Shiny Rainbow called this after the first week of the regular season and obviously Quebec City finished the regular season at the top of the league. After such a dominating season it looks like the owls are seen as the heavy favourite to win the cup through playoff predictions. But still everyone else in the locker room other then Shiny Rainbow is talking about this being unexpected and Quebec City being the underdogs for the Season 79 Playoffs. This also translated into practicing and preparing for the first round matchup with Vancouver. Everyone including the coaches acted like beating Vancouver would become an almost impossible task to accomplish. But to prove a point, Shiny Rainbow took skating drills in bowling shoes and shooting drills with a blindfold on, claming that this serious would end up in a sweep if Quebec is able to deliver 4 mediocore performances in a row on the ice. Of course she was right and the sweep is now completed. So it's time to actually prepare for 3 more challenging series of playoff hockey. For round two, Shiny Rainbow is already playing lots of battleships to prepare instead of taking a cooldown on the bike. Time to sink some Ships! Go Owlets

The Scarecrows are gearing up for playoffs and are confident that they can make a deep run.  Although they are not at the top of the standings heading into the postseason they have shown throughout the year that they are a dangerous team who are capable of taking some of the better teams around the league on.

To prepare for the playoffs the Scarecrows have been taking extra attention to detail.  The coaching staff have been pouring over film of the Ottawa Highlanders and have been formulating a plan to get past them in the first round.  Taking the playoffs one game at a time is the focus in the Scarecrows locker room.  Extended film sessions after morning skates are scheduled throughout the series.

Practices are intense but also not as physically grueling as is typical.  The coaching staff wants practices to be focused on strategy and execution, and wants the players to be rested for the task ahead.  The players are doing their best to stay mentally and physically prepared, loose, and confident for the battle ahead.

Leading up to the playoffs, the Mutes knew they weren’t the favourite. We talked about it quite a bit heading into, were the under dog, which sometimes is a good thing. We knew we had to work our hardest to stand a chance, so we prepared the best way we knew. We all accepted we weren’t necessarily going to out skill other teams, but we thought we could out strategy, or out think them. 

So that’s what we tried to do. The coaching staff worked their hardest gathering video, spending hours going through play styles and tendencies. We knew we had to be the best prepared team in the playoffs if we stood a chance. We know what to expect. 

Beyond that, we got on the ice and practiced it, we know the offence, the defence and how to counter everything the other team will throw at us. We need to stay patient and our chances will come! Let’s see what kind of damage to mutes can accomplish this year!

The Whalers prepared for the playoffs in a couple of ways. Everyone went for a group workout set to the sounds of (way too many) kpop songs. Then we got a rousing speech from our faithful captain, to get everyone hyped up for what certainly appeared to be our immediate demise. We all huddled up and said positive things about each other, trying in a desperate attempt to build confidence in everyone. We all know that the situation here in Vancouver is rough, so our actual expectations in the playoffs were certainly minimal. We did give it a good hard college try, with each game that we played against the clearly superior Citadelles being held to only about 5 goals. We actually had somewhat of a semblance of defense as well, which given how our games went during the regular season, was very surprising. I think that the LR during the playoffs was some of the most hype i've seen the team all season, and I can't wait to see more of it in the coming seasons.

sigs by suloleven and enigmatic

Trent Mackenzie | Vancouver Whalers | Player Page

The Colorado Raptors have been counting down the days until the playoffs. With every win, we get closer to the glorious 4 star cup. To start the season, the Raptors got some upgrades in the weight room so that they could train harder than ever. They had to get more weights as Tiny Princess was getting bored of a light workout. We have been laser focused on training and studying film to get a step ahead of the other teams. The Colorado Raptors have also been building chemistry, commonly all eating together, and even going to Raptorworld (A theme park I made up) to build chemistry. Tiny Princess has been training, and teaching others how to eat opposing players. Also to prepare, GMs Takk and Fishy bought new sets of gear for the team including brand new sticks for everyone. And this is the training regiment and path to the Raptors winning the Four Star Cup.

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Tiny Princess

Tiny Princess | Colorado Raptors | Defenseman | S80 Prospect | #42

Drafted 8th Overall by The Colorado Raptors

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SMJHL Regular Season Stats: 

| S79 COL | 66 GP | 5 G | 35 A | 40 P | + 28 | 162 BLK | 61 HIT |

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Awards: 

            

Team Awards: 

| S79 Colorado Raptors | Linna-Landvik |

Tiny Princess | Hamilton Steelhawks | Defenseman | Send-Down| #42

Drafted 8th Overall by The Colorado Raptors

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the colorado raptors of the simulation major junior hockey league prepared by doing all forms of excercise and warm up in order ot prepare for the long grind of the playoffs. granted, we swept detroit, leading to less work for us, we still need to be prepared to be able to go the distance. in order to prepare ourselves to keep our fitness levels in peak condition for the longest possible duration, we may do some different kinds of cardio and stretches. this would be stretching our various muscles on our bodies like our leg muscles and arm muscles. this also includes the brain muscles obviously. for you must be able to out think the opponent to outplay the opponent. we stretch our brain muscles by playing phonk music. this stretches our muscles because our brain must work extra hard to drown out that music since it sounds really bad. thank you.

Aleksandr Iskandrov || C || Hamilton Steelhawks || Vancouver Whalers || 806 TPE
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SMJHL Career Stats
S64: GP: 66 G: 6 A: 17 P: 23
S65: GP: 66 G: 11 A: 35 P: 46
S66: GP: 66 G: 37 A: 51 P: 88
S67: GP: 66 G: 35 A: 52 P: 87
TOTAL: GP: 264 G: 89 A: 155 P: 244
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SMJHL Playoff Stats
S64: GP: 12 G: 2 A: 4 P: 6
S65: GP: 4 G: 0 A: 2 P: 2
S66: GP: 11 G: 3 A: 8 P: 11
S67: GP: 5 G: 3 A: 2 P: 5
TOTAL: GP: 32 G: 8 A: 16 P: 24
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SMJHL Achievements
S67 Wollker Division Champion
S66 Jared Hanson Trophy (Regular Season Points Leader)
S66 Raymond Lindsay Trophy - Award Given to the Most Outstanding Player as Voted by the Players
S66 Ideen Fallah Trophy - Award Given to the Most Outstanding Player as Voted by the Awards Committee
S66 All Star Team
S67 All Star Team
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WJC stats
S64 ICE: GP: 12 G: 3 A: 4 P: 7
S65 RCL: GP: 12 G: 1 A: 3 P: 4
S66 RCL: GP: 12 G: 6 A: 3 P: 9
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IIHF stats
S67 RUS: GP: 12 G: 1 A: 0 P: 1
S68 JPN: GP: 12 G: 2 A: 1 P: 3
S69 JPN: GP: 12 G: 2 A: 3 P: 5
S70 JPN: GP: 12 G: 4 A: 1 P: 5
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IIHF Playoff stats
S67 RUS: GP: 3 G: 0 A: 0 P: 0
S69 JPN: GP: 1 G: 0 A: 1 P: 5
S70 JPN: GP: 3 G: 4 A: 1 P: 5
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IIHF Achievements
S70 JPN: Bronze Medal (General Manager and Player)
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SHL Statistics
S68 HAM: GP: 66 G: 23 A: 30 P: 53
S69 HAM: GP: 66 G: 20 A: 30 P: 50
S70 HAM: GP: 66 G: 35 A: 46 P: 81
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SHL Achievements


Enlightened Centrist || C || Colorado Raptors
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SMJHL Career Stats
S79: GP: 0 G: 0 A: 0 P: 0

The Malamutes have had quite a bit of heartbreaking defeats in the playoffs in the past. The malamutes started their preparation by conditioning we know that if we want to win we have to work harder than ever before. We’ve been through it all this season and the team has developed to a stage of playoff readiness. The team focused on building moral to engage more morality on and off the ice. There was many times that the team went on cute team dates. The Malamutes had a night of ice cream and scary movies. The teams increased moral will lead to success in the playoffs. They finished off their prep by adding in more conditioning by non stop skating. There was no complaints as the team knows what they want. The team ended their preparation by mellowing out by listening to some motivating music including the song Zombie by the cranberries

The Highlanders finished out their season and we went right to practice to prepare for playoffs. Coach ensured to keep us focused and pumped for the upcoming games. Made sure you were on your toes and not slacking off at all. The captains ensured they have our backs as this series was gonna get interesting. We were told to fight back for each other, if one went down, we all help. This team is one unit working together, every cog in the machine does the same work. Every practice showed how close knit this team was, win or lose they fought with their heart. Mintyukov started the season getting lots of penalties and he did not want to hurt the team by making those mistakes, he strengthened his positioning to stop from lazy penalties. He talked with his Captain, Spaceman Spiff to see how he could best help his team. He trained all practice long, he even tried putting on a few pounds, Mintyukov and team were finally ready after rigorous practice, The Highlanders were ready to fight.

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Pavel Mintyukov | D | Ottawa Highlanders
Name: Pavel Mintyukov
Age: 20
Height: 6'1
Weight: 200 lbs
Number: 34
Career Statistics:

SMJHL Regular Season:
S79 | 63 GP | 3 G | 20 A | 23 P | +4 |
S80 | 16 GP | 4 G | 8 A | 12 P | -3 |
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Simply put, my team knew there wasn't much to prepare for this season. We were bottom of the league, just barely getting to 10 wins. We knew we had no chance but we still planned to fight tooth and nail. The players spent the week leading up to the game reviewing tapes, practicing plays, hitting the gym, and recovering. Vancouver changed over the season we were here. We kept picking up players from the waiver list, we kept developing our rookies, and towards the end of the season we looked like an actual team. We had hoped to keep that momentum up and pick up a game in the playoffs.

Deep down, we knew there was no amount of tactics that could overcome an opponent like Quebec that just dwarfs us in TPE. That said we still tried. Our playoff berth was short and sweet, but it was enjoyable and our rookies learned a lot. The sad thing is that we will see a lot of key players leave this season so we are still in a rebuild.

ISFL Afficialte

Ethan Cross || 'Two-Way' Center || San Diego Tidal
Name: Ethan Cross
Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
Height: 5'11''
Weight: 200 lbs
Number: 87
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Career Statistics:
SMJHL Regular Season:

S80 | 66 GP | 24 G | 25 A | 49 P | -8 | 27 PIM | 172 S | 43 BLK | 101 H | 67 GR | 69 OGR | 61 DGR
S79 | 66 GP | 4 G | 22 A | 26 P | -40 | 45 PIM | 77 S | 23 BLK | 83 H | 63 GR | 58 OGR | 66 DGR
SMJHL Playoffs:
S79 | 7 GP |  5 G | 4 A | 9 P | +4 | 11 PIM | 7 S | 0 BLK | 15 H | 64 GR | 62 OGR | 64 DGR

WJC Regular Season:

S79 | 12 G | 2 G | 4 A | 6 P | +5 | 4 PIM | 10 S | 3 BLK | 7 H | 59 GR | 51 OGR | 67 DGR

Our team takes these playoffs seriously, but we know we won't be favorites in any of the series. We had a dinner together a couple of days before the games to unite the team even more. Also in training we have different exercises to be able to loosen up even more and show the best game. We're just trying to enjoy this game and not think about what's next because we have to play every game like it's our last. Before the start of the series itself, we once again properly analyzed the opponent's game and try to carefully consider all our trump cards with which we could defeat them. I think we have a chance to win this fight, but it will take a lot of fighting spirit. You have to play every episode to the best of your heart and fight to the end in every episode and help your defenders and goalkeeper in any situation on the pitch.

Visualization was a big part of  the Thunder Bay Walleyes preparations for the playoffs. You have to see yourself as a champion and walk as a champion before you can be a champion. Championships are what separates good players from great players and there's a certain aura that a player needs to posses to one of the greatest hockey players of all time even in a junior league the SMJHL. The playoffs remind me a lot of international play where the goal is to come together as a rag tag group of hockey players to defeat  and slay your enemies before you. I think  you can learn a lot about how to play your position in  international competition that can translate well to the SMJHL and SHL playoffs respectively. I think someone we underestimate the pressure on someone at the international level where they're representing their country, hometown, heritage, and family.

So those are some of the thoughts we had as a team heading into the playoffs.

167 Words

we prepared with a team players-only meeting, we talked about how this is a new season, a new season where our poor record doesn't matter in the playoffs, it's new hockey and we can wipe the slate clean and focus on the playoffs and try to win one game at a time. We know we need to have good special teams, play at a fast pace, and not take bad penalties. Then we went into our team meetings and prepared for our opponent in the first round, where we needed to play good checking hockey and play within our system and to make sure we didn't play into their system and play smart good hockey. We are YUM, and we are going to play the best playoff hockey the league has ever seen, there isn't a more prepared team than us, and we gotta thank our GMs and coaches.

Every Saint-Louis players know they can make a deep Playoffs run. They just need to practice a tiny bit more. Our GM, @cake307, has made a few changes to our lineup just before the start of the playoffs. We know that we are facing the Ottawa Highlanders first, a team that generates a lot of offense. That's why we played our shutdown / defensive d-man most of the time. And thankfully, it worked out pretty well ! We had a 3-0 lead thanks to our coaching staff, the strategy worked out pretty great ! Unfortunately, we dropped game 4 but managed to eliminate them in 5 games ! A great work by our coaching staff. The players understood what they had to do, and that's how we managed to beat the Highlanders. When you listen to your coach, and understands what you need to do on the ice, you become almost undefeatable. 
Just like someone wise once said, Teamwork makes the dreamwork