The Finals, Week 2:

-1 final week worth of championship fantasy hockey.

-This is the final week of season 3, hard to believe we’ve completed 3 seasons already.

-3 matchups are still going on that matter, one that doesn’t.

-Reed is beating up on Finally Adopted in the great ‘Best-Worst’ team final.

-Reed has a 12-5-1 lead going into the second week, he looks like he’s got it, I’m going to guess that Reed Dynasty adds the crown to their hardware:


-The only thing keeping Finally Adopted in that matchup is the goalie #’s and even those are close.

-In the 3rd place trophy matchup, the Dump are taking it to the Mollies and this time the Mollies are actually trying!

-Consider the Mollies the 4th place dynasty if they lose this matchup.

-The score in this one is 11-4-3 in favor of the D+C, but the Mollies can get back in it if they get some more PPP, PIM, and I will assume that they can take faceoffs back.

-Mollies are looking to charge back:

-The Chasers are looking to Dump all over the Mollies HQ:

-But there is still that one matchup that trumps all the others this week:

-The Lemieux’s League 2008 (Season 3) Cup Finals:

-Bone Corporation vs Farls Regime.

-Bone Corp has been all over Regime so far on the way to a 10-4-4 lead so far.

-Regime needs to explode offensively this week to get back in the matchup, 33 points a week just doesn’t cut it.

-The Regime’s “well-oiled-machine” is looking more like the Grizwald’s Family Truckster:

(“Hey there…homie”)

-Bone Corp is blasting away at a championship pace:

-Rewind to last season’s finals and after one week you would see that the Regime were being squished by the Halfhill Crusade. Regime made a valiant comeback late in the week and took the lead Sunday afternoon only to lose later that night.

-Can the Regime fight back again, like last year?

-The Regime are finding out that there is a fine line between approaching Dynasty and Goat/Buffalo Bill territory.

(4 super bowl losses, ouch)

-Regime management’s response to the Buffalo Bill treatment = “What’s that? Oh sorry, it’s so hard to hear anything when I’m in my trophy room, there’s so much hardware cluttered around…”

(What?)

-Regime is getting Justin Williams back this week from a knee injury, who knew. All is for not however since Bone Corp has Eric Staal and Sergei Samsanov. Bone’s ‘Canes > Regime’s ‘Cane.

-So, who’s going to win the Cup?

-I think the best team will win, which is probably Bone Corp, but we’ll see.

-Regime lineups will be set, so you never know, and you never say never.

-Hopefully it’s a relatively close matchup when it’s all said and done, blowouts just aren’t any fun for anyone.

-Good luck, may the best team win the Cup:

The Finals, Week 1:

-2 weeks worth of championship fantasy hockey starting now.

-That’s right, these matchups are 2 weeks long.

-3 matchups are going on that matter, one that doesn’t.

-Reed plays Finally Adopted in the great ‘Best-Worst’ team final.

-The Dump meet the Mollies in what should be an intense bronze trophy matchup.

-But there is one matchup to rule them all, and you didn’t need me to tell you that.

-The Lemieux’s League 2008 (Season 3) Cup Finals:

-Bone Corporation vs Farls Regime.

-Bone Corp was Stone Ponies last year and Stuckdizzle the year before. It was a laughing stock of a franchise until a certain Mr. Justin Kim took over in the summer of 2007.

-Since then ‘Dry Bones’ and ‘Bone Corporation’ has been terrorizing teams each week on their way to the fantasy Presidents trophy for the best record in season 3.

-This franchise is well on their way now, and what better way to celebrate that than to add some gold hardware.

-Farls Regime has made the finals again, lol. It’s hard to believe that there has been no Lemieux’s League Cup Final without the little team that could:



-I’m honestly not sure how my team got here. I thought I had a playoff team, and we squeaked in as the 6th seed, but I didn’t think we had a championship caliber team. Apparently I was wrong.

-Regime played so-so all year and thanks to a few swift moves late in the year they wound themselves peaking out late in the year and it continued just enough to get them past the Crusade and the Mollies.

-Teemu Selanne, Sam Gagner, Andrew Ladd, Andrei Kostitsyn, Sergei Kostitsyn, Bert MacLean, Erik Ersberg and Dick Tarnstrom were all late additions that had been HUGE for the Regime.

-What might be the most interested part of this matchup is the season long joke/observation that Bone Corp has a surprisingly large number of ex-Reg-ies on his team. Because I want to, we’re going through them all (or most of them):

-Rick Nash – The First player ever drafted by the Regime and also the first player the Regime ever had, Rick Nash was a disappointment for Farls. Expectations were high and he was injured early and often. Nash was traded when he was on IR but was somehow obtained later in the season on another trade right before he came off IR. Nash was a key ingredient from then on as the Regime captured the Lemieux’s Cup in season one. He has yet to wear the Regime sweater since.

-Ales Hemsky – Drafted by Regime late in season one, but dropped after a slow start ala Peter Mueller. He returned to the Regime finally last year for Tomas Vokoun and he helped Farls make it to the finals in season two. He was traded last summer in the offseason for Justin Williams. Ouch.

-Eric Staal – Drafted in the LAST ROUND by the Regime in season one, what a player he was that year. Too bad I traded him mid season to Reed for something…BUT I drafted him in round 2 in season two, and then I traded him last summer to Bone Corp for a 2nd and 7th in order to keep Jordan Staal. Double ouch. Serenity now!

-Matt Carle – Drafted late in season two by Farls, had one heluva rookie year, then he fell apart this year. Farls kept him through the summer but then traded him to Bone for Hainsey early this year. Hainsey was a big Regime-er from before and has been welcomed back with open arms. Good luck with that one, Bone.

-Brendan Morrow – Regime’s secret weapon from last year. He was a trade deadline acquisition for Marek Zidlicky last year and was incredible in the postseason as he lead Farls to the runner-up silver trophy. He was not kept by the Regime, but damnit I wish I would have kept him over Tanguay. Another ouch.

-Chris Clark – An important bench and specialty stat player for the Regime in season one’s cup run, he was drafted back to the Regime last year but was traded to Reed for Milan Hedjuk. Clark had a cup of tea with Farls this year but…meh.

-Peter Mueller – Ouch.

-Jaret Stoll, Wade Redden, Kevin Bieksa, and Sergei Federov make the honorable mention, but they were never HUGE parts of the Regime franchise.

-So that’s that, and that’s the story of these 2 franchises.





-But, who’s going to win the Cup?


-Bone Corp still got it:



-Regime is still a well-oiled Machine:



-Corporation headquarters are ready:



-Regime seems to have figured out some sort of playoff winning formula. They are now 6-1 all-time in the postseason, but they are 1-1 in the finals so whatev.

-I’m going to wimp out and save a prediction for next weeks motw post. Mostly because I need something to ramble on about for the second week of the finals but also because I can’t yet wrap my head around the fact that my team is actually in the finals again, lol.

-But really, the prediction is meaningless. Lets just watch the teams put up #’s and see what happens.


-What else is going on? How about the Bronze trophy matchup?

-No Reed Dynasty, but the Mollies are in their second straight 3rd place game.

-The Dump won’t make it easy on them though.

-Last year the Mollies were so distraught about not making the finals that they pissed away the bronze trophy, will they seize it this year?

-D+C are excited to still be playing meaningful fantasy hockey, they’ll put up a fight as they look to begin putting hardware in their trophy case.

-In other news, Reed is playing Capretto in the Best-Worst championship. Good luck you too, and good show.

-It’s been a great Best-Worst tourney, lots of competing and more than 2 teams going for the Best-Worst crown, which is a first. Hats off to you guys.


-I think I’ve mentioned everything I wanted to put out there. I’ll be back in a week to check out where week 2 will take these mathups.

-Rick Moranis:



(What an actor.)

Recap of Round 2

-Will these 2 Underdog/Cinderella seasons continue or will the ball end early?

-The Bone Corp and the Mollies are back from their bye weeks ready to get back at it.

-Lets start the playoff conversation off with #1 Bone Corp taking on #5 Dump and Chasers.

-I liked the way D+C was playing but I didn’t think they would have enough to beat BC. My guess was a final score of 10-6-2, Bone over the Dump.

-Bone Corp picked apart the Dump like they had been in 15 playoff matches before this one.

-Bone Corp was all over the Chasers early and often, they let up a bit late but by then the matchup was there’s and they were waiting to see who would play them in the finals.

-If each playoff matchup in this league consisted of a ‘7 game series’ with each day of the 7 day week equaling one game, then the Bone Corp would have been ‘that team’ that beat you in 4 or 5 games and was waiting for the other 2 teams to finish up.

-This one wasn’t all that close, Bone Corp pretty much had it all the way, they win this one 12-4-2.


-Nash and Mueller both had 5 points, and Hemsky put up 6 assists for Bone.


-The other playoff matchup is the #2 Barclay Hill Mollies vs #6 Farls Regime part VII

-If you didn’t know that the Regime is cursed against the Mollies (0-6 all time) then this is either your first time at this blog or you have been hiding in a cave for the past 6 months of the fantasy hockey season.

-It was prophesized last year by myself that the Regime would not break the curse until they were in a playoff matchup against these very Mollies.

-My reasoning was that the Regime’s bad voodoo against the Mollies would be offset by my good luck in the postseason.

-After the first 3 days of the matchup, I was right, and the Regime was all over the poor Mollies.

-Mollies GM Sam Wengryn was ready to throw in the towel already. Sources say Molly herself was so upset that she ‘allegedly’ spoke to a few ‘potential’ ‘replacement’ ‘candidates’:

(Morty Seinfeld has been linked as a possible replacement candidate)

-The Regime was quick to point out that we were not yet at Thursday, which is considered by many to be the midway point of the fantasy Hockey week.

-I guess I should mention by now that I picked the Mollies to win this one 11-5-3.

-Not a very good prediction.

-The Mollies EXPLODED with 12 points on Thursday and suddenly both teams were back to square one.

-Friday and Saturday went by and both teams were tied at 8 going into the final day on Sunday.

-Call Sunday game 7 cause this was what it was all about.

-Problem for the Mollies is that they have 1 player on their Sunday lineup, and that’s Paleforce Danny Briere.

-Regime had a solid lineup comprised of Secret Agent Patrick Sharp, Andrew Ladd-er, Kimmo ‘Flock of Seagulls’ Timonen, Mike Dot-Comrie, and Andy ‘don’t call me Ronald’ McDonald.

-All Regime had to do is make sure their 5 players match what Briere produces on the night and they would win the matchup and move on.

-Briere hasn’t had a 3 point night in 2 months, what are the chances he has one now? Apparently very good. Briere gets 1 goal and 2 assists, Farls = Stunned.

-HOWEVER, Andrew Ladd got an assist, Patrick Sharp got and assist and Kimmo Timonen assisted on Briere’s goal.

-This of course means that the Regime….

(WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!)

-Final score is Regime over the Mollies (finally) 8-7-3.

-The prophecy was true, the curse has ended, and the Lemieux Cup beckons.


-Remember this? It showed up a few times during the season…



-Well…


-For the Regime, Gagner and Pomminville were incredible again, 5 points for both on the week.


-To the Finals!

Playoffs: Round 2

-Round Deux is here.

-Round 1 was all about the upsets, will it continue?

-Last week the Dump and Chasers became the first 5th seed to upset a 4th seeded team.

-Farls Regime became the first 6th seed to defeat a 3rd seeded team.

-With these 2 cinderella seasons continue or will the ball end early?

-The Bone Corp and the Mollies are back from their bye weeks ready to get back at it. It was probably more of a mental break than anything as their players obviously were still playing in the NHL.

-And Then there was 4:

-Lets start the playoff conversation off with #1 Bone Corp taking on #5 Dump and Chasers.

-As much as I like the way the Dump and Chasers battles each week I have to say that there chances appear slim this week:

(As slim as Paleforce Conan O’Brien? Maybe…)

-The thing about Dump and Chasers is that they are great at the specialties along with solid goaltending which makes up for their incredibly streaky offense.

-The reality is, you have to have all cylinders going to win in the playoffs, and I don’t think D+C’s offense has enough to take out Bone Corp.

-Bone Corp has a better offense while still being excellent at the specialty stats, they could definetly split the specials with D+C or take them out right.

-I do believe that D+C’s goalies can keep him in this one mostly because I still have no faith in Bone’s goalies.

-All in all it will be relatively close, my guess is a final score of 10-6-2, Bone over the Dump.


-The other matchup is the Barclay Hill Mollies vs Farls Regime VII

-Regime is cursed against the Mollies, 0-6 all time.

-Regime is happy to be at this point, so are the Mollies. Both of them were out of the playoff picture a few months ago. In fact, this was the Regime a few weeks ago:

(Belly up)

-But damnit if the Regime didn’t fight like only they know how:

-Regime finished strong and actually won a playoff mathcup. They’ve become that little team that could:

-The Mollies led a charge back from the basement all the way to 2nd place:

-Needless to say the Mollies have been red hot since being in the basement, wins have come easily.

-BHM. Kickin’ ass. Takin’ names:

-Is Regime due to finally win against the Mollies? You’d think that at some point Farls will beat the Mollies, or is there no law of averages?

-Could the bad voodoo the Regime has from losing all 6 games to BHM be cancelled out by the impossible 5-1 record Farls has put together in post season play?

-Not bloody likely:

(Palsie! Up a few.)

-The Mollies are a very solid offensive team, and they are peaking late as usual. On top of that, I would say that the Mollies might be the best team at the special stats and their goalie play has been top notch too thanks to Nabokov.

-With a lack of bias I predict the Mollies to win this one 11-5-3.

-2 teams enter, 1 team leaves; the Mollies are beyond Thunderdome at this point:

(Mad Molly)

-That’s all for this week. Good luck to all participants.

RECAP: Playoffs Round 1

-The Playoffs, this is what it’s all about.

-Militia is tired of playing D+C, luckily there is no chance they will see each other again until next year.

-I predicted that the Dump and Chasers would win by a score of 10-5-3.

-But, I also said this “it’s the playoffs, anything can happen.”

-For most of the week Mario had a commanding lead, but each day the Dump chased after stat categories bit by bit.

-Dump and Chasers wore down their opponent like a good boxer then waited for the perfect time to strike the KO blow:

-Literally the last player in this matchup in the last game of the NHL week won it for the Dump.

-Patrick Marleau was all D+C had left Sunday night when Mario was up 8-7 about to bust out the celebration materials.

-Then it happened, “Marleau PPG.”

-With that goal the Chasers caught up to Mario by tying the goals cat and taking the lead in the ppg cat, thus eliminating Mario and his Militia.

-Dump and Chasers move on:

-This wasn’t your typical D+C victory, but they’ve shown now that they can win in many different ways.

-They had a rough weeks offensively and they split the specialties but their goaltending was superb. Led by Kippers great play and a huge shutout by Price, D+C almost swept the goalie stats on their way to victory. Clutch.

-Great season by Mario’s Militia, there best ever in fact. Mario’s got a great young core with Kopitar, Malkin and Stasny. Certainly, they will be a force for years to come:

(Unfinished business next year for MM)

-The other first round matchup was of course Farls Regime vs Halfhill Crusade IX.

-It was The 3rd seed vs. the 6th seed:

(Regime was supposed to have as much chance as this kid ^ )

(It was the Big Champs vs the Tiny Scrappers)

(It was David vs Goliath)

-This is the 3rd time these two have met in the playoffs and 9th time they have met all-time.

-I based my entire prediction around a previous matchup, here it is: “3 weeks ago when these two teams met, Regime couldn’t take any goalie stats but they took most of the specialties and all of the offensive #’s on way to a 10-7-1 win. Déjà vu again. I predict a 10-7-1 victory/upset by Farls Regime.”

-The miracle here is that the score ended up 10-7-1 and for the first time I actually predicted perfectly, but how I got to that score is another story.

-Regime dominated the offensive stats again, losing only in goals.

-I thought Regime would take the specialties like before and lose goalie numbers.

-Can you blame me though, I mean how could my rag-tag goalies possibly beat Halfhills Brodeur/Luongo tandem???

-Then it happened. Ersberg:

(The little Swedish goalie that could)

-In a move that could have only been predicted by Johnny Carson, Farls sat all of is goalies over the weekend figuring Biron/Nittymaki/Backstrom would lay an egg somewhere.

-The move was risky, Regime was handing Crusade Wins and Saves for a solid chance at winning Save % and GAA in return.

-The move payed off, Regime miraculously took the goalie stats with a bunch of nobody’s and the rest is Lemieux’s League history.

-Also, Bert MacLean?? What a week this guy had! 6 points in 3 games, what a beast:

(BERT)

-Can’t forget this guy either, 7 points and a huge SHP:

(Welcome to Pomminville)

-To Halfhill’s credit, he had injuries like you wouldn’t believe and still almost pull off the win. Hossa, Chara, Smyth, Zubov, Bergeron, Upshall, Connolly and others missed time during the week.

-Halfhill's team is getting old fast, but they still have another year or two left of highly competitive fantasy hockey left in the tank.

-So in closing, the Regime wins and so does the Dump.

-Next week Regime will meet the Mollies again and the Dump travels to the Corporation of Bones.

PLAYOFFS: Round 1

-Screw the regular season, this is what it’s all about.

-Remember that 23 week marathon we just finished? Yeah, all that’s good for is to determine the seeding for the big tournament, now the matchups REALLY matter.

-The two best teams got bye weeks. That would be #1 Bone Corp and #2 Barclay Hill Mollies. They also guarantee themselves a spot in the medal round, even if they lose next week.

-This tournament is particularly strange because Reed Dynasty isn’t in it, which means for the first time ever someone else will win the Bronze trophy.

-After two seasons of ‘close but not quite’ Mario’s Militia has made it to the second season. Great, now he can play the same team he played last week, that would be the Dump and Chasers.

-I said last week that it was possible that MM and D+C could see each other 2 weeks in a row, and here we are:

(Déjà vu)

-D+C beat Mario last week 11-4-3; will there be more of the same?

-One thing I know is that the Dump wins specialty stats every single week, they’re beasts. Add the fact that the Chasers goalies have been hot and I think you’ve got a recipe for success.

-I predicted that Mario would win last week, so this time I’ll go with Dump and Chasers.

-More of the same but maybe a little different, I say 10-5-3 in favor of D+C.

-The Dump never looked better:

-But hey, it’s the playoffs, anything can happen.

-The other first round matchup is Farls Regime vs Halfhill Crusade.

-These 2 have played each other in the playoffs each season, so it’s no surprise that they meet again.

-In season 1 my Regies took out the Crusaders in the second round. Last year Halfhill took me out in the epic two week finale.

-This year the Regime will smoke the Crusade like a bad cigar:

(I can taste it now...)

-I might be biased here but the Crusade isn’t quite what they could be right now, just look at all these injuries they have to key players. Chara is out, Hossa could play this Sunday, Smyth is hurt again, Zubov is out and Bergeron is out.

-Hossa is still only scoring goals on your NHL ’95:

(Can’t wait to see it for real)

-Those are all keeper players, not just scrubs.

-3 weeks ago when these two teams met, Regime couldn’t take any goalie stats but they took most of the specialties and all of the offensive #’s on way to a 10-7-1 win:

(The Regime was and still is a well oiled machine)

-Déjà vu again. I predict a 10-7-1 victory/upset by Farls Regime.

-I’m not sure if that is a prediction or if that is what I am hoping for; it’s complicated.

-Either way, Regime nation is getting ready for another run at the cup:

-That’s all for me, enjoy the playoffs while your in it or else you’ll be doing this before you know it:

-Good luck to all and don’t forget what’s at stake:

(Not sure if it still looks like this…)