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?

This was a great season ultimately for Jax, only hitting the 50 point threshold for the second time in his career thanks to the help of Austin Roenick on his wing and the steady improvement of Phineas Gold on his other side. While I didn't get much time on special teams, I was still able to be effective in 5v5 and ultimately carried most of my points from there. My only disappointment is in my relative skill to my teammates, as I age I'm obviously slowing down, and it shows in my corsi for relative being a -2.0. However, this was my best offensive season since S53, and is also my best defensive season in spite of playing with weaker defensive players, holding a GA/60 of 2.3. While it mostly comes in thanks to the improved chemistry and the offensive firepower on my wings, I was able to show I can still contribute and lead a line, so it's a big success. This has definitely been my best season in a while, and shows well for how I age.

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2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Of the 10 most recent finals series, which do you think is the most memorable and why? Which will be remembered in history as the best/most important/most memorable series or victory? S46: BUF over NOLA, S47: WKP over CGY, S48: BUF over WPG, S49: EDM over NEW, S50: CGY over TBB, S51: HAM over EDM, S52: MAN over SFP, S53: HAM over EDM, S54: NOLA over HAM, S55: BUF over NOLA.

For myself personally, it would be the S52 series, as it's the one that capped off all of my hard work with a Challenge Cup. It also had an incredible story that was a decade in the making, as the teams who committed to rebuilds and were the top two in the draft for S43 end up ten seasons later hitting the ice one on one, with the turncoat Luke Thomason being one of the key players having been drafted by the Pride and playing for the Rage at the time. It was two teams being led by cores that started at the same time, hitting their primes and meeting one on one in what was their ultimate goal, with one team who had consistent successes in their time and the other consistent failings. It was a storybook ending, in some ways, and something that ultimately solidified the Rage and Pride rivalry as a legitimate success.

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3. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)
FHM's 12-team playoff bracket setup has received a fair bit of scrutiny. It re-seeds after the play-in round and for some reason puts the #1 seed and #2 seed on the same side of the bracket. I challenge you to come up with a different playoff format - can you come up with a format that's dumber/worse than this? be creative! Come up with the worst possible format for a 12-team playoff.

For the record, this would be extremely fun. For starters, we're going to allow for the first seed to play the 12th seed right out of the gate. It will go 1v12, 2v11, 3v10, 4v9, 5v8, 6v7 to start. The winners will then be given the ability to claim 1 player from the losing team to utilize moving forward. The second round allows us to have 3 games per side, but then we have 3 teams. This is where things get fun, by random draw, one team will receive a bye, but only for two games. The team in the lead after two games will then be given a bye for another two games, if the teams are tied it becomes a random draw yet again. Once the next two games are done, the team that has not received a bye will receive a 2 game bye as well. This continues until 2 teams have received 4 losses, leaving us with one team to move on to the Finals. The teams meeting in the finals will then compete, but considering the amount of games they just played in the conference finals, they will carry over any wins in excess of 4 from that round to the Finals to then compete in a best of 9, possibly best of 11, series. This will be fascinating, as the teams have also added at minimum four additional players and will have games in hand moving into the Finals in which they may only need one or two wins in order to win the whole thing. It would be hilarious.

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4. Written/Graphic, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
If the SHL needed to set up a playoff bubble (like the NHL did in Edmonton/Toronto or the NBA in Orlando), which city would be the best candidate to host as the hub city? What would the players do during their time in a playoff bubble? (For graphic option, make an advertisement [like a pamphlet/brochure] in support of a specific city as the hub city and highlighting the reasons why.)


While this is one of the boring answers in a way, the easiest is the west being in Edmonton for sure. It's a big city with a deep, rich history in the SHL of success and major drawing power. They would be ecstatic to bring in something like this and repay everything the SHL has brought them. In the East is the more difficult situation. While Toronto is a logical option as well, I think it should go somewhere that has a recent history of success as well. This is where we could explore options like Chicago or Manhattan, but those hubs also could have difficulties with a good set up of entertainment while covid continues to spike as well. I think in this case, I would set up in the Buffalo area instead. While they aren't the best in terms of entertainment, they're near the Canadian border and something where we can manage family time potentially easier. It's a place that has a history of great success in the SHL, and has plenty of space to be able to manage the necessary border for the the bubble.

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6. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)
Which SHL or SMJHL team was the best team to not make the finals this season and why?

I think this is fairly obvious. While I'd love to say Manhattan got screwed here, it's just the situation of FHM, we're somehow always a step behind even when we're a step ahead. Between Chicago or Calgary is the debate, and Chicago is easily ahead of Calgary to my eye and the best team guaranteed. Unfortunately, they just hit the wall with a bad match-up. Chicago was just behind Hamilton as the clear best team, and had the best scoring and defense combination. They had weaknesses, no doubt, but they were easily set up to be the biggest challenge in the playoffs. It's unfortunate, but it just proves the talent of the teams in the Finals to be able to make it by such a tough challenge.

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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.

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