EFHL Playoff Newsletter

Here is a relatively lame newsletter for this week as the NHL regular season quickly winds down.

Elite Cup results through April 7: Beaver Slapper 80-Ice Dogs 47
I’ll take the time now to congratulate Rick on his playoff victory to go along with his total points championship and probably the final period victory. If you look at the stars of the week, Rick’s team dominates the list. Forsberg and Selanne had 10 points each this past week and Palffy kicked in 4 more goals to give him 9 in the finals for the last two weeks. Chelios led all defensemen with 6 points.

For me, Sakic returned to form with 8 points, but some things never change as my team continued to suffer from nagging injuries. Not that it mattered, but both Hull, Coffey, and Renberg (and his 200 stitches) missed games last week with injuries.

Nothing much for anyone to play for this week as all the money spots are basically decided. Rick will win total points and Chris should come in second. He leads Brett by 29 points. With a 25 point lead, Rick should become the only player to win more than one period. Chris, Rich, Brett, and Tony won one. And I get the consolation money for making the finals. I’ll take a quick look at the final money in next week’s newsletter.

As far as the NHL goes, there are some good battles for the last playoff spots. The situation is a little more clearer this week than last, as some teams, such as Washington, Calgary, and Vancouver now need serious help if they are going to get in. The Penguins are among the teams battling for position, as they try to secure home ice in the first round. At the very least, it would be nice for them to move up to fifth and avoid a first round match up with either New Jersey or Philadelphia.

One more situation worth noting this week is the temporary (I think) switch of Sergei Federov to defenseman. It’s hard to figure what Bowman is thinking with this manuveur. For Federov, it probably gets him more ice time than he was seeing on the checking line. I do not know exactly when this change took place, but if you look at Federov’s stats the last three weeks, he had nine points three weeks ago in the first week of the first round of the playoffs, followed by zero and two points in the next two weeks. Just what Tony needed in his heated playoff battle with Rick.

Don’t forget-playoff draft this Saturday at 8 PM. Be there or be square.

If any of you guys on the Internet are interested in a free hockey playoff contest, surf over to http://www.canoe.ca/Hockey/playhock.html. The canoe.ca hockey site (canoe stands for Canadian Online Explorer) is an awesome sight, with several articles and features posted daily, with a focus on the Canadian teams. Anyway, its a free contest with $5,000 (Canadian) in prize money. You pick nine players from predetermined categories and you can "trade" players within categories at the end of each round. You can’t just pick Sakic, Lindros, Lemieux, Shanahan, etc., etc. Read the instructions and the scoring rules. What other reason could you have to root for the likes of Cliff Ronning or Murray Craven for a few games. I’ll expect a share of any of your winnings.

Look out next week for the final stats package and the year-in-review newsletter. Later.

Standings and total points

Player statistics by team:

Player scoring rankings
Schedule
Rules

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