{"id":5330,"date":"2012-03-20T11:59:49","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T15:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.btsh.org\/bruise\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2012-03-20T12:06:01","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T16:06:01","slug":"2012-season-preview-la-famiglia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/2012-season-preview-la-famiglia\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 Season Preview – La Famiglia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Color:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Yellow\/Red
\nYear Founded:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>2002
\n2011 Regular Season Finish:<\/strong>\u00a013-1-1-2(1st, Donohue Division; 1st overall)
\n2011 Playoff Result:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Lost to Happy Little Elves in round of 16
\nConference:<\/strong>\u00a0Tagliarino
\nDivision:<\/strong>\u00a0Brown
\nTeam Song:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>“O Surdato Nammurato” – Italian Traditional<\/a><\/p>\n

By ORG Special Correspondent Bill Tucker<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When the ORG went to their hockey writer bullpen and asked us to write a season preview, I immediately claimed La Famiglia.\u00a0 What better team to write about than last year\u2019s Cinderella<\/a> story.\u00a0 Leading the league in both points (29) and wins (13), the team shocked the world with their regular season dominance. \u00a0\u00a0Backed by the league\u2019s second best offense and third best defense, Dave Ladanyi\u2019s squad left the Larsen division in shambles, coasting to a first round matchup with the Happy Little Elves.\u00a0 Unfortunately for The Family, the glass slipper fell off as the soon as the tournament started, as they fell to the Elves in a thrilling yet heartbreaking 3-2 loss.\u00a0 With their playoff dreams dashed, fans of the team wondered if the team was ready to take the next step or if they were merely playoff pretenders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not content with being one hit wonders, the former Tuques come into the 2012 campaign largely intact.\u00a0 Thanks to a settlement awarded to Alfred Liu in a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Famous Famiglia restaurant chain, the team was able to re-sign both Shafiq \u201cOff Black\u201d Perry and 2011 scoring champion Denis Miciletto.\u00a0 Sources say the players were compensated with all you can eat helpings of bologna alfredo in lieu of cash.\u00a0 To compliment their fearsome offense, La Famiglia also boasts one of the league\u2019s best two way players in Haanwa Chau.\u00a0 Fresh off of a fourth place finish representing the US of A in the 2011 Women\u2019s Ball Hockey World Championship<\/a>, Haanwa gained some valuable experience to compliment an already well rounded Famiglia squad.\u00a0 Add to the mix the always reliable goaltending of Kevin Au, and the team looks poised to make another run at a high seeded playoff berth.<\/p>\n

But not everything is sunny in this fairytale of blacktop and hockey balls.\u00a0 With great success, comes great responsibility as the team finds themselves not only in a new division, but in an entirely new conference.\u00a0 13 of the 18 games on the team\u2019s schedule are against conference opponents, many of which are unfamiliar to The Yellow and Red.\u00a0 In response to this new challenge, the team has taken some brash moves to prepare themselves for this higher level of competition.\u00a0\u00a0 Pete Wilson has spent his off season working on his \u201cStare of Intimidation<\/a>\u201d, Andrea Grande-Capone has been sharpening her defensive skills fighting wolverines in the Swiss Alps and BTSH mainstay Ant Ventolieri has been retrofitting an old Delorian with a flux capacitor.\u00a0 Will La Famiglia be searching out a power source capable of the 1.21 gigawatts required to take them back to last year?\u00a0 The golden days of beating up on the George McFly\u2019s of the league may be over but the chance to steel themselves against better competition promises to make them even more dangerous when they make it to the big dance.\u00a0 Provided they can keep their glass slippers on, of course.<\/p>\n

Here are three early season games that just may give us the answer to that all important question.\u00a0 As for the question itself, I completely forgot it due a booze induced blackout that may or may not have happened after the Free Agent Scrimmage. \u00a0\u00a0Allegedly.<\/p>\n

April 1st \u2013 Corlears Hookers @ La Famiglia<\/strong> \u2013 While Famiglia\u2019s opening game against the Rehabs will be the team\u2019s first battle in the Brown division, this contest serves as an early test of conference readiness.\u00a0 If they can hang with the Hookers, they can hang with anybody.<\/p>\n

April 22th<\/sup> \u2013 La Famiglia @ Gut Rot<\/strong> \u2013 The first of three Hockey Night at Tompkins appearances for La Famiglia, this game promises to be a good one, if only for the drunken antics that will ensue at Doc Holiday\u2019s prior to the contest. Look for some wild shenanigans in this early season matchup.<\/p>\n

May 6th<\/sup> \u2013 Happy Little Elves @ La Familgia<\/strong> \u2013 After a crushing playoff defeat at the hands of Glanzer\u2019s Great Gazoos<\/a>, The Family will be looking to get some mafia style revenge in this Week 6 grudge match.<\/p>\n

Entity They Most Resemble (According to Rich Glanzer)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Entity:<\/strong> 2012-13 NY Rangers<\/em><\/p>\n

2011 was the most impressive season in Tuques history, and it started in the first round of the 2010 playoffs. The Elves put a beatdown on the Tuques, and were up 6-0 at halftime. With less than 2 minute to go in the game, the Tuques had made it 6-4, and then scored again, but the ref called the goal off because of a high stick. In other words, these guys didn’t give up, and not only made the score respectable, but put a similar beatdown on us. Its just time ran out.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Last season, the Tuques dominated the league and turned up one of the most impressive seasons in BTSH history, but lost in their first playoff game. (Spoiler Alert) The 2011-12 NY Rangers are having a fantastic regular season, but are about to be very disappointed as they will lose in either the first or 2nd round. But the 2012-13 Rangers will use this as motivation, and make a long playoff run. Despite the jump in divisions, I see a successful regular season for the Tuques. They surely won’t dominate the regular season like they did last season, but unlike last season, they wont lose their first playoff game either. Expect a playoff run from these guys. I wont predict a championship, but if they did, it wouldn’t shock me either. They have two of the best scorers in the league, a really good goalie, solid D, and some really good girls.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fun Fact #1:<\/strong> Brian Ferry once housed a\u00a0Cambodian\u00a0family under his beard during a Typhoon. True story.<\/em><\/div>\n
Fun Fact #2:<\/strong> Diane Johnston wanted to be the star of a Know Your Neighbor article. I agreed to do one as long as she scored a 180 in skee*T*ball. She got exactly 180, proving she is a very efficient person.<\/em><\/div>\n
Fun Fact #3:<\/strong> However stardom has affected Diane, as she turned from one of the sweetest girls in the league, to a beer guzzling heel, who trash talks in words with friends, and then proceeds to lose after taking a giant lead.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Not so fun Fact:<\/strong> Until they change their name officially back to the Tuques, God will continue to smite them.<\/em><\/div>\n
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  Color:\u00a0Yellow\/Red Year Founded:\u00a02002 2011 Regular Season Finish:\u00a013-1-1-2(1st, Donohue Division; 1st overall) 2011 Playoff Result:\u00a0Lost to Happy Little Elves in round of 16 Conference:\u00a0Tagliarino Division:\u00a0Brown Team Song:\u00a0“O Surdato Nammurato” – Italian Traditional By ORG Special Correspondent Bill Tucker When the ORG went to their hockey writer bullpen and asked us to write a season preview, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":529,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2012-team-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/529"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5330"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5352,"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions\/5352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miyagimedia.com\/bruise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}