S62 Championship Week

S62 Championship Week

Nike
SHL GM
S22, S28, S40, S42 Challenge Cup Champion & Merica Lover

#114

12-22-2021, 05:35 PM (This post was last modified: 12-25-2021, 12:01 PM by Nike.)

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

Nike

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2. Written, 3 TPE, GM stands for Great Man (150 words min.)

There have been some good and some bad GMs in SHL history. (Mostly bad) Pick a GM you think was outstanding and explain why you think they were one of the better GMs in SHL history. Point to trades/signings/trophy wins/locker rooms to support your claim.

While not an underappreciated GM by any stretch of the imagination, likely one of the more forgotten GMs of the last 10+ seasons of the SHL is @Leafs4ever. Leafs was for many seasons, likely the most respected users & owners of the SHL. His professional demeanor and ability to be fair, impartial and honest was part of what made him so successful as a site owner, manager and player. He was widely respected among all of us that were here in the early S10s, and was a mainstay with the Winnipeg organization for the entirety of my first two or three players. Leafs was not the most active GM on the trade front, the free agent front or otherwise. It was never flashy with Leafs. But Winnipeg was pretty much always competitive; always competing for a playoff spot and more than a few times were they right there at the end of the Challenge Cup finals. Without a doubt, Leafs4Ever is a deserving GM for the SHL Hall of Fame and one of the most outstanding folks I ever met on this site.

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4. There have been a lot of rule changes in the SHL. Where do you think these changes have gone right, where do you think they have gone wrong? Would you ever want to go back to a previous way of doing things? Do you think the SHL is fine as is?

There is one, new and egregious rule change that has gone wrong. And that rule is the new regression rule. I will beat on this drum all day until I turn blue in the face and everyone in the league wants me to disappear forever for fear of having to hear about regression. You want to make the SHL more lifelike, sure that’s fine. But for the love of god can we please not continue to have a system that punishes players for wanting to continue on with a single character for more seasons. As much as I absolutely adored my latest trip to the SMJHL, the fact of the matter is that there are many users who don’t like to create a new player. They don’t want to have to start all over from scratch and they want to keep the player they are currently building. By nerfing those players into the sun with a heavily loaded regression schedule, it takes the fun out of the league for those users who want to build a player for longevity and not for single season dominance.

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

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a. What is worth more to you, a cup win in the FHM era or the STHS era?

A cup in the FHM era likely means that you were among the best teams and deserved to be there. A cup in the STHS era (pre-breaking) meant that you were among the top half of the league and managed to find some luck and correct line combinations along the way. A cup in the STHS era means more to me because the league was simply a different animal back then. GMs were simply not as capable of the testing and preparation as they are today. Teams that looked dominant on paper, could fizzle out. The league had more randomness, and in my opinion, created more excitement come playoff seasons as a result.

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b. Be honest, would we have seen the same final 4 as last year (Chicago, Texas, Hamilton, Buffalo) had BUF/HAM and TEX/CHI not run into each other in the second round?

If Buffalo and Hamilton and Texas and Chicago had not run into eachother in the second round, yes, I do believe we likely would have seen the same final 4 teams again this year. And, while those are the top teams in the league, I also believe that the shift of other teams headed in to compete is starting to show. I think next year we might even see a new team in the finals

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c. Hamilton has a population of roughly 5 people. Where would you relocate the franchise?

Honestly, why are we even bothering to relocate the franchise? Just disband the entire team, fire all of the staff and fire them into the sun. Relocating them is basically allowing them to continue to exist but live in our universe. We don’t want them and they should go away. If you are going to relocate them, relocate them to the sun. There, I answered the question.

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d. Who is the best player to NOT make the final in the past 2 years?

Ryuuji Minamino. Are you freaking kidding me with this guy? SIXTY goals in a single season? Over 100 points. One of the most single handedly impressive seasons that we will likely ever see in the FHM era of the SHL. And this guy doing it on a roster that is already incredibly talented. He just never missed all year with a shooting percentage in the high teens. He’s without a doubt the best player not in the finals in S61.