Current Progress: 16/16

Quote: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?

Luca Del Vecchio fared about as well as he could have fared considering the team in front of him. On a team that gave up the most shots and with a weak roster in front of him, it’s honestly a miracle that he survived the whole season without injuries. In fact, Del Vecchio was the goalie with most shots against and most saves in the entire league, often facing more than 50 shots a night. Honestly, Del Vecchio is in a world of his own for the most part and for next season, in fact for all future seasons, just has to continue performing like he is. Once the young players come in and develop some more, he’ll be able to show that he belongs among the elite players, both at his position and in the league. For that, he’ll just have to continue saving as many pucks as he can, and keep staying in the zone every night.
(159 words)

Quote: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.

Of the last 10 Challenge cup finals, the one that will remain the most memorable to me will always be the S47 series between the West Kendall Platoon and the Calgary Dragons. First and foremost, I was the captain of the Platoon on the way to conquering a third and final cup with a Platoon team that dominated the S40s. Secondly, that season, the Platoon went big, like 5 points more than anyone else in the standings and 3 players in the top 10 scorers in the league.
In the playoffs, Crossfit Jesus, Dani Forsberg & Gabriel Wong were beasts, scoring 1 point per game respectively but it was Beaujeaux Biscuit’s performance in the nets that was memorable. The final series itself was a sweep but the best feeling in the world remained. That of being the SHL champions once more. To us, the real final was the 4-3 win over the Stampede in the conference finals. The East was much stronger than the West and the finals showed us why.
(171 words)

Quote:7. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
What's your prediction for this season's IIHF tournament? Which teams do you expect to do well (or not well)? Which players?

This year’s IIHF tournament is going to be very much akin to the previous IIHF tournament. I fully expect Great Britain, USA and Canada to be the favourites going into the tournament. I also expect Japan, who surprised many a viewer by reaching the finals last year, to be a much stronger dark horse than last season. Other interesting teams that could make waves in the tournament this year include Switzerland, Norway and Germany.

Player wise, I expect Luca Del Vecchio to be challenging for the Top Goaltender of the tournament once more, with such a stacked defensive corps that some of them will have to play as skaters. With only one player making his international debut with the British lions, this team’s core looks solid for another few seasons. For the skaters, Theo Morgan looks to once again lead Canada deep into the tournament and will look to add some international silverware to his tally, after dominating the SHL’s regular season as well as the playoffs.
(167 words)

Quote: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.
a. Both of these teams have an impressive set of skaters - without factoring in any coaching or tactical strategies, which team do you think has the better roster of skaters on paper?
b. Do you foresee the teams making any strategic adjustments during the course of the series? Should the teams be quick to switch tactics or stick with what they've been using?
c. These two teams hail from the Great Lakes Division. Which of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) do you think is the Greatest and why?
d. If, once it is safe to do so, you had to go hang out in person with one of the users on Buffalo/Hamilton, who would you hang out with and what would you do? (if you pick gabe you get -1 tpe)

A. Hamilton has Theo Morgan and the legend that is Robert Phelps. They also have Ray Bork who has arguably the best name of any player on both teams combined. Next to Dick Clapper & Aaron Wilson, this team is stacked both front and back. Really the only knock on this team is that they have Gabriel Johnson who is a terrible player and person. (64 words)

B. When you get as far as the Finals, there are so many games that have been played that you don’t dare touch anything for fear of breaking what works. I would say that both teams will stick to what they have unless something goes horribly wrong. Having been there in the SMJHL finals back on Kelowna, neither us nor St. Louis touched strategies and lines for that very reason. (69 words)

C. Lets analyze the lakes. Lake Erie is too eerie to be the greatest. Lake Ontario isn’t fully in Ontario so that cancels any claim it may have. The same applied to Lake Michigan that is split between Michigan and Wisconsin so we have to rule it out as well. This leaves us with Lake Superior & Lake Huron. Lake Superior claims it’s superior but is it really? The only cities along it are Thunder Bay & Duluth, both are isolated places which means that this lake is the highest geographically but not actually the greatest. This leaves us with Lake Huron as the sole survivor by this flawed logic. Henceforth Lake Huron is the greatest. (115 words)

D. My homie and Kelowna buddy Tweedledum would be my first choice of hanging out with just to go back on the good times that we had, from hosting the original draft streams to the Saturday Knight Live podcasts we had a ton of fun together back then. We haven’t done much since those days as we moved on to our respective SHL teams after that. (65 words)

Quote: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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