It's Paul Bondage's final season with Kelowna, and sadly, this was one of the worst seasons the team has had in his entirety with the team. He's not bitter at all, if anything it was nice to sort of have that insane pressure taken off for his final season before going up to the big leagues. If anything, it's given him the motivation, to really focus on himself so that he can ensure he has the biggest impact he possibly could have when going up to Atlanta. Atlanta had an insane season, just barely sneaking into the playoffs on the final day of the season. If they're going to keep that playoff streak going, they're going to need Paul Bondage at his absolute best, a big responsibility for a rookie defenseman. Looking back at Kelowna, Paul Bondage is just happy to have played his part where he could with great people on the ice.
The regular season was mildly dissapointing for both Cormier and the New England Wolfpack. It wasn't a disaster by any means, but Cormier definitely saw a reduction in his offensive production compared to what he's used to and the Wolfpack as a whole were incredibly unlucky. While the underlying stats suggest they were driving a majority of the play, for whatever reason the results did not reflect that. I think Cormier definitely has it in him to find that next level and get back to a point per game pace during the playoffs. It's the biggest stage in the league and Cormier is used to performing when it matters most. The Wolfpack also have a recent history of stepping it up when playoffs come, having won 2 cups very recently and made the finals an additional time. Even though they may have taken a step back due to retirements, and calling up a few less experienced players, the majority of the team including Cormier knows what is needed to make a serious post season push.
With his last playoffs coming and the Malamutes being dead last in scoring this regular season, Langston needs to step up as their top goal scorer. His point totals were not nearly what they were in his second and third seasons, actually being close to his totals from his rookie year. It appears to be a massive mental block that is keeping him down, but he is trying out yoga for the first time along with some meditation. He is looking to coordinate better with his line, passing more like he did last season and getting the puck in the opposing net, no matter whose stick the puck was on last. With the pressure on him to perform and get at least a little bit of playoff pride in his last hurrah, Langston has to know his role: score goals and a lot of them. He has had massive cold streaks but also pretty good periods of scoring. Playoffs is all about momentum and the last Yukon games could have given them plenty of that.
Shoutout TheOPSquid for the Sig
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Struck Gold Award
bluesfan55 IIHF Federation Head
Too young for this shit
sebastien regazzoni just randomly had his best season of his career. after spending most of his career as a solid 50-60 point scorer, regazzoni exploded for a 93 point season, 60 of which were assists (60 assists is more than the amount of points he scored in 4 of his 6 shl seasons). after having such a good season, it isn't hard for regazzoni to psych himself up for the playoffs. having never won the cup (shoutout micool who has) and only won 2 playoff series in his career with the steelhawks, regazzoni is determined to play his ass off for the steelhawks to win it all. it's also not like he hasn't turned it on in the playoffs before; in s73 and s75 he was crucial to the steelhawks' playoff runs by scoring a combined 24 points in 26 games. overall, regazzoni knows he can carry his star-like play into the playoffs, as he's motivated to win a ring.
ty to @High Stick King @EvilAllBran and @Ragnar for the sigs
My player definitely has another gear to push to. At one point during the regular season he was competing amongst his teammates for most points on the team, but that pace decreased heavily as the season progressed. This proves that he can keep up with the 425 TPE players of the league, but potentially just lacks the experience to know how to keep that pace up indefinitely. He just needs to find this increased pace again for short bursts of 7 (or fewer) games at a time. No need to maintain it for long periods of time, just lock in one series at a time. The biggest key here will be to practice his shooting to get to the next level of goal scoring. Ylib had 11 goals on 115 shots this season which needs to be increased either via more shots or by a higher shooting percentage because a rate of 1 goal every 6 games isn't going to make much of an impact in the playoffs.
Grzegorz has definitely not played his best hockey this season. He's been solid all told - a pretty rough first half and a great second half - but nothing to write home about. This isn't the goalie that backstopped the most dominant playoff run in the league's history. At least, not yet. To take it to the next level, Grzegorz needs to prove that last season wasn't a one time thing, that he really is a goalie built for the playoffs who sacrifices regular season consistency for a potent playoff clutch gene. Last season, he looked like a goalie who has another gear that only comes out for the brightest of lights. Now that it's all on the line and every game is crucial, can Polie the Goalie lock in and play every minute like the cup itself depends on it? Can he help a hot team stay hot? He needs to own the moment, let it fuel his focus, lock him in, and bring the Challenge Cup back to the city of angels.
In his quest to hit 2000 TPE, a thing that all SHL players are definitely aware of as an in-universe thing that operates a bit like midichlorians, Marton scrounged up a handful more right before playoff deadline. After leading Texas in both assists and hits during the regular season, he knows exactly what to do with that last little boost and he's showing them off with some playoff ready temporary tattoos across his knuckles:
AGGRO FIGHT
That's right, he's turned the Aggression all the way up to 11 and pushed Fighting from 6 to 9. (He also boosted Faceoffs to lucky number 13 in case Valentine gets himself thrown out of the circle a bunch.) He heard it takes *grit* to grind your way to the Cup, so Diehm is ready to bring it this time around. May the Force be with him and with all of the Renegades as they look to finally make a Cup final this time out.
Even with a disappointing season, regardless of age, Petr has a reputation of being a playoff performer. 161 playoff games, and having not missed a single post-season in his SHL career, Petr has accumulated 167 points, 73 of which are goals. Especially noteworthy is the 28 game cup, with the S70 New England Wolfpack: in those 28 games, Petr scored 19 goals and assisted on 13 for 32 total, earning a Razov nomination. This is all to say, that despite the regular season performance, there's always a chance Petr shows his true colors in these extra games. The how doesn't change, and neither does the why, as Petr's routines don't focus necessarily on the playoffs, but as all fitness routines do, you aim to peak when needed most. Texas is very strong this year, and the West should be a battle between the Renegades and Petr's first team, the Pride. San Francisco being the favorites, it should be quite the showdown.
MWHazard Wrote:i'll playwith anyone
playing with my teammates is part of the intangibles I bring to the table
i play with them a lot.
they didn't like it at first
but after a while, it just felt normal
Justice,Sep 18 2016, 02:09 PM Wrote:4-0 and 0-4 aren't that different tbh
McJesus - Today at 10:38 PM Wrote:FIRE EGGY
HIRE ARTY
puolivalmiste Player Progression Director
Posting Freak
I think that even though his stats and overall production slowed a bit as the season went on, Marek Carda did slightly improve. Throughout the first half of the season, he was near the front of the pack for all rookies in terms of PDO and this was reflected in his scoring output. Over the latter half of the season, the PDO began to drop as expected, along with shooting percentage, and his offensive output went with it. However, this is still a very young player in his first season in the league. He proved in Detroit that he’s a playoff performer, having been nominated for the Brodie Witzel during their s74 cup run. Additionally, his coaches have been glowing in the way he’s improved his game throughout the season, especially in terms of the strength and skating needed to compete against full on adults in the SHL. It shouldn’t be a surprise to see Carda regain a bit of his mojo in time for the playoffs when the games really matter and step up to help his team – hopefully producing numbers more like what we saw in the first half of his rookie season, rather than the latter. The one thing going against him here is that there are no easy games come playoff time, and he’ll be facing mature and skilled competition on his shifts more regularly, competing against the strongest teams. No matter how it shakes out, it should be a good learning experience for the rookie.
The best hockey is during the playoffs because all the players are giving their 110% if they want to win.
Anthony Dionne is no stranger to this and we all saw it in the S75 playoffs. He was completely dominating all the other goalies before the conference final.
Texas had the best defense in the league and Dionne was a big part of it. Only 12 goals allowed in 9 games during the first two rounds. Texas was the favorite and Dionne was not allowed to loose and he really stepped up in those games.
In that time of the year, your goalie need to be one of your best player if you want to have a chance at the Cup. They play all the games of their teams so they have to be mentally and also physically strong for the long run.
Dionne played 54 games this season and he's still clearly the number one goalie for Texas and don't expect him to miss a game.