2. 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.

b. Upsets were a theme this year - which of our finalists had the more difficult road to the promised land and why?
I think the route to the finals for both teams was much harder than we've seen for perhaps any other finalists in recent memory, but I'm going to go with the New England Wolfpack. Taking out Hamilton in round 1, Buffalo in round 2 and then Philadelphia in round 3 is an outrageous run to go on, and they thoroughly deserve their place in the finals after having to navigate a murderer's row like that.



d. If it ain't broke don't fix it: Who you got? Who wins? Why?
I'm going to have to lean slightly towards the Winnipeg Aurora in this one. I've got a lot of respect for New England, but there's something about that Winnipeg team and the roster they've put together that makes them really hard to look past. I expect Matsmith Soderberg-Tremblay to have an absolutely monster series and take this one over.




3. Written, 3 TPE, Haven’t I Seen This Before? (150 words min.)
Despite being the 8th and 10th ranked regular season teams in the league, our finalists from Winnipeg and New England represent two of the most dominant teams over the past several seasons. What do you think is the secret to their success? What can other teams learn from them? Which one is more likely to be back again next year?

I don't think it's rocket science that both teams have long tenured and well respected management teams, and have been able to build on that consistently to deliver strong outcomes over the last couple of seasons. Ace is a canny operator who has managed in this league for a very long time and knows what it takes to not only build a championship roster, but the types of moves that are needed to refresh and maintain a roster without having to go through full rebuilds and the like. Despite Winnipeg maybe not being the strongest team in the regular season, they did what they needed to do to make the playoffs and enjoyed a great run helped by strong coaching to get them to where they are. Similarly, luketd is a veteran of the SHL who has rejuvenated New England into another powerhouse franchise, who have been able to maintain a level of success for a sustained period of time thanks to smart decision making and shrewd moves. I think the management and coaching staff that these two franchises boast are among the league's best, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this matchup play out again over the next few seasons for this reason.



4. Written, 3 TPE, The Char B1 bis In The Room (150 words min.)
This league was until quite recently dominated by a cabal of four teams. Two of them, Winnipeg and New England, are our finalists. A third, Philadelphia, was a finalist last year. The fourth... was Montreal. Does the success of Winnipeg and New England prove that Montreal pulled the plug too soon and should’ve kept the gang around? Or did at least one of the others just get lucky and Montreal made the better decision, without hindsight? What team-building lessons can we learn from this?

As someone who has GMed a team through a hard rebuild and built a roster that went on to win two Challenge Cups, I don't think you can really question moves ilke that until things have fully played out. Montreal made the decision to move on while their window was waning and build an elite prospect pool and roster for the future. An alternative would have been to have kept selling future to keep the window open, but with the team clearly believing that was not a viable strategy, they made the most sensible move available to stock the cupboards for future runs. Ultimately, 3 of the 4 teams mentioned could not win another Challenge Cup for a long time so who knows? There's no point dealing with hypotheticals in these scenarios and there's no point judging moves before they've had a chance to play out. We'll see over a long window whether Montreal's rebuild succeeds and whether or not they made the right decision to pull the plug when they did, at this point in time it's simply too soon to say.


8/8