Task 2 (2 TPE) – I think it’s pretty obvious that Joe K will be rooting hard for the Calgary Dragons in the Challenge Cup Finals. I was drafted there in S31, I spent most of my career there through S44. Along the way I won 3 Cups with the Dragons, and I also won the League MVP trophy as well. Esa is a good friend of mine, and I’m still in the Dragons locker room, just with the alumni tag. I have a lot good friends over there, and I’m always going to be rooting for them, even they do have some stupid sim blessings going on this season from Simon T and they decimated my Specters. (113)

Task 3 (3 TPE, 5 Total) – The playoffs themselves just feel “off” to me ever since we implemented the 4v5 matchup to allow 10 teams to make the playoffs each season. I know that was largely because of the expansion teams, and it seemed silly to have half of the league sitting around doing nothing for a few weeks. I think if we’re going to have to find a way to keep people invested, maybe we have a quick 1 game elimination tournament for who gets the 5th seed in each conference. Have 5v8 and 6v7 for the morning sim, and the finals in the evening. The winner of that gets to be the 5th seed in the playoffs in each conference, and then make the 4v5 matchup a best of 5. The idea of having the 4v5 matchup was to prevent people from being bored, but teams that miss the playoffs have to wait even longer before they get to do anything again, so that’s lame. And honestly, I don’t think the 5th seed that gets in really ever does much. I could be wrong on that though. (183)

Task 4 (3 TPE, 8 Total) – In this alternate universe, the SHL would get the Challenge Cup Finals that everyone actually wanted: the New Orleans Specters vs the Buffalo Stampede, round 2. In S46, New Orleans and Buffalo had a fantastic finals, going all the way to Game 7 when Buffalo took it. Since that time, New Orleans and Buffalo have traded barbs on the forums and haven’t been the best of friends. At one point it was the hot rivalry on the site, even though Calgary and Buffalo have since decided to make things a little too personal. I would’ve went with this finals matchup, but I don’t want to live in even an alternate universe where those two play each other and make the site just so very toxic for some time. In this scenario, the Specters would finally fulfill their destiny as the best expansion team ever in SHL history (still are anyway), and take home the Cup over Buffalo in 7 games. We’d need an alternate universe S51 rubber match the next season. (171)

Task 15 (3 TPE, 11 Total) – PM’d to PT DIRECTOR

Task 12 – (5 TPE, 16 Total):

A. Each team enters these finals with a red hot superstar - longtime league legend Mike Izzy for Calgary and surprise breakout star Gunnar Soderberg for Tampa Bay. Which of these players will have a more dominant finals?
Mike Izzy has been a fantastic SHLer and is a future Hall of Famer, he’s been here multiple times and he knows what it takes to win. This guy is currently shooting a RIDICULOUS 25% in the playoffs, and is still hitting everything that moves. He’s ON FIRE, and there’s no way that Soderberg can hope to keep up with this legend. (62)

B. Kata Vilde and Benjamin Blue are two of the best goaltenders in the league - which team has the advantage in net?

While it’s been an “on” year for Blue, as he tends to alternate good and bad years, Kata Vilde is just out of this world this playoffs. Vilde sports a 12 – 1 record through 3 series, including sweeps of San Francisco AND New Orleans. He has a 93.1 save percentage and is only allowing two goals a game. He’s got better numbers than Blue and it’s against stronger competition. Calgary definitely has the advantage. (74)

C. Do you expect this to be a high-scoring series or a low-scoring series? A mix? Do you think it'll be competitive or will one team run away with it?

I think we’re going to see a lot of one goal games, mostly of the 3-2 or 2-1 variety. I do think the Dragons are just going to dominate puck possession and shots, but Blue will do his best to keep Tampa close in every game. I don’t think Tampa can really keep up in the scoring department, and that’s BEFORE they have to try to get pucks past the brick wall that is Playoff Vilde. (76)

D. What's your favorite player NAME on either team? why? (note: not who's your favorite player. which player name)

My favorite name in the series is Kata Vilde, because of a reason that I’m not entirely sure a lot of people know or remember. Vilde is a Swedish goaltender, but his name in Swedish actually means Randy Savage. That’s right, Vilde is named after the Macho Man and, to me, that’s fucking awesome. (54)

E. If you could choose any one of the following four options, which would you pick? 1. A chicken parm sandwich from Esa 2. A tray of cookies from c00kies 3. A custom feet pic from JSS 4. An hour long stick and puck session with Jepox

The Answer is very easily a chicken parm Sandwich from Esa. The Parm King has long been known as Chicken Parm Royalty, AND its my favorite meal as well. On top of it all, Esa has been my friend for 3 years at this point, and it’d be an honor to share the hallowed parm alongside him. (57)