CFHL Playoffs

 Hey I'm back!  Yeah I know that the weekly update lamed out this year, but been busy and out of town and just flat out had no writing juice to be honest.  But I thought I better put one out as the regular season has come to an end and we enter the playoffs.  

And for whatever reason, this years playoff format is just the top 4 teams.  I think in the past the two top teams got a bye and the next four played in first round.  Oh well.  This year just semi-finals and finals.  This league has been ever changing....lol

The top 4 teams:  

R.C. Goon Crew snagged the top seed (imagine that) with a final week 2-1-3 win over the Checkers.  Their reward?  They get to play the Checkers again!  Ugh.  

Next at number 2 is Who Gives a Puck.  So we have two teams in the playoffs (Checkers and Puck) that have a combined 8 of the past 13 Cherry Cups.  Checkers have 5, including the first 3 in history, and the Puck have 3.

California Raisins round out the playoff teams and have been hungry to get their name on the cup.  Not nearly as hungry as the Goon Crew who have been in the league from the beginning only to see his brother win 5 times...but I regress...

Round 1:

Checkers at Goon Crew - The Crew will be off to a bad start to this series as they tried to bench goalie Logan Thompson, who is hurt, at 6:58pm, but line ups were locked already.  So they will be taking the ice with only 1 goalie.  If this will be anything like the last game of the season, it will be another nail biter.  They finished tied with goals, assists and goalie wins.  Checkers should have a big advantage with Checkers goalie tandem of Hellebuyck and Vasilevskiy and Crew only having Ottinger.  Just win goalie categories and likely hits and they could steal one more for the win.  

California Raisins at Who Gives a Puck - The Puck are coming off a 6-0 shellacking of the defending champion Greek Empire.  California Raisins are coming off a 5-1 beat down of the Krampus Carols to make the playoffs.  So both teams are coming in hot.  Looking at both teams players, it's hard to pick a winner.  Very even.  Key matchups will be Mikko Rantanen  and DeBrincat for the Raisins vs. Matthews and Dylan Strome from the Puck.  Strome had a huge week last week, so can he replicate it?  

Predictions:  The experience of the Cherry Cup playoffs prevail and we will end up with a Checkers vs. Puck Cherry Cup final.