Fictional History of Hockey

[Tiger Fan]

MONDAY OCTOBER 28, 1940
NHL ROUND-UP

The Toronto Maple Leafs remain the top team in the National Hockey League thanks mainly due to their explosive powerplay. The powerplay is scoring on 32% of it's chances thanks to the Leafs decision to use superplaymaker forward Chris Maxwell on the point. Maxwell leads the league with 17 assists and his favourite target with the man advantage has been league scoring leader Chris Bishop, who has lit the lamp 13 times in 15 games this season with 7 of them coming on the power play.

NHL STANDINGS GP  W  L  T PTS
Toronto	      15  9  2  4  22
Detroit	      14  7  3  4  18
Mon Maroons   15  7  7  1  15
NY Rangers    16  6  7  3  15
Mon Canadiens 18  6  9  3  15
Chicago	      16  5  7  4  14
NY Americans  16  6  9  1  13
Boston	      14  4  6  4  12

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Chris Bishop	 TOR  15 13 11  24
Darren Vaness    TOR  15  8 14  22
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  15  3 17  20
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  16 12  7  19
Shaun Brennan    CHI  16  8 10  18
Payton Yuen      MON  18 10  6  16  
Neil Frank	 NYA  15  8  8  16
Andy Adell	 DET  13  7  9  16
Nicolas Frenette NYR  16  5 11  16

AHL ROUNDUP
AMERICANS OFF TO HUGE START

While the parent Boston Bruins may be struggling, their Rochester Americans farm team has taken the AHL by storm. The Americans lost their season opener in Cleveland by a 4-3 score but have not lost since, winning 12 and tying 3 of their last 15 games. With 6 Calder Cup titles, including 3 straight from 1937-39, the Amerks have been a model franchise in the league and most of the big names on Boston's 10 Stanley Cup winners started their pro careers in Rochester. The latest player to be promoted to Boston is Donny Marchinko, a 23 year old forward who was leading the team in scoring with 20 points at the time of his promotion. Marchinko is expected to make his NHL debut this week. He spent 3 seasons in Oshawa of the CJHL and has played the past four years for the Americans.

    AHL STANDINGS
		GP  W  L  T  PTS
Rochester	16 12  1  3  27
Springfield	16  7  8  1  15
Buffalo		14  6  5  3  15
Quebec		15  6  7  2  14
Pittsburgh	16  6  8  2  14
Cleveland	18  5  9  4  14
Hershey		15  6  8  1  13
Providence	14  5  7  2  12

SCORING LEADERS   TEAM GP  G  A PTS
Angelo Rukkino    HER  14 12 11  23
Corey Stewart	  HER  15  9 12  21
Donny Marchinko   ROC  15  8 12  20
Jacob Vanderhoek  ROC  16  8 12  20
Simon Bostrom     SPR  16 12  6  18

Other sports headlines from the week. You can read about them here

#1 ranked Florida Gators get a late field goal to beat Tennessee and remain unbeaten in NCAA football action.

The Baltimore Colts thumped Green Bay 30-9 to move into a first place tie with the Packers atop the NFL's East Division.

Cleveland Indians announce that all-star Dale Hawthorne's recovery from broken kneecap suffered a setback but feel he will be ready for spring training.

The Madisonville Miners (WSH) won the KITY League championship by ousting the Mayfield Clothiers (NYY) in the maximum 5 games. Former academy league star Yank Young named MVP of series.

[Tiger Fan]

MONDAY NOVEMBER 4, 1940

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
BIG WEEK FOR THE BRUINS

The Boston Bruins won 3 straight games this past week to claw their way out of the National Hockey League cellar. It started on Monday as the Bruins extended their unbeaten streak to 3 games with a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Maroons at home. Andre Ravelli made 19 saves and Matt Jambrosich's 5th goal of the season proved the difference in the victory. Two days later the two clubs completed the home and home with the Bruins earning a 4-2 victory. Boston was powered by Fran Hellstead, who had 2 goals and an assist in the win. Chad Sumi, who some might remember as a scoring machine with the Quebec Remparts in the CJHL, scored his first goal of the season in the victory.

The Bruins capped off the week with an impressive 4-2 win over the league leading Maple Leafs in Toronto. Boston limited the high-scoring Leafs to just 24 shots while firing 33 themselves on the Toronto cage. Jambrosich scored the game winner and Gabryel Roy added 3 points for the Bruins.

The Leafs retained top spot in the league by going 1-1-1 in their 3 games this week with their best effort being a 4-1 victory on home ice Saturday over the slumping Montreal Maroons.

MONTOUR NAMED PLAYER OF THE MONTH

Montreal Maroons right winger Chris Montour was named the NHL's player of the month for October. The 27 year old had 8 goals and 7 assist in 13 games. On the season, he leads the Maroons with 18 points. The top goaltender for October is 40 year old Detroit Red Wings netminder Dylan Turnbull. The NHL's career leader in games played by a goalie, is off to a strong start this season, posting a 9-4-5 record with a 2.61 GAA and .905 save percentage on the season.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Toronto	      18  10  3  5  25
Detroit	      18   9  4  5  23
Chicago	      20   6  7  7  19
Boston	      17   7  6  4  18
NY Rangers    20   7  9  4  18
NY Americans  19   8 10  1  17
Mon Maroons   18   7 10  1  15
Mon Canadiens 20   6 11  3  15

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Chris Bishop	 TOR  18 15 11  26
Darren Vaness    TOR  18  9 17  26
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  18  3 18  21
Neil Frank	 NYA  18 10 10  20
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  20 12  7  19
Shaun Brennan    CHI  20  9 10  19
Payton Yuen      MON  20 10  8  18  
Anthony Manca	 DET  18  8 10  18
Chris Montour    MM   18  8 10  18

CANADIAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE ROUND-UP

The Regina Pats are the hottest team in the CJHL since the last update two weeks ago. The Pats won 5 straight games including a convincing 5-2 victory on the road over the Toronto Marlboros, who remain the top team in the Eastern Conference. The Pats have been scoring goals in buckets led by 18 year old left winger Nathan Pare, who enjoyed back to back 5 point games last week and has 8 goals in the past 5 games.

The player of the month for October was Toronto Marlboros forward Mykola Melnyk. The 19 year old Edmonton native seems to have found a home with the Marlies, who are his third CJHL team. He was drafted by Quebec but dealt to the Jr Canadiens in his rookie year before being moved to the Marlboros this past summer. He was selected 40th by the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL entry draft after scoring just 32 points in 66 games for the Jr Habs. He may prove to be a steal for the Red Wings as he seems to have finally found his game in Toronto. Through 18 games he already has 10 goals and 27 points.

CJHL STANDINGS
EASTERN CONFERENCE	
LOWER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Quebec		  8  5  3   19
Montreal	  8  5  2   18
Ottawa		  6  7  2   14
Sherbrooke	  6 10  0   12
Cornwall	  3 12  3    9
UPPER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Toronto	  	 10  3  5   25  
Peterborough      8  6  4   20
St Catharines	  4  6  7   15
Oshawa		  5  7  3   13
Niagara Falls	  5  9  3   13
WESTERN CONFERENCE	
ONTARIO DIV  	  W  L  T  PTS
Sudbury		 10  4  3   23
London		 10  5  1   21
Guelph		  8  6  2   18
Sault Ste Marie   6  9  1   13
Windsor		  5 12  0   10
PRAIRIE DIV	  W  L  T   PTS
Regina		 13  4  1   27
Edmonton 	  8  6  3   19
Brandon		  7  5  4   18
Medicine Hat	  7 10  1   15
Flin Flon	  4 10  2   10

SCORING LEADERS   TM    G   A   PTS  NHL RIGHTS
Nathan Pare	  REG  14  19    33	MON
Antoine Desmarias REG  11  22    33	1941 draft eligible
Rob Ouellet	  CORN 19  10    29	1941 draft eligible
Eric Rufenach 	  CORN  9  19    28	1941 draft eligible
Carson Reimer	  SUD  16  11    27	NYR
Mykola Melnyk	  TOR  10  17    27	DET
Brandon Moir	  GUE   9  18    27	BOS
Hank Eklund	  MH    9  17    26	1941 draft eligible
Danny Polanic	  LON  13  12    25	NYA
Dean Goodyear	  CORN  8  17    25	1942 draft eligible
Richard Yaremenko GUE   6  19    25	1942 draft eligible

Other sports news from the week includes:

Cal takes a big step closer to it's third straight Rose Bowl appearance

Green Bay regains sole possession of top spot in NFL West

Senators prospect Manuel Ferrer tabbed as KITY's top hurler

[Leafs67]

Great job so far! Very fun to follow. It may be a dumb question, but how did you have the league begin with almost exclusively Canadian players?

[GDawg]

Originally Posted by Leafs67

Great job so far! Very fun to follow. It may be a dumb question, but how did you have the league begin with almost exclusively Canadian players?

I think he changed name/nationality with the editor.. That's what I did. A bit of work, but if you start a league in the 20s or 30s there were very few (if any) European players around so it's worth it for realism.

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by GDawg

I think he changed name/nationality with the editor.. That's what I did. A bit of work, but if you start a league in the 20s or 30s there were very few (if any) European players around so it's worth it for realism.

I based all of the teams in Canada. Even Boston, Detroit etc I made their team hometown to a Canadian city originally in the league creation setup. Not certain, but I think that if all teams are from one nation there will be a much greater percentage of players coming from that nation.

That gave me far less editing to do as the league is primarily Canadian to begin with. From there as GDawg suggested I simply edit the nationality and names of my junior league draft pool each season immediately after the CJHL draft. Doesn't take long as it seems on average there are only about 10 non North Americans in the pool.

[Tiger Fan]

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
WINGS FLY PAST LEAFS

Back to back victories over the Toronto Maple Leafs highlighted a 3-0-1 week for the Detroit Red Wings, who overtook the Leafs for top spot in the National Hockey League. The week started with a 6-3 victory in Toronto Monday night followed by a 5-1 victory back at The Olympia on Wednesday. Dylan Turnbull was the hero of the night as the 40 year old goaltender turned aside 30 Toronto shots. Turnbull made 33 saves in a 2-2 tie with Chicago on Saturday and then on Sunday the Wings beat Boston 3-1 as Andy Adell had a goal and a helper.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      22  12  4  6  30
Toronto	      21  11  5  5  27
NY Rangers    23   9  9  5  23
NY Americans  22   9 11  2  20
Mon Maroons   22   9 11  2  20
Chicago	      23   6  9  8  20
Boston	      19   7  8  4  18
Mon Canadiens 22   6 12  4  16

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Chris Bishop	 TOR  21 15 11  26
Darren Vaness    TOR  21  9 17  26
Neil Frank	 NYA  21 13 12  25
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  23 15  9  24
Anthony Manca	 DET  22 12 12  24
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  21  3 19  22
Andy Adell	 DET  21  9 12  21
Shaun Brennan    CHI  23 10 10  20
Chris Montour    MM   22  9 11  20

AHL ROUNDUP

The Rochester Americans are starting to pull away from the pack in the AHL. The Amerks, the league's most successful franchise with 6 Calder Cup titles, are being led by 21 year old Jacob Vanderhoek (10-16-26) and 23 year old Preston Surgenor (10-14-24) along with 24 year old defenseman Austin Flanagan (6-15-21). Veteran presence is added in the form of career minor leaguer Joseph Novak, a 34 year old goaltender who has played over 700 minor league games and is the AHL's career leader in both wins (316) and losses (294). Neither Novak nor the young skaters mentioned above have ever suited up for an NHL game. Novak, a 2 time winner of the AHL's top goaltender award, was named the league's goalie of the month for October while teammate Vanderhoek was the player of the month.

    AHL STANDINGS
		GP  W  L  T  PTS
Rochester	23 13  4  5  31
Springfield	23 11 10  2  24
Providence	22  9  9  4  22
Hershey		22 10 11  1  21
Buffalo		19  9  7  3  21
Pittsburgh	23  8 11  4  20
Quebec		21  8 10  3  19
Cleveland	22  5 11  6  16

SCORING LEADERS   TEAM GP  G  A PTS
Angelo Rukkino    HER  21 18 15  33
Corey Stewart	  HER  22 13 18  31
Andre Tanguay     PROV 22 16 13  29
Jacob Vanderhoek  ROC  21 10 16  26
Simon Bostrom     SPR  23 15 10  25
Philippe Morin    HER  17  6 19  25

To find out what happened in the other sports active in my fictional universe you can read here

This week's highlights include we have a new number 1 in college football and a former Chicago White Sox great has hung up the cleats.

[Tiger Fan]

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
LEAFS LOSE GOALIE BARIBEAU FOR A MONTH

Despite losing their starting goalie for a month midway through the week the Toronto Maple Leafs have 3 wins and a tie since dropping back to back games to Detroit two weeks ago. Toronto blanked the New York Rangers 2-0 last Monday thanks to a 23 save shutout from Marc-Andre Baribeau and followed that up with a 6-5 victory over Boston on Wednesday. Baribeau left that game with the Leafs leading 5-2 early in the third period after he suffered a neck injury. 34 year old backup Evan Tilley was pressed into action for the first time this season and struggled, allowing 3 goals on 7 shots but did escape with the victory.

Tilley settled down two nights later and earned the tie in a 3-3 draw with the New York Americans. The Leafs finished off the week with a 4-1 victory over Montreal to move back into first place. Shayne Sandwith, a 23 year old winger in his second season with the Leafs, scored twice in the victory. The Leafs enjoyed success despite the fact their two talented center: Chris Maxwell and Chris Bishop were pretty quiet offensively as secondary players like Sandwith picked up the slack.

Ryan Dirk of the New York Rangers has taken over the scoring lead. Dirk had 5 points in 4 games last week as the Rangers posted a 1-1-2 record. Dirk is a 32 year old left winger from Ottawa who has played 766 career NHL games, all with the Rangers, and has 603 career points.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Toronto	      25  14  5  6  34
Detroit	      24  13  4  7  33
NY Rangers    27  10 10  7  27
Boston	      23   9  9  5  23
NY Americans  25   9 13  3  21
Mon Maroons   25   9 13  3  21
Mon Canadiens 26   8 13  5  21
Chicago	      25   6 11  8  20

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  27 19 10  29
Neil Frank	 NYA  24 14 15  29
Darren Vaness    TOR  25 10 18  28
Chris Bishop	 TOR  25 16 11  27
Anthony Manca	 DET  24 15 12  27
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  25  6 20  26
Andy Adell	 DET  23 10 14  24
Tyler Wing	 NYA  25 11 12  23
Chris Montour    MM   25 10 13  23

CANADIAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE ROUND-UP
REGINA SENDS SCORING LEADER TO REMPARTS

The Regina Pats seem to be subscribing to the old adage that defense wins championships as they dealt their scoring leader to the Quebec Remparts for one of the best blueliners in the game. Regina parts with Nathan Pare, who was leading the CJHL in scoring with 36 points in 21 games at the time of the deal. Pare is a gifted offensive talent, scoring 68 points in 68 games last season before being drafted by Montreal with the 54th pick in the NHL rookie draft. He is on his fourth CJHL team having played for Niagara Falls and Peterborough in addition to the Pats.

In return the Pats get one of the league's best defenseman in Gord Bachman. Bachman, like Pare, is 18 years old and was taken with the 24th pick by the Detroit Red Wings in last June's NHL draft. He had 46 points last season and has 22 points in 21 games so far this year. He will team with captain George Papastavrou, 17 year old Tom Misek and 16 year old rookie Chuck Artynski to give the Pats the best defense in the Western Conference if not the league. The expectation is 17 year old Antoine Desmarais, who already has 40 points this season, will pick up the offensive slack along with rookie Oscar Anderson (9-12-21).

Pare's addition makes the Remparts probably the most feared offense in the league and the top line of Pare (18-22-40) with Justin Kamachi (17-15-32) and center Davis Rose (7-15-22) will be extremely difficult to stop. In the three games they have played together the linemates have combined for 19 points as the Remparts had wins of 7-2 over Sherbrooke, 4-1 over Montreal and 5-3 over Oshawa.

CJHL STANDINGS
EASTERN CONFERENCE	
LOWER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Quebec		 12  9  3   27
Ottawa		 10  8  4   24
Montreal	 10  7  3   23
Sherbrooke	  9 11  2   20
Cornwall	  3 16  5   11
UPPER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Toronto	  	 12  3  8   32  
Peterborough     10  8  5   25
Oshawa		  9  9  4   22
St Catharines	  6  9  9   21
Niagara Falls	  6 13  3   15
WESTERN CONFERENCE	
ONTARIO DIV  	  W  L  T  PTS
London		 15  6  1   31
Guelph		 10  8  4   24
Sudbury		 10 10  4   24
Sault Ste Marie   7 12  3   17
Windsor		  6 15  2   14
PRAIRIE DIV	  W  L  T   PTS
Regina		 16  5  1   33
Edmonton 	 13  6  3   29
Brandon		 10  8  6   26
Medicine Hat	  8 11  3   19
Flin Flon	  5 13  3   13

SCORING LEADERS   TM    G   A   PTS  NHL RIGHTS
Nathan Pare	  QUE  18  22    40	MON
Antoine Desmarias REG  14  26    40	1941 draft eligible
Guy Richard	  BRN  15  22    37	1941 draft eligible
Eli Gunderson     EDM  11  26    37	1941 draft eligible
Brandon Moir	  GUE  11  26    37	BOS
Ryan Barczai      BRN  20  16    36	Maroons
Matt Garbowsky	  LON  15  21    36	NYA
Rob Ouellet	  CORN 20  15    25	1941 draft eligible
Mykola Melnyk	  TOR  14  21    35	DET
Chris Seftel	  StC  17  17    34  	BOS
Eric Rufenach 	  CORN 13  21    34	1941 draft eligible

Other news this week

New York baseball Giants add another veteran starter

Michigan and Wisconsin climb the NCAA polls

Browns kicker leads them past St Louis Cardinals

[Tiger Fan]

Monday November 25, 1940
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
LEAFS AND WINGS SEPERATING FROM THE PACK

In a quiet week that saw one team (Detroit) play 4 games but most others just 1 or 2 and the New York Rangers none at all the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings seperated themselves a little further from the rest of the league.

The absence of goaltender Marc-Andre Baribeau has not slowed the Leafs down. Toronto has a 6 game unbeaten streak on the go including a big 4-2 win on the road over Detroit in which back-up Evan Tilley made 31 saves. 33 year old Toronto winger Darren Vaness had 3 assists in the win over Detroit and followed that up with another 3 point night the next evening as the Leafs dropped the Montreal Maroons 5-1. Vaness has never scored more than 50 points in his 10 seasons in the NHL but now leads the league with 34 points through 27 games.

The Red Wings went 2-2 during the week starting with home wins over Chicago and the Montreal Canadiens but ending with losses to Toronto and Boston. Speaking of the Bruins, they won 3 straight this week and, like Toronto, are riding a 6 game unbeaten streak. The hottest player in the league right now is Boston winger Matt Jambrosich, who has 9 goals and 6 assists in his last 7 games including being involved in all 3 goals in a 3-1 win over Detroit on Saturday.

The 28 year old Jambrosich led the CJHL in scoring as a 19 year old with Brandon and won an AHL scoring title the following season. He has been a consistent 50 point scorer in the NHL - first with Toronto and then later after being acquired by the Bruins from the Leafs prior to the 1936-37 season. It was one of those typical Boston deals where the Bruins moved a talented but aging player at just the right time in order to maximize the return. In this case it was a then-35 year old Boris Vrabel, who is considered by many to be the best defenseman ever to play the game. Vrabel retired last June after 1646 career NHL games and 1108 points.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Toronto	      27  16  5  6  38
Detroit	      28  15  6  7  37
Boston	      26  12  9  5  29
NY Rangers    27  10 10  7  27
NY Americans  26   9 14  3  21
Mon Maroons   27   9 15  3  21
Mon Canadiens 27   8 14  5  21
Chicago	      26   6 12  8  20

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Darren Vaness    TOR  27 11 23  34
Neil Frank	 NYA  25 15 15  30
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  27 19 10  29
Chris Bishop	 TOR  27 18 11  29
Anthony Manca	 DET  28 16 13  29
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  26 15 12  27
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  27  7 20  27
Tyler Wing	 NYA  26 11 13  24
Andy Adell	 DET  27 10 14  24
Chris Montour    MM   27 10 14  24
Ben Gilbart	 TOR  27  7 17  24

AHL ROUNDUP

The Buffalo Bisons have been the hottest team in the American Hockey League the past couple of weeks as they are 5-1-1 in their last 7 games with the most emphatic victory being a 10-3 thrashing of first place Rochester earlier this week. The big run came at the same time the Bisons activated center Adam Tilley from the injured list. The 29 year old has 15 points in the 10 games he has played for Buffalo this season. A veteran of 260 AHL games, the 29 year old Tilley has 196 career points including 65 last season. He was selected third overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1930 NHL draft after a strong junior career in Sherbrooke but he has never played an NHL game.

    AHL STANDINGS
		GP  W  L  T  PTS
Rochester	26 14  6  6  34
Buffalo		26 14  8  4  32
Providence	28 13 10  5  31
Springfield	26 11 12  3  25
Quebec		27 10 12  5  25
Pittsburgh	27 10 13  4  24
Hershey		27 11 15  1  23
Cleveland	27  6 13  8  20

SCORING LEADERS   TEAM GP  G  A PTS
Angelo Rukkino    HER  26 19 18  37
Corey Stewart	  HER  27 15 22  37
Andre Tanguay     PROV 28 18 17  35
Jacob Vanderhoek  ROC  25 13 16  29
Philippe Morin    HER  22  6 23  29
Steve Amner	  QUE  27  9 18  27
Clarke Smedsmo    BUF  26 17  9  26
Preston Surgenor  ROCH 26 12 14  26
Ryan Olekszyk     PROV 28  8 18  26

It is quiet in baseball right now but plenty of news here from the gridiron as both the NFL and NCAA seasons begin to wind down.

[Tiger Fan]

MONDAY DECEMBER 2, 1940
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
GERBER LEADS WINGS TO WIN

The Detroit Red Wings won the latest battle between the league's top two teams as defenseman Ben Gerber had a 4-point night pacing Detroit to a 5-2 victory over Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens Saturday night. It was a career night for the 21 year old Gerber, who joined the Wings from Hershey midway through last season and has been a stalwart on their blueline ever since. Gerber scored two even strength goals, both on shots from the point that eluded Leaf goaltender Evan Tilley. He also assisted on a pair of power play goals to improve his season output to 8 goals and 11 assists. Wings center Andy Adell also had a strong game, scoring once and adding a pair of helpers. The victory allowed the Wings to pull 2 points ahead of the Leafs but Toronto does have 2 games in hand.

The Leafs missed an opportunity to capitalize on one of those games the next night as they fell 4-3 to the Canadiens in Montreal. Goaltender Tilly had Leaf fans longing for the return of Marc-Andre Baribeau as he had a terrible night, allowing 4 Montreal goals on 20 shots. Baribeau, the Leafs number one goalie has been out 3 weeks with a neck injury and there is hope he will return to the lineup by next weekend.

One team that is thrilled with it's goaltending is the New York Rangers. 26 year old Bill Horvath (12-10-8, 2.49) leads the NHL in goals against average and shutouts with 4. He was named the league's goaltender of the month for November and has been outstanding of late including a 30 save effort in a 1-1 tie with Detroit last Thursday.

Neil Frank has made the most of his new surroundings. Traded from Boston to the New York Americans on October 22nd, Frank has 17 points in 14 games with the Americans and is now second in NHL scoring. He was also named the player of the month for November after scoring 7 goals and 14 points in 10 games.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      30  16  6  8  40
Toronto	      29  16  7  6  38
Boston	      28  14  9  5  33
NY Rangers    30  12 10  8  32
NY Americans  28  10 15  3  23
Mon Canadiens 31   9 17  5  23
Mon Maroons   28   9 16  3  21
Chicago	      26   6 12  8  20

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Darren Vaness    TOR  27 11 23  34
Neil Frank	 NYA  27 16 17  33
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  30 22 10  32
Anthony Manca	 DET  30 17 14  31
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  28 18 12  30
Chris Bishop	 TOR  29 18 12  30
Tyler Wing	 NYA  28 12 16  28
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  29  8 20  28
Andy Adell	 DET  29 11 16  27
Ben Gilbart	 TOR  29  8 18  26
Payton Yuen	 MON  31 12 13  25
Nicolas Frenette NYR  30  5 20  25

CANADIAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE ROUNDUP

The Regina Pats continue to lead the CJHL thanks in a big part to 17 year old Antoine Desmarias, who leads the CJHL in scoring with 51 points. Desmarias has passed former teammate Nathan Pare in the scoring race but the deal that sent Pare to Quebec and brought defenseman Gord Bachman west has benefited both teams as they each lead their respective divsions.

Looking at the scoring leaders you can see the NHL's most successful club has plenty of young scorers in it's system. The Boston Bruins have 3 of the league's top scorers in Curtis McIntyre, Chris Seftel and Brandon Moir. However, if I was betting on one player from the group of league leaders listed below to become an NHL scoring star I would take Edmonton Oil Kings center Eli Gunderson. Not eligible for the NHL draft until June, the youngster from Winnipeg just turned 18 last month. He was selected third overall by the Oil Kings in the 1939 junior draft and led the team in points with 78, earning him an assistant captain letter in the process.

CJHL STANDINGS
EASTERN CONFERENCE	
LOWER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Quebec		 16  9  4   36
Montreal	 14  9  4   32
Ottawa		 12 11  5   29
Sherbrooke	 12 15  2   26
Cornwall	  5 19  5   15
UPPER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Toronto	  	 16  4 10   42  
St Catharines	  9 10 10   28
Peterborough     10 13  6   26
Oshawa		 10 11  6   26
Niagara Falls	  8 15  5   21
WESTERN CONFERENCE	
ONTARIO DIV  	  W  L  T  PTS
London		 17 10  2   36
Sudbury		 14 11  4   32
Guelph		 11 11  6   28
Sault Ste Marie  11 14  3   25
Windsor		  7 19  2   16
PRAIRIE DIV	  W  L  T   PTS
Regina		 22  6  1   45
Edmonton 	 14  9  5   33
Brandon		 11 11  7   29
Medicine Hat	 11 13  4   26
Flin Flon	  7 17  3   17

SCORING LEADERS   TM    G   A   PTS  NHL RIGHTS
Antoine Desmarias REG  20  31    51	1941 draft eligible
Nathan Pare	  QUE  23  26    49	MON
Mykola Melnyk	  TOR  22  26    48	DET
Eli Gunderson     EDM  16  29    45	1941 draft eligible
Curtis McIntyre	  TOR  13  31    44	BOS
Ryan Barczai      BRN  23  20    43	Maroons
Chris Seftel	  StC  20  22    42 	BOS
Guy Richard	  BRN  16  25    41	1941 draft eligible
Eric Rufenach 	  CORN 13  28    41	1941 draft eligible
Rob Ouellet	  CORN 23  17    40	1941 draft eligible
Carsen Reimer	  SUD  22  18    40     NYR
Brandon Moir	  GUE  12  28    40	BOS

In other sports news from my universe this week.

Cal falls from the ranks of the unbeaten in NCAA football

The intersecting careers of quarterbacks Michael Huff and Corey Ely

plus a look at some key college baseball players to keep an eye on this year.

All of that is posted in my Fictional History of Baseball thread on the main OOTP dynasty board. Link is here

[Tiger Fan]

MONDAY DECEMBER 9, 1940
RED WINGS CONTINUE TO ROLL

The Detroit Red Wings made a huge statement this week as they hammered the second place Toronto Maple Leafs 9-0 on Wednesday. The Wings followed that up with a 2-2 tie in Boston before returning home to blast the New York Americans 6-1. The Wings now have a 5 point lead on second place Toronto and a 20 point cushion on the 5th place Americans in a league where the top 4 teams make the playoffs. With the seperation between the top four and bottom four it is starting to look like the playoff participants will be determined by New Years.

The 9-0 victory was even more impressive in the fact that the Wings fired 8 goals on 32 shots against the Leafs number one netminder, Marc-Andre Baribeau, who was making his return to action after missing almost a month with a neck injury. While Anthony Manca had a pair of assists and Conner Hendricks 3 points in the win the Wings got most of their scoring from the third line as Kingston Morrison (10-14-24) had a 4 point night, Kory Stamler (4-8-12) had two goals and Lee Taylor (3-7-10) had a goal and two assists.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      33  18  6  9  45
Toronto	      32  17  9  6  40
Boston	      30  15  9  6  36
NY Rangers    32  14 10  8  36
NY Americans  30  11 16  3  25
Mon Canadiens 32  10 17  5  25
Mon Maroons   31   9 19  3  21
Chicago	      28   6 14  8  20

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  32 24 11  35
Darren Vaness    TOR  32 11 24  35
Anthony Manca	 DET  33 17 17  34
Neil Frank	 NYA  29 16 17  33
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  32  9 23  32
Chris Bishop	 TOR  32 18 13  31
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  30 18 12  30
Conner Hendricks DET  33 15 14  29
Tyler Wing	 NYA  30 12 17  29
Andy Adell	 DET  32 11 18  29
Finlay Akervall  TOR  32 15 12  27
Payton Yuen	 MON  32 13 14  27
Nicolas Frenette NYR  32  6 21  27

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Buffalo Bisons have 8 wins and a tie in their last 11 games and have moved into a tie with Providence for first place in the AHL. The Bisons, farm team of the New York Americans, have been getting solid goaltending from 23 year old Chuck Walton - a Kitchener, Ontario native who is getting his first taste of AHL action. Youngsters Josh Smith (16-11-27), a 21 year old forward drafted 3rd overall after a standout junior career in Cornwall and Ian Andersteen (12-13-25) another 21 year old who was a second round pick from the Jr Canadiens are carrying the load offensively while the blueline is being anchored by a couple more youngsters in 20 year old Kevin Dyck (7-20-27), a former Quebec Rempart, and 23 year old Alexander Edmondson (7-18-25), who is in his third season with the Bisons.

    AHL STANDINGS
		GP  W  L  T  PTS
Buffalo		30 17  9  4  38
Providence	33 16 11  6  38
Rochester	30 15  8  7  37
Pittsburgh	32 13 15  4  30
Hershey		31 14 16  1  29
Springfield	28 12 13  3  27
Quebec		32 11 16  5  27
Cleveland	32  7 17  8  22

SCORING LEADERS   TEAM GP  G  A PTS
Corey Stewart	  HER  31 17 24  41
Angelo Rukkino    HER  28 19 20  39
Andre Tanguay     PROV 33 19 19  38
Jordan Donald     PIT  25  8 25  33
Jacob Vanderhoek  ROC  29 13 19  32
Steve Amner	  QUE  32 11 21  32
Philippe Morin    HER  26  7 25  32
Preston Surgenor  ROCH 30 14 16  30
Ryan Olekszyk     PROV 33 11 19  30

In other sports news this week

The Chicago White Sox dealt a promising prospect to the Braves

Three teams have clinched playoff berths in the NFL heading into the season's final weekend.

[Tiger Fan]

MONDAY DECEMBER 16, 1940
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Detroit Red Wings stretched their unbeaten streak to 7 games as they have opened up a five point lead on Toronto atop the NHL standings. The Wings had just two games this week, beating the Montreal Maroons 7-2 thanks to 2 goal efforts from Austin Shabaga (9-12-21) and Aaron Berland (10-10-20) and followed that up with a 3-3 tie against the Rangers in New York. The Wings suffered some bad news in the game as 33 year old center Kory Stamler (4-8-12) is likely lost for the season after being hit with a puck in the face and suffering a fractured eye socket. Stamler is a veteran of 783 NHL games with the Rangers and Detroit, scoring 211 goals and 532 points in his career.

It is easy to see why the Wings are leading the league as they not only have scored the most goals (126 with Toronto next at 124 and the Rangers at 108) but they have also allowed the fewest against (82, with Boston next at 84 and the Rangers third with 91 goals against). 40 year old goaltender Dylan Turnbull continues to add to his incredible career as the Wings netminder leads the league in wins, goals against average and save percentage.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      35  19  6 10  48
Toronto	      35  18 10  7  43
Boston	      33  17  9  7  41
NY Rangers    35  14 11 10  38
NY Americans  32  12 17  3  27
Mon Canadiens 33  10 18  5  25
Chicago	      31   7 14 10  24
Mon Maroons   34   9 21  4  22

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  35 26 13  39
Anthony Manca	 DET  35 17 20  37
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  35  9 28  37
Darren Vaness    TOR  35 11 25  36
Neil Frank	 NYA  31 17 18  35
Chris Bishop	 TOR  35 19 15  34
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  33 18 15  33
Conner Hendricks DET  35 15 18  33
Tyler Wing	 NYA  32 12 18  30
Andy Adell	 DET  34 11 19  30
Finlay Akervall  TOR  35 16 13  29
Ben Gilbart	 TOR  35 10 19  29
Nicolas Frenette NYR  35  6 23  29
	      GOALIE LEADERS
		 TM  GP  W-L-T     GAA   SV%
Dylan Turnbull   DET 35 19-6-10   2.37  .912
Andre Ravelli    BOS 33 17-9-6    2.52  .906
Tyler Kennedy	 NYA 32 12-16-3   3.06  .903
Bill Horvath     NYR 35 14-11-10  2.53  .903
Gregg Pfimmer    CHI 30  7-11-10  3.06  .903
Max Holden       MON 33 10-18-5   3.52  .903
Dillon Beoit     MM  34  9-20-4   4.01  .887
M-A Baribeau     TOR 29 14-8-5    3.12  .886

CANADIAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Regina Pats continue to roll over the competition in the CJHL, winning 8 straight games and 12 of their last 13 to post far and away the best record in the league. Regina is already 14 points ahead of London, the second ranked team in the western conference.

The Pats have never won the Memorial Cup but fans in Saskatchewan are thinking that will change this year. The amazing thing is this could be a two or 3 year dynasty for Regina as all of their key contributors have at least 1 more year of junior eligibility left after this season including scoring leader Antoine Desmarais (22-35-57), who is still just 17 years old. His right winger Vinny Fieber (22-22-44) is also just 17 while left winger Oscar Anderson (12-23-35) is only 16 and in his rookie CJHL season.

CJHL STANDINGS
EASTERN CONFERENCE	
LOWER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Quebec		 19  9  6   44
Montreal	 16 11  6   38
Ottawa		 14 13  7   35
Sherbrooke	 14 19  2   30
Cornwall	  7 21  6   20
UPPER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Toronto	  	 18  6 10   46  
St Catharines	 14 11 10   38
Oshawa		 13 13  6   32
Peterborough     12 17  6   30
Niagara Falls	 10 17  5   25
WESTERN CONFERENCE	
ONTARIO DIV  	  W  L  T  PTS
London		 19 13  3   41
Sudbury		 18 11  5   41
Sault Ste Marie  14 16  4   32
Guelph		 12 15  7   31
Windsor		  8 25  2   18
PRAIRIE DIV	  W  L  T   PTS
Regina		 27  6  1   55
Edmonton 	 15 12  7   37
Brandon		 13 14  8   34
Medicine Hat	 12 16  6   30
Flin Flon	 10 20  3   23

SCORING LEADERS   TM    G   A   PTS  NHL RIGHTS
Antoine Desmarias REG  22  35    57	1941 draft eligible
Chris Seftel	  StC  26  28    54 	BOS
Mykola Melnyk	  TOR  22  32    54	DET
Nathan Pare	  QUE  25  28    53	MON
Guy Richard	  BRN  20  30    50	1941 draft eligible
Ryan Barczai      BRN  23  26    49	Maroons
Curtis McIntyre	  TOR  16  33    49	BOS
Eric Rufenach 	  CORN 15  34    49	1941 draft eligible
Rob Ouellet	  CORN 25  23    48	1941 draft eligible
Carsen Reimer	  SUD  24  24    48     NYR
Dean Goodyear     CORN 22  26    48     1942 draft eligible
	      GOALIE LEADERS
		 TM  GP  W-L-T     GAA   SV%
Joe Benjamin     MON 33  16-11-5   2.58  .908    1941 draft eligible
Theo Mercier     QUE 10   7-3-0    2.83  .872    undrafted from 1939
Eric Moran	 TOR 34  18-6-8    2.92  .903	 1942 draft eligible
Zak Heaphy	 MH  10   4-2-3    2.98  .900    undrafted from 1939 
David Rousseau   StC 31  12-9-8    3.27  .890    1942 draft eligible
Mark Stephenson  SUD 19  11-5-2    3.28  .889    1941 draft eligible
Evan Beznoska    QUE 29  21-6-2    3.32  .875    undrafted from 1940

In other action this week

Michigan and Ohio State clash to see who is going to the Rose Bowl

The Cleveland Indians make a deal for bullpen depth

NFL regular season comes to an end.

[Tiger Fan]

MONDAY DECEMBER 23, 1940
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
BRUINS, RANGERS LEAP FROG LEAFS

The Boston Bruins and New York Rangers both enjoyed a successful week as each moved ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL standings and can now set their sights on the league leading Detroit Red Wings.

The Rangers unbeaten streak reached 5 games with three wins this week. The blueshirts started the week with a 3-2 victory in Toronto as Ranger goaltender Bill Horvath had an outstanding game. Next came a 5-1 victory over the Montreal Maroons followed by a 6-3 drubbing of their cross-town rivals, the New York Americans.

24 year old defenseman Jean Fulatte (6-27-33) has been a big reason for the Rangers recent success. The Quebec City native has a goal and 8 assists during the 5 game unbeaten string. A former CJHL MVP with Sherbooke, he was picked 9th overall by the Rangers in the 1934 draft, and is now in his 5th full NHL season. A veteran of 290 NHL games with 133 career points he is one of the few players who went straight from junior to the NHL without ever playing a game in the minor leagues.

The Bruins have been the league's hottest team for the past month, going 10-0-4 before losing to the Americans 3-2 last Wednesday. Boston picked it right back up on Saturday with a 3-0 shutout of the Canadiens in Montreal as veteran Andre Ravelli made 31 saves for his 3rd shutout of the season.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      38  19  7 12  50
Boston	      36  18 10  8  44
NY Rangers    38  17 11 10  44
Toronto	      37  18 12  7  43
NY Americans  35  14 18  3  31
Mon Canadiens 36  11 20  5  27
Chicago	      33   8 14 11  27
Mon Maroons   37  10 23  4  24

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  38 28 16  44
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  37  9 29  38
Neil Frank	 NYA  34 18 19  37
Anthony Manca	 DET  38 17 20  37
Darren Vaness    TOR  37 11 26  37
Chris Bishop	 TOR  37 20 15  35
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  36 19 16  35
Conner Hendricks DET  38 15 19  34
Jean Fulatte	 NYR  38  6 27  33
Tyler Wing	 NYA  35 13 19  32
Nicolas Frenette NYR  38  7 25  32

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Hershey Bears are on a roll, winning 6 straight and 9 of their last 10 games to move into fourth place in the American Hockey League. The Bears won 3 times this week finishing off with a Sunday night 10-4 pounding of the last place Cleveland Barons. 20 year old rookie pro Charlie St. Martin had a career game in that contest, scoring once and adding 4 assists. On the season the former London Knight, who was selected 16th overall by Detroit in the 1938 draft, has 24 points on 6 goals and 18 assists. He was a member of the Knights Memorial Cup winning team in 1937-38 and is the franchise's all-time point leader with 335 in his 4 year junior career.

    AHL STANDINGS
		GP  W  L  T  PTS
Providence	38 19 13  6  44
Buffalo		36 18 12  6  42
Rochester	35 17 10  8  42
Hershey		37 20 16  1  41
Pittsburgh	38 15 19  4  34
Springfield	33 15 15  3  33
Quebec		37 13 19  5  31
Cleveland	36  7 20  9  23

SCORING LEADERS   TEAM GP  G  A PTS
Corey Stewart	  HER  37 20 28  48
Andre Tanguay     PROV 38 23 23  46
Angelo Rukkino    HER  28 19 20  39
Philippe Morin    HER  32 11 28  39
Jordan Donald     PIT  31 10 29  39
Jacob Vanderhoek  ROC  34 16 22  38
Steve Amner	  QUE  37 12 25  37
Todd Dyck	  ROC  33 11 23  34
Francis Belair    PIT  38 18 15  33
Jack Bobek	  CLE  29 16 17  33

In the full weekly recap from my thread in the OOTP Dynasty report section of the boards you can read about the college bowl matchups being set and the Eagles and Packers have advanced to the 1940 NFL title game.

[Tiger Fan]

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

A relatively quiet week in the NHL with the Christmas break but the Detroit Red Wings continued their winning ways, picking up four more points during the week. The Wings opened the week with a 6-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in the Forum, avenging a loss to the Habs on home ice last week. 21 year old defenseman Ben Gerber (11-17-28) led the Wings attack with a 4 point night. Then on Sunday night the Wings went into Boston and beat the Bruins 4-3 thanks to a 37 save effort from Dylan Turnbull.

The New York Rangers extended their unbeaten streak to 8 games after tying Boston 3-3 and then recording wins over the Americans and Canadiens this week.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had 4 games this week, going 2-1-1, but they lost 3 key players in the process. Goaltender Marc-Andre Baribeau suffered an abdominal strain in the win over the Maroons on Monday and was sidelined for the rest of the week. He is day-to-day. Third line winger Ian Cyncar (8-17-25) suffered a neck injury in the same game and will miss about a month. The biggest loss occurred 4 nights later when winger Ben Gilbart (10-21-31) hurt his shoulder and is out a month. Gilbart had been playing with Chris Bishop and Darren Vaness on the second line.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      40  21  7 12  54
NY Rangers    41  19 11 11  49
Toronto	      41  19 14  8  46
Boston	      38  18 11  9  45
NY Americans  39  16 19  4  36
Chicago	      37  11 15 11  33
Mon Canadiens 40  11 24  5  27
Mon Maroons   40  10 24  6  26

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  41 30 19  49
Neil Frank	 NYA  38 19 23  42
Anthony Manca	 DET  40 18 21  39
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  41 10 29  39
Chris Bishop	 TOR  41 22 16  38
Darren Vaness    TOR  41 11 26  37
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  38 20 16  36
Tyler Wing	 NYA  39 14 22  36
Nicolas Frenette NYR  41 10 26  36
Conner Hendricks DET  40 16 19  35
Jean Fulatte	 NYR  41  6 28  34

CANADIAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE ROUND-UP

A quiet time in the CJHL as most teams had over a week off as the league shuts down during Christmas. One player who likely did not want to see the break was Toronto Marlboros forward Mykola Melnyk, who had 6 points in his team's final 3 games before the break and has taken over the league scoring lead.

CJHL STANDINGS
EASTERN CONFERENCE	
LOWER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Quebec		 20 11  6   46
Montreal	 18 11  6   42
Ottawa		 15 14  7   37
Sherbrooke	 14 21  2   30
Cornwall	  8 21  7   23
UPPER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Toronto	  	 18  7 12   48  
St Catharines	 15 11 11   41
Oshawa		 14 13  7   35
Peterborough     13 18  6   32
Niagara Falls	 11 19  5   27
WESTERN CONFERENCE	
ONTARIO DIV  	  W  L  T  PTS
London		 20 15  3   43
Sudbury		 19 11  5   43
Sault Ste Marie  15 17  4   34
Guelph		 13 15  7   33
Windsor		  9 26  2   20
PRAIRIE DIV	  W  L  T   PTS
Regina		 27  6  3   57
Brandon		 15 14  8   38
Edmonton 	 15 13  7   37
Medicine Hat	 12 18  7   31
Flin Flon	 11 21  3   25

SCORING LEADERS   TM    G   A   PTS  NHL RIGHTS
Mykola Melnyk	  TOR  24  36    60	DET
Antoine Desmarias REG  24  35    59	1941 draft eligible
Nathan Pare	  QUE  25  33    58	MON
Chris Seftel	  StC  27  30    57 	BOS
Curtis McIntyre	  TOR  18  37    55	BOS
Rob Ouellet	  CORN 28  25    53	1941 draft eligible
Ryan Barczai      BRN  25  28    53	Maroons
Guy Richard	  BRN  21  31    52	1941 draft eligible
Eric Rufenach 	  CORN 15  37    52	1941 draft eligible
Kyle Schellenberg SSM  25  26    51	1941 draft eligible
Dean Goodyear     CORN 22  26    48     1942 draft eligible
Matt Garbowsky    LON  18  32    50     CHI

In other sports action from the week

Green Bay Packers win NFL title game

Army completes undefeated season with win in Fiesta Bowl

Minnesota team to beat in College baseball

You can read about those events here

[Tiger Fan]

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
RANGERS CONTINUE TO CHASE WINGS

The New York Rangers moved another point closer to the first place Detroit Red Wings thanks in no small part to the play of winger Ryan Dirk. Dirk, the NHL's leading scorer so far this season, was named player of the month for December after leading the Rangers to a 9-2-5 record in their last 15 games. During the 13 games the Rangers played last month Dirk had 9 goals and 10 assists.

The Detroit Red Wings continue to lead the Rangers by 4 points thanks to the stingiest defense in the league. Led by goaltender Dylan Turnbull, who was named goalie of the month for December, the Wings have allowed the fewest goals against in the league. The 40 year old Turnbull, who was also named goalie of the month in October, leads the NHL in just about every career category for goaltenders. This season he has a league best 2.42 goals against average and the top save percentage at .913.

The Bruins continue to hold on to third place despite a rather rough week. Boston did go 1-1-1 with the victory coming over lowly Chicago by a 3-2 score but the Bruins also suffered a 7-1 loss to the Maroons and a 3-3 tie with the Canadiens during their 2 game trip to Montreal.

After tying Boston 2-2 on December 30th the 4th place Toronto Maple Leafs went to New York for a pair of games and lost them both - 2-1 to the Americans and 5-2 to the Rangers.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      43  23  8 12  58
NY Rangers    45  21 12 12  54
Boston	      42  19 12 11  49
Toronto	      44  19 16  9  47
NY Americans  43  18 20  5  41
Chicago	      41  12 16 13  37
Mon Canadiens 43  12 25  6  30
Mon Maroons   43  11 26  6  28

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  45 31 22  53
Anthony Manca	 DET  43 21 23  44
Neil Frank	 NYA  42 19 25  44
Conner Hendricks DET  43 19 22  41
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  44 10 31  41
Nicolas Frenette NYR  45 12 28  40
Chris Bishop	 TOR  44 23 16  39
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  42 22 16  38
Tyler Wing	 NYA  43 15 23  38
Darren Vaness    TOR  44 11 27  38
Jean Fulatte	 NYR  45  6 31  37

In other sports news this week Houston upsets Florida State in a college football bowl game battle of unbeaten teams and Redskins QB Michael Huff is named NFL MVP. Read about it here

[Tiger Fan]

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
WINGS EXTEND LEAD

The Detroit Red Wings had a busy and very successful week, playing 4 games and picking 7 of a possible 8 points to extend their lead over the second place New York Rangers. The Wings opened the week with a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in which they scored three third period goals to rally from a 3-2 deficit. The next night in New York they tied the Americans 1-1 thanks to a 28 save effort from goaltender Dylan Turnbull.

On Saturday Anthony Manca scored a pair of goals to give him 23 on the season as the Wings won at home over Toronto 4-1 and they finished the week with a 3-1 victory in Chicago on Sunday. Youngster Lee Taylor (6-15-21) had a goal and an assist to pace the Detroit attack.

The second place Rangers also had 4 games last week but they started off with back to back losses to Boston before winning a pair from the New York Americans to end the week.

Those two wins over the Rangers along with a victory at home over the Maroons and a Sunday night tie with Toronto allowed the Bruins to close the gap on second place to two points.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      47  26  8 13  65
NY Rangers    49  23 14 12  58
Boston	      46  22 12 12  56
Toronto	      48  19 19 10  48
NY Americans  47  18 23  6  42
Chicago	      45  14 17 14  42
Mon Canadiens 46  13 25  8  34
Mon Maroons   46  11 28  7  29

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  49 34 22  56
Anthony Manca	 DET  47 23 25  48
Neil Frank	 NYA  46 19 28  47
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  46 25 20  45
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  48 11 33  44
Conner Hendricks DET  47 20 23  43
Nicolas Frenette NYR  49 12 31  43
Chris Bishop	 TOR  48 23 19  42
Lukas Borik      NYR  49 14 28  42
Jean Fulatte	 NYR  49  6 36  42

CANADIAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE ROUND-UP

The hottest player in the league right now is Flin Flon Bombers left winger Ryan Farynuk who has 29 points including 13 goals in his last 12 games. Unfortunately for Farynuk his team has not enjoyed the same success, although they did win 6 of their last 12 games the Bombers remain last in the Prairie Division. Farynuk, an 18 year old Winnipeg native, is in his third season with the Bombers and has 67 points on the year. Last season he had 41 goals and 42 assists and he was taken with the 25th pick in the draft by the Montreal Maroons.

The hottest team in junior hockey remains the Regina Pats, who lead the CJHL with 66 points. The Pats have 31 wins on the season, 7 more than the London Knights, and Regina has suffered just 8 defeats.

CJHL STANDINGS
EASTERN CONFERENCE	
LOWER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Quebec		 23 13  7   53
Montreal	 22 13  6   50
Ottawa		 16 18  7   39
Sherbrooke	 17 25  3   37
Cornwall	  9 25  8   26
UPPER CANADA DIV  W  L  T  PTS
Toronto	  	 22  8 13   57  
St Catharines	 18 14 12   48
Niagara Falls	 16 20  6   38
Oshawa		 15 18  8   38
Peterborough     15 21  7   37
WESTERN CONFERENCE	
ONTARIO DIV  	  W  L  T  PTS
London		 24 16  4   52
Sudbury		 23 13  5   51
Sault Ste Marie  19 18  5   43
Guelph		 13 22  7   33
Windsor		 12 29  2   26
PRAIRIE DIV	  W  L  T   PTS
Regina		 31  8  4   66
Edmonton 	 17 17  9   43
Brandon		 16 18 10   42
Medicine Hat	 15 18  8   38
Flin Flon	 14 23  5   33

SCORING LEADERS   TM    G   A   PTS  NHL RIGHTS
Chris Seftel	  StC  35  38    73 	BOS
Rylan Farynuk     FF   31  36    67	Maroons
Nathan Pare	  QUE  29  36    65	MON
Mykola Melnyk	  TOR  25  40    65	DET
Rob Ouellet	  CORN 32  31    63	1941 draft eligible
Antoine Desmarias REG  25  37    62	1941 draft eligible
Curtis McIntyre	  TOR  22  40    62	BOS
Eric Rufenach 	  CORN 21  41    62	1941 draft eligible
Adam Goertzen	  StC  16  46    62	1942 draft eligible
Kyle Schellenberg SSM  29  31    60	1941 draft eligible
Eli Gunderson	  EDM  24  34    58  	1941 draft eligible
Matt Garbowsky    LON  19  39    58     CHI

While that covers the hockey stories for the week, the big news in sports this week is the final rankings for college football end in a shared championship for just the second time in the 30 year history of the sport. Also the Heisman Trophy winner and all-America teams are announced.

[Tiger Fan]

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
FRANK ON FIRE FOR AMERICANS

The Boston Bruins are likely regretting their decision to trade 31 year old winger Neil Frank to the New York Americans earlier this season. Frank has moved up to second in the league scoring race after picking up 8 points in 3 games last week. Despite the heroics from the Calgary native, the Americans managed just a win and a tie in their 3 games this week and remain on the outside looking in at a playoff berth.

Frank's week started with a 2 goal, 2 assist effort in a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night. Two nights later he had a pair of assists as the Americans tied the Canadiens 3-3 in Montreal. On Saturday night in Toronto Frank again had 2 assists but it was not enough as the Americans lost 6-5 in an important game against the team they are chasing for the final playoff berth.

The Leafs won two of three games last week to stretch their lead on the Americans and the Chicago Blackhawks to 7 points. In addition to the victory over the Americans the Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at home on Sunday after starting the week with a 4-2 loss in Montreal to the same Canadiens squad.

NHL STANDINGS GP   W  L  T PTS
Detroit	      49  27  9 13  67
NY Rangers    50  23 15 12  58
Boston	      48  23 13 12  58  
Toronto	      51  21 20 10  52
NY Americans  50  19 24  7  45
Chicago	      48  15 18 15  45
Mon Canadiens 50  14 27  9  37
Mon Maroons   50  13 29  8  34

SCORING LEADERS	 TM   GP  G  A  PTS
Ryan Dirk	 NYR  50 34 22  56
Neil Frank	 NYA  49 21 34  55 
Anthony Manca	 DET  49 23 27  50
Matt Jambrosich  BOS  48 25 22  47
Chris Maxwell	 TOR  51 12 35  47
Chris Bishop	 TOR  51 23 23  46
Conner Hendricks DET  49 21 24  45
Tyler Wing	 NYA  50 18 27  45
Nicolas Frenette NYR  50 12 32  44
Lukas Borik      NYR  50 14 28  42
Darren Vaness	 TOR  51 13 29  42
Jean Fulatte	 NYR  50  6 36  42

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Hershey Bears have been the hottest team in the American Hockey League over the past month and a half, going 16-2-1 since December 10th to move into first place in the league. The Detroit Red Wings farmclub, which last won the Calder Cup in 1931, has relied on the top offense in the league led by Phillippe Morin (17-36-53) and his wingers Angelo Rukkino (24-22-46) and veteran Jim Bohack (24-14-38).

The Bears turnaround really began on October 31st when the parent Red Wings swung a deal to add veteran goaltender Cody Sugarhead from the New York Americans in exchange for winger Daniel Kubista. Kubista did not figure in Detroit's plans but the Americans called him up from the AHL and he had 12 points in 31 NHL games this season. Meanwhile, Sugarhead has posted the best goals against average (3.04) and save percentage (.896) in the AHL since his acquistion and despite missing the first month of the AHL season he is tied for second with 21 victories.

Sugarhead has had an interesting career but has not reached the expectations of him when the CJHL's Flin Flon Bombers selected him 3rd overall in the 1925 junior draft. Two years later the Edmonton native was taken 6th overall by the Boston Bruins in the NHL draft. He missed a year after suffering a devastating knee injury and did not make his AHL debut until the age of 22. Another injury cost him all of the 1931-32 campaign but he returned to Rochester the following season before finally making his NHL debut in 1933-34 with the Bruins.

Later in the 33-34 campaign he was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens and spent two seasons as the Habs starting goaltender before losing his job to the Canadiens young star Max Holden. He played sparingly as the Habs backup for 3 seasons before being dealt to the New York Americans, who assigned him to Buffalo of the AHL for the 1939-40 season. He made the Americans roster as the backup to the legendary Tyler Kennedy this season but appeared in just one game before being moved to the Red Wings organization.

In the images below are the career stats of Sugarhead, a player who never quite lived up to the potential of being a 1st round pick although injury played a factor, and also current Montreal Canadiens netminder Max Holden - a first overall pick who looks destined to have a long and productive career in the NHL.

    AHL STANDINGS
		GP  W  L  T  PTS
Hershey		50 30 18  2  62
Rochester	50 25 15 10  60
Buffalo		48 25 16  7  57
Providence	49 22 19  8  52
Springfield	48 23 20  5  51
Pittsburgh	50 19 26  5  43
Quebec		51 17 27  7  41
Cleveland	50 10 30 10  30

SCORING LEADERS   TEAM GP  G  A PTS
Andre Tanguay     PROV 49 27 30  57
Corey Stewart	  HER  47 24 33  57
Jacob Vanderhoek  ROC  49 21 32  53
Philippe Morin    HER  45 17 36  53
Dustin Barrow     ROC  49 27 25  52
Steve Amner	  QUE  51 17 35  52
Jordan Donald     PIT  43 12 38  50
Angelo Rukkino    HER  40 24 22  46
Chris Petryk	  SPR  48 17 28  45
Jack Bobek	  CLE  43 19 25  43

You can catch up on the other sports happenings here including the first college baseball rankings of the season and a report on the academy leagues.

[Tiger Fan]

I am still updating this regularly but figure it does not make sense to duplicate the posts so all future updates are just in my thread on the OOTP dynasty board section.

Hopefully you continue to follow it and find it at least a moderately interesting read.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post3954299

[JaBurns]

OK I'll follow through those reports.