Completed: 16/16

To be honest, this was not the season I expected.  I had about 4 more minutes per game compared to last season, but my hits / hits taken / and shots blocked all stayed almost constant.  The real surprise was that I doubled my points, with 7 goals and 28 assists compared to last season's 18 assists.  Although I have a minimum scoring rating, I slipped in five power play goals, an empty netter, and one even strength.  Overall, I'm glad with my +8 performance compared over +2 from last season.

Last season, I was very proud of my work on the special teams.  I was not on the power play like this season, but I pulled huge shifts on the penalty kill and the Scarecrows had the best penalty kill % in the league at 84.77% (5% over the average).  This season, I also pulled huge shifts on the penalty kill, but we had the league worst kill at 76.47% (5% below the average).  That area of the game is probably the most disappointing for me.

1. How can you doubt Joe K?  You've seen the magic that he pulled in the SMJHL with the Scarecrows.  Now, together with TDZ, he's built a team from scratch and taken them into the finals on the first try.  It came up in a previous point task, but you can see Joe has some chess pieces he's already familiar with from former Crow rosters.  Clearly they have a lot of trust in their protege goalie, Aleister Cain, who was the Crow goalie, then the 1OA pick in the expansion draft.  You gotta think they are comfortable going into this series to play some cup winning hockey.


I got a text from my good pal Cainer @SlashACM that he wanted to see me in the New Orleans locker room, and to be honest I wish I left him on read after what I saw.  See, Cainer wasn't actually in the locker room, but Nicholas Williams @Nictox was... god, I've never seen so much hair and so much peanut butter all in one place...

The first thing that I noticed was the jar of peanut butter with the spoon poking out of the top.  The shaft of the spoon had so many hairs matted onto it that it looked like some novelty keep your utensils promotion at the planet of the apes theme park ride.

Next up was the partially hairy hams staring back at me.  One cheek fully shaven, one cheek still waiting for its time under the razor.  In my peripheral vision, I saw a similar pattern up and down his arms and legs.  Like an Olympic swimmer in the making but not with a body for swimming.

Last thing I noticed was the big old headphones blocking out the rest of the world for Williams.  That was my saving grace as I slowly backed out of the room without drawing any attention from this hairless hairy beast.  I'm not sure what the peanut butter was for, but I'm really hoping it was just a snack and he was being efficient with his time...


The large charity event that I planned was the Corndog Safari which supports dog shelters around the United States.  For my Corndog Safari, I collected the best corndogs in the nation and took over the streets surrounding the arena in Buffalo.  I have an in with the 5 major carnival circuits that control the summer fun times on the continental United States, so they were able to find the best corndog vendors from all 48 continental states.  Alaska and Hawaii were a little trickier, but I pulled some strings and got those represented as well.  Players and fans mingled and munched prior to the game, voting for their favorites.  Each state's selected shelter got most of the profits from their corndog representative, however the winning state got the glory (a trophy of a corndog on a hockey stick) and a cut of all other profits.

In unrelated news, a high percentage of toilets in the arena were mysteriously clogged with what looked like partially digested corndogs by the end of the 2nd period.


I've already booked my tickets to join the Winnipeg Jets main roster at the conclusion of the Four Star Cup finals (where the Scarecrows are battling for the three-peat that started in my rookie season, not a big deal).  During the S45 draft, I fell a bit deeper into the first round than some people expected so the Jets jumped on the opportunity to trade up a pick and secure me.  They've invested in me already, and I don't want to let them down.

As far as the other Defensemen on the roster and in the prospect pool, I don't actually feel like there is a competition because it isn't too crowded.  In the current state of things we have a solid core of three 1000+ TPE defensemen, with 3 others in the pipeline.  As the younger defensemen come into their own, we can replace the inactive plugs to round out a solid blue line squad.

I have high expectations on myself to perform in this upcoming rookie season, although as a defensive oriented player, my first and foremost goal is to not be a liability.  It will be my first time playing against skaters that are over twice my own skill level and I'll be focusing my game on shutting them down.  Like I mentioned in a different question, this past regular season has been abnormally high on the scoring for me.  During my offseason training, I'm planning on tidying up my scoring so it isn't so far behind my other skills and pushing my passing strength further so I have a secondary goal to produce around the middle of the pack.


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