Brutus

Great tourney Trojan. I caught some of it here & there while stuck at work via twitch. Definitely had a real smooth flow/feel to it all while i was watching and reading some comments on Discord. Raph picking up on EA's flaw was a cool thing, like listening to Romo breakdown the Pats vs Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. Your kid wasn't afraid of the mic for sure! Grade it with the curve for being 11, and he was an A+. However, your commentary didn't need a curve. Solid A+. Thanks for streaming it all.

Day drinking is SERIOUSLY underrated.

Christmas is over, but all of you have that Santa song ringing in your heads still I'm sure. So here's something else to torture you with. You better watch out Bet your butt you will cry Don't bother to pout Cause I'm not a nice guy Brutus & Mogs are coming to town. I've made my hit list I've checked it twice I'm getting some naughty time on the ice Brutus & Mogs are coming to town I know why you are hiding Play your games byatches!!!! I know if you have zero games played So play your games byatches!!! Let's GA! I'll be around LATE these next few nights but will try to get in some earlier games soon for the east guys old birds too.

I could have sworn I saw 3 penalties in a game recently where I got 1 penalty, but my opponent also got two at the same time. I think there were already 2 guys in the box, so it ended up with 4 in the box for him, and 1 for me, so it was 4 on 3 for 1 min (it was Et Tu Brute ROM). I could be wrong though. Drinking was involved Anyone else ever have multiple penalties from both teams?

I would always vote for myself, because that's just me Unless Halifax was on the ballot, then I'd have a real tough choice. The fact he's not on the ballot, forces me to abstain from the above selection. Chaos has tried to disappear a few times, but it's a little unknown detail that Brute here has a tracker on him, so his short lived absents have always been just that, notification his life is about to be short lived if his absence continues.

I'm heavy on the crease cuts and if you over chase me, hitting Hull type center for a one-timer blast, ESPECIALLY if you take the goalie, cause then you can't defend the pass while on goalie. I rarely see anyone playing this game like "real hockey", so I don't consider them cheese cuts. I definitely see so MANY forms of "cheese" that I no longer consider any goal cheesy. There are 3 ways that make crease cuts easier to get going than others, so telling you how to do them easier should help try to prevent them, if you see the logic there. #1 SPEED. Fast players move around and can get behind your net and just loose on a defense, and a speedster on the loose is a formula for a lot of crease cuts. Bure & Mogs are my favorite guys to get crease cuts with. Usually, speedsters are also light, so preventing them from getting the puck with space is vital to limited them, and fat defenders that are good at checking them w/ C/b, are too slow to catch them once they are loose. Keeping the puck away from them in open space is also effective in stopping many other goals speedy players can score. #2 Strong puck skilled wingers. Think Jagr/Fedorov/Ronning, depending on the style of the rom (WBF/Classic) and the weights of the defenders when planning how to stop them. These 5+ stick handling guys are a b***h to stop as they start to make their cut, absorb your hits and keep going, as your goalie flops. NOT trying to B check a guy who can just take that hit is important. KNOWING if you have a fat forward or light forward that is going to try to crease cut you, thinking ahead of WHOM to be using on defense prevents their successful attempt at cutting through the lane. I see guys grab a say weight 7 defender to try to stop Fedorov. No matter what ROM we are playing, he's taking the B check or the C/B or the C check here. It's just bad math/ bad defense type thing, and usually results in Fedorov controlling where he wants the puck to end up. A weight 7 player almost can't stop a Fedorov, only slow him down. #3 Sitting on defending one timers will leave the crease cut lanes open. Checking the center as he comes across the blue line can screw up the timing of a one timer combo before pursing the winger. But, if I get off a few one timers dead red middle, I find guys start to open up the crease cutting lanes. Not saying there are EASY answers, but the great players find ways to prevent too many attempts at sure fire goals, and that normally means no easy one timers, limited break aways & limited crease cuts.

MVP Regular Season: Sergei Fedorov 42 games played, gives him the edge, with a 87 goal season. Runner up: Pierre Turgeon Despite a shortened season, this man put up 57 goals, and over 3.5 points/game. Best Goalie: Andy Moog 26 games, but still registers 6 shutouts and an amazing 2.57 GAA! Playoff MVP: Brett MO'FO Hull 52 goals in 18 games, and 3.5 points/game, and lead the Blackhawks to a 12-2 playoff record.

I'd like to take the time to thank ALL of you who signed up & played, even those that were not able to find enough time to complete your games, as I know Thanksgiving made some opponents harder to find, and I believe one of the guys had his hardware crap out on him. Draft, Season & Playoffs went fairly on schedule, and a 4 round playoff, Best of 7 to finish in less than 2 weeks is rare. A special MUCHO GRACIAS goes out to the following buds: @skip @corbettkb @aqualizard @Mike Gartner You four finished ALL 42 games. Most Improved user goes to Flatcrusher. Drafting top goalies is I'm sure #1 on his GM's draft board from here on out! Kudos on a 20-20 season and some big W's vs both AngryJay & myself. Toughest out is a tie between Atomic & Skip. Both buds had great seasons with many quality wins, and both advanced to the semi-finals, where Atomic took Tex all the way to an exciting Game 7, and Skip battled Brutus 4 OT games before losing out in 6 games. Turns out, the only 2 games the Blackhawks lost in the playoffs where to Skip's Nordiques, and having 4 OT games in a Best of 7 series is crazy. Thanks to guys like Chef & Spaceghost, who put in full effort even when the deck is stacked. It takes everyone in a league to make it work, and your draft participation and sportsmanship is top shelf. Aqua's overall activity, feedback and gameplay really felt like an important glue this season as well. Thx Buds. I do feel the Weight Draft & Weighted Schedule seemed to make it fun for everyone, except maybe the top dogs frustrated by barrage of 99 overall goalies!! That said, in the future, which will likely be the DISTANT future, next draft, I'll definitely allow weighted teams again, perhaps even stronger for bottom and worse for the top, but there will be no great goalies, and users will be forced to learn to manual goalie or outscore score their opponent. And a special shout out to KingRaph & Chaos for doing all the behind the scenes work for setting up Draft docs, Rom graphics, website setup, etc. These leagues don't run so smoothly or look so cool without guys like you two helping out.

Hoping to be done very soon, as holidays & traveling plans are around to corner. Aqua vs Atomic is scheduled today or tomorrow. Mom hoping to find Zep Saturday night. waiting on word from skip/flatcrusher.

Thanks Skip

RD 1 NYI @ Winn Tor @ Chi Minn @ TB Best of 7, 2-2-1-1-1 format. Good luck to those in Rd 1. Round 2 features the winners of these rounds vs Quebec, Hartford & Dallas. LA @ Ham is also Round 2, and can be played now if you two buds want to go at it!

HIGHER SEED IS HOME FOR ALL SERIES, NO RE-SEEDING

Ok, its PLAYOFF time. 11 teams have played enough games to qualify. So, that's an odd number, but I've got something interesting to make it work for all who qualified. Here are the teams in terms of seeding, but we will NOT re-seed. I'll draw up a tourney sheet and this way, if both sides finish their previous brackets, no need to wait for all games in that round to finish. #1 Dallas - Tex #2 Hartford - Zep #3 Quebec - Skip #4 Hamilton - Atomic #5 LA - Aqua #6 Winnipeg - Flatcrusher #7 Chicago - Brutus #8 TB - J&J #9 Minnesota - MikeGartner #10 Toronto - Jer #11 NYI - Spaceghost Bottom teams will have a play-in style round, top teams get bye in round 1. Single elimination, Best of 7 all rounds. I'll post pic shortly of hand drawn tourney. We will need a PLAYOFF version of the ROM and once that's up, games can start today, and I'll email Chaos to get the playoffs on the site. THANKS TO ALL for taking time to do a draft, play your games and enjoy some good old NHL94. As it turned out, not all were able to get their games in, and that's how it goes some seasons. It was a shorter run, and I chose to NOT replace them, as most were top level coaches and no great options to replace on even levels. Again, thanks. Brute

That's an update on the BOY in his mother's womb that started the name, Brutus Khan! LOL, 21 years later.