm not sure this season will be it. We're third to last in the preseason but last time, we did great and still didn't win any medals so maybe starting off weak is the secret for us to do better when it counts.

8/8