Welcome everyone and welcome to another episode of The Neutral Zone. I am once again your boy Sandin. We had turnarounds, upsets, downfalls and Trades in Week 2.
So let’s not waste anymore time and let us get to the Top 5 stories after week 2.
5) Average Joes go 5-1 while finishing off with a 5 game winning streak.
For a week at least Gators can tell us all that this is the team he envisioned and how it would play and just needed time and this is what we are going to get. I will be absolutely honest I was the first in line to doubt this team could really bounce back after a dismal defensive week and only winning one game in Week 1. The Joes cranked it up offensively scoring a ton of goals. Yates had 8 goals and 17 assists while Brandon had 6 goals and 9 assists. These are the 2 guys the Joes need offensively every night to produce if the Joes want to keep the wins coming. Gators was really solid in net as no one ever doubted Gators ability in net as he played 4 games and finished above .800 and didn’t allow more then 3 in all his contests. The Joes jumped from 10th to 5th in the standings. The Joes will be really tested as they play Area 51, Tottenham and the newly revamped Memphis team all in order this coming week. Not sure what they will look like for Week 3 but they showed they can play better defensively for now.
4) Lions fall from 3rd place to 9th place.
What an awful week for Ploop and Duckys squad. They finished the week with a 1-4-1 record. Very un Ploop and Ducky like. They just couldn’t get it going and the schedule did not seem that tough for them going in. Many questions have now unfolded now as they had to move out Mynt who my guess was unhappy with the team direction and asked for a move. Not sure what were all the options on the table for Mynt but I trust Ploop and Ducky that they felt this was the best offer. The Lions were very overwhelmed with goals against this week having 27 go in their net in 6 games. I believe this team still has pieces on this team to turn the ship around. Adding Ghost could give them a slight improvement in defending in their own end. The Lions toughest test will be the Aliens but 4 games between the Alcohooligans and Beerz could be what the doctor ordered to get back on the right track.
3) Memphis Make a Wish pulling a Kyle Dubas.
The team that is getting a lot of talk is Memphis make a Wish and well deserved might I add. Mikey and Rak trading like they are playing NZHL Franchise mode made 3 trades involving 5 players coming in and 5 players leaving the team. Props to Mikey and Rak for landing the biggest fish on the market for sure while obtaining a top goaltender in my opinion but was it the right price to be paying?.Props to them making these moves and making it all fit salary wise with no retention and big salaries on certain players. Is it too much though?. I can’t imagine this team will be better defensively and maybe they could have maybe held onto some of their defense and made other moves?. Trading 2 defenders for a forward and goalie is the type of move that keeps you at a stand still in your progress to me.
2) Smokin Beerz are now in play active players and finish the season mode.
Yes it is sad but true. I had better optimism with this team after the draft when they got to pick Shieldzzzy at 2 but failure to support him with any kind of help ultimately led to the superstar’s unhappiness and started to print his first class ticket out of town. The Beerz have a big hill to climb being 5 points back of a playoff spot and needing to win at least 4 games a week to stay in the hunt. That will be very tough now that you unloaded a goaltender and might now have to put Nicky in net more often. Now if Nicky is playing more goalie then forward, who is giving you an offensive punch besides Vengy and Greens 2 games a week?. I just don’t see it. Maybe I am wrong but who on this roster is going to step up and take over games offensively. It is sad to say but only after 2 weeks I will say the Beerz are in finish out the season mode and things will get more dicey when they have to ship players out and bring players in every week just to field lines for the rest of the season.
- Tottenham Trucks get punched in the face after going flawless in Week 1
The team that most people had as a freight train in power rankings for a while, got derailed a little of their tracks. They started their season 8-0 before being absolutely out-scored by the Chiefs and Dumpstars. On Friday Giroux was too much for them to handle as he put up 7 goals himself. Saturday they were outworked by Fullsend, Ledvinka and Nero. Now I am not trying to be a bully when I say that Pens was very underwhelming this week. Keiran is a stud no doubt but they need Pens to be a rock for them for 4 games a week. It is easy to throw out depth guys and win games against the Acohooligans but when a line like Miller, Willy and Bruin were outplayed by Giroux, Gio and Manny you start to question if this team needs to make a move somewhere. Personally I think the Trucks can afford to take these lessons this week and should be better next week against the Mud Dogs and Joes. They will get to see the new looking roster of the Memphis team however and I am sure Memphis will throw every big boy they got at them.
Those were your top stories of Week 2. Hope this season provides more juicy stories for me to write about. Thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed and good luck to everyone in week 3. This has been Sandin and I am here to remind you whatever you’d choose to do in life always KEEP IT NEUTRAL 🙂
Goodnight everyone.
