SexAzul Tension (-160)
Pink Lemonade (+115)
Over 8.5 (-130) (if 5v5)
Under 8.5 (-110) (if 5v5)
Over 9.5 (-130) (if 4v4)
Under 9.5 (-110) (if 4v4)
Notes: No idea if this game is being played 5v5 or 4v4. At press time, both teams had 7 guys and 1 girl with Danilo a GTD for pink (UPDATE: Waldman bailed, blue now has 6). Pink will be without the services of most of their top picks including Avery, Cherie (representing USA at worlds) and Noah. Blue, recently rebranded to Izzy’s suggested tequila and sex inspired name, will be without Wes, Joe, Sam Gelman and Nestor but will feature a number of players including BTSH legend Ariel, Hooligans legend Austin Lyons and Mofo legend Mikey Schwartz all making their season debuts. Izzy is doing her best Lily impression and thus is a GTD leaving Caitlin as the only female player confirmed in for blue; meanwhile, pink will be utilizing the services of last season’s Draft Sleeper Award winner Amanda Fazio as their only girl (for now). TBD if either team gets more girls and TBD if game is 4s or 5s which obviously has a huge effect on the over/under. Cam will also likely be subbing for pink in net as long as I can find him replacement helmet and hockey pants for the ones stolen from Tompkins a few weeks ago. It’s a shame we won’t be getting the Wes/Avery showdown I had in mind when making the schedule a few weeks ago but this should still be a fast-paced competitive game. Pink has sneaky firepower in the middle of their lineup but blue looked great in picking up two season opening wins last week and Dave Liang is experiencing a late career breakout with six goals in his first two games to match his goal and point totals for the entirety of last season. I’m making a very biased bet on blue to win and a slightly less biased bet on the over to hit.
Hungry Hippos (-120)
The Goaldiggers (-120)
Over 8.0 (-110)
Under 8.0 (-130)
Notes: Lots of sub negotiations for our last two days have finally resulted in an agreement for Hogg to sub for yellow in exchange for white getting slightly better than usual subs. Thus, in exchange for the Hippos getting to use Hogg in net even though he was the first goalie drafted (along with Phelps), the Goaldiggers will get the services of Matt Russo, team alum Scott Collins and the ghost of Dan Creeden, in from Mass and assuring me as always that he is not nearly as good as he used to be and that he would really prefer not to run much, the words every captain longs to hear from their subs. White will still have a pretty solid lineup going with Guido, Tarnow, Satok and Abby all in and forming a very strong top unit while the Hippos will have most of their players but will be missing top line forward and reliable pants shitter Jake Braun. Very tight matchup here, easily the most actual players showing up for this one. I have it rated as a total toss-up with a little sprinkle on the under out of respect for two great goalies.
MelRose Place (+165)
Hungry Hippos (-225)
Over 7.5 (-120)
Under 7.5 (-120)
Notes: MelRose Place surprised many with a victory over Julie’s Football Club in week one, but sadly tonight their roster is looking more like season 7 Melrose than season 2 (for the record I’ve never watched a single episode, paging John Walker for insight on this one).
Tonight Melrose will have Phelps subbing in goal (good!) and Mel and Tash holding it down for the ladies (great!) but alas, only 4 rostered guys (not so good). Dave GDR and Paul Chester are D5 vets while Shan and Tyler are rookies but both are darkhorses for rookie of the year as they looked excellent in week one, Shan with speed and Tyler with a Mylec jersey that clearly indicated he’s got ball hockey experience. They’ll be joined by the subs from the previous game (Russo, Collins and lazier than usual Creeden) as long as none of them bail in which case I’ll beg someone from blue pink or white to jump in. I love how the sexy tandem of Phelps/Hogg is being split by the two teams for this one and will have to face off against each other – here’s to hoping there’s no goalie fight as that could make things somewhat uncomfortable on our bench during the season. As far as the game – love the spirit MelRose is bringing, love that they went to a team dinner after their game was canceled Tuesday and that a bunch of them did karaoke for Neil’s bday last weekend, but don’t see how they can pull this off unless Tash and Eric go into god mode tonight. Hippos to win and possibly take 1st place by the end of the night.
