Bruins finals newsletter

By Stephen Sweet (2016) (Boston Bruins) On Monday 6th May 2024 / 3:45pm

The Boston Bruins have reached the finals for the second time in franchise history as they look to win their first title. 
 

A strong late stretch in the season earned them the top spot in the East, but it nearly all came crashing down when they took on the wildcard winning Montreal Canadiens. Fortunately for the Bruins, they were able to pull out a Game 7 win and build from there. 
 

Both the second and third round saw some challenges against teams from the very strong Atlantic Division, but the Bruins overcame some injuries and continued to produce. 
 

Leon Draisaitl, not surprisingly, has been leading the way with 26 points in 18 games. When he's been healthy, David Pastrnak has been scoring at a point per game pace, and Travis Konecny has really stepped up his play too, putting up great numbers in elimination games. 
 

The last step is going to be an extremely difficult one as they face the West's regular season champs, the Winnipeg Jets. They're a well-managed team with Jose Simoes having built a winner of the young franchise. Their defence corps is absolutely stacked, and to boot, they have former Bruin goalie Marc-Andre Fleury between the pipes. Goals might be at a premium, but whoever comes out on top, the 2024 MFHL Finals should be a great series.  
 

Stephen
Bruins GM

Jose Simoes (Mar 2023) (Winnipeg Jets) On 6th May / 4:49pm : Thank you Stephen for the kind words.  Let's hope for a clean, hard fought series.     José Simões GM - Winnipeg Jets MFHL 2022-2023 Pro League Champions!

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The White Out! Finals Update

By Jose Simoes (Mar 2023) (Winnipeg Jets) On Monday 6th May 2024 / 2:05pm

Winnipeg Jets – 2024 Finals Update!

A lot has happened since our last update.

The new players acquired at the trade deadline have settled into their roles on the team, adding some much needed secondary scoring to take some of the pressure off of the top line. 

The team finished the season strong, sitting atop the overall standings.  What a difference a year makes!  Last season, the Jets had to wait until the last game of the last day of the season to make the playoffs.

Fleury has continued to shine and yet again, reinforce why GM Simoes picked him up at last years deadline.  Although he hasn’t been called upon a lot in these playoffs, Ingram played some significant minutes down the stretch to not only keep himself sharp, if needed during the playoffs, but to also allow his veteran crease mate some much appreciated time to rest before the grind of the playoffs started.

The above mentioned top line has had another stellar playoffs.  Keller and Suzuki currently sit 2nd and 3rd respectively in points while Suzuki leads in goals.  Along with center Killorn, the top line has combined for 24 goals, 40% of the teams total.  The second line of Huberdeau, Toews and Tarasenko has chipped in another 14 goals.

On the backend, the top D pairing of Josi and Spurgeon are top-5 in the league.  Josi leads with 17 points while Spurgeon is tied for 4th among all defensemen with 9 points. 

The PK is a big reason for the teams overall success giving up only 1 goal on their way to the finals.  Sitting at 93.3% on the PK, the Jets are leading the league.

As we get ready to start the Finals against a great opponent in the Boston Bruins, the Jets are eager to defend their Championship and once again, bring the Cup north of the border!

GO JETS, GO!!!

Until next month, stay warm out there!

LA Kings end of season wrap-up

By Mark MacKinnon (2009) (Board Member) (Los Angeles Kings) On Tuesday 9th April 2024 / 3:28pm

It was a long and mostly painful season for the Kings. The pain came from two main areas; injuries and overall play. First of all, the injury bug really kicked in this year and unfortunately, starting goalie Frederik Andersen was bitten hardest. He could not maintain a long healthy streak and the team suffered from that in more ways than one. The obvious reason is that Andersen wasn't available to play and the 2nd reason was lack of good goalie depth. Veteran Brian Elliot was signed during the off-season as backup, but he was injured early on and was out for the rest of the season. Other sporadic injuries occurred during the season but nothing that other teams didn't have to deal with as well.

Another area of pain was overall cohesiveness of the team. The coach just couldn't seem to find the right line combos and it saw many players bounce between the first and 2nd lines, and sometimes the 3rd line. Nathan MacKinnon was a mainstay on the first line of course, as well as Adrian Kempe. Boldy, Dome, Strome, Wilson had tries on the top line with Boldy being the one that stuck for the most part. The 2nd line consisted of Domi and Kadri most of the time but the 2nd line could never really meet offensive expectations.

The 3rd line was probably our most consistent line. Glendening, McGinn and Rasmussen are all reliable, smart, defensive-minded players and the team could trust them in situations that required a grinding, defensive shift. The 4th line was fairly consistent with Strome, Athanasiou, and Martin. Another reliable unit.

The defense was given a remake during the off-season which saw the Kings bring in Jeff Petry, Tyler Myers and Brendan Dillon. For the most part the defense was good, and Montour was in the top 10 of scoring among the league's dmen.

The team was out of the playoff picture for much of the season, but when Andersen came back from an injury they went on a great run which saw them jump to as high as 5th in the conference. They finished 6th overall in the West and faced the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs. While the team took a loss in game one, it was a competitive game which saw the Blues score very quickly on the PP in the 3rd and then sealed the outcome with an empty-netter. The game was noteworthy for the 4 fights that occurred, mostly in the 2nd period. Little did either team know that this was going to be a precursor for the rest of the series.

The Kings went into Game 2 with high hopes but those hopes were dashed when Frederik Andersen left the game in the first period with an eye injury. The team learned during the first intermission that Andersen would be unavailable for at least the rest of the first round. In came Erik Kallgren who played a stellar second period allowing the Kings to go up 2-1. The 3rd was a different story though which saw the team give up 3 goals and went to 0-2. Another 5 fights in this game and everyone could see that they hate was real.

The series shifted to LA for game 3 and the home team responded to a friendly crowd and went up 3-0 early in the 2nd period at which point the Blues responded and the 2nd period ended with the Kings up 4-3. The Blues scored 2 unanswered in the 3rd, and the final stanza saw Brendan Dillon lost for the rest of the playoffs with a lacerated calf. This game saw another 6 fights and the combatents were scene wearing ice bags on their hands after the game.

Game 4 and the Kings really had no gas left. Luke Glendening left the game with a knee injury in the 2nd period but the team didn't give up. They scratched and clawed all the way to the end but couldn't take the win. Another 7 fights in this game for a total of 22 fights in the 4 games.

So, this season was a success over the last two seasons in which the Kings didn't make the playoffs. However, much more was expected of this team.

Some positives were:

Nathan MacKinnon's 99 points in 80 game

Young Matt Boldy leading the team with a +28

Tom Wilson setting the league hits record with 216 hits

Frederik Andersen showing he's still got it while only being able to play 37 games

Mason Appleton leading the Monarchs with 109 points in 78 games

Changes will be coming in the off-season. The team already knows who they will be resigning during the pre-sign period and there may be some trades leading up to free agency. The focus will be keeping the core together while bringing up some of the young talent on the farm, and improving goaltending depth.

The Kings would like to thank all teams in the league for outstanding competition this year. And a special thanks to our Commish Mario for running the best FHL league out there.

Pens on verge of elimination

By Michael Perrault (Mar 2024) (Pittsburgh Penguins) On Monday 8th April 2024 / 2:26am

The Penguins find themselves in a very deep hole and on the verge of being swept by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

GM Perrault was candid when asked what the Penguins need to do to get back into this series. "Score. We have two goals in three games. That will not win you any series in any league. Our leaders have to lead the way. We have to find a way to solve Hellebuyck .... He has been unbelievable this series.... Nothing against the Leafs but they are up 3-0 because of Connor ... .970 save percentage ... are you f..ing kidding me ... It is very difficult to win when the other teams goalie is playing flawless .... every game now is a must win or go home. We need to score .."

The Penguins will have to play the game of the year and find a way to solve Connor Hellebuyck or their year will be over in a sweep by the Toronto Maple Leafs'

Penguins end of Season / Playoff News letter

By Michael Perrault (Mar 2024) (Pittsburgh Penguins) On Saturday 30th March 2024 / 4:39am

The Pittsburgh Penguins are the Metropolitan Division Champions. It took all 84 games and winning the last three games of the season under newly hired GM Michael Perrault to get it done and now we prepare for the playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I was hired with 3 games left in the season. Our Captain {Victor Hedman} was out and we were battling for the division title. We had our fate in our hands. Win and we at least get one home series to start the playoffs, If we lose ... we could of ended up in fifth and started the playoffs on the road. So a lot was on the line. Getting Victor back and winning the division gives the team a huge confidence boast going into the playoffs, at home, against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Pens vs Leafs

It is playoff time in the MFHL and the Pittsburgh Penguins will host the Toronto Maple Leafs in what will be their first round of the 2023 playoffs. It will be no easy task as anything can happen in the playoffs ... but ... Mario ... your team better bring their A game or this will be a short series. The Pens are healthy and tough to beat at home with a 25 - 11 - 6 home record this season.

Will the Leafs be the Penguins worst nightmare or just a stepping stone along the way to the Stanley Cup. Only time and a great series will tell.

Good Luck to all the teams in the playoffs.