Just sitting here trying to think of how to start this was giving me a headache so this is what I came up with. 7 weeks has led up to this, The Season 45 SPNHL Cup Final. Our two opponents, the Flames and the Flyers will battle it out on the upcoming days that start with T. To those who have fallen prior to this Round, Sit back and relax because the show has just begun. 

The Flames journey here was simple. A quick sweep of the Kings and a competitive 5 game series win over offensive juggernaut San Jose. Despite being the number 1 overall seed, the Flames were merrily overlooked by most people, Including their own teammate Shayne. Despite this the Flames silenced the critics making quick work of the Sharks. Availability for Tuesday was an issue Randy wasn’t expecting and put the Sharks in a bind before the puck even dropped. Despite this their depth players and a mix of Tcs showed out and took the Flames to OT but would fall. Game 2 featured some familiar faces on the roster for the Sharks and also went to OT where the Sharks would win 5-4 (Good prediction Jon). The Flames would end the night with a 4-2 win putting them up 2 games to 1. Coming into Thursday the Sharks had all the confidence in the world with their top line returning together. Despite outplaying the Flames statistically, they would drop game 4 and 5 and Shark week would end in its Tracks. Randy’s Quest at being the first GM to repeat in ages was abolished. To the Sharks, you are all great people and had an awesome season. For the Flames we will chat more about you below.

The Prince of Wales will stay with a Metro team for a 4th consecutive season. The Flyers path to get here is eerily similar to the Flames. A quick sweep in round 1 and a very competitive 5 game series win over the Caps. Unlike the Flames, the Flyers were heavy favorites to win the series (voting Finished 21-2). Despite it being done in 5, 3 Overtime games, all 4 played being 1 goal games, the Caps showed that they truly were right there and could’ve gone either way. In games 1 and 2 he Caps held leads of 1-0 and 2-0 respectively but crumbled in the waning minutes of both games. Giving up 2 late ones in game 1 sealed the deal for Philly and again in game two relinquishing 2 goals in just under 5 minutes. Two costly penalties gave all the momentum to the Flyers as they would skate off with a 3-2 victory. Game 3 the scoring picked up early and often. It seemed when one team would score, the other would answer right back. Fluri buried 5 enroute to a 5-4 OT win. Although as I stated last week Kyle would try to score on me, he did bury two past me including the OT winner. Game 4 was not played due to circumstances that a preschooler would have figured out but the doorknobs in Washington couldn’t. Despite having 0 minutes of ice time, FoSix is now the betting favorite to win Conn Smythe being 2-0 with 2 game winning goals. Game 5 started promptly on time this go around and again it was the Caps who held 2 goal leads at multiple occasions (2-0 and 3-1) but again with time running out the Caps couldn’t hold onto it. Fluri coughed up the puck and and after a nice find from Snider, Hughsy evened the game at 3. Bo would ultimately end the series with a back hand from a sharp angle. To the Caps, people may be mad at egg more not making any moves at all, but the team he built from day one was a team that competed with the best of them, hats off to you, The rest of the team, you guys fought hard even while playing with Fluri for nearly 2 months.

The Final 2. 1 vs 1. Team names the Start with F. Both names have 6 letters.  33-10-2 records. First Round sweep. Second Round 4-1. You get the Point. Flyers Flames have led the way in their respective conferences the whole way. The Flames won the season series but the teams haven’t had the chance to go top line vs top line until now (availability warranted). As unbiased as I can, we shall start with the Flyers. When you check playoff leaders it’s all the Flyers logo (except goalie, idk what you want me to do when the other team shoots twice a game and 1 goes in). Bo carried on where he left off leading the playoffs in points averaging a bit over 4 ppg.  Hughsy and snider add in a modest 3.5 ppg a piece to go alongside Bo. On Defense Kyle and Reim have been a staple in the Flyers back end. We have yet to see what the depth players have to offer as everyone so far is scared to match up with them so we will leave a blank on that. In net is myself with a sick save percentage of 69 with a 6-1 record and a 2.5 gaa (see i’m not that bad). Offense struggled a bit against the unique defense of the Capitals in R2 but look for them to flourish and bounce back against a solid Flames Dcore. Now to the other side. The shark hunters are coming off the boat with blood on their hands looking to finish the job. The Flames have been the most complete team thus far in the Playoffs with the lone blemish coming in OT of Game 2. The depth players have shown up and won their games and were key wins in both series. When the top line is out there they’ve been to score against anyone. Chico mixed it up a bit this week and played 3 games up front and it seemed to work just fine. Their G7 lineup was listed as Karlsson Cupi and Sherm on forward with Chico and Shayne on D with Chad tending the net. As I am not on this team I can’t give you much insight to how they will line up for the Finals but regardless of who’s out there they will be more than capable of getting the job done. 

This series will probably be a toss up for most people rightfully so. As I have in the past, I will list the positional breakdown. For all positions I think the margins are razor thin and most people again would agree. For that reason I will give advantages on each position rather than on a group of players. On offense LW advantage I will give to the Flames. Karlsson or Chad playing is the best LW in this series. At center is the 3 time Champion Hughsy. Hughsy plays a full 200 foot game that you need your center to play. RW not sure this is much of a discussion. Boknows. Cupi has been able to find the back of the net quite a bit here but Bo is the best player in this series on both sides. LD I comeback to Chico here. Chico Could arguably be the best Dman in this series. I think he edges out Reim as most Flames games I’ve watched Chico controls the play for them a majority of the time. For RD I’ll give it to Kyle over Shayne strictly because Kyle beat him in versus a bunch. Two solid Dmen tho. In net I’ll give it to the Flames because statistically I suck and Chad and Liljgren suck a bit less. All 3 goalies named are really good and can win games when counted on.

As you can see this is about as even as it can get. It has 7 games written all over it. I’d get attacked if I didn’t pick my own team from some people but if I had no involvement my pick would be Philly in 6 and that’s what I will be locking in for the final time this season. Thank you to everyone for giving this a read and allowing me to take over SP articles. Hope you enjoyed it and will see y’all next week.