The totally unneccesary hockey post

 So last night another hockey season for the Family League ended with Laurie's Carolina Hurricanes taking the Stanley Cup.  As per tradition, I'm putting up the year in brief so I have an electronic record.

We play for 'crowns'.  A crown is a division, conference, and/or league regular season title; a playoff championship; a win in an outside-the-season tournament; and the best record overall.  Laurie racked up 16 to Misty's 7, me and Shenan's 6, and KC's 4.

The only thing more lopsided was the hat trick chart.  Yes, I kept track of hat tricks for 88 different teams across North America and Europe- but the fun kinda got deflated by the Romanina League.  You see, they have an under-18 team that plays with the 'big boys' to get experience- AKA get whipped nightly. This year, their average score in 28 games was 18-1 against.  Several of their games were against my Steaua Bucharest, with the result that that one team recorded 33 hats (in 28 games!) including games of 10, 7, 6 (twice), 5(3X), and 4 (9X).  Which makes it no surprise that our European leading goal scorer was Steaua's Maxim Aschulov at 45.

The next most lopsided was the race for the best record; Laurie's Herning (Denmark) swept to a 60-7 overall record, 8 games clear of Shenan's Storhamar (Norway, 55-18) and the aforementioned Hurricanes (69-32).  Before you ask, yes the leagues are not so neatly comparable in real life, but it's just for fun.

Outside of Aschulov, the league's award winners were: North American goals (North America including the Canadian juniors, the NHL, the Fort Wayne Komets- and next season, the AHL):Marek Vanacker of Laurie's Brantford (OHL), 55; North American points was Jason Robertson of Shenan's Dallas Stars (NHL), 96.  Both these numbers far short of our since-2018 records of 82 and 131.  In Europe, the points leader was Misty's Vladimir Tkachev of Magnitogorsk (KHL) with 71, again far short of the records of 53 goals and 87 points.  Top goalies were a tie in North America between Misty's Tobias Tvrznik of Wenatchee (WHL) and KC's Jack Lisson of North bay (OHL) at .913 save %; Matija Pintaric of KC's Grenoble (France) was the Euro champ at  .934.  The  shutout  king this year was my Lokomotiv's (KHL) Daniil Isayev with 10, with  my NY Islanders' Ilya Sorokin (NHL) tops here with  6.

Worst team this year goes to my Polish entry Sanok, who was 0-34 with six games left before they went out of business.  Worst teams that actually finished included KC's Fife (UK) at 15-51, Laurie's Gap (France) at 6-36 (and relegated!), Shenan's Punks  Vilnius (Latvia) at 7-33, and Laurie's DAB  (Hungary)  at 6-26.

So who claimed league championships? Shenan claimed Romania with Gyergoi, Norway with Storhamar, and poland with Tychy.  KC picked up Austria with Graz and Switzerland with Fribourg. Misty grabbed another Latvian title with Mogo; I got the most important one to me with Lokomotiv winning the KHL; and Laurie... sigh... Zhlobin (Belarus), Pardubice (Czechia), Herning (Denmark), and Carolina (NHL).

Then, add on the other-cup winners: Herning (Danish Cup), Rouen (My French guys, with the French Cup), Tychy with the Polish Super Cup, Poprad (KC's Slovak team) with the preseason Tatra Cup, and Laurie's Frolunda (Sweden) winning the Champions League.

And a shout out to the teams that lost in their finals: My Trinec in Czechia, Shenan's Herlev in Denmark, Shenan's Kookoo in Finland, KC's Grenoble in France, Misty's Brasov in both Hungary and Romania; Laurie's Zemgale in Latvia, Laurie's Katowice in Poland, Shenan's Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia, my Sheffield in the UK, And Misty's Merano in the Alps League.

Finally, the top 20 (based on overall season/playoffs/cups games, OT wins=win OT loss=loss, by winning pct.):

1- Herning (Denmark, Laurie)                  60-7

2- Storhamar (Norway, Shenan)                55-18

3- Carolina (Laurie, NHL)                        69-32

4- Lokomotiv (Chris, Russia)                   62-28

5-Brantford (Laurie, OHL)                      57-24

6- Magnitogorsk (Misty, Russia)             58-25

7- Mogo (Misty, Latvia)                          45-15

8- Graz (KC, Austria)                             46-16

9- Fribourg (KC, Switzerland)               51-23

10- Rouen (Chris, France)                      39-14

11- Angers (Misty, France)                     45-20

12- Grenoble (KC, France)                     50-25

13- Windsor (Chris, OHL)                      53-28

14- Gyergoi (Shenan, Romania)             30-6

15- Kookoo (Shenan, Finland)                51-27

16- Tychy (Shenan, Poland)                    41-19

17- Belfast (Laurie, UK)                         49-27

18- Valerenga (Misty, Norway)              39-18

19- Frolunda (Laurie, Sweden)               45-24

20- Slovan Bratislava (Shenan, Slovakia) 46-25

The local Fort Wayne Komets get their best ranking ever at 22 (54-34).