“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. ... There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.”
So how did we get ourselves into this situation? We lead the game 6-3 with 10 minutes left and one by one our players have left into the locker room to puke their guts out leaving the rookie Ville Sato-Maki alone out there on the bench. An emergency timeout is called on the bench of the WInnipeg Aurora and the coach tasked Ville Sato-Maki to help collect people far and wide to play. The first thing that happens is of course the emergency backup goalie is put in which happens to be some accountant from Winnipeg that played ECHL back in the day... he'll have to do. As for forwards and defensemen, the equipment managers and coaches laced up the skates for the first time in a while to help. They were once players themselves you know! That formed about a line and a half for both offense and defense which leaves just a few lucky fans to be called into action to give the players a break. As for Ville Sato-Maki, a 10 minute shift it is. Best of luck sir.
01-15-2025, 02:33 AM(This post was last modified: 01-15-2025, 04:14 AM by Bamford13. Edited 2 times in total.)
Written Option 1:
With only 10 minutes left in the game it's just a matter of time wasting being up 3. Bamford calls on his fighting buddies but only 2 of them are in the area, they still need 2 more. Thankfully we're in Chicago, so there's big dudes who can fight everywhere. Bamford finds 5 of them who can skate and gets them on the ice; 2 to play and 3 to be on the bench if necessary. The plan is simple, hit the hell out of them. The opposing team tries to pass it around to find a clean shot, BOOOMMM, Bamford arrives with a big hit and one of the randoms recovers the puck. This improv Chicago team can't really do anything with the puck but it's fine, just hold it for long enough and repeat. The opposing team keeps getting laid out until one of the crowd members who was playing for Chicago grabs the opposing defenseman by his neck and pulls him down. Long penalty for him and a fight ensues, obviously Bamford and his crew win the fight but it's now a 4v5. They quickly capitalize on the power play making it 4-6 then get another quick goal making it 5-6. With 2 minutes left Bamford knows he needs a generation gooning performance to win this game. After the face off Bamford destroys the opposing center then (legally) takes out the winger as well. He then hits it out of the rink into the crowd starting another fight. Post fight he delivers another big hit then his fighting buddy delivers another hit to get Chicago the puck. Bamford gets the puck and evades the defenders for a minute. 20 seconds left for the opposition, they do a nice passing sequence and the center is wide open in front of the net, only the makeshift goalie to beat. BOOOMMMM, Bamford delivers a massive hit from the side sending the center flying into the wall. Bamford flicks the puck away and the game ends; another fight starts from the hit which Bamford calls an iso on then takes them 1v5.
Today I will be writing about a team that I feel has improved enormously over their last years production. They have a whole new swagger to them and have went from a basement team to just barely coming up short of a playoff spot. That team is the Hamilton Steelhawks and their new management along with a small influx of rookies and FA players coupled with the continued support of some of their long time veterans and leadership group. Although the Steelhawks came up short for a playoff spot this season their second half of the year had them looking like an entirely different squad. The team was finding chemistry and just clicking on all aspects of the game. They may not have had the most stellar plus minus but there was some real flash being shown from top to bottom of their lineup and even the staff had a new swagger in their step towards the end.
A young Marek has always had a similar dream, especially when he was a teenager, where he would need to step in and play at the highest level with very little notice. The fact that its a home matchup plays nicely into the dream, as with a plethora of home fans in attendance there would surely be plenty of people of all ages ready to step in like a young Marek would have. As the last man standing, Marek gathers with team officials to put feelers out throughout the arena to find fans and employees in attendance with hockeying experience. The 19 with the best resumes are ushered quickly to the locker room and provided team gear and jerseys and make their way to the bench as soon as they're available. Because Philadelphia has such an ardent fan base and capable backroom staff, the replacements, led by an Adult Marek, do manage a 7-6 win, with Marek hitting a long range empty net goal prior to giving up a 6th against in the waning seconds. Victorious, Marek sleeps incredibly well that night after all he had to go to, and a handful of lucky others go to sleep having just lived out a childhood dream with heroic results.
It's my first season in Texas so I don't know many people in the area who could jump in and replace my teammates who are sick.
At first, I would look into the staff outside of the coaches because they need to be behind the bench. So those who as a fans we never see, but they are hockey fans too and maybe some of them played high level of hockey at some point and can play with us.
After that I would use the fans! Play a message for everyone that played big level of hockey can have the chance to play for the team. Surely with 20K+ people in the building plus the staff, we can surely get a team that will be able to keep the score to our advantage.
Will be hard to play since nobody had a pratice and didn't know the system, but keeping the game simple and play a defensive style can keep us ahead.
I missed the team lunch but with my luck, however, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Midway through the third period, my teammates, having indulged in a questionable batch of chicken wings, succumbed to a wave of nausea.
Panic set in. The coach was livid, the opposing team gleeful. The referees, faced with a potential forfeit, offered a lifeline: one hour to find replacements. I, thinking quickly, dismissed the beer league and the fans. My eyes fell upon the rink staff. The Zamboni driver, Tony, proved surprisingly agile in net. Marty, the equipment manager, surprisingly physical on defense. Brenda, the ticket booth lady, surprisingly swift on her skates. And Sal, the concession stand worker, surprisingly accurate with his slap shot. The makeshift team, a motley crew of rink regulars, took the ice. Gus made some spectacular saves, Marty laid out bone-crushing hits, Brenda weaved through the opposition, and Sal scored a miraculous goal.
The final ten minutes were a nail-biter, but the Battle Born held on, securing a miraculous victory.
10 mins left in the game and only Marsh remains with the entirety of the NewFoundland team succumbing to food poisoning. He'd always warned them the gas station sushi appetizer would one day come back to bite them, but of course it had to be game 1 of the playoffs.
Marsh was given an hour to piece together a team. The first thing Marsh does is delegate, yes delegate part of the assignment. He recruits the GM who luckily missed the team pregame to head to the local rink to fill out half the roster with 10 players from whatever the best team still at the rink is.
Marsh then heads to the crowd to find the priority...Goalie. he has 4 candidates who could fit in pads already at the rink and combines them with 8 potential skaters to augment the GMs portion.
Out if those 4 goalies he was left with a single serviceable Goalie and 3 ok skaters while the GM brought back a AAA Bantam team. The pieced together squad allowed 3 goals in 10 mins but didn't affect result much as Newfoundland won 8-3 on route to a 1st round sweep.
With every teammate crowded in the bathroom and showers to deal with their deal Abbe picks up his phone and start to check for substitutes.
He finds about 7 people that are decent and live close. 4 of them answer their phone and one more of those 7 are in the crowd with 3 of his beer leauge teammates. Two of those beer leauge teammates have their hockey playing 12 year old daughters with them, bringing the backup numbers to a total of ten people, including Abbe.
After a quick announcement by the speaker another 4 people show up and luckely have their gear close enugh to join.
However, the biggest problem is still there. The goalkeeper.
After a quick look in the lockerroom Abbe decides that it must be a person that has its own gear. Because the nearest gear is not in shape of being used by even the real owners.
With 30 minutes left on the searchclock Abbe runs outside the rink, fully dressed minus the skates and helmet and stick. He locks at all directions but there is not a single person in sight. He runs around the arena and on the backside he comes across two couple of kids practising shots on a fully dressed goalkeeper. After som fast questions Abbe walks back to the rinkside and enters the new lockeroom with the 5 twelve year olds girls behind him.
He introduces him self, the plan for the rest of the game and then takes a seat and take a heavy breath.
1 young girl goalie, 12 grown ups with massive beer bellies playing in beer leauge and Six 12 year old girls.
Abbe does the math. 4 lines and a goaltender.
This will have to do, he thinks for him self as he starts to put on the skates
Allegiant Historian
S3, S28, S36, S38, S41, S43, S47 Challenge Cup Champion
In the unlikely scenario that an entire team opts to skip the game for food poisoning after a couple of periods, Weston Windsor would probably just concede the game. Finding that many players who are both capable of keeping up with SMJHL competition while also keeping themselves safe is eminently unlikely. However, if he were to attempt to turn the unlikely situation into a victory of some sort, he would probably lean on trying to figure out a way to get temporary transfers from the local college team. This would not likely go through, but the college would likely have a roster of players who had to be cut before the season: solid high school players who narrowly missed making it onto a university team might still be able to play serviceable hockey, while being roughly the right age to play in the SMJHL at the same time.
The emphasis would be on making sure the goaltender, defense, and centers were as solid as possible: namely, as solid as possible defensively. The one advantage in this scenario is that an extant lead means that a team full of fringe-roster players might be able to win provided you picked enough grinders and shutdown defenders, as oft-overlooked as they can be in junior leagues.
I am going to pick the team I am most familiar with and say New Orleans over performed this season. While seven more wins than last season is a decent boost, the biggest thing I noticed was more players getting in on the action. Last season saw two players hit point per game, while this season saw four with a couple more really close. Lodge become a beast in net with St Ark providing that support he is known for on those off days. Before the season started, New Orleans appeared to be headed downwards with a lot of top TPE players regressing and the young ones not quite ready to take over the top spots. Even the casino had us regressing in wins this season. What happened? Did the chemistry built from seasons prior finally help the team click? Was it an assistant coach coming up with a game plan that just works? Or was it something more chilling coming from the streets of New Orleans? With a little hard work, and some minor voodoo, New Orleans found a working formula which made all their players play at their bests.
One of the most impressive glow up this last season was Seattle. The argonauts had been around the bottom of the league for a few seasons, but had fully committed to the rebuild with a lot of draft picks and patience. Their buy in started with several key draft picks like Prince Marius, Rence Skyut before really buying into the Lobster Class, aka Draft Class Season 74 with top talent like Will Tomlander, Shadow Fenix, Squidwardo Tentacles, and Simo Jaaskelainen, rounding that out with further top talent thanks to their willingness to trade and commit to having some very rough seasons. What has resulted is a very natural and youth led movement in Seattle with Damien Hirano being the only member of the team to have been drafted before S73. So really it’s no shock that Seattle has changed their fortunes around, but it seems that they have all started clicking together, getting top line minutes, building chemistry and refining their tactics and doing it in a very tough division.
Shoutout TheOPSquid for the Sig
]
Struck Gold Award
karlssens Registered
S28, S45, S49 Challenge Cup Champion
Posts:4,065 Threads: 182 Joined: May 2015 Reputation:73
Discord: karl#3942
Pronouns: He/Him
Player: Oskar Scholz
Written Option 2: Write an analysis about a team that has seen significant change to their performance from last season to this (for example Manhattan, Atlanta, Toronto or Los Angeles). What changed? Was it expected? How do these seasons compare to their performance even earlier? What do you expect from the next season for the team?
The first prompt was awesome, but I love doing team analysis' so here we are. While Los Angeles' drop in the Pacific is certainly closer to home I think the meteoric rise of Manhattan and Atlanta is more enjoyable to look at. Atlanta saw their point total improve from 74 to 110. A 36 point jump that included 54 wins, 20 more than last season. Their goal differential also improved dramatically finishing the regular season with a +155 differential as opposed to last season where they finished with an acceptable +39. Their top 3 scorers are the same as last season, Jiggle E. Puff, Billy Herrington and Jae-ik Barron and their starting goalie is the same as well, Stun Gun. A significant addition was the arrival of veteran defenseman Georg N'Zola who led all Inferno defenders with 62 points and should receive some Stevens consideration this year. So what changed this year? I think the pieces and the experience just finally came together and created an absolute wagon of a season for Atlanta. I'd be curious to see how they fare next season. Not to say they'll return to their previous years performance, but 54 wins, 110 points and a president's trophy win is a high bar.
HabsFanFromOntario![[Image: HFFO.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/HFFO.gif)
![[Image: m38.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/m38.gif)
![[Image: v09bRKvt_o.jpg]](https://images2.imgbox.com/06/17/v09bRKvt_o.jpg)
![[Image: QPFI01y.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/QPFI01y.jpeg)
![[Image: hqBRlWW.png]](https://i.imgur.com/hqBRlWW.png)
![[Image: Niktox.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Niktox.gif)
![[Image: italian-flag.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=tO...eKFgvtgqU=]](https://media.istockphoto.com/id/516545774/photo/italian-flag.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=tOUXkrfuzBIk511-3HzYDZM2ZMvk87rCm8eKFgvtgqU=){kind=small}
![[Image: 4star.png]](https://simulationhockey.com/images/4star.png)
![[Image: challengecup.png]](https://simulationhockey.com/images/challengecup.png)
![[Image: F84OPdM.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/F84OPdM.jpeg)
![[Image: Dextaria.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Dextaria.gif)
![[Image: Niz2wua.png]](http://i.imgur.com/Niz2wua.png)
![[Image: iB9r7kM.png]](http://i.imgur.com/iB9r7kM.png)
![[Image: 6by0kBi.png]](http://i.imgur.com/6by0kBi.png)
![[Image: c3936a1e67537ed2c9716b30ba8432ee.png]](https://gyazo.com/c3936a1e67537ed2c9716b30ba8432ee.png)
![[Image: IAP8v68.png]](https://i.imgur.com/IAP8v68.png)
