1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is 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 word: water
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12. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Jenga
Expansion is once again a season closer and will potentially lead to each team losing three or four players. How do you think missing these players will impact different teams? Will it knock down the current competitors or maybe mess up the raising challengers? Do you expect those teams be able to recover with the assets available for them or do we finally see free agent movement like never before? What teams you would predict to be in cup contention for S83 and why?
The big wild card with this expansion effort is the sheer magnitude of it. I can’t speak to the olden days, but ever since I joined in S30, every expansion has brought in two new teams. This time, while obviously there are six more existing teams than there were back then, we are adding four new expansion franchises.
How will this impact our existing teams? The immediate impact is that more players will be pulled away from those teams, which could have dramatic effect on some of these squads. It will be a much more significant adjustment for these teams, some of which were already eyeing big changes with either prospect call-ups or moving out of their competition window due to the salary cap.
However, what remains to be seen is how competitive the expansion teams will be while fighting each other for those unprotected players. Will we see a competitive expansion team out of the gate, or will their head-butting prevent any one expansion team from truly gaining an upper hand? I look forward to seeing each expansion team’s approach to this unique expansion endeavor, and learning which teams will build to compete immediately and which will try to build a core group for the future.
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14. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Volatile Results
The IIHF has always been known to be hard to predict. Last season saw the 8th seeded Norway win the entire tournament after taking down 2nd seed Ireland, 3rd seed USA and 4th seed France. In season 77, we saw a similar situation with 8th seeded Ireland taking on 6th seeded Japan in the finals. How do you feel about the volatility of the IIHF, do you wish the series were longer so the stronger teams didn’t get upset as much? Or do you prefer the chaos that is single elimination?
The best part about IIHF has always been that short-season volatility. Certainly, some nations have an upper-hand, but on any given night upsets can happen. It gives everyone in the community something to play for during the offseason, and I hope we never lose sight of that when it comes to IIHF.
ztevans![[Image: cBHvvi2.png]](https://i.imgur.com/cBHvvi2.png)
