CFFL Week 11

Some close, some not so close, some upsets and some almost upsets...

Mafia 32 Wrecking Crew 31
The Crew almost pulled off the come back Monday Night down 32-4 after Dez Bryant and David Johnson both scored 12 points for the Mafia.  It came down to the Raiders for the Crew (Carr, Cooper, Roberts and Janikowski).  They came up just one point short after Carr had 12 with one TD going to Cooper for an 11 point connection.  It wasn't the fault of the Crew Raiders that let them down.  Nothing from any other players did them in.

Dez caught 2 TDs for the Mafia

Bums 29  Chislers 16
The Chislers also couldn't come back as they had to start Osweiler for the bye week Rivers.  He ended up with 4 points only.  The Bums have won 4 in a row and are now above .500 at 6-5 and in the thick of the playoff hunt.  Bums have become dangerous with their Cowboy connections of Prescott, Elliott and Witten.  Prescott had 12 and then their pair of Dolphin WRs of Landry and Parker both had TDs.

This rookie pair had lead the Bums to 4 straight wins!

Sinistars 40 Animals 21

Mrs. Brady makes an appearance

The Sinistars bounced back defeating the Animals who continue to struggle.  Last week the Sinistars needed just one TD pass from Brady to win, but managed none.  This week, Brady hit on 4 TDs for 16 points.  This coupled with rare TDs from Moncrief and Ebron, helped the cause.


Crush 21 Ferrets 18
The Crush took an early lead after the One o'clock games 21-8 but they were done.  The Ferrets, down only 13, with several players left, seemed like they may upset the Crush and hand them their 3rd loss in a row.  Russell Wilson would score 10 points, including a TD catch, but would get nothing from Lockett or Williams at 4.  They needed a Raider D/ST score to win the game on Monday Night, but came up empty.

Juggernauts 40 Mayhem 22
Juggernauts rolled Sunday over the Mayhem with 2 D/ST TDs from the Vikings.  TDs from Bell, Edelman, Steve "the ageless one" Smith and 6 more from Vinatieri rounded it out for the Juggs.  The victory by the Juggs brings them to 5-6 and keeps them in the playoff hunt.  Mayhem remain tied for first in the Sad Sack South.

2 TDs from the Vike D/ST!

Bees 30 Krauts 13

And then there is Mrs. Tannehill

In one of two big upsets, the Bees surprised the Krauts Sunday with 2 TDs from their D/ST Lions.  They pulled off the win with no points from their QB "Super" Goff.  Krauts didn't do much better getting only 1 point from their QB Roethlisberger.   This was only the second win of the season for the Bees.  The Krauts have dropped 2 in a row and now trail the Roulette in the East by 2 games.

Titans 22 Cocktails 21
In the second upset of the day, the Titans defeated the Cocktails by 1 point.  Tannehill had two late TD passes that were the deciding scores.  Cocktails had a chance though only down 7.  Sturgis let them down however by only kicking 1 point.  Just a few more points and they would have won when "Boyd" Crowder caught his TD pass Sunday Night.  But Monday would still give them a chance with Murray.  He got his chances in the red zone, but just couldn't find the end zone as the Raiders had some questionable play calling and blocking.

One more week before we enter the final two weeks of divisional play to end the season.  Playoff race is close.  South and North are starting to look like 2 team races with only the winner of the division getting in the playoffs.  Last week there were 7 teams at 6-4.  6 of them lost! Not much change then in the hunt.   Here is a look at the playoff race at Week 11:

Division Leaders            Wild Card            In the hunt
Crush (9-2)                     Mafia (8-3)          Chislers (6-5)
Roulette (8-3)                 Sinistars (7-4)      Bums (6-5)
Wrecking Crew (6-5)     Mayhem (6-5)      Krauts (6-5)
Dragons (6-5)                 Cocktails (6-5)     Juggernauts (5-6)

CFHL Week 5

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  Its time for Turkey and Hockey this week!

Checkers vs. AshBusters 7-2
The Checkers, last in the league between the pipes, finally got quality play in the net between Budaj and Bishop as they combined for 5 wins!  Bishop had a GAA of 2.01 and SV% of .934.  Jeff Carter lead the skaters for the Checkers with 4 goals, 2 assists 6 hits and 60 FOW.  Kucherov for the AshBusters had 4 goals as well.  AshBusters are now a game behind the Mayhem while the defending Champ Checkers get their second win of the season.

Checkers Mascot happy for the win

Krampus vs. Slow Icin' 5-4
Krampus held on vs Slow Icin in a low offensive production game.  Krampus scored only 4 goals, but was enough to beat Slow Icin's 2.  The Teams combined for a -25.  Where the Krampus won this game was in the goalie categories as Allen earned the Number One Star of the game notching 3 wins, a 1.33 GAA and SV% of .953 which was enough to beat either of the Icin' goalies.

Krampus mascot slightly more intimidating
than the Checker mascot...

Mayhem on Ice vs. White Mambas 7-1
White Mambas managed to win only assists as they lost by one in Goals and just one Win with the Goalies.  Plus PPG were tied.  But even if they won those categories, they still would have lost.  Only two players took the face offs for the Mambas which didn't help either.  McDavid netted 3 goals for the Mayhem during the week.  Mayhem move to 4-1 and are in first place in the Smythe Division.

Mayhem dude made appearance at game...

Assassins vs. USSR 5-4
This was a battle of the two top face off teams and they didn't disappoint.  The Assassins remain the king of FOW as they beat the USSR 155-146. Backstrom had 43 to go along with 4 goals and 4 assists, while Kesler had 40 FOW.  The USSR had two in the 40s as well as Trocheck had 42 and Stastny had 44 FOW.  No team was even close to those numbers.  The USSR also lead all teams with 55 hits as they have the reputation as one of the most physical teams.

Some Assassins fans arriving at the game...

Goon Crew vs. Who Gives a Puck 5-2
Who Gives a Puck had a chance to tie the Goon Crew for first place in the Norris Division, but the Crew managed to pull off the win.  Game was close overall as the Crew won goals by 3, PPGs by just one and +/- by just +2.  Who Gives a Puck won Assists by 1.  They tied in both Hits and Goalie wins, while the Puck edged the Crew in FOW by 3 (95-92).  Dubnyk continues to shine as he had 1.39 GAA and .955 SV% for the Crew.

Goon Crew Fans get into it...

Long way to go yet this season as we are only in Week 5 of the 20 week season.  Goon Crew have a 2 game lead in the Norris and have a rivalry match up with the Checkers.  Mayhem only have 1 game lead over AshBusters in the Smythe and have a game against the struggling White Mambas.

CFFL Week 10

Week 10 in the CFFL is Salute to Service as we take a look at 4 close games that went down to the wire...

Salute to Service

Wrecking Crew 16 Sinistars 15
While this might not have been the most exciting game as it went on, it had a hell of a finish.  Scoring was at a premium as neither team could find the end zone.  But going into Sunday Night it would be Tom Brady for the Sinistars vs. C-Mike for the Crew.  Truly the Crew were in trouble as they held on to a slim one point lead and Michael was sidelined with a hamstring issue (then later would be waived...what the hell is up with that??).  Tom Brady wouldn't be shut out would he?  Well as the game went on it was one of the Patriot games where they just run it in.  Until the final drive of the game, the Patriots were on the one.  Brady Sneak..Stuff!  Brady sneak...fumble! But Brady would recover.  4th down and goal to go and Brady throws the dreaded 50/50 and its incomplete with no time left!  The Crew hang on by the skin of their teeth.

Brady leaves the field with a big fat ZERO

Roulette 34 Titans 33
Titans would give the Roulette everything they could handle making them want to play Russian roulette for real.  While they seemed to have the game in control with 14 points from Rodgers including a 10 point play to Nelson, plus 14 points from their kicker Hopkins.  The Titans wouldn't go away quietly as they started racking up points with their Dolphin connection of Tannehill and "Beans and" Franks after Willie Snead caught 2 TD passes.  Tannehill hit 2 TDs and just needed a third to pull off the upset.  He would come up short and the Roulette survived and are now sole possession of first place in the East.

Nelson scores a 10 point connection

Dragons 37 Krauts 32
This was potentially the game of the week, going late into the Super Moon Monday night.  Krauts would take a 10 point lead behind 12 points from Roethlisberger, 6 from Williams and 6 from kicker "Lamebo" Lambo.  Down by 10, the Dragons had Manning, Beckham and Gould.  All it would take is one TD pass to Beckham to take the lead.  Manning would toss 1 TD, but not to Beckham,  to pull the Dragons to within 5, 26-21.  Finally Manning would find Beckham for the 11 point connection taking a 32-26 lead and seemingly the game.  But the Krauts would not go quietly into the super moon night as Jeremy Hill would scamper in for a TD to tie the game at 32!!!  But Manning wasn't done firing in the game winning TD pass late in the game.  Dragons prevail 37-32 and remain tied in the South with the Mayhem.

Beckham celebrates the game winner

Chislers 31 Crush 28
Would it be another Monday Night Jam for the Chislers.  Who in past Monday Nights would be burned by kickers and lose by a point time and time again.  The Chislers had no one left, but the Crush had both A.J. Green and Eifert.  It would not look good for the Chislers as right away the Crush would get a TD from Green to pull with in 3.  Just one TD from either Green or Eifert would spell dome for the Chislers and end in another Monday Night Jam.  The game would go on and on, but Chisler luck finally returned, as Green and Eifert would not score the rest of the night, although had plenty of chances.  Chislers keep pace with the Crew and the Crush fall to 8-2 and are only 1 game ahead of the Mafia.

Rivers smells victory for the Chislers

Around the League...Juggernauts hammered the hapless Bees 48-19.  They had three players in double digits; Flacco-13, Bell-12, and Succop-11...Cocktails couldn't mount a huge comeback on Monday night as they rested their comeback hopes on the shoulders of "Malachi" Dalton.  That was their first mistake.  Mayhem would get a 16 point performance from Mariota that the Cocktails couldn't overcome...Mafia would blow this game wide open Sunday night with 3 TDs from Blount.  They needed them all to keep the biting and scratching Ferrets from coming back to steal this game as Russell Wilson had 12 points for the Ferrets.  Mafia hang on 49-38...The Bums suddenly have put together a couple of wins and are not an easy team to play.  This week, despite 10 points from Newton and 14 from Ryan Mathews, the Animals found out how tough the Bums have become.  With a nice combo of Prescott (8) and Elliott (18), they rolled...

Blount scores 3 times.  He was a BEAST!!!!

Not much change in the playoff picture but has tightened up with 7 teams at 6-4, plus Bums right there at 5-5.  Mayhem have moved into the Wild Card position while the Krauts have not dropped to In the Hunt, outside looking in:

Division Leaders                 Wild Cards           In the hunt
Crush (8-2)                         Mafia (7-3)            Chislers (6-4)
Roulette (7-3)                     Sinistars (6-4)        Krauts (6-4)
Wrecking Crew (6-4)         Mayhem (6-4)        Bums (5-5)
Dragons (6-4)                     Cocktails (6-4)       Juggernauts (4-6)

CFHL Week 4

Into the 4th week of the season the final undefeated team is no longer and all the divisions have tightened up tighter than lug nuts on a 57 Chevy...

AshBusters vs. Goon Crew 7-1

Goon Crew could never recover from Lundqvist earlier 19.0 GAA.  He did end up finishing with 2.71, but the typical strength of the Crew was less than stellar as the Crew lost all of the goalie categories.  Hall for the AshBusters had 4 assists and a +4 while Marchessault had 2 goals.  The Crew couldn't get much scoring outside of Pastrnak and Victor Rask who had 3 and 2 goals respectfully.  Crew drop their first game but still remain one game ahead of Who Gives a Puck.

Not much gets past this guy..

Assassins vs. White Mambas 4-4

The seasons first tie had Assassins and White Mambas skating to a tie while Mamba continued to have Huberdeau in the line up.  (He's out for 4 months).  But hopefully we will see some changes this week.  Tarasenko continued to lead the Mambas as he had 1 goal and 5 assists.  Another outstanding FOW week for the Assassins passing the century mark again.  Number One Star of the game though was Carey Price, for the Assassins who had 3 wins, 1.00 GAA and .967 SV%.  

Mayhem on Ice vs. Who Gives a Puck  7-2

The Mayhem on Ice kept pace with the AshBusters, leading the Smythe Division at 3-1, while the Puck couldn't take advantage of the Crew loss and still remain a game back.  Patrik Laine, seems like I mention him each week, again had a great week scoring 3 goals, 2 assists and 4 hits.  He has 11 goals on the season already.  But the big star in this game was Tuukka Rask who notched 4 wins a 0.75 GAA and SV% of .970

Rask was a wall

Slow Icin vs Cherry's Checkers 6-3

The defending champs fall to 1-3 and continue to complain about the new format...Slow Icin, after dropping first two games are on a 2 game win streak.  The Checkers needed to have a big game from their Kings on Sunday, but could only manage one goal.  Slow Icin on the other hand would get 4 assists on Sunday to take that category, inlcuding 2 from Toews, Icing, so to speak, the game.

Weber blasted 3 PPGs!

USSR vs. Krampus Carols 5-3

The USSR put the hurt on the Krampus Carols racking up 52 hits, not to mention a ridiculous 141 FOW.  Good thing too since the Krampus beat them in Goals and Assists.  An interesting stat in this game was the 6 goals that the USSR scored were all PPG!  Shea Weber had 3 of them and lead the team in hits with 11.  Not a bad days work.  

After 4 Weeks, who is leading the league in stats?

Goals - Mayhem on Ice with 43.  Laine with 11 and Simmonds with 8 lead the way.  (Crew last with 25)

Assists - Krampus Carols with 74.  Seguin leads with 13 and Kane with 12. (USSR last with 54)

Rating - Assassins with +25.  Anisimov leads the team with +12.  Only two players have a negative rating. (Who Gives a Puck last with -24)

Hits - USSR lead with 209.  Luke Glendening lead the team with 42.  Not surprising fellow Russian team AshBusters a close second with 199 hits (White Mambas softest team with only 91 hits)

FOW - Assassins lead with 673.  Ryan Kesler lead the team with 207! (White Mambas last with 132)

Goalie Wins - Assassins with 17.  Carey Price leads with 10.  (Checkers last with 8)

GAA - Goon Crew with 1.96.  Dubnyk leads team with 1.65 (Checkers last with a 2.89)

SV% - Goon Crew with .933. Dubnyk leads team with .947 (Checkers last with .897)

CFFL Week 9

Out of the Home and Home series, the North battled the West and didn't fair well at all, while the South fought the East, and didn't fair much better either...

Mafia 29 Chislers 28
The Chislers were yet again victim to a kicker on Monday night.  This time it was Hauschka for the Mafia.  Rivers would throw 2 TDs and Britt and Brown would score as well, but the 8 points from Crosby should have been 11 if he hadn't missed a 48 yard FG.  The Mafia would be led by Matt Ryan's 16 points, but going into Monday Night they were down by 6.  Hauschka would have 4 extra points to make the game 28-26 late into the night.  Then Hauschka would nail a 48 yard FG to win the game for the Mafia.

Shark Eyes had 16 big points for the Mafia

Roulette 39 Mayhem 35 (OT)
In yet another OT game for the Roulette this time they came out on the winning side.  It was a dog fight though as two future Hall of Famers squared off and both scored 12 points.  Brees for the Mayhem and Rodgers for the Roulette.  While the Roulette got 2 10 point connections (one to Adams and one to Nelson), they needed every bit of those points as Beasley and Walker scored for Mayhem and both kickers scored 11 points.  Roulette being at home got first crack to break tie.  The one and only TD pass from Case Keenum was the deciding factor helping the Roulette stay in a 3 way tie in the East.

May be the only time he gets in the newsletter...

Krauts 29 Titans 25
The Titans surprisingly gave the Krauts a game, losing only by 4.  Krauts got 10 points out of a struggling Roethlisberger and 13 points from "Lamebo" Lambo.  Mike Wallace scored on a 95 yard TD pass that was the highlight of the game for the Titans in a losing effort.  The Titans playoff hopes are fading fast once again at 2-7, while the Krauts are in that three way tie in the East.

Mike Wallace's 95 yard TD score in a losing effort

The Fifty-burgers
Two teams topped the 50 point mark and were 2 teams you would have expected to do so.  First the Bums, who had an incomplete line up including one player short and a guy on a bye ended up racking up 57 points on the Crew.  This thanks to 12 points each from Elliott and Gore as their running game was unstoppable, not to mention 13 points from Cairo Santos "Todd Chontos"...In the other game the Dragons had their highest point total of the season beating the Juggernauts 50-18.  This was done in large part by 16 points from Manning including 2 10 point connections to Beckham.

2 10 point connections from these guys.

Around the League...Crush bounce back from their first loss of the season last week to easily put down the Animals 37-17.  Winston had a solid 12 points to start the game and rookie Mike Thomas scored twice.  Crush are now 8-1, holding a 2 game lead in the West...The Ferrets finally got some decent production out of Wilson (14 points), however they got little production from anyone else as they fell to the Sinistars 44-24.  The Sinistars got 24 points from Ingram and Evans...Cocktails kept pace in the East beating the Bees 39-25 led by their special teams.  Sturgis had 11 points and newly acquired defense Chargers scored twice!

2 TDs for Thomas helped the Crush move to 8-1

As we enter week 10 lets take a look at the current playoff picture:

Division Leaders                Wild Cards             In the hunt
Crush (8-1)                         Cocktails (6-3)          Chislers (5-4)
Roulette (6-3)                     Krauts (6-3)              Mayhem (5-4)
Wrecking Crew (5-4)         Sinistars (6-3)           Bums (4-5)
Dragons (5-4)                     Mafia (6-3)               Juggernauts (3-6)

Happy Election Night...

CFHL Week 3

As we move into November only one team remains undefeated and only 3 are 2-1 while the rest are all 1-2...

Goon Crew vs. Mayhem on Ice 8-1
The Goon Crew quieted down the Mayhem goal scorers as they leading team in Goals had only 2 all week vs the Crew's 8.  The Crew pretty much were in command of all categories.  Ovechkin lead the skaters with 3 goals, 2 assists a +2 and 1 PPG.  But the Number One Star of the game was Lundqvist who had 3 wins, 1.67 GAA and .941 SV% as the Crew goalies continue to shine.  Crew move to 3-0.

Lundqvist came up big for the Crew last week

Checkers vs. USSR 5-4
The USSR couldn't get one of their two players (Staal and Stastny) to get a goal Sunday to tie the game vs the Checkers. Checkers finally get their first win of the season despite their goalie woes. Hedman for the Checkers was the Number One Star with 2 goals 3 assists and a +3.  The USSR drop to 1-2 but only a game out of first in the Smythe.

Eh, heh heh...you said Hedman..

Slow Icin' vs. AshBusters 5-3
Slow Icin' get their fist win of the year over the AshBusters as they AshBusters could not get the assists they needed to pull off the tie.  Speaking of goalie woes, neither team could get any wins from their goalies and posted rather pitiful stats of nearly 4.0 GAA and SV% in the .800s.  Toews for the Icin earned top honors in the game with 3 goals, 2 assists and 59 FOW...yep...

Not even sure Toews still with her, and don't really care..

Krampus Carols vs. White Mambas 5-4
The Krampus hang on vs the Mambas as we are getting close to Krampus season.  No one wants to play the Krampus this time of year...The Krampus had two skaters with 3 goals each, Scheifele and Kane.  Scheifele had 3 assists a +4, 5 hits and 38 FOW to earn the Number One Star of the game.

Assassins vs. Who Gives a Puck 6-2
The Puck just couldn't muster enough on Sunday to make this a game as the Assassins kept the pressure on through out the week.  The Assassins continue to dominate the face off circle, this week getting 180 FOW!  Helped that 5 of their starters take face offs, leading the way was Kesler who had 54. Teams need to find other ways to beat the Assassins, because they are not going to beat them in FOW.

Kesler dominated the face off circle

Key Games next week:
Goon Crew at AshBusters - Two Division leaders face off.  And if it wasn't for Slow Icin' this would have been battle of the unbeatens.

Mayhem on Ice vs. Who Gives a Puck - both teams at 2-1 look to bounce back after losses last week.

CFFL Week 8

Happy Halloween from the CFFL!!!  This was a wild week with many close games and three teams that had to hang on and sweat out the entire Monday Night game to come away with the sweeps vs. their division counterparts...

Krauts 33 Juggernauts 32

Sergeant Sexy was at Kraut game

The Juggernauts gave the Krauts everything they had, but just couldn't avoid the sweep as the Krauts hang on for the win.  Juggernauts got 12 points from Palmer and 6 from newly acquired Kelley, Cooks, Edelman, but only 2 points from kicker Vinatieri.  But Lambo lived up to his Lamebo Lambo name for the Krauts and only had 1 point.  But came down to Monday night as the Juggs had the Viking D/ST.  They would not get the elusive D/ST TD or safety for the Win and the Krauts came away with the sweep of the Juggernauts and are now in a three way tie for first in the East with the Roulette and Cocktails.

Roulette 39 Cocktails 37
Speaking of the Roulette and Cocktails, after the Roulette pummeled the Cocktails in St. Petersburg (Leningrad), the Cocktails came into Moscow wanting revenge and to hold onto their first place standing in the East.  If you were to tell me that Rodgers would score 18 points for the Roulette and new Roulette Nelson would catch a TD pass from Rodgers and the Cocktails would still be in this game, I would have said, "Get the hell out of here."  But they were, thanks to Sturgis 11 point performance on Sunday night.  In fact Sturgis almost won the game if he hit one more FG.  But instead it would come down to Monday Night as the Cocktails would have Rudolph and one score would win.  Alas, Rudolph would not score and the Roulette held on for the sweep and now tied for first in the East.

Rodgers Player of the Week with 18 points

Chislers 26  Animals 24
The Chislers came into this game looking to put some major distance between them and the Animals as they already had a 2 game lead.  The Animals were let down once again by Cam Newton as he had a big fat ZERO.  Later at the press conference he was Sad Cam complaining that the Chislers took lots of cheap shots at him that the refs never called.  But once again, thanks to a kicker, Gano 12 points, the Animals still had a chance with Meredith "Baxter Birney" but the Chislers countered with Asiata "Cheese".  Neither of those stiffs would score, giving the victory to the Chislers and a 3 game lead in the North.

Chisler Cheerleaders were in the Halloween spirit

Mafia 32 Crush 30
The Mafia handed the Crush their first defeat of the season in dramatic fashion.  Led by 12 points from Matt Ryan the Mafia entered the Sunday night game down 30-26 to the Crush.  Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams were going for the Mafia and a score from either one of them would win the game.  Bryant would haul in a 22 yard TD pass late in the game for the win.  However, the Crush still lead the west by 2 games over Sinistars and Mafia.

Dez Bryant catches the game winner!

Derek Carr saluting the Crew fans

Around the league...The Crew also completed their sweep of the hapless Ferrets beating them 40-9 led by 16 points from Carr who finally hooked up with Cooper for a 10 point play.  That win, along with the Chisler win puts the Crew and Chislers up 3 games in the North...Bums upset the Sinistars 44-32 led by 14 points from Bortles and 12 from Cairo Santos "Todd Chontos".  Brady had 12 for the Sinistars in the loss...

...Dragons had little trouble this week defeating the Titans 27-8, sweeping the series.  They did it on the ground getting 12 points from Forte and 6 from Murray. The win keeps them in the hunt in the South and are only 1 game back of the Mayhem...Who snuck by the Bees 26-25.  It was a kicker battle won by the Mayhem as Succop had 12 vs. Bees' Gostkowski's 11, difference in the game...

Happy Halloween