1. tea

2
a. My bias is in with Edmonton being able to find themselves continuing to consistently build upwards when it looked like they could have been directionless for a while. They've quietly put themselves in a secure place and worked towards competitiveness so it's incredibly refreshing to see that follow through to the point of being successful.
b. Always the youngsters sniffing for their first is the more exciting thing to see. I hope that it adds to the sensation that any team can win it no matter how consistent their success in the regular season. In that way it makes the playoffs really unpredictable for a variety of reasons, both bad or good. Unless there is a player on the veteran team who might not have been part of it before or part of cementing some sort of legacy I'd default to the younger one.


4. It is pretty impressive for a team to be able to pull off a successful rebuild. The easiest task for majority of teams is to tear down and find future assets in exchange for their current roster players. To a degree, there will almost always be a buyer for the variety of players in exchange for magic beans. What is tough is not only consistently hitting your picks in the draft, but finding ways to add on top of that in different ways. From free agency, to making trades, there needs to be a complete unification of asset collection that peaks with their efforts in becoming a competitor at the right time.
Carrying that forward momentum is probably the big picture struggle that majority of rebuilding teams find themselves struggling with. In some ways it's like starting a fire where having enough kindling is necessary otherwise an attempt to start a blaze might only look hopeful at first only to fizzle out with nothing lasting afterwards.