So there you go! As things actual did turn out, well you already know the results but let's recap them here for posterity's sake (or posterior's sake if you'd prefer)…

It's a little slice of Philadelphia in the Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League as "brotherly love" reigns after Brian Legere's Czech Please squad caught his brother John's 15 Gets You 60 in the final week of the season to capture a share of the 2006-07 Hanson Cup! Yes folks, we've got ourselves an old-fashioned tie. No skating 4-on-4 in overtime here and definitely no shoot-out to decide this thing, just a plain old "kissing your sister" tie. And no, I'm not kissing my brother! A congratulatory man-hug maybe, but that's about all…

For Kevin and The Commish it's their 2nd overall league title in the franchise's history, however it's the first one since WAY back in the 1995-96 season when they won the title in the league's "inaugural" season; well under it's current set of rules anyway. And they won the tile be a single point over Dave Kang's squad, earned by get this; just a single penalty minute! Dave would get his revenge the following season however when he won the Rowdy Friends Fantasy Football League with a team aptly named, One More Penalty Minute. As a matter of fact, this is John's first title as the league's commissioner because back then, Joe Mastrangelo was still running this thing. For you trivia buffs out there, this league as we know it actually rose from the ashes of a office league run by Joe back in the days when he, Rob Hanratty and the aformentioned Dave Kang worked together at First Chicago in New York City. That league had a mass ownership exodus the year before due to some corporate layoffs and relocations and we filled the gap with some owners from the baseball and football leagues. I took the reins of the league from Joe the following season and the rest as they say, is history…

Speaking of history, with his first Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League Title, Brian Legere becomes only the 3rd owner to secure a title in all three "major" COMMISH.COM sports leagues (including baseball and football, sorry Kevin, that XFL title doesn't really count!). This "triple crown" has also been pulled off by Joe "I Was A Teenage Commish" Mastrangelo and Charlie "Hobey" Baker, whose legendary co-ownership efforts have resulted in no less than 6 league championships (7 if we count the now defunct Hazzard County Racing Association NASCAR league title back in 2005). Brian's accomplishment does come with the proverbial asterisk (*) though as his lone title in baseball (2004) and this year's hockey title have been "ties" and not outright wins (and Charlie paid me $20 to make sure I pointed this out). But a fine accomplishment nonetheless so congrats on the Triple Crown and here's that hug I owe you bro…

Coming in third place, just a mere point away from glory (see permutations above), was Mike Bineau's Boston Hoegaarden. Mike's squad made what was possibly the most historic move in league history to-date. Going "4-wide" in the stretch run, moving from 5th place to within a half point of the lead, with a +5 then a +4 point effort in two consecutive weeks but coming up just a little short in the photo finish at the end, settling for the bronze medal. Not a bad finish though for the team named after the "on tap" special at Oddfellows on Draft Day, for you see, Hoegaarden is a Belgian Ale that we sampled and as the saying goes, "if the name fits, use it". Since Mike's a Bruins fan, "Madison Square Hoegaarden" was definitely out and thus Boston Hoegaarden was born. As of press time, I've yet to confirm the rumors that next year's squad will be know as The St. Pauli Girls…

Fourth place (also known as "the tin medal") goes to The Lone Phantom, or Phantoms actually, as Ronnie D & JR put up quite the fight this season, spending their fair share of the season in first place as well, before fading a bit down the stretch:

JR: Was that Bineau that just past us going like Mach 8?

Fifth place went to "Hobey" Baker and The Commissioner Formerly Known As Joe as their Crashing The Crease team made it's own late run from the depths of the Second Division into the lower money spots once Joe lit a bit of a fire under GM Charlie's "crease" if you know what I mean?

johnny las hock e coli squad finished in sixth place nice job by the la man staying in contention all season and not once falling out of the money even when his team was beset with many injuries of an awful nature and including but not limited to that yashin guy who plays at the mausoleum and tucker of the leaves. ok can i stop typing in lowercase letters now that this paragraph about johnny las team is done.

The 7th and final money spot goes to former champion John Wrobel (2003-04) who's Crease Is The Word held off three-time ex champ Walt Cherniak's Foil Up Coach for the final cashing spot. Our Rookie of the Year (by default) is "Win Lose Or" Tyler Burnham, who guided his young team to a 10th place finish, actually poking his head above the money waterline a few times. And our defending champ, Don Cardoza, looks more like a "defending chump" after his He-Man Devil Haters could do no better than a 12th place follow-up to his 2005-06 title. The apartment in the league cellar is being rented by Brian Boghosian this off-season, as his Jonah Pass The Puck team played like a bunch of Jonah's and found themselves deep in the belly of the whale with no hope of escape…

Category winners include the offensive juggernaut that was Czech Please (goals and assists), The Lone Phantoms (plus/minus) and the "very nice" goonage of Fabrizio's Wang Whackers (a wire-to-wire penalty minutes winner in the old-school style of Neil!). 15 Gets You 60, fittingly named for a goalie, Mr. DiPietro, takes Wins and Save Percentage and a special "Way to go Hamilton!" goes out to Rob Hanratty's California Golden Showers who made a "worst-to-first" run in the GAA category with some help from Manny Fernandez' groin. Yes, he had picked up his back-up Backstrom early in the season, who played stellar in Manny's absence and yes, I just had to go there!

As far as the financial situation goes, you all know how to do this by now. Using the data available on the Standings and Rankings pages, subtract what you won (if anything) from what you spent and if you're left with a "minus" rating, you owe the league some money. Some of you have already paid me and some of you have tabs running across the various other leagues here at COMMISH.COM so if you're in doubt about how much you owe or are owed, simply click on the link below to see your overall account balance and the math behind it.

Click here to check out the owner account balances page

I'll pay the winners as soon as I get paid by the, ahem, "losers" so if you do owe money, please send me a check or arrange to pay me sometime before the Stanley Cup is awarded this season. Speaking of the Cup, how's about we say Devils over Red Wings in 6 as the official Commish's Prediction for 2006-07? Well that about wraps things up here in the season's final column so I thank you all for yet another wonderful and cooperative season. I'm still real sorry about that Sidney Crosby trade gaffe after the deadline by the way. I look forward to seeing everyone once again at Oddfellow's sometime in early October for some Big Easy Burgers, Hoegaardens and a full day of drafting! Don, don't forget to bring the trophy, we'll pass it along to this year's co-champs and Kevin, Brian and myself can each take one Hanson Brother maybe?

Finally, I'm going to leave you this season the same way we came in. Here are a few video clips courtesy of the good folks over at YouTube and sent to me by outgoing defending chumpian Don Cardoza, both of whom obviously have even more time on their hands than yours truly. The first clip is a nice blast from the past (Ooh, la, la some Ranger metrosexuality before it was hip!) and the last one a tribute compilation clip of our league's namesake characters which "gets us right back to where we started from" (wink wink). Enjoy and I'll see you all next season!