Week 9 (Dec. 1-Dec. 7)

The Good Sir Gazette

Written by Cole Thompson

December 2, 2008

Sid the Kid

Thanksgiving is over. I hope you all had a great holiday, with delicious food and some amazing hockey to watch. As is the case every Monday, here is a funky fresh edition of The Gazette to sink your teeth into.

For the first time this season, Team Shake ‘n Bake finds himself a top the league. After finishing 2nd in 2006 and 1st last year (regular season standings), Team Shake ‘n Bake has clawed his way back to the top once again. Despite the fact that he has been riddled with injuries (Sakic, Holmstrom, Tanguay, Stillman, Khabibulin, and Luongo are all injured), Team Shake ‘n Bake jumped 5 spots (6th to 1st) this past week after a convincing win over House of Snipes 7-1-3. Team Shake ‘n Bake is showing, despite injuries, why he is one of the best in the league. Speaking of “Best in the League”, it would appear that The Phenoms’ offense has arrived. This past week he set new league records in Goals with 30 and points with 55. Team Shake ‘n Bake previously held both records with 25 Goals and 54 Points. The Phenoms also tied his own record of 7 GWG from the ‘07-’08 season. Two teams that have proven over and over again that they are the elitists of the T.O.F.H.L. are at it once again this season.

There was quite a bit of action on the FA front this past week. There were a total of 17 moves, along with 2 minors also being called up for NHL action. First let’s discuss the FA additions. First up we have The Good Sirs’ adding M. Lucic (LW-Bos). The Good Sirs’ needed to find a replacement for B. Morrow (LW-Dal) who was placed on IR earlier in the week. While it will be very difficult to replace the multi-category stud that was Morrow, Lucic has been very hot recently on a Bruins team that looks destined for greatness. Lucic has 15 points (6G, 9A) in 24 games this season, while playing on the top line, for the Bruins. Another good pickup last week was the addition of T. White (C-Atl) by MesEx. White has 21 points (7G, 14A) in 23 games thus far, including 6 in his last 4. Finally we have A. Miettinen (RW-Min), who was snatched up this past week by My Goodies. Miettinen has 19 points (6G, 13A) in 22 games this season, and is in the middle of a 3 game streak in which he has picked up 6 points. It seems that My Goodies makes news every week in this column. Maybe that’s because he is always making some sort of FA addition. He already has 24 moves after only 8 weeks (3 moves/week average). At this rate My Goodies will run out of moves during his 14th week (He’ll have made 39 moves through 13 weeks). My advice to My Goodies would be to slow down, as I ran out of moves last playoffs and wasn’t able to pick someone up when one of my players were injured, which basically cost me the championship.
Those were just a few of the FA pickups from this past week, I also wanted to talk about a couple minor league goalies getting their first tastes of T.O.F.H.L. action. C. Schneider (Van) and S. Mason (Cls) were called up by Gorilla Warfare and The Phenoms respectively this past week. Schneider got into one game of action and looked really great at times and very nervous at others. He has a long future in the NHL and probably on Gorilla Warfare’s team despite losing his first game 3-1. Mason on the other hand has had a great go of it so far. In 8 NHL games with the Blue Jackets this season, Mason holds a 5-2-1 record with 2.09 GAA and a .919 Sv%; Mason has also had 2 Shutouts in his last 3 starts, which is 2 more shutouts than The Phenoms have all season! It’s an understatement to say that Mason will help The Phenoms in goaltending, as that seems to be his only real weakness.
For the second week in a row there are no trades to report.

Looking into the Past:

I NOE Hockey over The Phenoms 6-4-1. WRONG! Phenoms =Best Offensive Week Ever
Minority Report over The Good Sirs’ 7-3-1. WRONG! Goaltending superb for Good Sirs’ (6-5)
My Goodies over MVB All-Stars 6-4-1. TIE! Second tie of the season for MVB (4-4-3)
MesEx over Dangles 6-5. RIGHT! MesEx continues his quest to repeat (5-3-3)
Team Shake ‘n Bake over House of Snipes 8-2-1. RIGHT! Team Shake ‘n Bake catapults to first place (7-1-2)
Five Knuckle Shuffle over Gorilla Warfare 6-4-1. WRONG! Gorilla Warfare surprises The Spoiler (8-3)

Ugly Week for me, 2-3-1, for a Season Total of 22-24-2.

(1) Team Shake ‘n Bake vs. (4) The Good Sirs' - Talk about a tough 3 weeks for The Good Sirs’. First he has to play The Phenoms, than Minority Report, and now Team Shake ‘n Bake. The Good News for The Good Sirs’ is that he is 2-0 with a 12-9-1 record against the first two teams. So although it’s been close, The Good Sirs’ is showing he can hang. Hopefully the trend continues this week against Team Shake ‘n Bake. Team Shake ‘n Bake has had some injury troubles of late, but still finds himself in first place, after a 7-1-2 beating over House of Snipes. Team Shake ‘n Bake has some of the best offensive threats in the game today, led by M. Savard (30 pts) and J. Thornton (26 pts). People may think his weakness is in goaltending now that Luongo has gone down with an injury, but consider this, Team Shake ‘n Bake led the league last week with a .941 Sv%, add to that a GAA under 2 (1.97), and it would seem that his goaltenders are doing just fine with Luongo’s absence. On Paper this is a very close matchup. Both teams put up 30 points, with The Good Sirs’ having more goals (14-9) and Team Shake ‘n Bake putting up more assists (21-16). Just like Team Shake ‘n Bake, The Good Sirs’ also put up impressive goalie stats (5W, 1.99GAA, .928Sv%) last week. Look for a very close hard fought week. Prediction: The Good Sirs’ 6-4-1.

(2) Minority Report vs. (11) I NOE Hockey - Minority Report finds himself sitting in second place entering week 9, after a heartbreaking loss to The Good Sirs’ (6-5). This week he plays a team that is very good on paper, but has been underachieving all year, I NOE Hockey. I NOE Hockey had a pretty decent week last week putting up 35 points (11G, 24A), which was a higher point total than 8 other teams in the league. It’s just unfortunate that he ran into The Phenoms on a week when he would set records in goals (30) and points (55) for the week. This week he has another challenge on his hand in Minority Report, who had 36 points (13G, 23A). As you can see the offense totals should be very close. Where I give Minority Report the edge is in goaltending. Led by the goaltending equivalent of the “Two Headed Monster”, Lundqvist and Kiprusoff, Minority Report put up a record tying 7 wins last week! With all those Wins you’d think his other stats would suffer, wrong! He finished the week with a 2.19 GAA and a .926 Sv%. Look for the offense to be close, while the goaltending will be anything but. Prediction: Minority Report 7-4.

(3) My Goodies vs. (9) Five Knuckle Shuffle - My Goodies continues to chug along as one of the top teams in the T.O.F.H.L. Although he does not get the recognition that The Phenoms or Team Shake ‘n Bake get, My Goodies has clearly proven that he is at the very least a top 5 team in the league. He suffered a slight setback last week, tying MVB All-Stars 4-4-3, but is still sitting in 3rd place (tied for second) with 99 points. Five Knuckle Shuffle seems to be slowing down; he has lost the last two weeks (8-14-1) and has not received the best offensive output over those two weeks (19 points in week seven, 18 points last week). If Five Knuckle Shuffle wants to have any sort of chance of not just winning but keeping it close, he’ll need much better output from his forwards. I’m not even taking into account goaltending, as My Goodies is clearly the victor there. Prediction: My Goodies 7-3-1.

(5) MesEx vs. (8) The Phenoms - What a matchup we have here. The defending champ taking on the top rated team during the preseason. The Phenoms struggled out of the gate, but has finally begun to find his footing and climb the ladder that is the T.O.F.H.L. Last week The Phenoms had the most amazing week (points wise) that the league has ever seen. He set two records, for goals (30) and points (55). Unfortunately The Phenoms is still having problems with goaltending as he has the worst GAA (3.05) and Sv% (.891) in the league. This fact forced him to call up minor goalie S. Mason in hopes of turning his fortunes around. MesEx is coming off of a tough fought battle with Dangles, 5-3-3, and will need to continue to rely heavily on his goaltending in his matchup against The Phenoms. MesEx is second in the league with a .915 Sv% and 3 Shutouts. Another classic battle of offense vs. defense. Prediction: The Phenoms 6-3-2.

(6) Dangles vs. (10) MVB All-Stars - Two teams that are struggling to stay in playoff contention. One team, Dangles, is holding onto the last spot by 8 points, while the other, MVB All-Stars, is on the outside looking in (12 points back). Both teams are coming off tough weeks. Dangles lost to defending champ MesEx 5-3-3, while MVB All-Stars continued to impress in his rookie season by tying My Goodies 4-4-3. MVB All-Stars has put up the 4th most points this season with 265, compared to Dangles with 239. Dangles dominates +/- however with a staggering +38 compared to MVB’s +9. MVB also has 106 PPP compared to Dangles 80. Where Dangles should make up some ground though is in the goaltending departments. Dangles is second in wins with 24; MVB is second to last with only 15 Wins. Dangles also leads GAA (2.64 to 2.98). This should be another great matchup. Prediction: MVB All-Stars 6-3-2.

(7) Gorilla Warfare vs. (12) House of Snipes - Gorilla Warfare finds himself one spot out of the playoffs and trailing sixth place Dangles by only 8 points entering this week. House of Snipes on the other hand is sitting dead last for the 3rd straight week. He has only 57 points through 8 weeks (about 7 points/week) and trials 11thplace (I NOE Hockey) by 18 points entering week nine. One team is overachieving while the other is underachieving. Gorilla Warfare has had some tough luck with goaltenders this year as his two numbers ones (K. Lehtonen and M. Brodeur) are both on IR with injuries, but seems to have found a real diamond in the rough in J. MacDonald. MacDonald enters week nine with a 10-9-2 record with a 2.89 GAA and a .907 Sv%. Those numbers may not seem that impressive, but at the moment he is the winniest goalie on Gorilla Warfare’s team. Not bad for a FA pickup. House of Snipes on the other hand just can’t seem to get it together. Whether it be updating his rosters or making trades to access needs, House of Snipes needs to figure out something if he wants to have any shot of making the playoffs. Prediction: Gorilla Warfare 7-3-2.

The Legit Cats of the Week:

S. Crosby, C Pit. 6G 3A 9Pts +8 16 Shots 3 Games (The Phenoms)
J. Bouwmeester, D Fla. 2G 3A 5Pts +5 1PPP 10 Shots 3 Games (My Goodies)
C. Price, G Mon. 2W 1.62GAA 0.941Sv% 2 Games (The Good Sirs')

Team of the Week: The Phenoms takes down this week’s honors for setting two new records in the T.O.F.H.L. and tying another one. The Phenoms put up 30 goals and 55 points in 6 days last week (He had no players playing on Thursday the 27th), which is an average of 5 goals and 9.16 points per day. Incredible! He also had 7 GWGs, which tied his own record from last year.

Hope you enjoyed this jam-packed edition of The Good Sir Gazette. Until Next Time…

- Cole “The Good Sir” Thompson