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Checkline #6 by Martin Guindon MFHLnet
Week #6 of the MFHL Season 3 is already well behind us. Please note that this edition of the Checkline covers action from game day #20 to game #23. Now, on with the Checkline #6! Forward of the Week John Leclair, Colorado Avalanche, 11-1-12. Well, with a 18-5 win against the New Jersey Devils, the Colorado Avalanche stood a very good chance of having one of their players named Forward of the week, don't you agree? Well, it happened. John Leclair, thanks to a record breaking 6 goals in a game, is our man, scoring a total of 11 goals and getting one assist for a 12 points week. For Leclair and his bunch, it all started off with an astonishing 18-5 blowout against the Devils. John scored 6 goals and got an assist in that game. Then, he scored a goal in a 7-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks, before getting another goal, this time in a 4-4 tie against his old team, the Philadelphia Flyers. Finally, he scored his second hat trick of the week, including the game winner, leading the Avs to a 5-2 win over the Chicago Hawks. What a week for John! Keep it up! Defenceman of the Week Sandis Ozolinsh, New York Rangers, 3-5-8. Thanks to a great 3 goals and 3 assists game, Sandis Ozolinsh, of the New York Rangers, grabs the Defenceman of the Week. Sandis first got an assist in a 5-2 defeat against the Buffalo Sabres. Then, he scored a hat trick and got 3 assists in a big 9-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. After beeing blanked but still getting a +4 in a 7-0 win over the St-Louis Blues, Ozolinsh got an assist in a 7-6 scoring fest win against the Vancouver Canucks. Congrats Sandis! Goalie of the Week Felix Potvin, Toronto Leafs, 3-0-1. The Cat always falls back on it's feet they say. Well, Felix Potvin sure has come a long way in Toronto, finally becoming the starter for the Leafs. And this past week, he won 3 games, had a 2.25 GAA and a nice .922 SV%. Enough to make him Goalie of the Week. Felix, who played his Junior in Chicoutimi, made 25 saves in a 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks. Then, he made another 27 saves to beat the Boston Bruins. On game day #22, he stopped 28 shots to help his Leafs tie the red hot Edmonton Oilers. Finally, against the Carolina Hurricanes, he blocked 26 shots in a 4-2 win. Bravo Felix et ne lache pas! Hat Tricks of the Week Six hat tricks to report this week, not bad heh? First two occured in that 18-5 win of the Colorado Avalanche over the New Jersey Devils. Mike Peca (1) scored 3 goals and got 2 assists, while teammate John Leclair (1) scored 6 goals and got 1 assist. On game day #21, Sandis Ozolinsh (1), of the New York Rangers, scored 3 goals and got 3 assists in a 9-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Keith Primeau (1), of the Ottawa Senators, scored 4 goals in a 11-2 blast of the New Jersey Devils on game day #22. Doug Brown (1), of the Philadelphia Flyers, scored 3 goals in a 4-4 tie against the Colorado Avalanche. Finally, on game day #23, John Leclair (2), of the Avalanche, scored his second hat trick of the week in a 5-2 win over the Chicago Hawks. Shutouts of the Week Only three shutouts this week. First off, Trevor Kidd (1), of the Ottawa Senators, stopped all of the Montreal Canadiens' 27 shots in a 4-0 win on game day #21. The next day, Jeff Hackett (1), of the New York Rangers, stopped 36 shots to blank the St-Louis Blues 7-0. Finally, that same day, Kevin Hodson (1) helped the Nashville Predators shut the Buffalo Sabres out 2-0, making 26 saves. Oh my gawd! I was in total shock when I received the scoresheet from the New Jersey Devils - Colorado Avalanche match up, on game day #20. Final score : 18-5. Total shots taken : 110 (70-40). This is crazy, ridiculous and nothing like what we can wish for in the MFHL. Other ridiculous scores have happen over the season so far, but this one tops them all. Imagine, John Leclair scored 6 goals, Saku Koivu got 8 (!) points, Theo Fleury got 6 points... This is bad, real bad. After showing some positive points over the past few weeks, the Devils have sunk back into obliveon. After losing to the Avs, they tied the Carolina Hurricanes 4-4. Ah, back on track you thought... But then, they got crushed 11-2 by the struggling Ottawa Senators. Then, boom again, another tie, this time 5-5 against the also slumping Montreal Canadiens. So what is this? A team that can't play two straight good games. A team that has allowed an amazing 153 goals so far a 6.65 goals a game in average. That's 111 more goals than the Boston Bruins or 99 more than the Toronto Leafs. Remember that this team had a great defence and was a Cup contender when the MFHL started out, 3 years ago. How did a team ever get so bad? Well, you'd have to go back two years to find out, but let's just say that the bleeding has to stop! And Marc Nicoletti is the man for the job. Hang in there Marc! Scary! When you look at the leading scorers board, you can see something pretty scary. The 11 top scorers belong to only 4 different teams. New York Rangers, Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers share the league's top 11 scorers. Peter Forsberg (38 points), Paul Kariya (32) and Sandis Ozolinsh (31) belong to the Rangers. Scott Niedermeyer (37), Jaromir Jagr (37) and Mike Modano (35) belong to the Los Angeles Kings. Saku Koivu (36), John Leclair (35), Theo Fleury (34) and now Pavel Bure (33) all belong to the Colorado Avalanche. And, the Flyers have managed to get Brian Leetch (33) in there. Four teams... That's what MFHL is mostly about now. Throw in the Toronto Leafs and you pretty much have the top of the crop. Those superpowerful teams are as useful to this league as the Devils, Ducks and Lightning. They go against a good league equity that would make every game exciting. Sure, the occasional blurb will allow a team to beat the Kings, heck even crush them, but that's not gonna happen too often. But, it's all normal I guess in a league where some trades are beeing made. Some owners have sold their shirts to get good players, others have given next to nothing to acquire superstars. The fear of an unbalanced league is upon us and it scares the hell out of me. We've seen our first 18-5 game the other day. My feeling is that we'll be seeing more and more of those. And the more we'll see, the less exciting this league will become and that's the day that I'll hit the sideline... for good. Homers So far, a few of the MFHL leading teams have played twice as much on their home ice than on the road. It's the case with the Toronto Leafs, who have played 16 (13-3) of their 23 games at home so far. The New York Rangers have played 15 (13-2) home games out of 23. The Detroit Wings too, have already played 15 (10-3-2) games at home out of 23. But the team that tops it all off is the Edmonton Oilers, who have already played 18 (12-3-3) home games yet! On the road, the Oilers are 3-1-1 in 5 games. Will they keep such a good record as visitors? We'll see. The Wings are 4-4-0 on the road... The Rangers are dominating on their hosts' ice though, with a 5-2-1 record. And the Leafs aren't doing too bad either, with a 4-2-1 record. The biggest homer team is the Los Angeles Kings, who have lost only 1 of their 11 home games. They do however have a 10-2 record on the road, the best one out there. Oh, did I mention that the Kings are the best team out there so far? Hehe, yes, I did, at one point or another... You all take care and come back whenever you dare to do so (just like Da Bruiser used to say)! .
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