1) Milestones claim!

11) I know this is IIHF so maybe not totally in the spirit of the All Star Week, but I want to talk about it anyone because it's pretty cool! Team Norden at the WJC not only weny back to back, but back to back to back in WJC gold medals! This season they're attempting to add another back to the mix. A fourth back? Anyway point being it's an exceptionally well put together team that's been coached to perfection. I'm lucky enough to have been a part of it for two seasons in a row, funnily enough I didn't make the cut three seasons back and ended up losing to them in the finals as a part of Team ICE. So with the unique perspective of having lost to them in the gold medal game and then won two gold medals with them, I can say they really are a complete team. Finland, Sweden, and Norway have some amazing talent coming up through the ranks that unfortunately will be split up into their respective federations when they're old enough for the World Championships. These countries are ones to watch out for in the coming years as you can expect that huge swell of talent will have some amazing battles on the world stage in the coming seasons. I personally cannot wait to start playing for Finland. It's going to be an exciting time! (233)

13) I definitely do not have the data, but my general vibe check on the SMJHL to SHL pipeline is that it's pretty healthy overall. I know there used to be reputations for some places, like Detroit feeding Texas and St. Louis feeding NOLA-- but ultimately I don't even know if those reputations were particularly warranted haha. It was just sort of a fun thing to joke about in Texas that we often took a Falcon, but we also had tons of Knights and Scarecrows and Raptors... so it's hard to say. There's definitely a handful of folks that want to play in the same place over and over and kinda force their hand on the issue, but I think most users are just happy to play where they have fun. Myself included! (132)


TPE Earned 8/8