Week 3 Power Rankings: "Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke." - Benjamin Disraeli

Well the hotline number was ringing off the hook this week.   Abuse of power, instant replay, bullying and cheap shots were the topic of the week along with questions about suspensions and fines.  With all that is going on, the league will be announcing Wednesday who will be the "Director of Player Safety and Health", who will be responsible for dolling out suspensions, beer fines, and other league disciplinary actions.   

To summarize the week in review...

• Team Orange all has doctor appointments this week with back specialists as it is believe none of them have backbone.    

• Team Black continues to roll only losing 1 game in three weeks.  They are all playing with a chip on their shoulder, especially their team captain who's Peter Forsberg like back hit sent Team Blue's captain to the ice.   Rumor has it the blue team in planning retribution if the TBA Director of Player Safety and Health doesn't suspend him for the cheap shot.  

• You can tell it is the holiday season as Luke gets the nod for the Good Samaritan award changing a tire for an opposing player who did not understand the difference between lefty loosey and righty tighty?   I am pretty sure he works in the construction industry too. 

• Missing Person Alert… Please be on the lookout for Bobby Thompson as he has gone missing.   It is winter now and the cold weather can cause frost bite and hypothermia in a really short amount of time.   

• Instant reply was voted down by the league officials and it is up the person(s) scoring the game to make the call right away.   For example, even if the puck was tipped out of play off the wall, happens to come back into play, land on the net, hop off the net, hit the back of the goalie, and go in.   This is a hypothetical example of something crazy that could happen but scorer(s) be prepared for this as you are responsible for making the call.      

• Speaking of bullying, it seems as though the league has decided to single out the blue team as they have only been able to win 1 game each of the last two weeks.    Please review the code of conduct guidelines for the league which notes that clearly states there is a “no team left behind” policy patterned after the “no child left behind” policy schools have.   Remember it is the holiday season and perhaps you could find it in your heart to give them a win or two this upcoming week.

 As far as power rankings go this week, here we go.

1. Black – with only one loss in three weeks they are the clear team to beat.   With improved goaltending and a solid mix offensive talent coupled with team toughness displayed by their captain, the hold the top spot in the rankings.

2. Green – The only team to defeat team black (without their team captain in attendance), they lock down the second spot and some are questioning if there is a struggle for power within as they looked pretty good last week.  

3. 3-way tie for last place -  Yellow, Orange, Blue – I have decided to lump all three of these into the last spot on the power rankings as we all know if you are not first (or second) you are last.  With only 4 wins a piece they each need to improve their play.  I don’t think that someone other than the 3 seed or above has ever won the coveted Greasy Mitts cup so one of these teams needs to step up and emerge as the third place team on the power rankings. 

 Stay tuned for more on the league updates, suspensions, and next week’s edition of the power rankings titled “Does the Commish have too much power” where we sit down with the commissioner of the league and ask him about the state of the league, comparisons people are making of him to Roger Goodell, and the committee’s decision to hire on a Director of Player Safety and Health.