January saw the first regular season date of the New Year! Four league members were in attendance. The Empire, Sasquatch, Phoenix Rising and the Inquisition were in attendance. The Ottoman Empire has been improving quite a bit in their second season. Despite only putting up 3 points in January, of the 12 regular season games played 7 were one goal games. When the Empire begin improving their offense they will become a force. The Phoenix Rising spent the first half of the day going 1 and 5 but finished the day strong with a 5 - 1 second half to finish with 13 points. The Squatch had a strong day going 8-4 and was involved in quite a few of the most exciting games of the day. The Inquisition edged out the Squatch in the record department going 9-3-0-0 for the day. February brings an end to the Regular Season and March the THLH CUP Playoffs!
October 2023
THLH Season XI League News
AZ's THLH CUP FINALS Preview
Season XI began with handing out the new 2023-2024 THLH League T-Shirts with the newly issued official Table Hockey League of Hershey logo. Season XI began after the shortest offseason in THLH History, and it seems as if the momentum from last year has shifted to the new season especially for the Co Rookie of the Year teams the Ottoman Empire and the Lancaster Longshots. Both teams put up a respectable effort. The Empire put up 6 points on the day but had 2 shut outs and the majority of their games were the one goal variety. The Longshots had their best league date ever posting 10 points, 4-8-0-2 record with 2 overtime losses and 2 shut outs. The Phoenix Rising had a very good day posting 14 points and 4 shut outs. The Inquisition moved the team back to their old barn, Sun Burn Stadium and posted a 11-1-0-1 record on the day.
Season XI is underway and the THLH looks forward to a full complement of league members participating in October.
November/December 2023.
February brought the end of the Regular Season in the THLH. The Stingers, Phoenix Rising, Ottoman Empire and Inquisition were in attendance for final play of Season XI. February brought the best outing of the Regular Season for the Ottoman Empire and their short career. Ottoman raked up 10 points on the day including 4 outright wins. The Empire have always played good defense but are now putting it together with some offense. The Empire are getting hot a the right time heading into the THLH CUP Playoffs. The Stinger raked up 13 point, the Phoenix Rising 12, and the Inquisition finished strong with 20 points and wrapped up the Regular Season finishing first overall with 112 points and a 52-15-5-3 record.
The 2024 THLH CUP FINALS match ups are as follows: Remember in the THLH we value attendance over points and draw that line at 4 appearances. Therefore, teams that meet the 4-appearance minimum are seeded based on points. Then those teams with less than the 4 required appearances are seeded by points.
The Lancaster Longshots will not be playing in the 2024 THLH CUP Finals due to pending nuptials. We wish Charlie Ricard the best in his upcoming wedding and look forward to Charlie participating in a full regular season in 2024-2025.
THLH CUP FINALS Bracket
Round #1
Hummelstown Stingers #5 vs Ellicott City Sasquatch #4 - Best of Seven
Round #2
Winner of the #5 vs #4 Playoff vs East Hanover Inquisition #1
Ottoman Empire #3 vs New Jersey Phoenix Rising #2
September 2023
January 2024
It’s that time again Table Hockey fans. The 2023-2024 Playoffs begin on March 16th at 10:00AM. This season only hosted six teams. Finishing in first place this year, was eight-time THLH Champion the East Hanover Inquisition. They had a record of 52-15-5-3 and 112 points. In a distance second place, was the New Jersey Phoenix Rising with a 30-35-7-6 record with 73 points.
The league back in 2012, to insure that players from other leagues who wanted to play in the THLH. We wanted to make sure that they didn’t show up, play in a single month. Then take home the Holy Grail of Table Hockey. A rule was added that the seedings for the Playoffs would reward those teams who appeared more often than those who showed up once or twice.
That rule reads: “In order to qualify for the THLH CUP Playoffs a member must participate in a minimum of 4 Regular Season Sessions. (Adopted August 2012), (Adopted August 2015) Teams that participate in 4 Regular Season dates will be seeded by points. In the event of a tie the team with the most wins gets the higher seed. In the event that the teams are still tied the higher seed will be determined by number of appearances.”
Now back to the Playoff preview. Because the Ottoman Empire appeared at the minimum four regular monthly season games. The second-year team is the third ranked club with a 10-46-4-7 record. With a total of 31 points. The other two teams in this years Playoffs are fourth place Ellicott City Sasquatch and the fifth ranked Hummelstown Stingers. The Sasquatch had a winning record 22-14-0-2, and 46 points. The Stingers had a .500 batting average of 18-18-0-4 and 40 points.
The Inquisition will have a first-round bye. And will be the official Puck Dropper and Timekeeper. The Opening Round of action will look like this:
Stingers vs. Sasquatch
Ottoman Empire vs. Phoenix Rising
The Stingers/Sasquatch series will open the 2023-2024 Playoffs. They will play a Best of Seven series. The host team the Sasquatch will play at home. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire/Phoenix Rising will assist in Timekeeper/Puck Dropping chores. After the first two games are played with the Stingers/Sasquatch. The action turns to the Ottoman Empire/Phoenix Rising opening two games with the New Jersey club having home advantage.
First Round Preview:
Hummelstown Stingers (40 Points) vs. Ellicott City Sasquatch (46 Points)
Both teams know each other well. There are no surprises here. The only question is who will outlast who. The two clubs faced each other twice this season. Stingers winning the first match 3-2. While the Sasquatch took the second game 4-2. This was back in October. The strange thing is, both teams lost on their home ice. As you can see, this looks like it has a chance to go all seven games before determining a winner.
Ottoman Empire (31 Points) vs. New Jersey Phoenix Rising (73 Points)
Don’t be fooled by the point differential. The Ottoman Empire are no pushovers. They might have had a rough 2022-2023 first season. But this season they have begun to master the game. They have the third best Goals Against Average with a mere 2.27. New Jersey may have a 10-3-3 record against the Empire. But 6 of those games went to overtime. For the most part, the games between these two teams were won by a single goal.
The East Hanover Inquisition will take on the winner of the Sasquatch/Stingers series. That alone in a normal season could be a matchup for the THLH Championship. The two teams that failed to make it into the next round, will play for the KOTR Trophy. The KOTR traveling trophy has gotten a facelift. It now features the names of all past winners.
I want to wish every player the very best on Saturday. We are ALL TABLE HOCKEY BROTHERS.
Regular Season Dates 3 November and 4 December have been completed. November saw the Phoenix Rising and Sasquatch hammer the Inquisition into dust. The Inquisition had their worst outing maybe ever posting a 3-7-2-3 record. The Phoenix Rising and Sasquatch gained quite a bit of on the first place Inquisition. December saw the Stingers and Ottoman back in action. The Ottoman had maybe their best day in their history posting 8 points and a 3-8-1-1 record. The Stingers showing a bit of rust after missing a few months putting up 12 points. The Phoenix Rising had a dissapointing day posting 10 points after a great day in November.
February 2024
Regular Season Date #2 saw the Ellicott City Sasquatch and the Hummelstown Stingers make their first appearance in the 2023-2024 THLH Season. Both teams struggled a bit because this was their first action of the season. The Stingers posted a 7-5-0-1, 15 point day and the Squatch put up 13 points and a 6-6-0-1 record. New Jersey had a strange day posting a 4-5-2-1. How do you do that? The Empire still learning the game had a rough day but for the season has a respectable GAA at home of 1.58. Ottoman need to work on the offence. The Inquisition put together another great day with 22 points, 11-1-0-0 record. See you next month.