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?

I think Andrej did what he was supposed to. Scored few points, didn’t look like a complete traffic cone on the defense, attempted to murder people over 300 times this season. I would call that a pretty decent collection of stats, and I am personally not exactly expecting me to be able to propel him any further. Last season of not regressing with a player I have never been a top earner on ends up very likely being one of the last few seasons in which he will be any good, and he can feel in his bones that retirement is reasonably close and he has limited time to achieve something in the league. Obviously, winning the Challenge cup is a great achievement, but being recognized on a more individual level is something that every player would enjoy experiencing, and Andrej wants to get his toes wet while he is still at the top of his game and at least secure his name on something more individual than the Challenge cup.


2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Well, dang. Your team didn't make the finals this season - my condolences to you. Are you and your teammates planning on watching the finals even though you're not in it? If so, what are your watch parties like? If not, are you still following the finals or trying to ignore it completely? What are you and your teammates doing together (if anything) instead of following along? (if you're on Hamilton or New Orleans, or either of the 2 SMJHL teams that soon will be playing in the finals - congrats and sorry :p this one isn't for you!)

To be fair I think watching the finals, even if you are not in them is still interesting enough. We are all hockey fans after all so any hockey we can get is good, especially when you are dealing with the recently lost series against one of the teams in the finals. I have to say, the watch parties are kinda calm though – some people around here are basically not paying any attention and just playing DnD, some others are just chilling at the TV drinking some extra special beer and absolutely basking in the glory of how weird and extra it is, some of us actually pay attention and just have a typical sports fan experience, and some didn’t even show up! Apparently, people’s newborn children are more important than their teammates, how rude of them, but I am yet to be able to convince either JY or Luke to actually just trade them on the spot for someone who doesn’t care about their family as much.


14. Written, 2 TPE - The Procrastinator Special! (100 words min)
Welp, you waited until the last day to grind out your CW and the CC finals are longggggggg over by now. congrats to [TEAM], woo! Reflecting back on the series, who gets your vote for series MVP? Make the case why this player deserves it over any other.

I personally believe that while NOLA played an amazingly interesting series and basically brought us the least expected end to the finals, no one really showed up as much as Alester Cain. Their goaltender managed some absolute miracles in the net, holding up shots and not allowing soft goals while NOLA’s super focused offense proceeded to shred Kryyst apart, so when Hamilton finally cracked the goaltender under too much pressure, NOLA was already laughing on the bench with a 2 goal lead. Especially considering NOLA had a very score by comittee approach in the finals, there is no other skater that much ahead of the pack to stand above what their goaltender not only in the finals, but also in the other series did for the team and how he propelled them to the first cup in the franchise history.


6. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Occasionally, broadcast networks will bring an active player into the TV coverage of ongoing finals if their team has been eliminated, and that player is often to give unique insights from a current player's perspective. During this NOLA-HAM finals, which SHL player or prospect would be a good addition to the Challenge Cup TV coverage? Why would that player be a good addition to the broadcast team?

I think I will nominate mr. Jax Aitokallio into this position as I believe with his very in depth knowledge of the league that so many of his family has played in, he could be a very interesting addition of historical knowledge that might be useful during the games with Hamilton in them, which tend to be very boring and spotty on action aswell. Obviously as someone who lost to one of the teams in the finals in a previous series, he would also be able to bring in fairly interesting inside knowledge about the specific matchup as he has felt how it feels to play against Hamilton from a perspective the commentators might not have. In general, I think that Jax would be a great addition not only for the knowledge part of the cast, but also for the part trying to kill time until Hamilton finally allows someone to have a shot on net again.


13. Written, up to 4 TPE Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.
c. The Specters won both regular season matchups, but Hamilton finished with better team stats overall. Do regular season head-to-heads provide an accurate forecast for a playoff series? (answer predictively if it hasn't happened yet; reactively if it has.)

Well, as much as I wouldn’t have expected regular season series to matter, apparently NOLA absolutely had the number of the metal birds here and it was certainly an interesting series from the tactical standpoint as it clearly showed how very one-dimensional Hamilton can be and if you have a roster capable of exploiting that, there is nothing Hamilton can do against you.

d. If SDCore offered you an all-expenses paid week-long vacation to either New Orleans or Hamilton, which city would you choose to go to? (tough choice I know lol.) How would you spend your time there?

What a massive surprise to everyone that I would choose New Orleans. Not even because I would majorly enjoy what NOLA has to offer, but Hamilton? What the hell is in Hamilton, I don’t even know where the bloody place is let alone what can I do there. NOLA is a pretty interesting place on it’s own though, very unique compared to the rest of the USA it feels and would be a fun experience just to explore on your own, maybe try out some of the local booze that apparently seems to be very popular and god knows, maybe go and see some gators, sounds like fun to a Czech kid.


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.
Verification - Explosion