11-26-2024, 01:33 PM(This post was last modified: 11-26-2024, 02:55 PM by Bfine. Edited 2 times in total.)
1. Sota +3 TPE
6. I think the best team to miss out on the Challenge Cup finals was Calgary. Yes there is obvious bias in this answer but when you look at it statistically Calgary has a case. We finished 5th in the SHL, as a team with less TPE than the top 4, showing how good of a coach Naomi is. When it comes to the playoffs, Calgary beat Los Angeles, a team that finished higher and has higher TPE. They then took San Francisco to 7 games, a feat none of San Francisco’s 3 opponents accomplished. Finally, Calgary is a solid young team from top to bottom, with very few players in regression at this point, meaning we will be even better in the future. Calgary was not built specifically to counter San Francisco, but we did the best at playing them, and considering they won the cup, I would make the argument that makes Calgary the best team to not play in the Finals. (163 words, +3 TPE)
12. I expect the usual suspects to do well again. I predict a Canada gold, Finland silver, and Sweden gold. But there are a couple teams I think could make a big run. Latvia is loaded up and has the potential to get a medal this season. Switzerland can never be counted out. But I think Czechia could make some noise this season. My player in particular should be a 2nd or 3rd liner and hopefully will do well in the tournament this season. In terms of what team I think finishes in last, I would guess Great Britain, as they have a very thin roster this season. (107 words, +2 TPE)
hievements 5: Named Assistant Captain of Kelowna : Drafted 6 OA by Calgary : Named Captain of Kelowna
When it comes to the playoffs and the ability to score goals is harder, having the top 2 guys on your team is definitely an advantage. Obviously you need to score goals to win, and these guys seem to be having no issues doing that. Now the important thing here is that most of the offense seems to be coming from these two players, which can become problematic. When you have opponents watching tape and you play them over and over again, you can get shut down. I think San Francisco does a great job in having a lot of depth, which allows them to overwhelm opponents and really put a strain on all lines. They continually pressure and make it difficult to defend against. I think the high end goal scoring may be good for Philadelphia, but that depth from San Francisco is not something that is easy to deal with.
Task 4 - 2 TPE
This is where things really get interesting. Everybody knows that when the playoffs come around you need good goaltending to even have an opportunity to win and go deep. Both of these guys are exceptional talents and really good at what they do, so it's a very tough matchup on either side. That being said, when you see all the stats favored in one direction, that is somewhat cause for concern (if you're Philadelphia at least). I am not taking anything away from BASE PACK, but if I had to back one of the two goalie right now, I would have to go with Justin Time. I do believe he is playing better and will ultimately be the factor that puts them over the top to lift the trophy.
I think it's great that there was a decent amount of parity in S79. It really doesn't look good on the league when some teams can't even manage to win 5 or 6 games in a season. I suspect poorly-performing SHL teams are never really tanking (in the sense that they're trying to get high draft picks), but more that they prioritize a plan where their draft picks all age together in the same "golden generation". (Though I do think that EDM was very lucky to reach 17 wins.)
(89 words, 1 TPE)
13. Five Nation Tournament
I don't think we need yet another international tournament; the SHL sometimes tries to do too many different things instead of focusing on some core strengths. The IIHF tournament is good, but I would change a few things if I could.
There seems to be too much focus on including as many players as possible in the IIHF tourney, but I think this is a mistake. The IIHF tourney should be exclusive, in the same way that the best international hockey tournaments in real life (WC and Olympics) are exclusive.
So my first step as King of IIHF would be to reduce the number of skaters on each roster back to 15 (i.e., nine forwards), matching the SHL. It's very strange that forwards have a better chance of being on an IIHF roster than defenders or goalies.
My second step would be to reduce the number of nations in the IIHF tournament from fourteen to twelve. (As part of this I would reverse the ridiculous decision to split Canada into two separate countries.) If feasible, I would institute a relegation system whereby the last-place team in each tournament would be dropped from the next tournament, with that team's place being taken by the largest country not currently participating in the tournament. This would ensure some variety in participating nations, but also increase the overall quality of the tournament.
2. I think that while it has been horribly impressive for Philadelphia to get mass scoring from Gnabe Dabson and Tony Soprano in these playoffs, San Francisco still has the advantage with the depth and the fact that the next two scorers on the top scoring list are Logan Webb and Dominik Winters. Those two have been on fire for San Francisco this season, scoring over 100 points each in the regular season, and leading San Francisco in scoring during the playoffs. This isn't even to mention folks like Mercedes Bayle, Oskar Scholz and former MVP Viktor Hargreeves that are absolute stars in San Francisco as well. The one place that I think Philadelphia has the advantage in terms of scoring is with Cale Salad. Elite defenseman that is scoring better than most of the Forge and 7 points higher than the highest scoring defenseman on the Pride. The problem with that is that he would be sixth in scoring on the Pride behind Winters, Webb, Bayle, Scholz, and Hargreeves. Toasty is the highest scoring defenseman on the Pride with 17 points, but that kind of difference is pretty easily made up by the depth of offensive scoring on the Pride. It's a tough balance, but I think the Pride are in a better spot scoring wise.
+4
4. It's hard to overstate the importance of Justin Time for the San Francisco Pride. He's absolutely elite and been a gamechanger for the Pride since he was brought into the team. He's a star and I think he's going to be an advantage for the Pride each and everytime he steps into the net.
+1
Total TPE: 8
Alex Winters (retired)
Matej Winters (retired)
Dominik Winters S45 Jesster Trophy Winner Challenge Cup Winning Goal Club: S52
6. I think the best team to not make the finals was LAP. The panthers were only 3 points behind SFP in the standings, and 8 points above the 3rd place team. They were even tied with SFP for regulation and overtime wins. They had the 3rd most goals scored and the 3rd least goals against, and the 2nd best goal differential, once again only trailing SFP.
(66 words, +1 TPE)
14. Having not followed along with the finals as they were happening, I'm only catching up on the series now, and it looked to be a high scoring 5 games. The first thing that stands out to me, is despite the finals being between both 1 seeds in each conference, none of the games were particularly close. The smallest margin of victory was a 3 goal win for SFP in both games 4 and 5, but also includes a 6 goal win by PHI, and an insane 14 goal win for SFP. SFP definitely had the more potent offense, which is a continuation of their #1 most goals scored in the regular season as well, scoring 6.2 goals per game in the finals compared to PHI's 2.4. Despite the large scoring differential, the shots were much closer, where SFP only outshot PHI by around 5 per game, 34.8 to 29.6. Which brings up one potential MVP candidate, SFP goalie Justin Time. After shaking off the rough game 1, Time would only go on to let up 4 more goals in as many games, posting a .966 in the 4 SFP wins, and .919 for the series. Some other standouts were Dominik Winters and Mercedes Bayle with 10 points each, including Winters with a crazy 8 goals. Victor Hargreeves was just behind with 9 points and the second most hits in the series. And Rowan O'Beirne with 6 points in 5 games, but also racking up 17 blocks.
11-27-2024, 03:17 PM(This post was last modified: 11-27-2024, 04:27 PM by karlssens. Edited 1 time in total.)
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1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer
verification code = karl
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8. Written, 50 to 200+ words.
Both teams had to only face elimination in game during their journey to finals as San Francisco was taken to game seven by Calgary on second round, while Manhattan took Philadelphia to game 7 during their first round matchup. While both conference finals had multiple close matchups both teams should be coming to the finals being pretty confident to themselves. Both have also lost only one game at home so far, which would give advantage to Presidents’ Trophy winning San Francisco. But who do you think will end up lifting the Challenge Cup? Which team has the edge and why?
Perhaps a wee bit bias here as a member of the San Francisco Pride, but I believe the Pride have the edge in this one and will ultimately lift the Challenge Cup. En route to the finals the Pride had a much tougher road having to go up against Texas and Calgary. Calgary finished 5th in league standings and had just eliminated the Los Angeles Panthers in round 1, the owners of the second best regular season record. It look a full 7 games, but San Francisco emerged victorious. There was no relief as they'd go on to face the Texas Renegades who finished 3rd in league wide regular season standings. While Philadelphia is a strong team in their own right with the 4th best regular season record, their matchups on route to the final were arguably easier. The San Francisco Pride are battled tested and ready to take on their final opponent! [154 words - 3 TPE]
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9. Written, 50 to 200+ words.
During their 20 seasons in league Philadelphia has never missed the playoffs. Which is impressive but still there are other teams with longer playoffs streaks, while other teams clean the house others try to stay afloat and do a retool while still staying in playoffs, both with varying successes. Out of last 5 Challenge Cup winners both Los Angeles and San Francisco missed playoffs about 6 seasons before they won their cup while New England has been in playoffs since S67. What in your opinion is best way to achieve success in SHL? Is it better to have high but shorter peak or should teams try to aim staying close to top but likely never reaching it for longer, potentially almost indefinitely? Can they somehow do both?
I think the latter option is definitely the way to go if it can be done successfully, however when it doesn't work out you end up treading water and sitting in the mushy middle for many seasons. If I were a GM I would lean towards blowing it up and acquiring as much young talent as possible. As the core grows you can add a few pieces to accelerate the growth and then enjoy a nice window of success before the core starts to regress. You get fewer kicks at the can, but I'd take 5 seasons as a playoff contender as opposed to 10 seasons of varied playoff success. Furthermore I feel it gets everyone on the same page and encourages the team to buy in to the plan instead of hoping for the best. [136 words - 2 TPE]
9. This question is tremendously interesting because it really digs down to the root of what keeps people coming back to the SHL. A franchise can decide to be competitive and making the playoffs every season like the Philadelphia Forge have and maintaining interest, and therefore, player development with the potential that every season can be their season. On the other side of things, a franchise can decide to tear down and build its own "golden generation" that will be jam packed with loyal, home grown players that come together over a long period of time to attain success. Both strategies can be viable in generating and maintaining user interest. However, I feel that the middle road is the least tenable where a team can end up in the mushy middle and interest slowly wanes as the thousand cuts of mediocrity slowly creep in. In my own experience with the Seattle Argonauts, we have completely torn down and rebuilt a brand new core of dedicated users that is poised to become a powerhouse for the majority of the S80's. This strategy has done exactly what it is designed to do by producing a dedicated core of users that look to produce a dominant team for many seasons to come.
213 words
+4 TPE
10. I think this interesting factoid is an anomaly more than a trend as there are clearly still at least a couple tanking teams that have ridden FHM randomness to respectable point total while still putting forth a roster of rookie call ups and inactive or severely regressing players. The tank will still be a viable strategy for rebuilding teams despite the draft lottery changes.
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+1TPE
2. Gnabe Dabson leads the way in goals and points, with Tony Soprano close behind, giving Philadelphia a strong advantage. However, it's not just about the top scorers. The depth of offensive involvement will be important. San Francisco's depth scoring is terrible. So while Dabson and Soprano gave Philadelphia the punch, But their second line needs to help counter San Francisco's balance. 4/8
3. Kale Salad has a 6 point lead over the other defenders. It is worth noting. If they maintain or widen this gap And especially if they influence the outcome of the series through clutch performances, Salad has a legitimate chance to beat Anton Razov. It is difficult for a defender to win a trophy. But if they dominate both sides of the ice, voters may lean their way. 5/8
4. Justin Time is a game changer for San Francisco. leading save percentage goals per average and the goals saved were above average. Show how they overcome. Philadelphia will need to create quality opportunities through traffic and capitalize on rebounds to consistently beat the clock. If time remains at the current level San Francisco's chances of winning the Challenge Cup will quickly increase. 6/8
6. The best team to miss the finals might be the Texas Renegades. They combine a strong offensive line with a good defensive structure. This makes them a formidable playoff opponent. Their balance on every route and their ability to control their possessions set them apart. Might be bit biased too since I predicted them to win the cup. 7/8
7. This is a razor-sharp series. But I'm leaning towards San Francisco. Justin Time's goaltending combined with his deep scoring gave them a slight advantage. Philadelphia can retain this title with top-end talent in Dabson Soprano. But if San Francisco can maintain consistency as a whole team. They would probably get another cup. Expect this to go a long way to, perhaps a Game 7 clash. 8/8
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.
Word: toasty
+3
Code:
9. Written, 50 to 200+ words.
During their 20 seasons in league Philadelphia has never missed the playoffs. Which is impressive but still there are other teams with longer playoffs streaks, while other teams clean the house others try to stay afloat and do a retool while still staying in playoffs, both with varying successes. Out of last 5 Challenge Cup winners both Los Angeles and San Francisco missed playoffs about 6 seasons before they won their cup while New England has been in playoffs since S67. What in your opinion is best way to achieve success in SHL? Is it better to have high but shorter peak or should teams try to aim staying close to top but likely never reaching it for longer, potentially almost indefinitely? Can they somehow do both?
It is very impressive that Philadephia has never missed the playoffs in their entire franchise history, and as someone who has missed his fair share of playoffs and been apart of some bad teams in the SHL, I am jealous. I don't think there is any one good way to build a team and achieve success, but it always comes back to drafting. If you can keep your draft picks and end up grabbing high earners towards the end of the round, you can continue to rebuild your team while still being a good team. There are a few teams who still haven't quite figured it out and they stay around the bottom or can never get out of the first round. Another interesting tactic is to trade your draft picks away for sure things and rebuild that way, taking out the risk of drafting human beings. Many GM's have their own philosophies which makes this league exciting.
(161 words) +3
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13. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Five Nation Tournament
The only international tournaments in SHL are WJC and IIHF but in real life we have had Olympics, World Cups and now the 4 Nation tournament. What kind of tournaments besides of IIHF and WJC you’d like to see in SHL? How they would be different from the current tournaments? How often they would be played and would they be played instead of current tournaments or would both be held at the same time? Or would you think it would be instead better to restructure current tournaments?
We love a good best on best tournament, but there is only so much you can do in a league like this. An interesting idea could be to do a 7 game series between an All-Star team of World vs. North America and see who reigns supreme. Canada and the US seem to dominate with the highest amount of players, but it would be fun to see if the skill from the rest of the world could overcome. Another fun idea would be to throw every player in a draft and have 8 super teams of the best SHL players competing against each other. Perhaps the teams are based in Europe or something. It could be cool to have a 3 on 3 tournament as well.
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