6. (167 Words – 3 TPE)
Overall it was a generally tough season for Ju-gong, but considering the situation of the teams rebuild, it was nothing too unexpected. Leading the J in losses and saves shows how often the Montreal goal was coming under fire. Overall it could be seen as a slight disappointment given he neither hit .900 on save percentage, nor managed a shut out over the course of the season. Still, there is plenty of reason to continue to optimistic about things to come. Not only is the young goalie still improving leaps and bounds every year, but the team around him is also on a firm upwards trajectory. Even with a key defenseman in Journey Man heading off on their Journey, the addition of Deth Klaw and big improvements made by the existing core, the Montreal defense should slowly reach their potential over time. While next season might still carry some struggles, Ju-gong is still primed to succeed with the rest of the Patriotes in the seasons to come.

12. (211 Words – 4 TPE)
Given the small sample size we get from both IIFH and WJC games, there is always room for a high level of variance. It means that even average level teams might get hot at the right time, win 3-4 games in a row and end up with a gold medal. While variance can be seen as a bad thing, in this case I don’t think it matters all too much. National team sports are more or less like this in the real world too, where the chaos of having a new collection of players tends to matter more than any strategy you can instill in a new team over the course of a week or two. Even accounting for this level of randomness, the talent that is on each roster still certainly matters a lot, as is evidenced by Team Norden winning 3 gold medals in a row, when all 3 years they were also highest TPE in the tournament. All in all, I don’t think there is anything that needs to really be done with IIHF in terms of competitive balance. It will by nature always be a more random and variable, while still naturally rewarding better quality teams in some small manner – and that’s okay, if not just realistic.

14.  (57 Words – 1 TPE)
Sadly there was no time to do coinflip predictions this year, but had there been one, it surely would’ve picked LAP winning in 6 games. While TBB had an incredible year and would’ve been deserved winners, its hard to deny that LAP with their quality and competition didn’t grind and earn every bit of their Challenge Cup.