The Golden Girls (-130)
Julie’s Football Club (-110)
Over 7.0 (-105)
Under 7.0 (-135)
Notes: Two teams badly in need of a win kick off a week four slate of games that has been described by various sources as “electric” and “sexual” and “I can’t believe this is what I’m doing on my birthday.” The Golden Girls are 0-3 with a rather depressing -14 goal differential but a closer look indicates this team really isn’t THAT bad; they dropped a 10-1 decision on a night when they didn’t have like any of their top players (sorry, Amanda & Ellie don’t count) and then lost games against two undefeated teams on Friday in which they were within a goal late before giving up a bunch of empty netters. Sure, they clearly are awful at defending an empty net but otherwise this team has more talent than you think. Orange is coming off an impressive win over camo and is looking like orange teams normally do: solid defensively, excellent goaltending but need to make sure they find enough goals to win. Also forgot to mention in the writeup that last week’s win over Oh Deer was Zisser’s 100th game, the first goalie to hit that. Like Brett Favre at one point holding NFL records for most TD passes and most picks thrown, Zisser has the most all-time goalie wins but also the most all-time losses. A truly great career both on the rink and at Dorrian’s. And yet, I’m not sure if he will be enough to offset what should be a desperate gold barrage as they gun for their first win. I have a feeling the public is going to be on JFC hard considering they’re coming off a win and gold’s line in the standings looks awful, but I think the Golden Girls are likely to shock some people tonight. Taking Golden Girls to win and, believe it or not, under 7.
Bonus Lines:
More Points In This Game
Minsky (-200)
Alex Merone (+140)
More Points In This Game
Ellie (-200)
Julie (+140)
Red Cheeks (+1.0 Goals) (+150)
Merry Pranksters (-1.0 Goals) (-220)
Over 7.5 (-120)
Under 7.5 (-120)
Notes: At long last the Cheeks finally (probably) make their season debut as they take on Gelman, Jo and the Pranksters. When red submitted their schedule requests all the way back in mid-April, I must admit I found them to be a bit perplexing…
I’ve gotten a lot of requests over the years and this was easily the toughest one to fill. But fill it I did and with the aid of some well-timed cancellations/rainouts, red will somehow play their first full game of the season tonight and barely miss Tarnow or Carter for any games this season. Truly remarkable. That said, I still am not totally sold on this roster construction as they sold the farm to acquire the necessary draft capital to draft their friends. On the other hand…their friends are pretty good players. I don’t think it’s going to be a bad team per se, but I also have been impressed by this Pranksters squad since draft day when I found out that KG was going to be more involved this year and, by sheer coincidence I’m sure, tie dye came out of it with their most complete team ever. In the battle of the Green bros in net, I have the older alcoholic Jeff edging out his religious younger brother Jacob. Pranksters to win.
Bonus Lines:
More Points In This Game
Nate + Tarnow + Campbell (+140)
Gelman + Jo Robin (-200)
More Points In This Game
The Milkman (-135)
Joel (-105)
The Smurfs (-1.5 Goals) (-145)
Clappin’ Cheeks (+1.5 Goals) (EVEN)
Over 8.0 (-130)
Under 8.0 (-110)
Notes: What an occasion this is as just a week after Zisser’s 100th, Jack plays his 100th as well. There may be pregame ceremonies planned, there may be no survivors. No one knows for sure but what I do know is this game is storylines galore. You have the team that was the talk of the offseason against the 5-0 blue team. You have a team everyone cheers against every season due to sustained excellence against a team that people will cheer against for a variety of reasons including vicious cellys on a 10th goal of the game and asking random people to dump ’em out at Dorrian’s. You have Jack vs Annie in the ceremonial pre-game puck drop and Cardello vs the guys who absolutely refused to draft him and now he has more points than all of them. You absolutely love to see it. I’m not sure which way the public will go on this and Clappin’ Cheeks will no doubt be motivated to hand blue their first loss of the season and inspired by the career achievements of their teammate Jack. Classic too close to call game but the over seems appealing as both teams will no doubt pay tribute to Jack by firing close to 60 shots on net.
Bonus Lines:
More Points In This Game
Annie (+135)
Jack (-180)
More Points In This Game
Chad + Cardello (-220)
Ryan + Pete + Tommy (+150)
The 45 Bet (Goal In 1st Or Last 45 Seconds Of Any Period)
Yes (-130)
No (-110)
Merry Pranksters (-120)
The Hart Foundation (-120)
Over 8.0 (-130)
Under 8.0 (-110)
Notes: This might be the marquee matchup of the evening as the undefeated Pranksters take on a Hart Foundation team with two narrow losses to elite teams. On paper you would think the Pranksters would be favored in this one and indeed tie dye is off to an undefeated start while pink is looking for their first win. But I see this matchup as almost totally and completely even. Gelman and Jo Robin are a great combo but so are Miles and Stern. Maddie and KG both scored on Friday night for the Pranksters but Ryann also assisted on two of her team’s three goals. In net the Pranksters definitely have an overall edge as Jeff Green remains great despite the type of drug use you generally only read about in reddit forums but pink’s goalie has possibly gone MIA for the season. The D5 media will have more info on that in the coming weeks but for tonight Jacob Green will face Jeff twice and in this one I actually think he might pull it off. You probably thought I was crazy when you saw the line but heres something even crazier: if Ryann was confirmed in I’d take pink to win. As it is, I see this one as a total toss-up.
Bonus Lines:
More Points In This Game
Sam Gelman + Jo Robin (-120)
Miles + Stern (-120)
The Smurfs (-2.0 Goals) (-145)
Mel’s Power Trip (+2.0 Goals) (EVEN)
Over 7.0 (-120)
Under 7.0 (-120)
Notes: The final game of the evening is kind of a championship rematch although not really because there is significant roster turnover between seasons, as you probably know if you’re in this league. Blue did return over half their lineup from the Fall but also haven’t had Brett pretty much all season, plus Len and Justin are GTDs themselves. The Len/Brett 2nd line was a big part of driving the Bluebies to the championship last season but they’ve made due so far this season with balanced scoring up-and-down the lineup and career years from Andrew, Cardello and possibly Annie. Cardello had zero career goals entering this season but incredibly already has 4 this season (ok, 3 were empty netters but he’s still playing great hockey) while Annie won Player of the Year in the Summer with 7 goals and 10 assists. Well, just five games into this season she already has five goals and has already passed Meg for 2nd all time in points among ladies. An amazing achievement from a player who randomly subbed a game one random afternoon and then I randomly emailed her on a whim when the next season was going to start. Amazing how much that email changed the course of history both for the league and for Jack who would probably still be living at the patio with planetary sheets to this day. Yellow has been off to a strong start themselves and will have AJ Frey in net as their goalie wildcard selection, but with Malik/Sanchick out and Pelletier a GTD I don’t think they’ll have enough firepower to take down a shorthanded blue team that is just rolling right now. Smurfs by two.
Bonus Lines:
More Points In This Game
Sam + Annie (-120)
Dave Liang + Russo + Keith + Yehuda + Mel + Brooke (-120)