This Week in Hockay: October 4th
Forty-six matchdays are in the record, and the regular season is certified. Twenty-one postseason games are in it as well. Eight teams remain, and the first of the semifinals is played at 20:00 UITC tonight.
It was the first week of the new postseason, the first week of the Caisse, and the week the allegiance ballots opened and closed. Le Council reports all of it, and begins with a correction.
The Last Mile
Le Council wrote last week that Nairobi Narwhals could not be caught, on the grounds that three matchdays were worth six points. Le Council was wrong. The third of those matchdays was The Last Mile, on which standings points count twice, so the three were worth eight.
Oslo Owls needed eight and took eight: 8-4 at Chengdu on the 27th, 4-0 over Cairo on the 28th, and 2-1 at Tehran on the 29th, worth four. Nairobi lost all three, 1-3 at Zanzibar, 4-5 to Chengdu, and 2-4 at Cairo on the last night. Oslo finished first in La Conférence du Givre on 64 points. Nairobi finished second on 63. Cairo, who had taken one point from seven nights a week earlier, won the game that settled it. The error was in Le Council's arithmetic, and Le Council has no one to share it with.
In La Conférence du Verglas the two leaders finished level. Winnipeg Wendigos went 36-8-2 and Medellín Mapaches 35-6-5, 76 points apiece. Winnipeg took first on goal differential, +71 to +61. Medellín are second. Le Council said last week that the two were certain of the first two places, in an order not yet decided. The order is decided.
The seeds, as filed: Montréal third on 64, Tokyo fourth on 63, Phuket and Busan fifth and sixth on 61, McMurdo seventh and Perth eighth, both on 59. Atlantis, who won seven of seven a week earlier, finished third in the Givre on 62.
The scoring race ended the way it has been going. Leah Blacksmith of Winnipeg and Amara Osei of Nairobi finished level on 43 points, with Blacksmith ahead on goals, 19 to 14. Valentina Colombo of Rimini was third on 41. Of the sixteen players on 34 points or more, fifteen are defenders. The sixteenth is Tahlia Nguyen of Perth, a left wing, one of six tied for eleventh. Le Council has now reported this every week for five weeks and still has no account of it.
The Wildcard
The Wildcard was played for the first time on the 30th. In each conference the eighth seed hosted a team drawn from the sixteen below it.
Guadalajara Gatos, twelfth in the Verglas, were drawn. They won 4-2 at The Red Furnace, under Melt, against Perth Pyres. Tehran Tigers, tenth in the Givre, were drawn in the other. They won 3-1 at The Panda Reserve, under Patience, against Chengdu Cranes.
Both drawn teams won, and both hosts were eliminated. Perth and Chengdu are recorded as having lost the Wildcard, which is a different entry from failing to qualify, and a better one.
Neither visitor stayed. Guadalajara lost to Winnipeg in two. Tehran lost to Oslo in two, which made three losses to Oslo in four days. One of the three went to a shootout.
Eighteen Skated
Sixteen teams played the quarterfinals, best of three. Five of the eight series ended 2-0. The other three went the distance, and in two of them the lower seed won.
| Series | Result |
|---|---|
| Winnipeg (1) over Guadalajara (8) | 2-0 · 3-2, 5-3 |
| Phuket (5) over Tokyo (4) | 2-0 · 3-1, 5-1 |
| Medellín (2) over McMurdo (7) | 2-1 · 4-2, 2-3 SO, 6-4 |
| Busan (6) over Montréal (3) | 2-1 · 3-0, 3-4, 6-1 |
| Oslo (1) over Tehran (8) | 2-0 · 3-2 SO, 3-1 |
| Kyiv (4) over Helsinki (5) | 2-0 · 5-2, 3-2 OT |
| Nairobi (2) over Dublin (7) | 2-0 · 4-2, 3-1 |
| Amsterdam (6) over Atlantis (3) | 2-1 · 2-4, 5-1, 5-3 |
Both third seeds are out, and both were beaten by the sixth. Busan shut out Montréal in Montréal in the first game, 3-0, and won the third there 6-1. Amsterdam lost the first game at Atlantis and won the next two. Atlantis won seven of seven the week before, finished third, and lost two of three.
Phuket Podcasters swept Tokyo Titans, the fourth seed, by 3-1 and 5-1. McMurdo Monoliths took a game off Medellín in a shootout at home, the only game either of the top two seeds in the Verglas dropped in the round.
Ruben Vos, a defender for Amsterdam, leads the postseason with six points in three games. Facundo Álvarez of McMurdo has four goals in three.
The semifinals open tonight: Winnipeg against Phuket, Medellín against Busan, Oslo against Kyiv, and Nairobi against Amsterdam. The first games are at 20:00, 21:00, 22:00 and 23:00 UITC.
The Sheet, and the Final
At 18:13 UITC on the 27th the Funds' holding passed 1,012,800 kcups, the quantity R.I.N.K. gave as one regulation sheet. It stands at 1,131,115 Ⓚ, which is 118,315 more than the sheet.
The postseason has done to the boards what Le Council said it would. 515,561 kcups came off them this week, against 1,660,655 the week before. Citizens bought 345,580 of them. The Funds took 169,981, which is a third. The first quarterfinal night offered 35,939 kcups across eight games. The last regular-season night offered 123,468 across twenty-four.
The parishes consecrated 217,891 Ⓚ this week in 42 offerings, down from 358,027. Forty-nine citizens attended parish.
The question Le Council left Glacified on the 28th is answered. The Final will be played at Graine Wetsky Arena on the 10th, on neutral ice, as the enacted petition requires. The petition did not ask for that building. It is the only one there is.
La Caisse, and Le Blister des Séries
La Caisse Populaire des Fanatiques Partisans du Hockay opened on the 29th. Fourteen citizens are on the roll. Twelve dollars a year is the floor. The Caisse sells no civic voice at any price, and a sociétaire's Seal and a sociétaire's vote weigh what everyone else's weigh.
La Confrérie struck its first special edition on the 30th. Le Blister des Séries is printed from the eighteen teams that skated in the postseason. Every card is Rare or better, every team carries at least two Legendaries, and the foot of every card reads S03P. 285 Séries Blisters have been bought by 41 citizens since it opened, at Ⱡ1,500 each and three a day. It leaves the counter when the Final is played.
The Allegiance
The sheet was given without condition. The second offer had one. On the 30th Graine Wetsky Funds filed the Stewardship Offer with all forty-eight registers, and Le Council opened the ballots. On the 1st the Funds voted in thirty-one of them. At 00:00 UITC today the ballots closed.
Two registers aligned. Forty-six declined.
Busan Blizzards aligned with 74.0 percent of the frozen register, 3,591,912 of 4,855,439 shares, against a bar of 3,237,122. Helsinki Howlers aligned with 72.4 percent, 3,598,974 of 4,970,624, against 3,313,916. Both cleared the bar of two thirds by a margin of about three hundred thousand shares.
The Funds' weight was not in it. They voted to align in all thirty-one registers where they hold shares, and held 1,811 shares in Busan and 3,974 in Helsinki, under a tenth of one percent of either. In each register one citizen held just over half of the shares and aligned them. That is not two thirds. Each needed other holders as well, and had them.
Citizens cast 441 positions on the forty-eight ballots, from 52 of them, alongside the Funds' thirty-one. 188 of those positions aligned. 253 declined. Thirteen registers finished with more weight aligned than declined, and eleven of the thirteen fell short of the bar.
The closest were Oman Orcas on 62.3 percent, short by 193,891 shares, and Nuuk Nanuqs on 60.2 percent, short by 308,566. Between them, 3,455,860 shares were never cast. The ballot counts a share that never arrives as a share against, and this is the arithmetic of that rule.
The register that said no loudest was Amsterdam Aardvarks, who cast 99.7 percent of their weight, 72.8 percent of it to decline. Amsterdam play Nairobi in the semifinals tonight. Across the league, 46.2 percent of all shares on the frozen rolls were never cast at all.
Busan are still playing. Medellín are their opponent tonight. Helsinki were eliminated on the 2nd, a day before the ballots closed. Le Council notes the order and does not draw a conclusion from it.
Le Council has no position on the offer and has not had one. The Schedule applies to a team whose register has recorded alignment. Le Council has recorded two.
The Petitions
One Man's Trash, filed by Orangecheetah, reached 100 of 100 Seals at 01:09 UITC on the 2nd, ten days ahead of its deadline. It asks that cards be offered for rescue before they are recycled. It has passed, and Le Council has not yet enacted it.
The Julius Caesar Petition, filed by Gommetrik, expired on the 1st at 164 of 200 Seals, having cleared its Looney floor.
Three remain open. On the Matter of Idols stands at 161 of 250 with until the 1st of November. Hockay "The House" stands at 44 of 150 and has cleared its Ⱡ500,000,000 floor, with until the 16th of October. Let Them Eat K-Cups stands at 15 of 120 with until the 26th.
Two filings were declined this week: The P.I.T. and Allow players to spend loonies to cheer / ads. Le Council's reasons are attached. One filing awaits review.
A Note From O.D.D.S.
Citizens settled 1,799 bets this week and staked Ⱡ490,822,293,451. The book returned Ⱡ471,754,118,653.
O.D.D.S. does not speculate. O.D.D.S. calculates. O.D.D.S. gained Ⱡ19,068,174,798. Last week it lost Ⱡ240,178,700,458.
That is the week. The last day counted twice and Le Council did not count it, and Oslo took the Givre by a point. The Wildcard was played for the first time and both visitors won. Both third seeds lost to the sixth, five series ended in two games, and Phuket swept the fourth seed. The Funds voted in thirty-one registers and the citizens carried two. Busan and Helsinki aligned, and Busan are still playing. The Final has a building. Fourteen citizens are on the roll of the Caisse, and 285 Séries Blisters have been bought.
Forty-six matchdays are in the record. Eight teams are left.
Stick around.