verification: apples

I may be in the minority here but I don't think the redistribution will be super impactful in the aggregate. FHM is a much better sim engine than STHS in terms of rewarding highly skilled players in a variety of ways. The redistribution will obviously affect individual players so I think you could see the list of points leaders change, but I believe the teams with the most good players will end up at the top of the league no matter how the TPE is distributed. Teams will be good about creating players with complementary roles to one another. That being said, I expect the good teams to be New England, Los Angeles, Hamilton, and Edmonton. Calgary, Buffalo and San Francisco seem to be making a push to be included in the top tier of teams as well but at this time I don’t see how any team can catch New England.

a. 
Tony Pepperoni may have the most TPE of any player in this series but Flacko Lagerfield just had a breakout year on top of the league. Flacko scored 34 goals and 27 assists and while neither number led the league, his 71 points beat out Ola Wagstrom by three. After a performance like that, Lagerfield has to be considered the best player in this series.
b. 
Edmonton likes to rush up the ice to create scoring chances off of mismatches, but if Hamilton has its way and plays strong on the puck, they could completely neutralize the speed of Edmonton. They’ll have to play responsibly in their defensive end and the neutral zone however, because turnovers and sloppy puck play could lead to odd man rushes for the Blizzard.
c. 
F - Flacko Lagerfield – Flacko’s breakout season caught a lot of fantasy owners by surprise as he was unowned in many leagues but he’s a no brainer now.
F - Tony Pepperoni – Not only does this dude score more than a point per game, he racked up 109 hits as well
F - Robert Phelps – Second most points scored in the series behind his teammate Flacko. I love high scoring forwards on my fantasy roster.
D - Troy McClure III – Gets his share of hits but blocks a ton of shots as well.
D - Akashi SixNine – Not only does this guy have over 100 hits and almost 50 blocked shots, he also scored 38 points. Not bad for a defender
G - Geezus Kryyst – Edmonton rolls with a duo so I gotta pick the guy who has the position on lock with a 2.11 GAA and a .915 SAV%
d.
Everyone loves snow when they are a kid and it means they’ll be off school. Then when you grow up you realize you have to drive in it and that’s super frustrating if not terrifying depending on how your town handles the roads. However, when you’re married to a teacher and have the ability to work from home when necessary, your transported back to your youth. You watch the news before bed or get up really early looking to see her school listed so you can go back to bed and sleep in. Then you have kids and sleeping in no longer happens. My kids are too young for school but I imagine that when the snow means that they’ll be home too, yelling and running around while I’m trying to work, I’ll be back to hating snow again. But for now, I love the peaceful beauty of a snow covered lawn and trees while I’m working from home with a warm cup of coffee.

The New England Wolfpack and the Los Angeles Panthers were the best teams in their respective conferences all season. In my alternate universe, those two teams survived to face off in the SHL finals this season. In the Eastern Conference finals, Flacko Lagerfield and Ola Wagstrom put on a show in a battle for the ages. Each player lit the lamp 4 times in the first 6 games of the series and the two juggernaut teams went to game 7. A Rex Kirkby slapshot from the blue line found it’s way through in the first OT to send New England to the finals! In the Western Conference Los Angeles handled Edmonton in five games. The Panthers defense, let by Simon LeBlanc bottled up and frustrated Tony Pepperoni and kept him off of the scoresheet for the whole series. Knox Booth in net had the series of his life, picking up two shutouts and posting a .950% over the five game series including stopping 40 of 42 shots in the deciding game five.

Rhys Pritchard should be making Great Britain’s team for the first time and they’re coming off a gold medal in the S52 tournament. Granted last season’s tournament was simmed in STHS and not FHM so this season is a question mark. I believe that Great Britain have the talent to compete with the big boys on the national stage. Team USA and Canada have a lot of huge names but Great Britain has their fair share of star power as well. It remains to be see what kind of role Rhys will for his country. For one thing, he’s capped at 425 for his junior build. Likely he’ll be playing 4th line minutes as the Brits have many high profile forwards on their team including Vince Reaper, Xena, Nick Brain, Jimmy Slothface, and Oliver Cloutier. To expect another gold medal would be crazy, but I do think Great Britain has a chance of medaling again in this year’s tournament.