diamond_ace

F Thomas Landry @Blazzer

1. @MattyIce F Mikko Lahtinen F Jim Bob F D Roque Davis D Erik Killinger G Raymond Bernard 2. @LatinViking / @fishy F Chad Magnum F RJ Jubis F Jungkok D Guy Sasakamoose D Alex Bridges G 3. @Blazzer F Dakota Lamb F Chris Hylands F Timothy Brown D Condor Adrienne D Alex Letang G 4. @diamond_ace(Group Manager) F Benny Graves F Thomas Landry F Ola Vikingstad D Cinnamon Block D Seabass Perrin G Stone Wolski 5. @Josh F Patrik Tallinder F Ray Shields F Markus Nygren D Hugh Jass D Lester Green G Jacob Tonn 6. @thadthrasher F Kris Rice F Owen Nolan F Edwin The Encarnacion D Jeff Downey D Odin Omdahl G Kevin Malone

Benny Graves Still on @thadthrasher. Will do up the roster post when I get to work

The only commercial brand mascot to be discontinued because of rule 34. Welcome

for what?

The S74 World Cup has just completed the round robin stage, and things look incredibly close. Heading into the playoffs, every team is within 5 points of each other, and no result would be particularly surprising this season, which leads of course to a lot of incredibly exciting hockey that’s yet to be played. Of course, even if it’s only by the slimmest of margins, some teams have earned themselves the extra slight advantage going into the playoff rounds, such as byes or home ice. Let’s take a look at where everyone ended up. The Byes Team USA: Team USA finished atop the standings by winning their last 3 games in a row, which was just enough to see them in first by a single point. With 5 of their 6 forwards finishing over a point per game (and the final one just a point shy of the mark) the Americans will like their chances, as the scoring is spread out and opposing teams can’t focus on one player or line. Also, every player but one has a positive plus/minus, showing there really aren’t any weak spots on Team USA. The Mercenaries: The only team in the World Cup to be composed of people other teams passed up on, the Mercenaries have been playing with a chip on their shoulder which has led to strong defensive hockey. They’ve only conceded 25 goals in the round robin, when the next fewest is the 31 of Team Nordic. Jimmy Spyro has stood on his head, with a GAA that’s more than half a goal better than the next best goalie in the tournament. Also, credit to defenseman Seabass Perrin, who leads the tournament in assists with 12. The Bracket Team Canada vs Team Western Europe: This is where the margins are even tighter. While the entire standings are only separated by 5 points, the teams in the opening round are only separated by 2 points. Canada did finish slightly ahead of Western Europe, 15 points to 13, but it’s yet to be seen whether that edge will be enough to see them past this round of the playoffs. On paper, Canada looks to have a slight edge at forward and defense, and despite splitting starts between two goalies, a strong advantage in net no matter which way they go (Western Europe goalie Nicolas Fomba is less skilled than either Rayz Funk or Jaxx Hextall, and that has shown in Western Europe’s tournament-highest goals against). This talent advantage of Canada’s didn’t really manifest itself in the round robin though, so it’s uncertain whether it’ll make that much of an appearance in the knockout rounds. Based on how they’ve played so far, either team will like their chances, and Western Europe certainly aren’t out of it, but I can’t in good conscience look at these teams and not pick Canada. Plus they’ve won both the round robin games over Western Europe, and avoid World and Mercenaries who beat them twice. Canada 5-3. Team Nordic vs Team World: These two teams were separated by a single point, with Nordic getting an advantage there, but looking at the rosters World actually seem like the slightly stronger team. Obviously something hasn’t quite gelled for them in this tournament, and it’s mostly borne out in a poor offensive performance, as they’ve scored fewer goals than any other team by some margin (24, the next closest is 31). Of course the team will be training together in the coming days trying to develop a chemistry, which is always the risk with big international tournaments like this where guys who haven’t played together are suddenly placed onto the same team. Perhaps a line change would do Team World a lot of good heading into the Nordic match and potentially forward from there. Still, judging strictly from what we’ve already seen from these two teams, it will ultimately be as close as they finished in the standings but World simply won’t score enough to see off Nordic. Nordic 3-2 OT. The Winner With a round robin as close as this one was, it’s going to be incredibly difficult to predict a winner with any degree of confidence. Canada in theory are the best team, but again, they didn’t play quite to that standard. Do we pick the Americans, who have shown a strong balance up and down the roster, or do we take the line that if everyone stands out, ultimately no one does? It’s going to be impossible to predict, and no matter which team is said here, there’s a high probability it’s wrong - so with that said, who doesn’t love an underdog story? Mercenaries.

yes to being in the game yes to group managing

@Banackock you got yourself one of the best here

Trevor

You know how I am - my guys always come first, no matter the cost. If someone wants to stay here, I'll do what I can to accommodate that, up to and including taking the hit myself. Accumulating the "best" team and all is great and where possible I do like to do that, but if someone is enjoying the league in a certain capacity, and I can keep that capacity, I will do so. My guys having fun with it and enjoying their experience in the league is the most important thing to me. It's not everyone's philosophy, and I respect that, but it's how I do things. There are two players I can pinpoint on Prague that would be the "GM move" to get rid of rather than Havlova, but both of them want to see it out here, so I'm letting them see it out here.

The cap makes strange problems for us sometimes

Atw(some numbers) - the guy that was Leandre St Pierre Noah Pope Munk Nagger Otrebor Pensfan Hybrid Anderson Hickey Tylar (not to be confused with Tyler who is still here) Edgar Sherifflobo

Squinty Koradek Frank Spangle Hamza Swoosh Coach The original Funks (Toswammi/Ree) Jericho Kind of Higgins? Pops up every so often Bengals1fan Seth Ramicus Rawenergy Hillsy Arce Diesel 8Ovechkin8 Mutigers Meg Jamie Caillean Jaladolar Manship

If they do either updating or appear on the forum in that time, it'll count. Wanted to keep guys like Stevo counting as active

I still vote for the Minnesota Partly Cloudy and the Yukon Casual Stroll.

Definitely a Chamonix fan, pretty sure the UTMB is near there

@Domino Draws tarantino to prague, not van

so much for london being able to take random cap dumps

someone want to approve this please

Absolutely - a lot of the R side of people are so entrenched that they'll vote for their guy if their guy is week old mashed potatoes in a suit. The only thing that would be more popular to them than "Fuck Socialism" is "Fuck Abortions"

Also seeing reports that the voter registrar for Clark County NV is concerned for his safety

Trump's old, crazy, and stressed. I don't see him being alive in 2024, if I'm honest Edit: note to self, always read the last page first, to avoid making a point that's been made twice before