Since Fresh Kills supplied me with only 9 refs in 23 weeks of hockey (and I had to beg week after week to get those refs), I am boycotting talking about them in this preview. So I am publicly rooting for the Lbs. and thank Dustin and Jason for their ref service this year. (As well as Ariel from FK)

After the Lbs. beat the Hookers to advance to their first final since 1873, Ken “Salsa Male” Poulin dissed his teammates by ignoring the celebration and instead screamed at me, “KEEP ROOTING AGAINST US GLANZER!”

 Ken  there is a difference between rooting against you, and picking against you. You see, there’s a reason I pick against you. The Elves won two games this season, and one was against you.  When I emailed a teammate and told them the Lbs. made the finals she said, “Don’t the Lbs. suck?”

Yes Elves teammate, they do. But luckily for them, they don’t know they suck.

 Carctanc looks rejuvenated playing like he’s 37 years old again. I’m pretty sure his hair is even curlier than before. Their other Sasha scored a huge goal against the leagues best goalie in Tim Brown and even Anne Grady is shocking the BTSH world with her stellar play. Unfortunately, her stellar play is coming in Skee*T*ball, not hockey. She’s actually given the ball away many times over the past three games and Fresh Kills undoubtedly will exploit that and win the championship.

But nonetheless, I must eat a ton of crow because while I knew the Lbs. were a dangerous team, I never in a million years thought they could beat the Hookers in the playoffs, or get to the finals again.

 But before I eat the crow, let me bash them some more. The Lbs. have only one classy player on their team. And its Karen Erickson. Hahaha…just kidding. Its actually Brian Barrett. I love that guy. Generous, fun, what this league is about. And I want to remind him what he said to me, after the Elves won in what seems to be a million years ago. Brian said, “You’re a champion now. No matter what you do, the rest of the way in BTSH, your’e a champion.” And then he downed five shots and made out with Jenn Popack.

But the point is…its not true that no one remembers second place. Because no matter how much teams would like to forget losing in the championship game, they can’t, because they came so close to glory. (Texas Rangers, Buffalo Bills, Vancouver Canucks, some NBA team that probably lost)

You guys celebrated a ton this past Sunday. Ya had a really good day. But it wasn’t great. Great comes this Sunday.

This league is built on upsets in the Championship Game. From 2007-2010, the heavily favored team lost. Here’s how you start that trend going again.

 Know who the dude with the Quebec Nordique hat is, but don’t over compensate. He’s real good, but if you cover the other players on the team, your goalie…that bearded guy…can concentrate on him and you’ll be fine.

 Their girls are really good, they have that one black haired girl who is the most underrated girl in the league. Cover her. She is better than most guys at scoring from in front and can pass and plays D well. Sarah Hobart is strong on D, and she’s smart. But she’s only a nurse so its not like she’s brilliant. Just don’t just assume you will go around her. If you see she has good position on you, dump the ball and beat her to it.

And for the love of God don’t cherry pick, or  try to out-transition them. If you try to stick-handle around them and get lazy coming back, you are doomed. You have to run with them. Take your shots on Barch and then run back to play defense. Don’t sell out offensively bc that’s where Fresh Kills wins. They are like the 2003 Devils. They have no offensive talent yet score 5 goals a game bc even Dave Soko can tap in a ball from a foot away. The reason they are the best team by far in this league is they want it more than any other team, they play smarter than any other team, and are never tired from reffing.

 Plus their girls are up and down the best. I said I won’t mention them bc of their lack of games reffed but Steph Opitz deserves some lovin since this maybe her last game.

All this being said, I really do hope you win. I am friends with more people on Fresh Kills, but my order of root is, Elves, Tim Brown, teams that reffed more games and in a tie-breaker the team that doesn’t have Karstan. But since there’s no tie-breaker, I’m pulling for ya.

That being said, FK 4, Lbs. 1 is my prediction. And I’m never wrong.