Subject: U20 Canada National Team

We're excited!

We're excited!

Well that hurt. A win would have put us through to the playoffs but the UK for some reason stopped playing random tactics and we walked into a bad spot. All the same, we are unbowed and feel that the team played all right, but not spectacular. Again, we are hopeful to take one more shot at it again next season.

As promised, we hope to linger as boss of this team for one more season and then retire in glory or utter collapse.

Boulianne has been looked over from the NT the previous year, most likely because of his lack of a shot.

Last season, I spent a lot of his training in rounding out his game, training a little bit of shot (even though his Q for it sucks) as well as some defense to make him useful in other ways also.

I believe he fits in nicely in the U20 NT this season (near the top in OR) if you are willing to give him another look.

Sure. As long as we don't pull off the biggest boner of all time and lose the election against an empty field, we will do just that...

Sheet! Damn busy and screwed up the call ups. We should be executed at dawn.

That's happened so many times to me the other way around (opposing team didn't field a full roster), I think you can be forgiven

BTW, you may want to add Cedrick Lo to the U20 roster. He has a higher OR than Faucher, who is a year older (I do understand why you'd wanna keep Faucher, as decent UDs are not that common so he's a useful spare for sure.)

As always we would like to thank all of the GM's who voted for us this season and to express our sense of neutrality to those of you who held your noses and refused to vote for the only candidate in the field. We are honoured to win such a lopsided and non-competitive race. Just like a wide range of the Mudcat friendlies, we prefer competition against undersized and easy to crush opposition. We will do our utmost to run the club better than our dreadful forfeit of last weekend. Those are the kind of mistakes that we will try to avoid doing any more than a few times.

Some of the more obvious choices include -

Jared Smith - C - 19 - Mandalorians
Ed Amy - UW - 19 - Microbrasseurs
Thierry Duguay - RW - 19 - Silence Stealers
Cedric Lo - LD - 19 - Yardware Snakes
Clyde Midgley - UD - 19 - RC Redshift
Weston Merson - G - 19 - RM Wolverines
Christopher Szabo - RW - 19 - Montreal Magma

The rest next week thanks.

Roedb

Still no Boulianne?

Normally I would say something quite different in this situation and you wouldn't like my language. At the end of the day, your guy has the experience which a couple of our other four centers doesn't and that certainly helps his case. To look at his offence it looks like an obvious case. When you look at his shot then this guy has no business on the national team. The reason his offence is so high is that you have totally tossed in on his shot. The defensive aspect is a bonus but not a major consideration.

So yeah, even though we didn't take him last season (cause of the shot) and bringing him in cold on chemistry doesn't really fit in with what we are doing, I will give in and cap him. I am not sure how much the next GM will like the developmentally challenged centers they will receive next campaign but that is their business to fix.

I have heard that 75% shot is a minimum for a national team player. Boulianne doesn't even come close.

Please welcome -
Phoenix Boulianne - C - 20 - Microbrasseurs

Roedb

This season was extra difficult with the virus raging globally and it took a personal appeal to get the job done. I slipped across the border into North Vietnam and utilized "old maps" to locate him in a steamy little bar near the old train tracks, in downtown old-city Hanoi. We drank for a few hours, exchanged low-level, dirty humour and reminisced about the Toronto days. Finally, with a lumpy envelope passed across to him, a wink and a handshake, the deal was sealed.

Please welcome John Clit back as this season's U20 Assistant General Manager!

I am not sure where you saw that 75% shot idea.

I never heard of it and see no rationale behind it. You need a mix of player skills. You need a few defensive forwards to play the pk and you need to put good shooters on each line. It doesn't mean they all have to be well-rounded. I don't think this team has 4 better centers than Boulianne. Personally, I would use him on the 3rd line to be able to put him on the pk.

Of course, you make your own decisions.

I do not want to see him with the puck late in a tied hockey game. As well, I shiver to think that there is a "team aspect" to total shot number, since the game makes a point of broadcasting it. Either way, I see very few of Boulianne-type number guys out there and I assume that is for good reason. The game rewards players/teams that stay close to the descriptions given in the guide.

Still, we are going to use him all the same. We will take six centers to the World's (probably) and one guy will (hopefully) not make all the difference