Season Preview – Part 2

Townline Tunnelers

“To be the man, Wooooooo, you have to beat the man” – “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.

Ric Flair knows what it takes to win championships (and where to get cheap valtrex), and so does GM Craig Laro and the Townline Tunnelers. The reigning King Street Cup Champions are set to defend their title against an expanded field of eager and hungry (because a large portion of them are high) competitors. Will the Tunnelers have what it takes to repeat as champions? As far as I can remember, the only two people every to win back to back King Street Cups are Chris “Reigning MVP” Woods and Scotty “G.O.A.T” Legend. (This has not been fact checked, but I’m printing it anyway) Craig “Sky Caught Fire” Laro is coming back for another year as GM of the Tunnelers, and sat in the second position in the draft. Let’s scrutinize and criticize shall we?

This is literally how I see myself in the WNHL

Why change what works rights? Within the first four rounds Laro managed to unite former MVP Alan Cockell, current MVP Chris Woods and the unshakable Colin Cook. Laro, Cockell, Woods, and Cook make up the Tunnelers core, and this year Laro added rookies Ethan Clark who with brother Liam make up the Fantastical Flying Clark brothers. This is a huge get for the Tunnelers, as these two, while not twins, are in the running for ugliest siblings with the Sedin’s and those twins for the original Degrassi.

The Fantastical Flying Clark Brothers

As ugly as they might be the Clark brothers can play, and could form a power line with Craig “Dumptruck” Dunsby who jumped ship with Tucker 2.0 from the Atlas Steelers (blood not blue enough). Both players entering their second season in the WNHL and both bring grit to the ice, and character to the room. With the powderkeg that is Cockell and Woods you need some deterrent. Something to put out the flames when the Tunnelers are down 2 in early in the second. The Tunnelers did a good job of adding to their room through the later rounds of the draft with such gems as, John “Two First Names” Harvey (who is looking to stake his legacy in the WNHL with back to back cups), Mike “Fought the” Law and Kenny “Lemieux” Oost are Tunnelers for life it would seem (so they are familiar with the goings ons and what nots) while Jeff “Spins” O’Neil returns after playing fot the Lincoln Street Legends for a year. The year that the Tunnelers won the cup. Weird.

Spins when the Tunnelers went out for their victory party

In the final two rounds Laro added rookie Mike Atkinson (I have no idea who this is, so I’m just going to move on) and in the last round goalie Denis Martin (pronounced Den-Knee Mar-Tain as if you grew up on the East Side of Welland). It was said that the Tunnelers could have won the King Street Cup with me in net, and it appears that Laro is going to test that theory. The Tunnelers brought back a lot of players from last years King Street Cup winning squad, but there are a couple noticeable absences on the blue line that Laro will need to fill. The Tunnelers are going to be contenders this year, but I think there are too many holes in the armour and the King Street Cup Hangover gets to them.

Prediction: 2nd