TEG, 11:15:07

AFL/NFL Merger Deja Vù With the immediate success of both expansion players Justin and Chris 2.0, and the sudden holes that last year playoff teams Kevin and Khris (1.0) find themselves in at 0-3, it appears that the Original Four (the NFL in this metaphor) are going to have to take notice of the schedule this season, even when they're not playing amongst themselves. While there were only four games played between NFL/AFL teams, and the NFL teams won 3 of 4, the schedule is stacked so that the Original Four play each other more than the other teams and will, theoretically, beat up on each other and open the door for some new, possibly expansion, teams to make the playoffs. Will there be a Joe Namath to force the hand further? There is still a lot of bubble hockey left to play, but there suddenly and certainly seems to be no certainty that the seasoned Original Four are shoe-ins for the playoffs.

K-Fed Down, Fed Up While it is traditionally not TEG's style to point out when someone has had a bad week, TEG couldn't help but notice Kevin's 0-3 start. While Khris also started 0-3, he lost every game by one goal. As well, TEG has a much bigger sample size when it comes to Kevin's history as opposed to Khris'.

In his three game losing streak this week, Kevin allowed 15 goals after allowing only 30 all of last season. His three losses this week almost equaled last season's total of four. Most startling was that he was outscored 15-4 and handily defeated by both Todd and nait--both of whom have stood in his way to win a cup in the past.

But, in the name of fairness, TEG should point out that three times now in the previous four seasons Kevin had a similar losing week. In all four seasons he still was able to make the playoffs and even finished second in two of those seasons. In each instance, he allowed a few more goals than he normally would and scored even less than he normally did.

Still, he had those losing streaks in mid-season after building up a winning record to fall back upon. In looking back, TEG found 11 teams that began the season 0-2. Three teams still managed to make the playoffs, though one was Todd in Season One when there were only five teams and Colin started 0-7. Additionally one of those teams only got into the play-in game and lost (Chris 1.0, Season Five). Of those eleven teams, only Dan in Season Four made the playoffs outright. And of those eleven teams, four went onto to start 0-3 or worse, with only the forementioned Chris 1.0 making the playoffs. It's not a battle that has been decided by any means as even Kevin's history suggests, but it's an uphill battle for Kevin no matter which way one looks at it at this point.

Stats of the Week:
1. At least he didn't get shutout, as Kevin extended his regular season streak to 75 straight games without being shutout.
2. Kevin, Dan and Khris, all playoff teams last season began 1-8; this season's three expansion team Justin, Chris 2.0 and Joe went a combined 6-3.
3. Dan ended his five game personal losing streak, including playoffs, against Kevin with a 3-1 win.
4. In his career, including playoffs, Khris is now 3-0 in one goal games against nait/Knate but 0-7 against all non-nait entities.
5. On his way to his third 3-0 start to a season, nait doubled his opponents shots and tripled their goals.
6. Justin's 4-0 victory over Dan marked the first time an Original Five team was shutout by an expansion team.
7. Chris 2.0 is first in save percentage and second in GAA. If his .868 save percentage were to hold up over the course of the season it would shatter the previous mark of .824.
8. Joe was 0-2 against his Geico co-workers.
9. Pat and nait were the only two teams to have more than 10 SOG in each of their games this past week.

Ho-Hum, Business As Usual: Bonus Stats Todd ended the week 3-0--the third time he's swept his weekly schedule over the last four regular season weeks and his sixth career winning streak of at least three games--leading the league in GF, SOG%, and +/-. Remarkably, this was the first time he's ever began the season 3-0.

Oh When Will They Learn? Blue once again remained supreme, going 9-6. Still, Red was picked eight times to Blue's seven.

Enough Is Never Enough Though just entering his second season of play, Pat has already been involved in three of the four longest games in league history, including his historic five overtime comeback over newcomer (and co-worker) Joe. Pat didn't score until there were five seconds left in the fourth overtime to tie it at 1-1. Pat kept himself in the game despite hitting goal posts on two occasions by making three breakaway saves in the OT sessions before ultimately scoring with ten seconds (should TEG just call them "units"?) left in the fifth overtime. The league's mentality has always been to get as much out of Frizzy's as possible, seeing how it only took six seasons before TEG saw a free shot placed before him. The rate at which Pat is lengthening his games, without having to pay additional quarters, is extending his lead on the rest of the league in embodying that mentality.

Chief Certainly Said Enough After twice blowing 2-0 leads against Pat last season, previous to his matchup against Pat this week, TEG commented to Chief to make sure not to lose concentration when--not if?--he was to go up 2-0 against Pat again. Sure enough, he did and once Pat scored the next one to make it 2-1, it looked like we'd be where we've all been before. But Chief said enough of this and closed it out with a 4-2 after Pat closed within one for a second time.

Next Week, No Bubble Hockey Only Turkey But the following week potentially has a few battles of the undefeated with nait playing both Todd and Justin.