2018 Cherry Cup Finals

The long grind of a season has finally come to a close.  The Mayhem on Ice are the 2018 Cherry Cup Champions after beating Who Gives a Puck 6-1!

It was a season of injuries (at least seemed like it to me) and a season that saw one team going the entire season without making a single line up change and then make it to the playoffs, only one game short of the Cherry Cup Finals (Krampus Carols).  It also saw a team make it to the finals, who on draft night was face down drunk during entire draft, allowing auto draft to draft his team (Who Gives a Puck)

This is how the CFFL officiates the Cup Finals

Well with that all being said, it came down to two teams in the finals.  The Mayhem on Ice, who has seen success with their counter part CFFL team Michigan Mayhem, winning 2 CFFL titles, versus Who Gives a Puck, a team looking to get their named engraved for the second time on the Cherry Cup.

The game was close for the most part throughout the week, with only 1 separating many of the categories.  Goalies were a bit of a surprise in this game, which was clearly the weakest part of both teams.  Both teams battled hard as the Mayhem out dueled the Puck in SV% .951 vs .932, both impressive stats.  Roberto "Clemente" Luongo came up big for the Puck with 3 wins.  Unfortunately for the Puck this would be the only category they would win. 

As Saturday unfolded, the Mayhem took command.  Claude Giroux got things going in a big way netting a hat trick for the Mayhem.  Giroux would end up earning Number One Star of the Finals scoring 5 goals, 2 assists, +7, 2 PPP and 2 hits.  This really took the air out of the sails of Who Gives a Puck, who started to actually say that...

Giroux's hat trick was nail in coffin

Taylor Hall, who had been huge in the Puck's playoff run, didn't have a big enough series.  Its pretty sorry when you have 2 goals, 2 assist and 3 PPP and its not enough.  Nylander managed to score 3 goals for the Puck, but between the two of them they still only equaled Giroux's 5 goals.

Cleaning up the hats!

The Mayhem were relentless.  Every player for the Mayhem had 2 or more hits, 9 from Hedman, 8 from Laine, and 6 from Ekblad.  And to go along with Giroux's impressive +7, Goudre had a +5 and Hedman had a +5.

Good thing there wasn't a second week in the finals this year, maybe the Puck could have came back...

Mayhem players celebrate their victory!

Congratulations once again to Mayhem on Ice, the 2018 Cherry Cup Champions!!

Celebration ensues as the Mayhem on Ice win the Cup

CFFL Ice Girls are taking off for the summer.  See you next year!

CFHL 2nd Round Playoffs and Cherry Cup Final Preview

The stage is set for the Cherry Cup Finals.  One hot team and one with upset on its mind.

Mayhem on Ice 5  La Femme Nikita 2
The Mayhem on Ice quest for the Cup continues as the La Femme Nikita's Cinderella season comes to an end.  Mayhem scored just enough to take most of the categories, led by Giroux's 3 goals.  But the Assists from Malkin (4), Hedman (4) and Jones (3) were huge in the victory.  La Femme Nikita had a great week in net getting 4 wins between Andersen and Rask.  Three's were wild for Marchessault who wasted a MVP performance in the loss scoring 3 goals, 3 asissts, a +3, 3 PPP and 10 hits. 

Who Gives a Puck 4  Checkers 3

Who Gives a Puck completed their come back after the Checkers led most of the week.  When you score 15 goals, 16 assists and 10 PPP there is a good chance you will win the game.  Who Gives a Puck did that.  Number One Star of the game was Taylor Hall who had 4 goals, 3 assists, +2, 4 PPP.  The Puck will need better goal play than they got this week if they want to win their second Cherry Cup.  They had 0 wins and .909 SV% between Luongo and Schneider.  As predicted the Checkers best players were their goalies Quick and Rinne who combined for 2 wins and .917 SV%.  Not their best effort but was enough to win both categories.

2018 Cherry Cup Finals

Who Gives a Puck vs. Mayhem on Ice

The Mayhem on Ice will be trying to win their first Cherry Cup and come into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams.  They come in with players like their MVP Laine, Giroux, and Schenn.  An impressive blue line led by Hedman.  Certainly not to be outone the Puck take the ice with Eichel, Nylander, Hall, Oschie and Tarasenko.  They had so much talent they even benched Crosby!  We will see if this comes back to bight them.  Along the blue line they have some heavy hitters including Subban and Byfuglien.

Puck hope so see some of this from Tarasenko

Goalies I have to be honest are nothing to write home about.  The Mayhem will have McElhinney and Raanta.  The Puck have Luongo and Mrazek to protect the net.  These are not the four Goalies you think about drafting to take you to a Cherry Cup now is it.  Makes one think, how important are the goalies anyway....

Outlook:  I sense an upset that will be won with the skaters and not the goalies.  Who Gives a Puck has a slight edge on the skaters, even with Crosby out.  The goalies are a toss up.  It may come down to who gets lucky with their goalies to edge the other in one of the goalie categories. 

Who Gives a Puck's Number One Fan

Prediction:  Who Gives a Puck 4-3