Login

*roastpuff* · 11-10-2020, 02:46 PM

Code:
1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?

There is no other word to describe Magnus Liljestrom's S56 season other than abysmal. After coming off a nomination for the Jesster Trophy for the Best Rookie, and leading all other rookie defensemen in points, scoring but a third of the previous season's points and having a very disappointing playoff series against Chicago is nothing less than a massive step back. I'm not sure there is really anything to attribute it to other than the team as a whole taking a step back as Winnipeg massively underperformed compared to the pre-season expectations, and the tougher, expanded schedule gave the team's fitness a thumping. There isn’t really much to do but to put the nose to the grindstone and get better - after all, once you hit rock bottom there is no other place to go but up. With another 200 or so TPE, hopefully Magnus can make something out of himself, and handle the 2nd line (or even 1st line minutes) that might be handed to him, instead of being a disappointment to the Winnipeg Jets and to the fans alike.

+3

Code:
4. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

If the SHL needed to set up a playoff bubble (like the NHL did in Edmonton/Toronto or the NBA in Orlando), which city would be the best candidate to host as the hub city? What would the players do during their time in a playoff bubble? (For graphic option, make an advertisement [like a pamphlet/brochure] in support of a specific city as the hub city and highlighting the reasons why.)

Just like in real life, the major SHL cities would do the best in setting up a bubble as the host city of multiple teams. Toronto for the Eastern teams would be a good choice - in fact, you could add in Hamilton to spread the load and give the Eastern bubble two rinks to play out of. That way, the ice isn’t quite as abused as we saw in the NHL bubble this year, and the teams don’t get into each other’s way if the games go long. In the Western Conference, I would like to nominate Seattle - the newest team in the league should have the nicest, newest arena, and Seattle is a relatively central location for the rest of the Western teams to come together. Although it is not as easy to split the games like it would be with Toronto and Hamilton right next to each other, the newer arena should be able to handle the load easier with the newer ice system. These locations also have somewhat better infection rates, so it is less likely to cause an infection in the bubble as well.

+3

Code:
6. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

Which SHL or SMJHL team was the best team to not make the finals this season and why?

The Chicago Syndicate was the best team in the SHL not to make the finals this season, and they were unlucky in that Buffalo managed to win out over them. They had better depth than Buffalo, better goaltending, better players overall, and they had excellent tactics. Chicago is a scary team that plays a consistent style top to bottom, and all their lines can match up with any other line in the league no matter which way you play them. The fact that Winnipeg had to resort to illegal lines to beat them just shows how strong that team was, and they would probably give Hamilton more trouble than Buffalo is doing right now.

+2

Code:
7. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

What's your prediction for this season's IIHF tournament? Which teams do you expect to do well (or not well)? Which players?

As usual, I expect the big boys to do well - Team Canada, Team Great Britain, Team USA. Japan, Sweden, Austria, Germany and Czechia will occupy the second tier of teams as usual, and the Latvian, Norway, Ireland, Russia, and Finland cohort will be below that tier of teams. Sadly there isn’t really parity as such, so I expect Team Canada or Team Great Britain to be vying for the gold medal once again, and two of USA, Japan or Sweden to be fighting it out for the third slot in the medal standings. As for outstanding players, we have to once again look at the previous seasons, where we can see Ola Wagstrom and Monkey D. Luffy led in scoring, followed by Jimmy Slothface. These players are still at very high TPE, so I expect them to do well once again in the IIHF tournament. There might be a few new players that can challenge them - let’s hope so, and let’s hope that this year will be more interesting than last year!

+3

Code:
13. Written, up to 4 TPE - Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.

c. These two teams hail from the Great Lakes Division. Which of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) do you think is the Greatest and why?

Obviously, Lake Superior is the Greatest Lake of all - it’s already there in the name! Superior implies that it is the better choice, the best choice, and the correct choice. This is a very easy question to answer, as the Lakes themselves have decided for you; there is no need to overthink it. Simply go with your gut and make sure that your pick is the superior one.

+1

Code:
d. If, once it is safe to do so, you had to go hang out in person with one of the users on Buffalo/Hamilton, who would you hang out with and what would you do? (if you pick gabe you get -1 tpe)

I would like to hang out with Jobin from the Hamilton crew - we already hang out in the Detroit Falcons locker room, and he’s a blast! We have similar interests, we have similar tastes, and I wish that we could actually have in person meet ups so we can meet in real life. I have already said that if they come to Vancouver, any of my former or current team mates are more than welcome to catch a Canucks game with me!

+1

Code:
16. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is now 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.

snorkel

+3

Total 16 TPE

***trashae*** · 11-10-2020, 02:53 PM

Code:
1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?

This past offseason I certainly didn't make a significant step forward offensively. I went from 24 points in 50 games to 25 points in 50 games (wooooo! big leap right there) and I also really didn't have a larger role on the Kelowna Knights than in my first 2 seasons. But to be fair I was already on the top pairing, top pk unit, top pp unit, and basically all of our top units across the board so like... there really wasn't room to grow into a more significant role. (I was also captain my sophomore season as well, but I realized I skipped it after I finished this write up soooo.... have some more words). That's really everywhere I stayed stagnant from S55 so now let's see how things got better or worse. The Knights clearly took a step backwards, but that was expected and our down year still resulted in us winning a playoff series so no complaints there. Going back to Park on the ice though I took a HUGE step forward defensively. Increased in essentially every statistical category, but to me more importantly I led the J in DGR and was tied for first in GR across all skaters. So with all that taken into account I'd say I met the high bar I try to hold myself to. It was needed on a Knights team that was so rookie heavy on offense and I like to think I was an integral part in our success against ANA in the playoffs.

Code:
3. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

FHM's 12-team playoff bracket setup has received a fair bit of scrutiny. It re-seeds after the play-in round and for some reason puts the #1 seed and #2 seed on the same side of the bracket. I challenge you to come up with a different playoff format - can you come up with a format that's dumber/worse than this? be creative! Come up with the worst possible format for a 12-team playoff.

Oh easssssy! You saw what the NHL did after they cut the season short right? Now picture that, but with a full season played and teams still have to then play a series for seeding. The way I envision this format working out is to pair teams for this seeding tournament by matching them to the opposing conference. (Last in the east plays last in the west etc.). From there once the seeding is set it makes sense to split the bracket between the good and bad teams and from there go into a normal playoff format with the top half playing each other and the bottom half doing the same to see if the tops or bottoms appear in the finals. Once all that happens and we get down to 2 final teams the additional seeding series took up too much time so in the interest of moving the offseason along it should be a one off championship game to crown a winner.

Code:
4. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

If the SHL needed to set up a playoff bubble (like the NHL did in Edmonton/Toronto or the NBA in Orlando), which city would be the best candidate to host as the hub city? What would the players do during their time in a playoff bubble? (For graphic option, make an advertisement [like a pamphlet/brochure] in support of a specific city as the hub city and highlighting the reasons why.)

Across the major sports leagues in the US (and Canada, technically they're both international sports leagues) the NBA and the NHL took 2 different approaches to a bubble environment. The NHL picked 2 separate cities and set up pretty stringent requirements for players taking over a few hotels in addition to the obvious arenas. Conversely the NBA took over a resort (basically, Disney counts as a resort for these purposes ok) and gave players a bit more freedom to move within the resort area. So with those 2 successful blueprints I think the SHL should do something completely different. Knowing the mischief that a lot of SHL players like to get into it makes more sense to create a bubble in one of the smaller markets between both the SHL and the SMJHL in Kelowna. A smaller city would result in fewer distractions and opportunities while also making the players that inevitably sneak out much easier to spot. Kelowna provides the perfect setting for this setup because it is just a couple hours from Vancouver so there is a major airport hub where players can fly into when arriving at the bubble. And yeah, the players might complain when the most entertaining thing in the entire bubble is a billiards bar that only carries Puppers but they can get over themselves.

Code:
6. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

Which SHL or SMJHL team was the best team to not make the finals this season and why?

The two teams I'm on (BAP and KEL) are the worst teams to not make the finals. They both clearly have phenomenal leadership because they each drafted me so from top to bottom they are phenomenal organizations. Just incredibly well run by smart, sexy gentlepeople. And yeah, this question probably means best team on the ice but I choose to live in ambiguity. But also word counts are a thing so looking at KEL a little deeper we didn't make the finals simply because of our forwards. We had a championship caliber defense the whole season with 4 capped players (3 at 425 and 1 at 350) to go with another IA guy sitting at 417. Beyond that in net we had the luxury of choice with 2 capped goalies to choose from. The offense was our achilles heel all season and ultimately what got us bounced from the playoffs was coming up against a juggernaut heavily featuring 2 players we traded away. If VAN didn't have geck and rotti then I think we would have made the finals this season because even with a depleted forward core we still won a playoff series so 2 capped guys would have gone a long way to putting us over the hump.

Code:
7. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

What's your prediction for this season's IIHF tournament? Which teams do you expect to do well (or not well)? Which players?

Sooooo the IIHF tournament already started but I'm gonna pretend it didn't for this question. Let's start with Team Norway since RCD poached me from the US to join my Norwegian brethren. In the team locker room he posted a really compelling high level view of the state of the team relative to last season that makes me think we're basically a shoe-in for the gold medal. Between last season's tournament and the start of this one Norway has gained an absurd 2898 TPE relative to last season's squad. So with that in mind I'd like to expand on our guaranteed gold medal. Not only will team Norway win the tournament, but we will also go undefeated in both exhibition and round robin play. so that brings me to the remaining teams. I predict that after round robin play the federation heads will get together and collectively decide that the juggernaut Norway (having just won every game 6-0) is just unbeatable so there is no point in competing further. Norway will be awarded the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals and S57 will start sooner than expected.

Code:
13. Written, up to 4 TPE - Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.

c. These two teams hail from the Great Lakes Division. Which of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) do you think is the Greatest and why?

Anyone that doesn't say Lake Michigan is wrong and should not get credit. Why? Because that is where I spent at least a week each summer growing up camping with my grandparents/ aunt. One summer my sister got an inflatable giraffe and the wind swept it out onto the lake and she was sad. It was great. That's it, that's the answer.

Code:
16. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is now 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.

dibs on winning

Mika_Kandinsky · 11-10-2020, 02:57 PM

Code:
1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?

This season was much improved for Mika over last season, but at the same time still was not the season he hoped to have. Mika continues to be a dominant two way center in the league, but the points just aren’t coming. This could be because of Toronto’s struggles as team, but Mika believes he can do more to turn things around for himself. Once again he’ll be training hard in the offseason to improve and hopefully get his offensive numbers up a bit more. One thing he wants to work on is his shooting accuracy. He has been taking a lot of shots but ending the season with a lower than expected shooting percentage is motivating him to keep improving that aspect of his game. He’s happy with his overall defensive game, especially his takeaways. The last push is to become a top scorer in the league on top of being one of the best defensive forwards.

Code:
3. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

FHM's 12-team playoff bracket setup has received a fair bit of scrutiny. It re-seeds after the play-in round and for some reason puts the #1 seed and #2 seed on the same side of the bracket. I challenge you to come up with a different playoff format - can you come up with a format that's dumber/worse than this? be creative! Come up with the worst possible format for a 12-team playoff.

Here is the dumbest playoff bracket that could possibly happen. 12 teams make it in, and then what we do right off the bat is kick out the top 3 teams and replace them with the bottom 3 teams. Let them play it out. Every time one of the bottom 3 teams gets eliminated, then we bring back one of the top 3 teams to play that same opponent. This makes the middle teams play 2 series in the first round for absolutely no reason. This will then give an advantage to the top 3 teams. However, if one of the bottom teams beat a middle team, it keeps the top team out of the running until they lose. Basically, this lets a bottom team go in and fight for a top team as a proxy, essentially giving the top team an extra life unless the bottom team goes on to win it all which would be hilarious. This is a terribly stupid idea, but might be pretty entertaining.

Code:
6. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

Which SHL or SMJHL team was the best team to not make the finals this season and why?

The best team to not make the finals this year has to go to the Calgary Dragons. The Dragons went 38-8-4 in the regular season and came in first in their conference. Calgary proved themselves to be a great team all season long and yet, they didn’t even make it to the conference finals after losing to Edmonton. I believe this was a big fluke and probably should be redone in order to give Calgary their true shot at winning the Challenge Cup this year. Imagine what they could accomplish if their Edmonton series wasn’t rigged! I think we;ve been denied seeing a much more entertaining finals than what we have now.

Code:
7. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

What's your prediction for this season's IIHF tournament? Which teams do you expect to do well (or not well)? Which players?

Another year of IIHF and another year of thinking Mika Kandinsky and the Russians can finally make some waves. This year, I’m not sure it’s going to happen even though we will probably see Mika have one of his best tournaments yet. He’s been misused on the roster in the past and we’ll have to see how he is utilized on the team this year. I think the United States looks like it is poised to have another great tournament showing as well as Great Britain. I’m also very interested in seeing how Japan does this year as they have quite a few power house players on the team that could put up some big points. I’m excited to see what Martijn Westbroek does this tournament after having a 70 point season in the SHL and a pretty solid tournament last season. I think he’ll build off of that success and have a really big tournament this year.

Code:
8. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (150 words min. if written)

The arenas in Buffalo and Hamilton want to make sure they're pulling out all the stops on the big stage. Help the concessions department of one of these two teams develop a new product, with marketing specifically pertaining to this finals series, to be sold at the arena during the finals. Describe the product and the marketing in 150 words or create a promotional poster showing the product, its name, the price, etc.

This season the marketing team is going big in the concession stands for this series final between Buffalo and Hamilton. In both arenas, in order to commemorate this finals series, the geniuses in the marketing department have come up with the ultimate food item to be served during the duration of this series. They would like to introduce you all to, the Buffalo Ham Sandwich. That’s right, layers and layers of cooked Ham lathered up in spicy hot and tangy Buffalo sauce! It’s a sub sandwich that will knock your socks off and get you hyped up to be rooting for your favorite team in the series. Getting passionate about your team creates hunger, and this sandwich is the ultimate way to satisfy your cravings. The Buffalo Ham Sandwich will come with a commemorative and decorative napkin with the home team’s logo on it for you to take home or use if you need it. Everyone is very excited for this dish to be served during this series.

Code:
16. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is now 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.

doozy

bbp · 11-10-2020, 03:28 PM

1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?

I did amazing on the ice. I won so many fights! I think I went 11/12 in my fights. One time in the playoffs I had a fight then my team scored. This is why I play. This is why I fight. Also why did I do great? Because the glorious hockey gods let me increase my weight to 300 pounds… If only I could grow more then I’d be scary big tall murder maniac.

Next season I will continue to be exactly the same because I will be in my 5th season of junior and cannot get any better. There is small chance that I get picked up off waivers but no SHL team is bad enough to need a goon like me. For that reason I will try to win 100% of my fights in junior next season. Hopefully I can accomplish this but I cannot do anything to make it happen unfortunately.

Words: 155

3. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)
FHM's 12-team playoff bracket setup has received a fair bit of scrutiny. It re-seeds after the play-in round and for some reason puts the #1 seed and #2 seed on the same side of the bracket. I challenge you to come up with a different playoff format - can you come up with a format that's dumber/worse than this? be creative! Come up with the worst possible format for a 12-team playoff.

Yes. Single elimination best of one series where you rank the teams by goals for only… not wins. It will mean the best offensive teams get to play bad offensive teams and we have the same narrative every single series. DOES THE BETTER OFFENSE OR DEFENSE WIN! That would be terrible as it is irrelevant and best of ones suck.

In a world where you have to use points to rank… you have four divisions and take the top 3 teams from each division with no wild card spots. Everything is at the whims of divisional strength! This would be awful.

Words: 101.

6. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)
Which SHL or SMJHL team was the best team to not make the finals this season and why?

Last season’s Newfoundland Berzerkers were so amazing they won the championship unfortunately because teams age out in this silly league the team could not come back and destroy everyone a second time. They are the best team because they won last year. Steve Harrington was on that team and that flow was just the best. So obviously the team was too. There are no best teams that lose they are just bad teams all the same level of bad. These is no variation among losers just bad. Luckily the Berzerkers do not lose and we will win the championship again this year.

Words: 102

***JKortesi81*** · 11-10-2020, 04:17 PM

Task 16, CW Trivia, 3 TPE, 3 Total – Verification Word: JoeK

Task 1, 3 TPE, 6 Total - Another year for Xavier Doom in St. Louis, another year of disappointment. I got Doom to my 350 cap pretty quickly this year, so I couldn’t add to his build much. However, with the Scarecrows suffering from the worst draft class in STL history (just about everyone went IA sadly), I figured Doom would play a ton of minutes and be “THE GUY” this year. Not so much. Doom averaged only 15 minutes per game, and didn’t get a ton of special teams time either. His line of 6-15-21 was only a 7 point improvement. Doom did collect 50 hits and 61 shot blocks. He was good in his own end. He was 13th among all forwards in Defensive Game Rating. These numbers are just “okay”. I expected him to be a little bit better, but sadly I think the quality of the team around Doom is affecting him and he’s not doing as well as I’d like. I’m looking forward to my 3rd season at the 425 cap. Should be a doozy. (176)

Task 2, 3 TPE, 9 Total – Clearly I’m extremely biased for this task, but for sure I’m going to pick the NOLA cup finals. S46 and S55 were ridiculous battles with Buffalo, but the truth is that, to me, S54 stands out the most. The two Game 7 series’ with Buffalo were great, but they were supposed to be. Everyone expected a good series for those two. But in S54? All we got to hear about was how great Hamilton is. They swept Manhattan and beat Buffalo in 7 games. Everyone around the league was saying that Hamilton was just going to walk all over the Specters and win the championship. Everyone that wasn’t in our locker room that is. It was obvious that season that HAM/BUF only looked like world beaters when in reality they just inflated their stats against the 0-50 Tampa Bay team, along with Toronto and Baltimore. Basically the three worst teams in the league. After hearing about how NOLA didn’t have a change against the “unbeatable” Hamilton squad, it was even better to completely out coach them and sweep them relatively easily for our first ever cup win. Completely unexpected by most of the league. (196)

Task 7, 3 TPE, 12 Total – The prediction for the IIHF tourney is always the same here: The USA will win the gold baby. Team USA has been consistently one of the best teams in the FHM era, winning a ton of medals, and that would’ve been even more had we not forgotten to switch our goalies back for the medal rounds after the Round Robin. Canada will always be feisty as well. Team Japan looks to stick around, and Great Britain (who were 11-1 last tourney) will attempt to continue its excellent play of late. I think a team like Switzerland or Germany both have the potential to pull off some upsets and vault themselves into the “upper tier” in this one. In terms of scoring, look for Wagstrom to play well again, but I think Monkey D. Luffy will take the scoring title, although I think Maxime Bouchard might step it up and challenge for it as well. As for the best goalie? Look for Aleister Cain to continue being an international play monster. (170)

Task 13, 4 TPE, 16 Total –
a. While both teams have great skaters, its hard not to give the edge to Hamilton. They have Theo Morgan, who just set records this season, to go along with Wilson, Scarn, Clapper, Phelps, and Jazz. They’re just so solid up front. BUF is good too, for sure. It’s a lot closer than it looks and feels. (57)
b. It would be a fool’s errand to not tweak tactics during a series like this. Staying complacent is the quickest way for your opponent to make the right moves to figure out how to beat you. If you’re constantly making some tweaks, they’ll never be able to get a full read on what you’re doing every game. (58)
c. The greatest of the Great Lakes is very easily Lake Erie. Why you ask? Well, look at the terrible competition. First off, Lake Ontario is like “Canada’s Lake”, so it’s out when America is superior. Speaking of Superior, Lake Superior is anything but. Because it calls itself the superior lake, it simply can not be. Lake Michigan is in Michigan which a horrible state, so that’s out. And not a single soul ever remember Lake Huron exists. As a result of just awful competition, Lake Erie is the winner. (90)
d. I think once it’s safe I’d like to eventually hang out with Evok again. She’s my good friend and I had fun with her at TDZ’s wedding oh so long ago. If we’re looking for people we’ve never met before, I’d like to hang with Frick Nasty who’s on Hamilton technically. I know I’d have a great time with him, he’s a cool dude. (65)

karlssens · 11-10-2020, 04:33 PM

1. Written, 3 TPE - This season was an interesting one for Karlstraße Scholz. At a quick look you could easily argue it was a strong season for the veteran defender who just entered his first season of regression. His 42 points was a step back from last season, but he still led all Edmonton defenders and finished inside the top 5 league wide. Outside of offensive production however he was less than stellar. 23 takeaways is decent, but the 65 giveaways put him in the top 3 in that category, a place you never want to be. His 123 hits is a career high, but his +11 and -0.2 relative CF% and downright average given the number of opportunities he sees on the man advantage, not to mention the amount of minutes he plays each game. While not disappointed I'd like to see him return to the form we saw in S55 where he earned nominations for the Steven's and Bojo awards.

2. Written, 3 TPE - Buffalo coming back to defeat New Orleans in S55 was certainly a treat, but for me personally it has to be the S49 finals between Edmonton and New England. Edmonton has made 3 appearances in the last decade (4 if you include S45) and the win in S49 was easily the most enjoyable. Enroute to that title they managed to eliminate the Jets, Specters and Wolfpack. The Jets were a longtime rival of the Blizzard dating back to the early S40's as the two would constantly match up in the playoffs and the Jets would always get the better of them. and not like in 4 or 5 games, but 7 games every time. It was a huge sigh of relief to not repeat the past. Next was NOLA. Since their inception the Specters and Blizzard had a bit of an axe to grind because a number of Edmonton's players from their S45 cup run would ultimately end up on New Orleans via draft and free agency. Winning a 7 game series against your former teammates always tastes a little better. Lastly the finals against New England proved especially interesting as both GM's were former co-GM's on Edmonton. One left, the other stepped in and eventually became head GM once I stepped down. While perhaps not quite as meaningful for the players this was a huge series for the two front offices and it was nice to be on the winning side yet again.

7. Written, 3 TPE - Quick shoutout to my current team Norway. The last few seasons have been tough, but we've managed to pick up some quality names as of late. While we'll be hard pressed to get in to the medal round, let alone win a medal, I think we'll improve on our 15 points and -1 goal differential this time around. Now for my winner I'm going to go off the board a bit and say Sweden. They had a deep run last year and while not in the same realm as USA, Canada, Great Britain and Japan they have some nice pieces and decent depth to get it done this year. The most notable of which has to be Ola Wagstrom who led the round robin last season with an insane 24 points in just 12 games, including 13 goals. If he can repeat a similar performance and some other names like Passamus and Gallagher can step up they could surprise yet again in S56.

13. Written, up to 4 TPE -
a. Going to give the edge to Hamilton on this one. Luffy is on another level for Buffalo, but Morgan has been playing out of his mind this season and hasn't slowed down much in the playoffs. Add in the likes of Clapper, Scarn and last seasons MVP Aaron Wilson and they are beyond formidable.
b. I'll be honest I have little to zero knowledge on how FHM strategies work. Based on their previous performances these playoffs and most notably the regular season I have to imagine Hamilton will make very few changes to what appears to be a solid strategy. Buffalo on the other hand is fresh off a reverse sweep and may be more susceptible to making changes on the fly. They've had to overcome a few more adversities along the way.
c. What is this a trick question? Superior is obviously the greatest lake. Not only does the name imply it, but it's the largest and deepest of the 5 lakes. No other lake achieves a depth of 300m, but Superior has a depth of just over 400. It's volume of 12k km3 is more than double any of the other lakes, in fact it's actually more than the other 4 lakes combined!
d. Gabe seems like a cool dude. I was going to pick him until a saw the note. Jokes aside this one is super easy. I'd definitely go down to the states to visit Mr. ErM (Tor Tuck) if the borders weren't closed and this damn COVID wasn't a thing. Dude still owes me a football game @ErM

16. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE: Karl

*puolivalmiste* · 11-10-2020, 04:47 PM

1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

Arguably this was first good season for Björn in SHL even as during his second season up, season S52, that was still simmed with SimonT he scored almost 20 points and set his records for one season performance, out of which 15 assists is still his personal best for a season. While assists record still wasn't broken as Björn had 14 this season he ended up scoring 9 goals which is more than last 3 seasons combined and more than double of 4 which was his earlier record from S52. This was also first season when he hit double digits for positive plus minus including both seasons down in SMJHL while also having personal record for number of hits for a season. I expected to get better and hoped to break that point record that I had scored with about half the TPE I had this season and can say I'm glad with results I got, next season as whole team keeps improving I hope to see once again better season from whole team and from Björn too.

2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

I for one didn't mind following the PBPs, at least ones that I got engaged with, maybe I just saw good ones ore didn't care too much because I wasn't involved in any of these series personally at least as a player. Back in S50 I was still playing down on SMJHL in whalers and their GM MCP_ was playing in these finals on Tampa Bay Barracuda so I ended up getting bit hyped for him, specially after Tampa took 3-0 lead in series versus Calgary, I was getting ready to congratulate our GM and followed last 4 or maybe even 5 PBPs mostly live and was hoping to see Tampa finishing their impressive run. But that wasn't ment to be, game by game Calgary pushed series further and I was starting to get more nervous watching or following those PBPs. There was huge tension and in the end I think that loss contributed to what happened with Tampa during next few seasons, still that was most memoreable one for me and I'd imagine for many from Calgary and Tampa as well.

3. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

So you want a mess of a playoff format. First we need to make sure that divisions or conferences don't effect seeding so we just take top 12 teams on league based on points. Playoffs starts by seeds 11 and 12 play each other once with winner then moving up to face seed 10 while loser moves down to losers bracket, because this is double elimination. Winner always faces next seeded team and losers drop down until we have one team standing on top and one coming from losers finals. For grand finals teams play best of 7 series while team that hasn't lost a game gets one win advantage. This way we get always between 25 and 28 games with many teams having long waits and many of them only playing two or three games.

7. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Well I feel like I could once again write about same stuff that I have last few seasons about Canada and US being top dogs to beat and us, Finland, looking to finally make it to playoffs as we are getting better in season by season but my hopes for us aren't too high this season. We are missing quite many pieces to have complete SHL team, still, and while giving SMJHL players a chance to play and prove themselves TPE cap really hinders them, but at least we hopefully have better tournament than last time. I think Great Britain had great performance last time and am interested to see if they are able to repeat the success they had, bit same with Japan who saw some improvement from seasons 54 to 55 finishing second in their group above Czechia. For players it is so short tournament that anyone can preform well but I hope to see Björn to have some of that succed he had during SHL season here too.

9. Graphic, 3 TPE
[Image: UQ0g957.png]

16. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE
kerpele

Total TPE: 17/16

StadiumGambler · 11-10-2020, 05:22 PM

Code:
1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?

My goal this season for Nick Brain was 51 points or more. I achieved this goal by getting 56. I also wanted our team to achieve the goal of making the playoffs, and we achieved that. Despite that though I think this season was a bit of a disappointment. I felt the Jets could've finished 10th in the league or thereabouts, but we seemed to struggle to get enough big wins in the regular season to get past teams like LA or New England in the standings, plus Nick was suppressed in the playoffs by tight Chicago checking and held to like 2 or 3 points.

Next season's goals depend a lot on offseason moves. I would like Nick to get 67 points if its a 66 game season, but its hard to tell what the Jets will achieve in the regular season, especially after Barron got dealt. If the Jets make a couple free agent pickups that we couldn't last year then we've got something. Hopefully we can finish 10th in the league and win a surprise playoff matchup.

---

Code:
2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

Of the 10 most recent finals series, which do you think is the most memorable and why? Which will be remembered in history as the best/most important/most memorable series or victory? S46: BUF over NOLA, S47: WKP over CGY, S48: BUF over WPG, S49: EDM over NEW, S50: CGY over TBB, S51: HAM over EDM, S52: MAN over SFP, S53: HAM over EDM, S54: NOLA over HAM, S55: BUF over NOLA.

Season 50 will be a super memorable one, as the reverse sweep that Calgary dealt to Tampa Bay ended up setting several big events in motion that led to a lot of changes in the league, even to a few teams that weren't directly involved. Season 46's Buffalo vs New Orleans clash is a big favourite for me though, as it was the first SHL playoff series I really paid attention too, and had some bizarre real-life parallels to the NHL Cup finals between Washington and Vegas, including the finish where the cursed team climbed the mountain and beat the expansion upstarts.

New Orleans vs Hamilton in Season 54 was also notable as a mild upset, with Hamilton's tactics being undone by New Orleans to give them their first ever Cup, and preventing the team from being perma-jinxed. Had NOLA lost that they may not have been able to win again for quite a while, so it was a good storyline bit for them.

---

Code:
3. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

FHM's 12-team playoff bracket setup has received a fair bit of scrutiny. It re-seeds after the play-in round and for some reason puts the #1 seed and #2 seed on the same side of the bracket. I challenge you to come up with a different playoff format - can you come up with a format that's dumber/worse than this? be creative! Come up with the worst possible format for a 12-team playoff.

Ok so first round would feature all 12 teams taking each other on in the first round, producing 6 winners. 1 seed would face 2, 3 seed would face 4, and so on. 6 winners would then make it to the second round, which would feature two matchups of a three team Crash Bash hockey royale (where three teams play simultaneously on a super large rink with 3 goals forming a triangle). The two winning teams would advance to the finals. The four losers would face off in a 4 team Crash Bash hockey royal (on a super duper big rink with 4 nets), and then the winner of that game would advance to the finals for a 3 team matchup. The 18th ranked team in the league would then ambush the winners right after the Cup, be allowed to steal 10 players from teams that lost in the playoff, and would face the four-way winner in a normal hockey game, where the playoff victor has to start their backup in all games.

This would still be only slightly worse than what actually happens.

---

Code:
4. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

If the SHL needed to set up a playoff bubble (like the NHL did in Edmonton/Toronto or the NBA in Orlando), which city would be the best candidate to host as the hub city? What would the players do during their time in a playoff bubble? (For graphic option, make an advertisement [like a pamphlet/brochure] in support of a specific city as the hub city and highlighting the reasons why.)

The best candidate for a playoff bubble city is obviously Hamilton. Setting aside any opinions about the Steelhawks, its a city that no one in their right minds would ever visit, thus limiting general tourist exposure and probably lower virus numbers. (Hamilton's current total is below a 1 in 1000 case rate across their whole population of five hundred thousand plus.).

Hamilton, being a boring blue-collar city that kinda sucks, would also lack certain forms of entertainment that could put enterprising players in trouble, such as casinos, alcoholic watering holes of high class, and burlesque venues. Hamilton's idea of a strip club is probably several multiple time 40 year old divorcees with stretch marks in a basement using a support beam as a dance pole. Therefore the players could stay in their hotel room, focused and hungry on the task at hand. Compared to cities like New Orleans or New York or Los Angeles which have nothing but trouble and distractions, and Hamilton would be the logical choice.

---

Code:
8. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (150 words min. if written)

The arenas in Buffalo and Hamilton want to make sure they're pulling out all the stops on the big stage. Help the concessions department of one of these two teams develop a new product, with marketing specifically pertaining to this finals series, to be sold at the arena during the finals. Describe the product and the marketing in 150 words or create a promotional poster showing the product, its name, the price, etc.

The one that comes to mind for me is the Bird n' Bison Burger. This would be a take on the legendary McGangbang sandwich, a special order from McDonald's which is a Quarter Pounder burger patty and a McChicken patty under the same bun. The Hamilton Steelhawk part would obviously be the chicken patty, while the bison burger would be an infinite improvement over the Quarter Pounder "beef" patty. This sandwich would also contain lettuce, thinly sliced tomatoes, red onions, and pickles, topped off with salt and pepper on the tomatoes and a nice creamy dill sauce. The side would be fries and onion rings, plus a genuine draft root beer (or genuine draft regular beer) brewed locally in either Buffalo or Hamilton. I feel this meal would sell well if it was reasonably priced instead of concession bullshit priced, and would become a potential staple food in arenas worldwide after these playoffs.

Just missed the cut: Buffalo jerky seasoned exclusively with salt, and a whole roasted Steelhawk chicken.

Code:
6. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

Which SHL or SMJHL team was the best team to not make the finals this season and why?

I would've thought Chicago could've made it here, even though I had Buffalo/Hamilton down for the finals. Westbroek, Danny and Parker Smeb, and goaltender Tibuk Soonika were in destructive form in the regular season, and the Chicago bench bosses have adopted the top team strategies of high physicality and aggressive forechecking to great effect. Unfortunately they got caught in the wild and wacky vortex that was the Challenge Cup Semifinals and got eliminated. Honourable mention to Calgary, who seemed to get screwed by playoff seeding and fell short of even the semifinals. They had the best team in the West and Kata Vilde having an up year instead of a down year. They'll be back though.

*gurbs* · 11-10-2020, 05:39 PM

1. Written, 3 TPE (word count: 166)
This season was another rebuilding year for the North Stars. We finished a bit better than last year, but still are a few years away. Overall, I had a sub-par season in my opinion; with fully taking over 3C duties, my point total increased. I had a decent amount of goals, but I am hoping to get my assists up big time. I am hoping for a strong off-season and to bank some TPE so I can help put my team in a better position to win. I know we are still rebuilding, but I hope to be a part of the core moving forward so improving is the only option. We overall should have a better team on the ice next season, so I think with overall improvement of the team, my player will improve too. I hope to have a 20-20 season for my team, and I honestly think it is possible with the right offseason training and line mates next season.

4. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (word count: 150)
I think the SHL could set a bubble in Toronto for the eastern teams and they could do something like we saw in the NHL. If a team makes the playoffs, players could be inside the bubble for over two months. That means you’ll want to have as many options to fill your time away from the rink as possible. Each hub will have many restaurants (Tim Hortons, of course will be included), bars, food trucks, and coffee shops, as well as eight movie theaters, player lounges, and activity spaces for ping pong, swimming, and more. Also, Hotel X is adjacent to BMO Field, home of Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts, and with the stadium not in use by its respective teams, players and staff in the Toronto bubble are able to use the facility to watch games on the jumbotron or toss a ball around on the field.

7. Written, 3 TPE (word count: 157)
This year’s IIHF tournament will be the second one my player will be playing in. With my last season transfer to Team Sweden, I am very excited to see what our team can do. We have a solid roster that can make some noise. I wanted to join a team that was beneficial to both parties, and Sweden is perfect for that. When talking to the GM, I was offered “With 1K TPE I could probably give you top-line center, I’d guarantee top six and special teams.” The tournament has always been top heavy with the powerhouses doing amazing, but this year is Team Sweden’s time to make some noise. Last tourney saw Sweden, come in fourth place and I think with the addition and growth of our players we can medal this next season. We are excited to see how this tournament plays out and hope to see what growth we as a roster can show.

8. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (word count: 182)
One thing Hamilton could try for their concession is the Chicken Churro Sandwich “Chicken tender topped with GREAT CANADIAN maple syrup on a churro bun” There is not a single thing wrong with this. It feels like a twist on chicken and waffles in a way I can absolutely get down with. Sometimes you don’t need to cram nine million things into a single food item. Just give me some fried chicken and something sweet and I’m yours. I do wish there was a heat element to this, but it gets top marks just for using the phrase “churro bun.”
Another great idea is Friar’s Fries “Fries, pork belly lechon, chicharron crumbles, pickled red onions, sweet drop peppers, cilantro aioli, scallions, smoked mozzarella”
The entire “loaded fries” concept is a bit of a minefield. My general opinion is throwing stuff on fries is the easy way out in making a “wacky” item that lacks imagination. Friar’s Fries are an exception. You have salty, sweet, and sour, and just when you think it’s all over they hit you with smoked mozzarella. Bravo, Padres.

13. Written +1 (word count: 85)
c. Lake Ontario is the greatest lake and it isn’t even a competition. The ferries and water taxis to and from the islands are a nice trip as is a walk along the Lake shore with the many boats and birds to see. Toronto is finally coming around to appreciating its access to a stretch of Great Lake shore. The city grew up around a natural harbour sheltered by the Toronto Islands, and while the GTA extends well past that core, Lake Ontario's shore extends throughout.

16. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max
Verification word: word

Total +16

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us