CFHL: Playoff Race Update

 The final stretch to the playoffs is underway!  In week 12 Who Gives a Puck were way out of playoff contention, but after 3 weeks they have roared back into the playoffs and sit at the 3rd seed!  You can thank the Crew for that one.  In Week 14 they lost to the Puck 0-6!

But now we are in the middle of Week 16, the final regular season week.  The Greek Empire will be the top seed in the league and basically will have two byes.  This week against the last place Slapshots then next weeks playoff bye.  The Empire are very confident that they will have no problem in the playoffs and bring the Cup to California!  Careful there bearded wonder...

Greek Empire fans getting fired up for the playoffs

Monkey Mafia will be the two seed with a 9 point lead over the Puck.  Monkey currently have a 5-0-1 lead over the Krampus Carols but the game is still tight in goals, assists and PPP, so this could certainly change.  Krampus just need to keep it close to stay in the playoffs as they currently sit 5th with 88 points.  

Better watch out for the Monkey Mafia

Speaking of the tight race we have for spots 4 through 6...

4. Raisins with 88 points are leading the Puck 4-2 but very early, with slim leads in hits and PPP.

5. Krampus Carols with 88 points as mentioned above.  

6. Assassins with 87 points hold the final playoff spot.  They lead the Mambas by 1 point and the Crew by 2.  Currently they are losing to the Crew 4-0-2.  Again it is very early, but the Crew have a commanding lead in hits (23-6) and a decent lead in Assists (5-2) and goals (6-4), but this can all change in a heart beat. 

7. White Mambas with 86 points are battling the Checkers and losing 1-3-2.  A loss here and playoff hopes go bye bye.

Light night tonight in the NHL, but Thursday there are 14 games and Saturday 15 games!  Hang onto your hockey helmets, should be a wild ride to the playoffs!

CFHL Week 13 Update

 How quickly things can change as we head toward the end of the regular season.  Last week the Raisins were out of the playoffs, but after last week's games they move into the final playoff spot as the Krampus Carols went 2-4  and dropped out.  Three weeks to go to solidify your playoff spots!

Week 13 action:

Space Monkey Mafia vs. Goon Crew 3-3 - Crew were able to hang on and keep a tie game with the Mafia despite losing most of the skater categories.  Thankfully they were solid in net and on the boards.  Nathan McKinnon was a beast again for the Mafia scoring 3 goals, 7 assists, 3 PPP and a hit!

MacKinnon leads the Mafia

Assassins vs. Krampus Carols 4-2 - Assassins win the game dominating the power play getting 6 points vs. only 1 to the Krampus.  Cale Makar at the blue line was a stud scoring 4 goals, 2 assists, 2 PPP and a couple of hits.  Thatcher Demko had a huge week with 3 wins and .969 SV% but went out in the final game with an injury and could be out 2-3 weeks.

Makar shines on the blue line for the Assassins!

Checkers vs. Slapshots 3-2-1 - Checkers managed to defeat the scrappy Slapshots.  The Slapshots tied PPP and won  Assists on the last day thanks to Roman Josi getting an assist and PPP.  Checkers were led by center Jamie Benn who had 2 goals, 4 assists and 3 PPP.  Sam Reinhart continues to have career year netting 3 more goals for the Checkers.

Reinhart has scored 45 goals so far for Checkers

White Mambas vs. Raisins 3-3 - Raisins and Mambas skated to a tie last week.  Mambas scored 10 goals, but not to be outdone, the Raisins countered with 23 assists and 50 hits!  Pastrnak led the Mambas with 2 goals, 4 assists 2 PPP and 4 hits.  Weegar had 19 hits for the Raisins, but of course it wasn't enough to win Goon of the Week...

Pasta got his 40th goal this week for the Mambas

Greek Empire vs. Who Gives a Puck 5-0-1 - The Greek Empire are a machine and definitely the odds on Cup favorites.  They dominated the Puck in all Skater categories beating them by 10 goals,  8 assists, 5 PPP and 21 hits.  Forsberg led the Empire with 4 goals as John Tavares led the way with 17 hits!

Tavares was active on the boards for the Empire

Three Stars of the Week:

Number Three Star:  Filip Forsberg, F, Empire - 4 goals, 2 assists, 2 PPP, 6 hits

Number Two Star:  Thatcher Demko, G, Assassins - 3 wins, SV% .969

Number One Star:  Nathan MacKinnon, C, Mafia - 3 goals, 7 assists, 3 PPP, 1 hit

Goon of the Week:  Who else?  Jeremy Lauzon, D, Checkers - 23 hits

CFHL Update Week 12

 

Was out last week once again in SWFL, but back for a CFHL update.  There are only 4 weeks left in the regular season!  Its time for that playoff push!  What does the playoff picture look like right now...

Its hard to believe that the Greek Empire will relinquish the top seed in the league as he has an 8 point lead for that spot, despite his loss to the Goon Crew 3-2-1 last week. :)  The team is strong with JT Miller at center who can score and has over 100 hits.  Their goalies are combining for 50 wins so far this season (Binnington and Hellebuyck).  

JT Miller a bruising center

Space Monkey Mafia are right there, although 8 points behind the top spot, but seem to be in prime position to make the playoffs.  Nathan Mackinnon leads this squad with 37 goals, 64 assists and an incredible 36 PPPs.

Mackinnon playing well for Monkey Mafia

After those two teams its a log jam for the next 4 spots, all tied or only 1 point back of each other.  Assassins, White Mambas  and Goon Crew are all tied and the Krampus Carols are only one point behind.  So the next 4 weeks could see seeds change for all of these teams or maybe someone dropping out of the playoff race.  The California Raisins are lurking only 2 points behind this group.  

Two teams with the most Cherry Cup Championships, the Checkers and Who Gives a Puck are on the outside looking in.  But with 4 weeks to go, don't be surprised if one of these teams make a run for the playoffs.  

Top Skaters through 12 weeks:

Best in Goals:  Auston Matthews, C, Puck - 53 goals - How the Puck are not in playoff contention with this guy!

Best in Assists:  Connor McDavid, C,  Assassins - 67 assists - McDavid at the top of the stats per usual and a big part of the Assassins success this year thus far.

Best in PPP:  Nikita Kucherov, F, Assassins - 42 PPPs - Another reason the Assassins will be a handful come the playoffs

Best in Hits:  Jeremy Lauzon, D, Checkers - 292 hits - A familiar name as Goon of the Week almost every week.

Best in Wins:  Thatcher Demko, Assassins and Alexandar Georgiev, Checkers - Both with 31 wins (That's three players for the Assassins that lead in stats)

Best in SV%:  Connor Hellebuyck, Greek Empire - .924 - Good reason the Greek Empire are on top.