Quote: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 was quite possibly Noah's best season on the ice so far in his not so young anymore SHL career. He set a career high in both goals and points, reaching half a point per game for the first time ever. Noah has really started to settle into a consistent role in the Texas system, as a two-way defenseman responsible for both shutting down the opposition and also assisting the offense with a strong blueline presence. His sudden surge offensively can be contributed to his work with the coaching staff during the past offseason, who really helped to develop his game on that end of the ice without sacrificing any ability on the defensive end. You also need to credit his teammates who have also been developing strongly around him and everyone has been able to contribute together on both ends of the ice. As the team gets better offensively and defensively, it'll continue to help Noah out season after season since everyone will be performing at a high level.

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Quote: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.

Well one idea for playoff formats that I always hear thrown around is letting the higher seeds pick their opponents. So the #1 overall seed would get to pick who they want to play in their opening round, the next highest seed then would get to pick their opponent, and so on until all of the matchups are set. I think this is both an interesting idea but also an idea that I truly hate. Letting teams pick their opponent opens up too much room for scrutiny for a team choosing to pick a "bad" team instead of picking an interesting rivalry or something that the fans would be more interested in. I say just let the matchups happen naturally.

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Quote: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.)

There are a lot of options here, but I'm going to go with Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a great midwestern sports state. You've got the Packers up in Green Bay for the NFL, and then you've got MLB and NBA teams down in Milwaukee with the Brewers and the Bucks. The state is dying for hockey action and settles for having an AHL team down in Milwaukee. The AHL's Milwaukee Admirals play at the UW-Panther Arena downtime in a beautiful part of the city, just minutes away from Lake Michigan. Right next to the Panther Arena is the brand new Fiserv Forum that is also equipped to host hockey games, so the bubble could easily be played out at those two arenas. There are plenty of hotels right next door to both of the arenas as well so travel would be a non-issue. With some fantastic sights to see and state of the art facilities, it would be hard to pass up Milwaukee as a midwestern bubble host.

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Quote: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?

This season I think the accolade has to go to the Chicago Syndicate. Honorable mention goes to Calgary because they also had an excellent season, but I have to give the edge to Chicago because they were playing in a bit tougher of a conference. With Hamilton and Buffalo to duke it out with, the fact that Chicago performed as well as they did during the regular season is really telling. It's unfortunate that they met their demise in the conference finals, but they shouldn't hang their heads over that. I think you can expect to see Chicago continue to make some noise next season, and who knows. Maybe we'll find them in the finals this time around.

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Quote: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?

I make just about the same prediction every season and don't expect me to change much up at this point. One team that I'm marking as a lock to make the medal rounds is Canada. Year after year, you can expect Canada to always be a contender and making waves in the tournament. Another team I like to predict and feel more confident this season about compared to previous years, is Germany. The German squad struggeled two seasons ago but really rebounded nicely last season. I think they can take another step forward this season and make an appearance in the medal round. Yet another team that I always predict to do well is the American squad in the United States. And last but not least, I'm putting Great Britain into the medal round. Both of those squads showed they have what it takes to compete at the international level last season and I expect them to do the same this time out.

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Quote: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.

seriesX

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3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 16 TPE