Drunks Digest

Why Is my conference the best? It is an up and down battle. Just because you have a good team dosn't mean they always do good. Just ask Joe Scanlon of the phantoms. Last years champs trying to defend there championship, find themselves just off the playoff race my a couple of points. It is a tough conference every team needs to be there best or they will be on a cold streak. Speaking of streaks thats all the Jim Beam conference is about. 5 of the teams have had at least 5 game winning streaks but 2 of them have over 10. The T-Rex had an 11 game winning streak going on at the beginning of the season, and currently another 5 game streak. Then the Spartans had an amazing 21 game winning streak. Once that streak ended they went on a cold streak. Finally Jim Beam offers "youth teams" . The Fury managed by Bruce Spracklin have the youngest team in the league averaging age 22. This team will move up the standings next year as the team will grow stronger and more experienced. Fury are beating on young team rival Fermont Crunch in the standngs by a couple of points. The Crunch also relys on youth. This team will also move up soon and be able to challenge the stronger teams.

Ryler Weir
T-Rex GM

Now sure there are a few good club's over in the other conference. And sure there are some good players, too. And even though, I'm contemplating a move to Europe, its financial, not hockey. Canada is Hockey and Big Canada is the Jim Beam. Although with our great international league, there are player from everywhere in Europe and North America, playing in every city. But its the fans. The tough fans. The hard fans. Although very Loyal, they are also very critical, and thats only because we love it so much. We have the Cup favourite, and the returning champions with the Spartans and Phantoms respectively. I also think the quantity of quality teams is far better here in The Jim Beam. Although the Jack Daniels has two super-power teams, the quality just isn't the same after that. We have a much deeper pool of teams and the standings 1-8 are tight (not as tight thanks to that unbelievable streak by the Spartans). A couple game losing streak and you'll find yourself playing to stay in the playoffs. A couple game winning streak, and all your doing is matching about 5 other teams in the top 8. Its tight and I love it. Thats why I think the Jim Beam is the conference is the best. Oh ya, It's the home of my fav. team and fav. GM! Can you guess who they are?!

Brett Harvie
Icedogs GM

The reasons for the Jack Daniels conference DWSHL superiority might obviously be a result of the superiority of the whiskey to Beam’s bourbon. However, such a comparison is neither hockey related nor explicit enough to do justice to the greatest of all conferences: the fair Jack Daniels. Of course, the superiority is so broad and plainly apparent that we might be able to both qualify Daniels’ greatness and quantify that supremacy.

In terms of historic quality, it seems obvious that Daniels far outpaces the Beamers in every way. The Daniels conference had the first ever Drunks Cup champion and also hold the records for the most prolific achievements in league history. The Daniels has the team with the most wins in league history, the Beam has the team with the most losses. While the Beam does have a team at the head of league history for fewest losses in a season, the Daniels conference has two teams tied with the same mark.

In terms of this season’s quality look no further than the best and worst teams. Both the Battalion and the Vipers are better than the top teams in the Beam. Further, even on the heels of a record setting winning streak, the Beams conference leader still lags behind. We might ask why such a run can’t be put together in the Daniels, to which we would reply: Because the conference is simply that much more competitive. Even as two teams run away with the conference lead, we still have a sense of parity as more teams are clinging to the playoff cut off in the Daniels than in the Beam. The longer teams stay in the fight, the longer the Daniels continues to outpace the Beam in competitive and exciting hockey.

In terms of quantifiable proof, we need look no further than the top players in the league. Both Peter Forsberg and Mark Recchi have placed huge distances between themselves and other players and they play on successful teams. Also, the Daniels has the top two goaltenders. How is it that such individual players and teams don’t cannibalize each other and force themselves into mediocre records and stats? It’s because the Daniels division is just THAT good. Daniels teams lead 5 of the 7 team stats categories and of in the top five in those categories 22 out of 35 times. Daniels has 3 of the top 5 player and 16 of the top 30 wingers. The Daniels has 4 of the top 5 goalies in the league and 6 of the top 10 backstops. Thus, it seems that the Daniels division has not only the better all around teams, but also the better individual players. All this is further proof that the Jack Daniels conference vastly surpasses the Beamers in terms of talent and quality.

And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the Beamers have yet to win an All-Star game…

Brett Ommen
Ice Bats GM

Spartans regain top spot in DWSHL Power Rankings. The recent hot play of the Prowlers vaults them to number 3 overall while the Rattlers move back into the top ten yet again. The Racers remain near top as do the Battalion, Galaxy and Vipers.

All that said, the biggest development of the week was a true stunner.... The Brahmas move out of the bottom spot for the first time in over a month. Kudos to the Brahmas ogranization....

This week's update also includes a few takes on the inter-conference rivalry. Read below to see who thinks their conference is the best....

Power Ranking: The points are weighted (2x for overall; 1.5X for last 10 and goal diff; 1x for OT and special teams; 0.5X for PIM and shot diff) then totaled. A max score of 240 is possible.

Any comments, suggestions or submissions can be sent to me at [email protected]. Thanks, guys! - Brian Pate, JAX GM

Rank	Team	Pts	Prev
1	Spartans	216.25	2
2	Racers	204.00	1
3	Prowlers	190.75	7
4	Battalion	189.00	T3
5	Galaxy	186.00	6
6	Vipers	184.25	T3
7	X-Men	181.75	5
8	Rattlers	177.75	T14
9	Hum	163.75	8
10	Martians	157.25	11
11	Hornets	143.00	21
12	Pirhanas	138.25	9
13	T-Rex	136.50	10
14	Kings	134.25	T14
15	Army Ants	133.25	18
16	Ice Dogs	130.25	17
17	Storm	129.00	12
18	Wolves	128.50	13
19	Ice Bats	115.25	20
20	Phantoms	111.25	22
21	Attack	107.50	16
22	Vikings	93.25	19
23	Devils	67.50	25
24	Rams	62.00	26
25	Cannons	50.75	24
26	Fury	45.75	23
27	Brahmas	42.25	30
28	Crunch	41.50	29
29	Blaze	33.25	28
30	Nighthawks	26.00	27