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W19eaver · 12-18-2020, 04:53 AM

Oh S57 Nevada Battleborn what is going on with you? After last season's surprise divisional win, big time trade and maintaining a fairly active player base, the hype coming into this season was real. The hype was so real that outsiders even had the Battleborn ranked at the top coming into this season. What kind of dark turn of events have occurred for them to be sitting where they are, last in their division, 2nd last in their conference and a measly 14 wins in 35 games played. So going into the S56 season Nevada's expectations were pretty much just be better then year 1. They certainly were better and by a lot, they had 44 point increase from year 1 to year 2. Now I'm not about to do the research but that's got to be some kind of record. Things were going so good that year, management decided to sell off pretty much all their S57 draft picks and went all in on Rock Strongo and Sven Gunnar. Very bold moves but the thought was to capitalize on their strong performance so far and go for it all. It didn't work out so well in S56 as they got their first round bye but then ended up losing 4 games to 1 against Anchorage in the 2nd round. The team was disappointed but still very excited for the upcoming year. What was not to be excited coming into S57 season, team only lost 1 player to call up, their initial rookie class and mostly remained active. The whole team was a buzz and we even had the rest of the league respecting us. Going into the preseason their was 2 separate prediction/ranking articles put out that had put the Battleborn on top of the league. First CoA released an article where he tried to predict the season using all the teams TPE totals. From his article its stated that coming into the season Nevada was ranked 3rd in offense, 1st in defense, 1st in goaltending and 1st overall in TPE per team. When predicting Nevada to come in first this is what he had to say, "Nevada just went and did a Newfoundland. Creating a team with some of the crazier TPE values we have seen in the SMJHL, the cup seems to only have 2 major competitors for it and Nevada is probably the favorite out of those 2. We will see how much tactics favor in to these strengths, but expecting Nevada anywhere but at the top of the West is honestly a bit silly." It was a lot of praise coming from a respected SMJHL GM. Then a few days late the SJHN released their preseason power rankings. Not surprising Nevada was once again ranked number 1 and they had this to say about the team, "Arkz: And here we have it, the top team in the league in Nevada. As you can see by the ranking swing, it was unanimous and we’ll have to see how things will shake out but Nevada has certainly put themselves as the favorite team to make a run at the Four-Star Cup. They have all the tools they need to perform, in a strong offense and and even better defense and goaltending. Scoring will come at a premium for teams that play the Battleborn, and they’ll need that sort of strength when facing some top offenses in Vancouver and Anchorage regularly in the West. But with Vancouver regressing, it looks like it may once again be a dog fight between Nevada and Anchorage for the top spot in the West. Right now we give the edge to Nevada, but a lot can change once the pucks get dropped. Shuff: Ranked number one is the Nevada Battleborn, who lost just Leonids Balzams to the SHL this season. While that is 21 points, that is not the worst hole to find yourself in. Their defense is scary deep with 5 players at 425, and one almost there, sadly for them Sniff is capped at 350 so they won’t get to the full 425 defense, but it will be a fully capped defense. They combine that with 2 425 goalies in Supernaw and Weaver, and don’t expect to score on the Battleborn. On the offensive side they have the first two lines to hang with anybody, and their third line should hold its own as well. The Battleborn are our favorites in this, the first power rankings. Job well done by Jearim and Noka to take an expansion team and get them to number one." Again a ton of praise from 2 highly respected members of this site. All in all Nevada looked a fierce giant on paper coming into this season, but a paper giant is still only made of paper and that paper sure has crumbled. For whatever reason, call it tactics, line and role management or just plain old RNG but Nevada has not been the team we all thought they should have been. Their leading scorers which are Zelma Zuntner and James Kimanje have 22 points a piece which has them tied for 31st in the league. Now offense was never going to be Nevada's strongest suit this season they have been even worse in their bread and butter defensive zone letting in a league 2nd highest goals against. Their goaltenders are doing alright but every knows goalies are a crapshoot in FHM. It's definitely taken a hit on team morale but I believe better things are coming. Nevada has completely refined their tactics and things seem to be trending up. They are currently riding a 5 game win streak which included a very impressive 2 - 0 win over the league leading Quebec City Citadelles. If things can continue this way, and I believe they will, Nevada will no longer just be a giant on paper but on the simulated ice as well. LETS GO BATTLEBORN.

(990 words according to wordcounter.net/626 without the quotes)

jRuutu · 12-18-2020, 07:25 AM

#BacktoBackBattleborn

Wawazat · 12-18-2020, 04:38 PM

“I ONLY MEANT TO BURN THE F’N PAPER… F$&@ I HATE 2020!”

[Image: tumblr_pqmqqzuSEd1qgpaguo6_500.gifv]

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