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Dindog · 01-26-2025, 11:31 PM

ISFL

Symmetrik · 01-26-2025, 11:37 PM

Code:
AFFILIATE PT

+3 TPE PBE PT

Code:
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.

+3 TPE pantheon

Code:
12. Written, 50 to 200+ words. IIHF Back To Back

IIHF tournament is so short that every point is very important for the seeding for the playoffs. On top of that the playoffs are best of one making upsets more likely than during the league playoffs. Despite all that Canada did win the last two IIHF tournaments. Latvia, Switzerland and Czechia made up the rest of the top 4 for last season. Which of the last season’s top 4 teams you think is most likely to make it to the medal games this season and which is most likely to miss? Why?

+2 TPE - 136 words

I think of the 4, certainly if I was going to bet, the odds would be Latvia are the ones who can't hang in the top 4 again next season. They were the lowest seeded team and got away with a pair of upset wins against the #3 and #1 teams from the round robin. Czechia being that #1 team, Swiss being #2, and Canada being #4, in my mind of the 4, it's Latvia that you would pick to miss, if you had to pick. The IIHF is a pretty volatile tournament, so anything can happen though. Canada is Canada, and has back to back gold medals, so I bet on them returning to the medal games. Czechia was the only team to win 7 games last season, so I think they can be back.

***ThePyroAlpaca*** · 01-27-2025, 12:07 AM

GM pass

Runningman434 · 01-27-2025, 12:48 AM

1: trivia phrase: aero +3 TPE
2: PBE Affiliate +3 TPE

MattyJ · 01-27-2025, 01:18 AM

5:
If the SHL were to host the finals in another country this season, Sweden would be the ideal destination. Hockey is ingrained in Swedish culture, and their passion for the sport mirrors the enthusiasm seen in North America. The country has produced countless SHL stars and boasts incredible arenas that could easily accommodate the intensity and grandeur of an SHL Finals. Cities like Stockholm have vibrant hockey communities/fans and infrastructure to pull off the biggest event of the year.

Beyond the sport itself, hosting the finals in Sweden would offer players and fans a chance to experience the rich history and unique atmosphere of European hockey. It could also serve as a celebration of the international nature of the game, recognizing the SHL’s global player base and fan reach. The exposure would be incredible for both the league and its athletes, shining a spotlight on the intensity of the SHL game.

Additionally, Sweden is known for some great sights and food for fans and players to enjoy. Everyone will be focused on the big series, but there will be plenty to enjoy as well. Sweden is the perfect place for this event and it is waiting for their chance to host.

203 words. 4 tpe.

6:
If the San Francisco Pride made it to the SHL Finals, MattyJ would 100% be rooting for them, and it all goes back to his junior hockey days. Years ago, MattyJ played in an international junior tournament where he ended up on a line with Logan Webb, who is now the captain of the Pride.

The two hit it off immediately, both on and off the ice. On the ice, their chemistry was unreal, they were constantly setting each other up for goals and dominating the competition. Off the ice, they were inseparable, bonding over long bus rides, late-night strategy talks, and a shared love for the game. They helped their team win gold, and even though they went their separate ways afterward, they have always stayed in touch over the years.

Now, seeing Logan lead the Pride to the Finals would be huge for MattyJ. He knows how much Logan has sacrificed and how hard he’s worked to get there. How much his parents sacrificed for a moment like this. For MattyJ, rooting for San Francisco is not about the team or their colors, it is about supporting a friend who he’s shared unforgettable moments with. Watching Logan chase the dream on the league’s biggest stage made cheering for the Pride an easy call.

Just kidding, I made this all up. Still Go Pride though! Webb just was on my fantasy team once.

230 words. 4 tpe

Urq660 · 01-27-2025, 08:04 AM

ISFL Affiliate - 3 TPE

1. Trivia
Confirmation Word: Norge - (hopefully) 3 TPE

ibuprofenaddict · 01-27-2025, 09:49 AM

Code:
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.

truth

+1.5-3.0 TPE (depending on how correct i am)

Code:
5. If the SHL finals were to be held in another country this season, where would the best place be and why?

6. Which team would your player root for in the finals and why?

5. I think a good place for the finals to take place this season that isn’t one of the two cities of the teams who made it would be Mexico City. Mexico is a place that is a neighbor to the US and Canada where the league currently takes place, and there are a lot of Mexico natives that live in both California and Florida. I’ve heard rumblings in recent times of Mexico being considered for IIHF expansion and I wouldn’t write them off for an SHL expansion team as well. Mexico City is a large metropolis with an enormous pool of potential new fans. As of this writing, its also 30 degrees warmer than where I am, and its high elevation keeps it relatively consistent all year round and insulates it from the extreme heat in other parts of the country. I think having the finals in Mexico City as a showcase for the league would go a long way toward earning new followers as well as serve as a test case for potential federation or league expansion in the future.

181 Words, +3TPE

6. While the Tampa Bay Barracuda are a division rival, Marek would be pulling for them in this series no question. For starters, Carda himself has played in one league final, last season against these same San Francisco Pride – and we all know who emerged victorious there based on the other writing prompts – so there is some history and animosity in that which is still fresh enough to counteract some of the in-division feelings toward TBB. On the Barracuda side, Carda has a number of people he shares bonds with on that roster. Zedward Zilliams was Marek’s captain on the Detroit Falcons back when the team won the S74 four star cup. Also on that team were The Murray and Dunkler Sowerwine, who currently lace up for the Barracuda. The next season, current Cuda youngster Brayden Point also joined the Falcons, skating a season with Marek before he left a season early to join the Forge. Beyond the SMJHL teammates on Tampa’s roster, he also has friends from the S74 draft class down there in Florida, in the shape of Dag-Otto Bjorntjanst and Shawn Pawn. The connections run deep with the Barracuda. On the other side, San Fran’s roster boasts only former teammate Mephi Morgonstjarna (IA) who has gone dark and no contact with his former team. The competition really isn’t that close in this case.

225 Words, +4TPE

TOTAL: (1.5-3.0)+(3)+(4) = 8.5-10 TPE, for a maximum of +8 TPE

Nictox · 01-27-2025, 10:04 AM

1. Trivia (+3)
Verification Word: Specters

4.
Goalies can and will win you games.Will they win you a series? Maybe. Both teams cannot rely solely on their tenders to win them four games, it is going to take all players buying into winning. While having an amazing goalie can change momentum, the rest of the team still has to show up to play. Soonika and Time are both amazing tenders who can win you a game, Soonika is a bit younger and more in their prime, while Time is slowly leaving their prime. This will truly be a fantastic battle to watch and both tenders can win their respected teams the games they need to.
[109, +2]

5.
Probably end up in the country of Quebec! You know, the newly formed country that is really just a province of Canada. Okay okay, I am joking here. Honestly if they move the finals to a neutral arena in another country, it should be the lowest watched finals in SHL history. Part of the whole playoff format is the back and forth between the teams’ respected arenas. The home team advantage would be thrown out the window if the game was played somewhere else. While I respect the idea, I do not think this is the right path for a playoffs finals.
[102, +2]

6.
Luca would be rooting for Tampa Bay in this match up. Tampa’s color scheme has always been an eye catcher to Pane reminding him of old cheesy movies and television shows using the whole Miami Vice thing. Besides that, the Barracuda have not won a championship since way back in the day. So the underdog always gets Luca’s vote here. Tampa has also been a top team for awhile now with very little luck in the post season, I think this post season could be their best chance. I believe Tampa’s talent is spread out more in the line up compared to the Pride’s top end talent. A quick glance at the stats so far show Tampa having more players showing up on the score sheet.
[126, +2]

RIP Dangel #AD26 | RIP TDZ

***TomServo*** · 01-27-2025, 12:06 PM

CW pass

oknom · 01-27-2025, 12:38 PM

Code:
10. Written, 50 to 200+ words. The Unexpected

Toronto ended up making it into the playoffs by one point while Atlanta had the best regular season since S71 Winnipeg. Yet in the playoffs Atlanta ended up losing the second round, while Toronto made it to the conference finals. Does regular season success matter in the long run if the team fumbles in the playoffs? Should teams give much importance to the regular season or focus all of their energy to playoffs once their team has secured a spot? Should the league in general regard the regular season results more highly?

This is a great prompt to consider, but my answer is yes the regular season performance certainly matters. It’s a great question, because if you look at the SMJHL the whole league is making the playoffs. So yes, why would the season even matter? Well at the SHL level, I think the regular season sets the tone for your team. Any playoff series can go sideways. But finishing strong in the regular season still gives you some momentum to ride into the offseason. You can chalk up the postseason loss to variability, or tactics. You can point to improving TPE for a young core, free agency pickups, or other teams regressing. There’s plenty of ways to explain a bad postseason, but I think having a strong regular season is much harder to explain away as a fluke. You consistently performed better than the competition over a larger sample size.

The league already regards the regular season results quite highly. Besides playoff seeding and draft order for non-playoff teams, its where the vast majority of awards get their criteria. You aren’t winning MVP of best defenseman without a strong regular season performance. Again, these aren’t mutually exclusive. You can have a bad team finish but a good individual season. You can have a bad individual stat line, but a great spot for the playoffs.
WC 223

Code:
11. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Did We Really Win

This seasons we saw something unusual as both conferences featuring a division where winner got arguably harder matchup than the second place team as the wild card from the other division finished with more points than the third place team in their division. How does it make you feel about the playoffs structure? Was it actually even worse for New Orleans and Buffalo to have won their division? Or does it really matter as if you are reaching for the cup likely should be prepared to face any team anyway? How much do you think it benefited Los Angeles and Philadelphia to face opponents out of their own division during first round?

I am a big supporter of doing some reseeding each round of the playoffs. I can see the appeal of keeping it within the division. Those are the teams you need to beat in order to get a better seed. Those are the teams you play the most during the season. But I don’t know if Im sold on it providing much of a benefit. Getting through the BEST teams in the conference is what really builds rivalries. Take this season for example. TBB played MAN in round 1. According to the eastern conference standings, TBB should have played seventh seed NEW and MAN should have played 5th seed PHI. Im not sure if that really changes the results of round 1 for either team, but those matchups are much different for the impacted teams. NEW (the 7th seed remember) played the 8th seed TOR, which makes zero sense. Since TOR won that first round matchup, it feels like they should have been re-seeded in round 2 to have to face off against ATL. ATL and TBB were matched up instead. Yes that’s right, the 1 seed drew the 2 overall seed. Meanwhile the 8th seed got to matchup against the 5th seed Forge.

Just doesn’t feel like it makes the most sense within the scope of conference standings. Im aware that’s not all there is when it comes to playoff seeding, but we spend 4 weeks worrying about it for wildcard cutoff.
WC 243

Trivia confirmation word: dunk

3 TPE Trivia
4 TPE Prompt 10
1 TPE Prompt 11
8 TPE Total

*Puppy* · 01-27-2025, 01:22 PM

5. (227 Words – 4 TPE)
Ideally with a situation where the tournament was held in another nation, it would need to probably be all 7 games of the series. Because of that it would make the most sense to pick somewhere that can easily pack an arena for each game. However, the SHL is not often about following standard logic, and because of that, I think that each game should be played on an entirely different continent. Game 1 should be in North American, and since the USA and Canada are rules out, I would purpose Mexico City. Game 2 we move down to South American, and because Brazil gets too much attention, this one will get played Montevideo, Uruguay. The 3rd match would cross the Atlantic and be hosted by Africa, which I think Accra, Ghana would be a solid choice. The fourth and potential last game of the series would move up to Europe, where on themes with avoiding the obvious countries, I would vouch for Athens, Greece as the site for this one. In Asia, Hong Kong would be a nice choice for the 5th game, as where the 6th match would see the teams flying down to Perth in Australia. Should it come down to a decisive game 7, McMurdo Station in Antarctica would be the final stage for one of the most memorable cups of all time.

6. (169 Words – 3 TPE)
There are plenty of players on both sides that Ju-gong would have immense respect for. To list a few legends out, Rowan O’Bernie, Viktor Hargreeves, and Wagner-Svenson are some of those that truly stand out. While all of those players have a very high standing to the Korean goalie, the top player will always without a doubt be Justin Time. Since starting their career with the Quebec City Citadelles, Time has been a player that has served as one of his two major idols in the world of the SHL. From their days in Edmonton, to now with the Pride, Time has been a leading example of what it means to be a top goalie on and off the ice. It would be safe to say that Ju-gong does full-heartedly cheer for Justin to do well in every game, even without having a major stake in either teams success. Seeing Time win game after game serves as an example and motivation for Ju-gong to try and replicate that success.

7. (121 Words – 2 TPE)
Despite the series already being over, I will continue my time honored tradition of allowing a coin flip to decide the series. Yes we know the winner already, but the coin must have its moment to shine and continue its legacy! So without any more explanation needed, lets get this show on the road (SFP as heads with the better regular season record). Tails (TBB lead series 1-0), Tails (TBB lead series 2-0), Tails (TBB lead series 3-0), Tails (TBB win series 4-0). Wow, an incredible 4-0 sweep by TBB! I will surely change the coin for next season, and for that matter, flipping a coin on the same side four times in a row is a 6.25% chance, who knew?!

8/8 TPE

Jagg102 · 01-27-2025, 01:41 PM

not me

Rotti · 01-27-2025, 01:53 PM

canyt

*leviadan* · 01-27-2025, 03:14 PM

1. bang

8. I think a lot of these things work as a snowball effect. Once you get GM in that is passionate and excited to build something, it's easier to get players that feel the same and are willing to stick it out. Once you have some players sticking it out and creating a good locker room your drafts are more likely to hit because the players will get to know your team and want to stick around the site. Then you start to have a bit of success and other players start to take notice, and suddenly you're also a hot free agent destination. Then you can extend your window, get more players who love to create a good culture, and see more success. This will still ebb and flow as people age out and your window opens and closes, but to me it seems like San Fransico has taken all of these steps and built the right way. It takes some luck to get that first cup but once you have it you're on the map and a good GM with a thriving LR can keep building on that to thrive for many seasons. I experienced it in Texas at the end of the S50's and the start of the 60's, and we've seen similar with WPG recently. To me, this is the model for SHL success. (226)

10. Winning in the playoffs is nice obviously, but in the SHL consistent regular season success correlates well with cup victories. I don't know enough about either roster to say definitively, but I would rather dominate the league in the regular season and see an unlucky first round exit than just barely squeek into the playoffs and win a few rounds before going out. The team that dominated the league is more likely to do so again next season and get another good shot at a run, whereas if you just eeked in then you may not even be back in S81. Two round wins is a lot of fun and it can give your LR a big boost in something to cheer for, but if don't win the cup then your focus has to stay on long term and sustainable success. The team with more kicks at the can is much more likely to bring home a cup than a team on a very improbable Cinderella run. They can certainly still do it! But I'd rather be in the position of being on top of the league season over season. (190)

TPE Earned: 8/8

***Jexter*** · 01-27-2025, 04:02 PM

1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max

cheese

12. Written, 50 to 200+ words. IIHF Back-to-Back

The IIHF has been a bit of a proving ground for me, showing off some of the best young players in the league for the upcoming season while also emphasizing the players who may be regressing but had great seasons. As such, it really helps when teams can find some consistency and I think Canada is certainly one of those teams. Being the nation that they are, they are always able to get some amazing talent onto the ice, but this season, I am going to be a big homer and say the Swiss will be back to the medal rounds as well (this time hopefully beating Canada finally). I also would not be surprised to see Latvia back. They had a massive youth movement that is finally starting to pay dividends, especially with young players like Squidwardo Tentacles, Juan Tymer, Rence Sykut, Demir Bellona, Morrow, Leo Roze, Agate, Murdock and their mainstay in Jarrod Lakemore. Now Czechia I think may be on the hot seat, but I still think they can make it back to the medal rounds thanks to their youth movement as well. However, if any team could be seen as TPE weak of these 4, it would be Czechia.

203 words : +4 TPE

14. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Procrastinator's Special

So the San Francisco Pride have one yet another Challenge Cup and did it in 6 games over the Barracuda. I cannot say that I am surprised because I am fairly certain I chose them to win in the predictions. The Pride dominated the Western Conference this season and it was really no shock that they ended up being the representatives from that side in the finals. I think Tampa Bay kept it close and had some very impressive wins, but the true turning point was the overtime loss in game 4 when Tampa Bay was at home and was leading 2-1 in the series before that loss. San Francisco took the reins of the series after that and never really let up. San Francisco is right in their window where all of their lines are clicking at the same time and yet again my forum will be purple and gold.

151 words : +3 TPE

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