-TOFHL Outsider-
Regular Season Recap, PT. 1
"We can rebuild them"
It has been an exciting season for us here at the TOFHL, one that ended with the closest margin possible - a tie in points for 6th and 7th place in our league. In one of the tightest races we've had in the 6 seasons the TOFHL has operated, the final difference between 2nd and 7th place was only 9 points, a mere 4.5 category wins throughout the truncated sprint of the lockout season.
The logical place to start is at the bottom, when we talk about our regular season recap. The sellers this year received big bounties for their respective spare parts this deadline, starting with VonderKats. Perhaps what was missing for this team was the elusive White Vondy, as the first and only iteration of the Vonderkats of 2011 came out strong and finished with a runner-up position. The VonderKats decided that enough was enough, not happy with their performance and their "middle of the road" perception as the 7th ranked team in our pre-season rankings and blew up their roster. With big name stars like Iginla, Miller and Nash shown the door, the VonderKats is hoping for a surge in their new look young core, consisting of Derek Stepan, Jamie Benn, Logan Couture, Gabriel Landeskog and James Van Riemsdyk, a litany of young star forwards that the pair hope have high enough ceilings to bring VonderKats back into the money positions.
Finishing in 11th place is fellow former TOFHL champion Gorilla Warfare, who was a little more quiet in his hopes to rebuild his team back to TOFHL cup glory. Gorilla Warfare came out of the deadline with a handful of relevant picks, Lynch is holding strong to Steven Stamkos, Zach Parise, young stud and possible calder candidate Vladimir Tarasenko and the strong goaltending of Cory Schneider with up and comer Jake Allen. Perhaps one of the centerpieces of his team, Jon Quick, goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings, suffered a weak season and doomed Gorilla Warfare from the start as he went 4-7-0 in both Wins and sv% this season.
In 10th place, newcomers Hartford Wheelers made some aggressive moves to add to their young team's core. Currently according to ZD's picks page, the Wheelers will pick 6 times in the first 3 rounds this draft, on top of their dynamic young forwards. The future is bright for this team who has chosen to build around Tyler Seguin and Kris Letang, while still boasting a minors team starring former first overall Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Brayden Schenn, and solid 7th round compensation pick, Justin Schultz. In 10th place, the main problem for the Wheelers came in net. Stuck with the essentially fantasy useless Ilya Bryzgalov and an up and down season from Mike Smith, it seemed difficult for them to find any traction for their season when the 4 start minimum was a difficult benchmark for the team to start with. The team's weakness is obvious, and the GMs are most likely looking to immediately address it for instant success.
An interesting turn of events puts MyGoodies at 9th place, making it 3 of the bottom four in our league former TOFHL Cup champions. Trevor at the helm of MyGoodies is currently holder of the streak for most seasons without a playoff appearance, now missing his 4th in a row, also the longest streak all-time in the TOFHL. Big moves were made between the roommates and many MyGoodies' players found homes on the playoff push for Team Shake N' Bake. MyGoodies has also chosen his new core, building around franchise player Ilya Kovalchuk and goaltender seeking a permanent new home, Roberto Luongo. Trevor has an interesting mix of players as keepers, all of them with serious upside and serious question marks, as Kovalchuk's ability to play alone in New Jersey is questioned, as is Luongo's new landing spot, his other forwards include enigmatic Marian Gaborik, who started with a bang in Columbus but has now cooled off, streaky Thomas Vanek, Alex Semin who has rebounded but still remains with a reputation for lackluster performances, and Paul Stastny who hasn't been able to recreate his pair of 70+ point seasons with any consistency. This is all in addition to Joe Thornton, a one time absolute NHL superstar and always a good choice for the Art Ross, has now declined to a very serviceable point per game player. Until recently there were some serious questions for the San Jose Vondies, but after a 8-1-1 run in their last 10, it appears the core will stay together for another playoff run. The most assured piece involved is Tuukka Rask, an undoubtedly #1 starting goaltender is a great situation in Boston.
Five Knuckle Shuffle just beats out MyGoodies in 8th place, good for victory in THE TOFHL bet. The rivals both sputtered out late into the season, however Five Knuck has salvaged his playoff miss with at least this small victory. Five Knuckle got great value out of his sales during the deadline, snatching up a 1st and 4th round pick from Good Sirs' for Subban, Horton and Scrivens. Five Knuckle Shuffle was in the picture until the nail in the coffin of a 9-1 loss to Project Hollywood in Week 22. The team is strong for next season with a string of reliable names such as Jimmy Howard, Marian Hossa, Phil Kessel as well as outstanding prospect Brandon Saad. Under the radar, Five Knuckle Shuffle had built on Montreal's successes this season with his pieces of Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and the aforementioned PK Subban. The franchise had just missed the playoffs a season before and is capable of doing a quick re-tool to find themselves back in the hunt for their first TOFHL Cup.
Sadly enough, someone had to miss the dance, and in the most heartbreaking of eliminations, MVB All-Stars had their playoff hopes dashed in a thrilling tie between him and Good Sirs'. Fortunately for MVB, he did not get "Feastered" too hard, losing out only on a trio of picks for Martin Havlat and Michael Ryder. MVB has a strong core moving forward, with 41 points from Eric Staal, an Art Ross candidate in Henrik Sedin, Anze Kopitar, and the infinitely underrated still Martin St. Louis. Goaltending does have some question marks, as Niemi had a slump this season and Hiller's injuries has opened up an opportunity for Viktor Fasth, as well as another underwhelming performance by the Oilers leads to rough periferal statistics for Devan Dubnyk.
The logical place to start is at the bottom, when we talk about our regular season recap. The sellers this year received big bounties for their respective spare parts this deadline, starting with VonderKats. Perhaps what was missing for this team was the elusive White Vondy, as the first and only iteration of the Vonderkats of 2011 came out strong and finished with a runner-up position. The VonderKats decided that enough was enough, not happy with their performance and their "middle of the road" perception as the 7th ranked team in our pre-season rankings and blew up their roster. With big name stars like Iginla, Miller and Nash shown the door, the VonderKats is hoping for a surge in their new look young core, consisting of Derek Stepan, Jamie Benn, Logan Couture, Gabriel Landeskog and James Van Riemsdyk, a litany of young star forwards that the pair hope have high enough ceilings to bring VonderKats back into the money positions.
Finishing in 11th place is fellow former TOFHL champion Gorilla Warfare, who was a little more quiet in his hopes to rebuild his team back to TOFHL cup glory. Gorilla Warfare came out of the deadline with a handful of relevant picks, Lynch is holding strong to Steven Stamkos, Zach Parise, young stud and possible calder candidate Vladimir Tarasenko and the strong goaltending of Cory Schneider with up and comer Jake Allen. Perhaps one of the centerpieces of his team, Jon Quick, goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings, suffered a weak season and doomed Gorilla Warfare from the start as he went 4-7-0 in both Wins and sv% this season.
In 10th place, newcomers Hartford Wheelers made some aggressive moves to add to their young team's core. Currently according to ZD's picks page, the Wheelers will pick 6 times in the first 3 rounds this draft, on top of their dynamic young forwards. The future is bright for this team who has chosen to build around Tyler Seguin and Kris Letang, while still boasting a minors team starring former first overall Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Brayden Schenn, and solid 7th round compensation pick, Justin Schultz. In 10th place, the main problem for the Wheelers came in net. Stuck with the essentially fantasy useless Ilya Bryzgalov and an up and down season from Mike Smith, it seemed difficult for them to find any traction for their season when the 4 start minimum was a difficult benchmark for the team to start with. The team's weakness is obvious, and the GMs are most likely looking to immediately address it for instant success.
An interesting turn of events puts MyGoodies at 9th place, making it 3 of the bottom four in our league former TOFHL Cup champions. Trevor at the helm of MyGoodies is currently holder of the streak for most seasons without a playoff appearance, now missing his 4th in a row, also the longest streak all-time in the TOFHL. Big moves were made between the roommates and many MyGoodies' players found homes on the playoff push for Team Shake N' Bake. MyGoodies has also chosen his new core, building around franchise player Ilya Kovalchuk and goaltender seeking a permanent new home, Roberto Luongo. Trevor has an interesting mix of players as keepers, all of them with serious upside and serious question marks, as Kovalchuk's ability to play alone in New Jersey is questioned, as is Luongo's new landing spot, his other forwards include enigmatic Marian Gaborik, who started with a bang in Columbus but has now cooled off, streaky Thomas Vanek, Alex Semin who has rebounded but still remains with a reputation for lackluster performances, and Paul Stastny who hasn't been able to recreate his pair of 70+ point seasons with any consistency. This is all in addition to Joe Thornton, a one time absolute NHL superstar and always a good choice for the Art Ross, has now declined to a very serviceable point per game player. Until recently there were some serious questions for the San Jose Vondies, but after a 8-1-1 run in their last 10, it appears the core will stay together for another playoff run. The most assured piece involved is Tuukka Rask, an undoubtedly #1 starting goaltender is a great situation in Boston.
Five Knuckle Shuffle just beats out MyGoodies in 8th place, good for victory in THE TOFHL bet. The rivals both sputtered out late into the season, however Five Knuck has salvaged his playoff miss with at least this small victory. Five Knuckle got great value out of his sales during the deadline, snatching up a 1st and 4th round pick from Good Sirs' for Subban, Horton and Scrivens. Five Knuckle Shuffle was in the picture until the nail in the coffin of a 9-1 loss to Project Hollywood in Week 22. The team is strong for next season with a string of reliable names such as Jimmy Howard, Marian Hossa, Phil Kessel as well as outstanding prospect Brandon Saad. Under the radar, Five Knuckle Shuffle had built on Montreal's successes this season with his pieces of Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and the aforementioned PK Subban. The franchise had just missed the playoffs a season before and is capable of doing a quick re-tool to find themselves back in the hunt for their first TOFHL Cup.
Sadly enough, someone had to miss the dance, and in the most heartbreaking of eliminations, MVB All-Stars had their playoff hopes dashed in a thrilling tie between him and Good Sirs'. Fortunately for MVB, he did not get "Feastered" too hard, losing out only on a trio of picks for Martin Havlat and Michael Ryder. MVB has a strong core moving forward, with 41 points from Eric Staal, an Art Ross candidate in Henrik Sedin, Anze Kopitar, and the infinitely underrated still Martin St. Louis. Goaltending does have some question marks, as Niemi had a slump this season and Hiller's injuries has opened up an opportunity for Viktor Fasth, as well as another underwhelming performance by the Oilers leads to rough periferal statistics for Devan Dubnyk.