TASK ONE: You’re the coach of one of the teams in the playoffs! At least you’d like to think you are. Come up with a new set of lines for one of the teams eliminated in the playoffs, and explain why you made the choices you did. Must be at least 150 words.

I’ll be doing the Toronto North Stars lineup.

Damien Wert – Travis Kudleychuk – Chris York
Elias Lindstrom – Evandrus Jesster – Kristian Eriksson
Teddy Kesler – Dane Rowe – Reed Laing
Dakota Reid – Patrick Kilgore – Robb Wind

Cynthia Taylor – Chris Crutchfield
Zander Rhys – Marc-Andre Malkin
Jack Hansen – Kristoffer Ruud

I tried to balance out the scoring a bit more between lines, as well as match up passers with scorers. I would also probably try and balance out the playing time a bit more, in an attempt to let the best players perform as well as they can when they are on the ice. I would probably split the ice time 35/30/25/10 for the forwards and 40/40/10 for the defense. One other thing I tried to do was to get players into their actual positions. The main outliers being that Jesster and Kesler switched positions because Jesster is such a good face-off man, while Kesler is still young and developing.

TASK TWO: Who is your choice for the unsung hero of the S36 playoffs up to this point? Must be at least 150 words and include at least two statistics in support.

My choice for unsung hero of the S36 playoffs would be Lord Vader. He might get overlooked a bit because he did not score any goals and he only ended up 9th in team scoring, but he is the defensive backbone of the Texas Renegades. Not only did he lead the Renegades in time on ice, averaging close to 29 minutes a game, but he also lead the entire league in minutes played, beating out Silverwing and Bure, both of whom played 2 more games than Lord Vader. Vader was also 3rd in the league in blocked shots, getting in front of a whopping 31 shots over the playoffs. His +5 rating also shows that the team was better off with him on the ice than without him. Playing heavy minutes, Lord Vader showed he could be relied upon in all situations, against all kinds of players and all kinds of teams.

TASK THREE: Who has the edge, New England or Texas? What (or who) will be the biggest factor for one team to triumph over the other? Must be at least 150 words.

It feels kind of weird to be writing this now that the playoffs are over, but I would have said that the New England Wolfpack had the edge going into the finals. One giant factor that the Wolfpack looked to have was in goaltending. Laukkanen is an elite goalie (arguably the best in the league), and he was playing lights out through the first 2 rounds. His play did not hold up in the finals and his numbers took a hit. The Texas Renegades are also a pretty top-heavy team at forward, while the New England Wolfpack have a bit more balanced scoring depth. The defense looked to be pretty even, with Mia Landvik leading one side and Lord Vader leading the other. Again though, Texas was pretty top-heavy, while New England had more balance in terms of playing time. Obviously none of this really matters, because Texas won, but these are just my superficial thoughts looking at the team rosters.

TASK FOUR: The SHL is hosting a charity event including members of both teams from a series during this postseason. Describe how this teamwork event would go in a minimum of 150 words. Must include three player names from each team, the name of a charity and at least one activity.

The SHL has announced a new charity event with the goal to raise money for children with learning disabilities and their participation in sports and physical activities. Working closely together with members from both the Toronto North Stars and New England Wolfpack, the SHL will host the event a week from today. The event will consist of a silent auction, with many items up for grabs including signed jerseys, hockey sticks, vacation packages, and much more. During the event there will be a catered dinner provided for all those who show up, as well as various presentations and speeches from important figures from the SHL and local charity owners and entrepreneurs. There will also be appearances from many famous players, such as Cynthia Taylor, Chris York, the rookie Elias Lindstrom, and prospect Jack Hansen from the North Stars, Mia Landvik, Spitfire, Patrikov Bure, and Mikke Laukkanen from the Wolfpack, among various other players and stars.