Nice new look for SD. The new playoff format also looks pretty good.

Rugrat wrote:

6ot?! This league is insane! And congrats to Long Beach on wining it all in year 1 of the team

Keep in mind that postseason games have overtimes of 10 mins. Not taking anything away from this marathon, but wanted to clarify that they didn't match the amount of games that was in the series all in one game haha!

Steelman wrote:

Looks like Long Beach might be running this league for awhile. Glad McGorrie got a chip though.

The guy is impressive, and a little under the radar in terms of how good he actually is. Yes, he had double the points of anyone outside his team, but guys like Joe Benoit or even Rezvan Ruohong have been getting more stories in the paper than him. He did sign an endorsement for hair product, though.

ProsecutorMilesEdgeworth wrote:

Geez, can French be any more condescending? I’d rather him get launched into space to never return.
Other than that, cool stuff! New playoffs, Canners getting a matching light jersey (which no complaints, that looks good), and TV? Things got interesting quick!

To be fair, the team won all but 5 games. Joe Thornton put it best when responding to reporters who were asking about Thomas Hertl lack of respect when celebrating in his four goal game, saying "I'd have my cock out if (I did that). I'd have my cock out, stroking it". The TV deal came from nowhere, but CBS was told that the WCEHL was like a 1970s sitcom. They had no clue what that meant, but didn't want to seem out of touch so they closed the deal.

Rugrat wrote:

Nice new look for SD. The new playoff format also looks pretty good.

ZO82 wrote:

A six-team playoffs with only 8 teams in the league, OK?!

Love the mixed bag of playoff reactions. @ZO82, I'd recommend going back through the story arc that we've seen so far. I know for a fact that this would not be the point you asked that question if you've been reading haha!



WCEHL 1956 Draft
 
     To the surprise of many, almost everyone had made it to the draft this year. Even Friday, who had no picks until the 4th round, was back after his breakdown during the 1955 draft. The only one who was not there was Sgt. Johnson, who had not been heard or seen since the owner meeting. There were rumors of his life circling the room, but the owners did not bother with it because they were the type to not worry until the last second. Zamboni even went on record saying, “He’s a big boy doing big things. There wouldn’t be a problem unless he didn't show up opening night”.
 
     Outside of the mystery of the military man, the draft proved to be getting better as the owners and scouts started to work together more. Salt Lake solidified the blueline with a preppy Connecticut native named Brian Stephens. This Tollander was the captain of a school in Virginia that was definitely established between 1920 and 1940. The name escapes me but I do believe their mascot is inspired by an industry and they use burgundy in some way. Stephens is considered the top first overall pick in the brief history of the WCEHL, giving high expectations for the prospect. After Salt Lake, the Tribe decided to use their crucial rebuild pick on an Ontario goalie, a decision no one really understood. Third was Las Vegas, who put the draft back on course by picking Marty Shaver, a talent that decided on the WCEHL after seeing a few TTHC home games over the past couple years. California then spun the draft on its head again by picking a man named Arthur Savage purely based off name, a classic WCEHL selection technique. Beyond the first four, all picks seemed pretty similar in skill. The most notable thing to report would be Las Vegas closing out the round with their second pick that was originally Long Beach’s. With it they got Tom Byers, the technical replacement for Anastasio Moran due to the direct connection with the trade that took place last offseason.
 
 
 
--- Operation Extraterrestrial Sunflower Romance ---

     A couple days following Oakland’s devastating sweep in the WCEHL Finals, Sgt. Jon Johnson decided he would finally do what he had been avoiding so that he could provide funds to secure Oakland a championship. Johnson’s tech and weapons company had come across an unstable energy one night at the lab when Johnson was having fun with his new microwave in 1949. It is not known what caused this energy, but it is known that it created an energy field that knocked all of Jon’s cloths off besides his socks, ironically. He had witnessed the future of society, but the only problem was that it was very unstable. Since the event, the microwave has been contained in a chamber that seems to keep the energy secure, but the exact science behind it is a mystery.
 
     It was only a few years later that the US government offered unthinkable riches to Johnson for the transportation of the microwave to Washington DC. While it seemed tempting at the time, the sergeant was busy getting ready for his venture in hockey. The finals loss pushed Jon, gripping his mind in a way that drove him to desperation, and his opportunity to fix the problem was right in front of him.
 
     It was pitch black and stormy when the plane left Sgt. Johnson’s lab in Alameda, California. The mission was simple enough. Transport the microwave incognito across the country so the government could do something secret with it. You know, the norm. Due to it being highly classified, the pilot’s flight path took an odd dip into Kansas. This is where the pilot mistook the cargo button for the radio, and dropped the largest amount of contained energy in the world on a sunflower field just outside of Wichita. There were no explosions or fires, but only a large pulse that made many feel roughly 15 lbs. lighter, which the locals didn’t mind. 
     
     All was kept secret, and Johnson seemed to get out of a messy situation free of harm, but there happened to be an aviation show over this field three weeks later. During the event, disaster struck as a B-29 plane went down instantly when in range of the sunflower field. The pilot made it out safely, but was institutionalized for paranoia after telling every reporter in the state that he “saw an alien in the field” claiming that “it wasn’t threatening, but did keep hugging the sunflowers with intense passion”. The event was covered up by the government, but a microwave recovered from the site tied Sgt. Johnson directly to the situation. This would lead to a financial nightmare that threatened his company instantly, resulting in the unloading of key assets from the Patriots. 
 
This will be covered in the next post.

What the fu-

Just an odd circumstance all around. With Johnson taking the fall for the government, I assume the Patriots are in danger. Also, what is going on in Kansas?

Rugrat wrote:

This league is bizarre... what’s next, Elvis gets an expansion team?

Elvis went by Pelvis in this universe..... he was not nearly as much of a success, as you could imagine.

ThisIsFine wrote:

What the fu-

ck

ProsecutorMilesEdgeworth wrote:

Johnson, what the hell man? Couldn’t hold your secrets together and now there’s aliens in Kansas?

Me inside: “Excellent, Wichita got involved in something.”

My general understanding was that there has always been aliens in Kansas IRL haha. You know it's rough when a local celebrates disaster making national news. 

QCS wrote:

Just an odd circumstance all around. With Johnson taking the fall for the government, I assume the Patriots are in danger. Also, what is going on in Kansas?

An in depth love story involving an alien and many sunflowers that may or may not be detailed in a 1980s movie that would be considered a sci-fi classic in this universe. If you want to see it you just have to jump dimensions and stream it on the Twilight Zone's most successful streaming platform, Blockbuster.