KINCH'S CORNER

Brought to you by Lasse Kinch

Date: 26/5-02


We're getting there


We're two weeks into the TWHL3 season and the standings are beginning to make more sense. The first week of action had plenty of surprising results. We're still seeing upsets but they are decreasing in numbers.

Two teams are still without GM's. Both Berlin and NYR are at last place in their divisions and conferences, coincidence ? NO!

The TWMHL has started and they have played about the same amount of games as the big boys have. Players from the Bastilles are dominating the scoring tables. Notable is that the Punchers still haven't won a single game. Kim Johnsson and several other players of the Koping Black Crows are upset with the TWMHL league office. They were looking forward to playing together with Cindy Crawford, but the league offices decided that Cindy's merits as sex symbol and super model wasn't enough to play in the TWHML so they replaced her with half god Hercules to the Black Crows players great dissapointment.

The Trades
Hmm, Still no trades, there have been rumours flying around but most GM's are still cautious.

League Polls
Acordingly to most GM's in the league will Toronto, Stockholm and Tokyo win their divisions. Rio, Mexico and Cape Town all got 3 votes each in Pele.

The Divisions

ALI
Vancouver still has things under control even though they have lost their two last games. Coach Derkins decided to play the slumping Jomar Cruz against hated Taipei even though Cruz lost the previous meeting with hated Taipei 6-0. This time it was even worse: 7-1. Toronto are now above .500 and have despite many injuries improved their play as of late. Marcel Dionne is on a hot streak in LA. The key to success ? Ignore Jimmy Waite. Montreal are 4-4-2 in the last 10 games. Expect them to challange LA when they get Trudel back form injury. Chicago are still struggling and all players are at - in the plus minus column so far. Has Sittler lost his touch ? The blades pray he hasn't. In 6th place we have NYR. Not very surprising since they lack leadership off the ice. Perhaps temporary GM Lester Patrick can give'em a boost.

PELE
Rio are still at the top of the table but haven't been playing that good lately. The Carnivals have only played three of their 15 games at home and still lead the Pele. If back up their road record with a good home record they'll stay on top of the Pele until the end of season. Cape Town and Mexico are both over .500. Cape Town got a nice addition to their pro team earlier this week when rookie Patrick Lalime was promoted from the farm team. With Lalime, Turek and McLennan has Cape Town perhaps the best goalie depth in the league. Mexico has lost double digit games to both Toronto and Stockholm this season. That makes it very hard to analyze this team. They mix excellent hockey with pure crap. Havana, Cairo and Santiago continue to fight for the fouth and last playoff spot in Pele. Havana are undefeated in their last 2 games and are currently best of the three. Cairo management fired PR man Hulk Hogan earlier this week but unbelievable as it may sound, that hasn't helped. Santiago are having problems right now. They really need to get Mark Eaton to play better. Rumours say that he might be heading back to Stockholm.

BORG
The Ratz have won their five last games. If this is a result of hiring Ken "the rat" Linseman as coach or if it's just a fluke we'll have to wait another week to determine. The 12-1 win over Mexico yesterday was very impressing. Brind'Amour got 8 points in what is the Ratz biggest win ever. Prague and Rome are only a few points behind the Ratz but the Swedes has a couple of games in hand. Both teams are at .500 for the moment. Rome have had problems scoring goals early on but have improved their game this week and are on a 5 game winning streak. Moscow, London and Berlin have all lost their last few games and the gap to Rome and Prague is growing fast. London should be the one of the three that gets the playoff spot. Moscow have more points than I thought they would, but they have a cunning coach with atleast 5 more aces up his sleeve. The Bulldozers have lost their three latest games though.

LEE
Hated Taipei are running away with the Lee division title. 16 games into the season and they have only lost one game and that was against London. Martin Brodeur has played so GREAT that we're starting to wonder if he is eating steroids, or perhaps even worse, has he found an elven ring and is wearing it underneath his glove ?? I guess we'll never know. The Dragons are having problems winning, they haven't won any of their three last games. Tokyo's problems have allowed Singapore to catch up in the standings. Hasek has almost played as good as Brodeur. Calcutta sit in fourth place with a .533 record. Hong Kong and Melbourne are both having problems keeping up with the others but have been winning games the last couple of days. Melbourne have scored seven more goals than Singapore in third but have 10 points less. Its strange to see a team with as much talent, they may be old but they are talented, in last place in any division.

Thats it for me, until next week I'm Lasse Kinch.