CFHL Week 1

Well the puck has been dropped on the 6th season of the CFHL and the season opened up with one long opening week!  With the new format for the old franchises it was a slightly different feel and leads could change at any given time.  And after all of that, you are either 1-0 or 0-1....

Good to see the Ice Girls back

Goon Crew 6 Assassins 2
After a slow start and team captain Bergeron starting the game with an injury the Crew came on strong at the end to take the game 6-2.  This despite the Assassins racking up 244 Face of Wins (FOW) as they had 5 players in their starting line up taking face offs.  Kesler from the Ducks had 80 on his own!  The Crew took assists by 9 thanks to 7 assists from Getzlaf and 5 from Forsberg from Nashville.  Hits were close but the Crew had a 4 players in double digit hits to Assassins only 2 players. (Backes did have 20 hits).

Good to see the hot hockey wives back (Paige Getzlaf)

AshBusters 8  White Mambas 1
The Mambas after a quick start, faded fast and the AshBusters took a commanding lead with 16 goals to Mambas 12, 24 assists to 17, 55 hits to 38 and 163 FOW to 89.  It didn't help the White Mambas that they didn't replace Murray who is out with a broken hand, with a goalie that actually could be playing.  Taylor Hall and Brent Burns both had 3 goals for the AshBusters and Burns also had 6 assists!  If there was a bright spot for the Mambas, it was Tarasenko who had 4 goals (including 1 PPG) and 3 assists.

Good to see Burns Beard back.

Mayhem on Ice 6  Krampus Carols 3
These two teams lit up the lamp combining for 36 goals in total.  Mayhem got the edge in goals 22-14.  Two players had 4 goals each; Connor McDavid and Wayne Simmonds.  This along with 3 goals from Blake Wheeler and then 5 other players scoring 2 goals each.  Impressive performance.  Not to be completely outdone, Krampus had 3 players net 3 goals each (Duchene, Scheifele and Kreider).  Mayhem also edged the Krampus in hits led by Milan Lucic 18 and Simmonds 17 hits.  Between the pipes the Krampus won that battle with 3 wins from Allen and 1 more from Lehner to go along with GAA of 2.67 compared to Mayhem's 3.19 as Elliott got blasted posting a 4.72 GAA alone.

Good to see the hockey toque back

USSR 6 Slow Icin' 3
The Soviets took care of the expansion team Slow Icin' beating them in Goals, +/-, hits, FOW and GAA and SV%.  USSR got 224 FOW, second only to the Assassins, as they had 5 players taking face offs.  Koivu had 74!  Stamkos for the Red Army led the way with 3 goals and 8 hits, while Barkov had 2 goals, 3 assists and a +5 to go along with his 38 FOW.  In net Slow Icin' performed well in the win category getting 5 total wins between Luongo and Mrazek.  Luongo had an impressive week to go along with the 3 wins was GAA of 1.99 and SV% of .922, however USSR goalie Holtby would not be out done, as he had GAA of 1.98 and SV% of .924...ouch..

Wish I could say its good to see Hotlby back

Who Gives a Puck 5 Checkers 4
In the closest match up of the week, the battle between the only two teams to have their name on the Cherry Cup batted to a close game and came down to the final night.  With the Puck in control of Assits, +/- and both GAA and SV% locked up as neither teams goalies played Sunday, it came down to goals and Hits.  The Checkers had  slim lead 8-6 in goals.  Puck would get 2 goals Sunday from Zach Parise to tie goals.  Then he would get 3 hits, 1 from Parise and 2 from Byfuglien to the 2 hits from Vatanen of the Checkers.  This would tie hits at 53 ultimately giving the Puck the 5-4 victory.  Injuries were the story of this match up as Crosby didn't play the entire game (concussion).

Parise stuffing one of his 2 goals in

So there you have it.  In the Smythe the AshBusters, USSR and Mayhem start the season 1-0 while in the Norris only 2 teams came away with wins to start the season 1-0, the Goon Crew and Who Gives a Puck.

Yep, hockey is back!

This week, the battle of Russia continues as AshBusters take on USSR, while in the CFFL the Roulette and Cocktails battle in football.