Challenge 18: Baie-Comeau Drakkar (Discussion Thread)

Johnnyluc · Post by **Johnnyluc** » Thu Sep 09, 2010 6:37 pm

Year three was horrible for me, I lost MY top forward for 3 months and my best defenceman for 5 months.

Starting goaltender was out for a month, but my backup was pretty strong as well.

At one point i was down 4 of my top 7 defenceman. Its a shame because I could have probably won the regular season title with everyone healthy.

Leeman14 · Post by **Leeman14** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:48 am

kuulapaa wrote:Why can't one jinx injuries? I mean why doesn't it work the way everything else works? When I come here to tell how well my team plays, it stops there. When I come here to tell how injuries have started to haunt my team it doesn't stop, IT GETS WORSE!

First injury happened to Philip Richer on December 8th, he was told to be out of action for about two weeks because of a fractured wrist. It was an in-game injury in a winning game over Victoriaville.
Then, one day after Richer injury Maxime Lamarche suffered a foot contusion in practice. He'd be out for two weeks also.
After those two injuries I wrote a little report here and in the second game after that, on Dec 13th there came two injuries in-game - Jonathan Parisien will be out about three weeks after suffering a kidney injury (!) and Dominic-Antoine Tremblay had a bruised ankle that will keep him out for a few days.

This leaves me 17 players to dress and unfortunately only 5 defensemen.

Sorry to hear about that, Kuulapaa. In my game, Richer was injured 3-4 times during Season 1 and has been injured twice during Season 2 heading into Q4. Lamarche has also seen his share of booboos as well.

I've read that others have seen good statistics from Jean-Philippe Caron but my verson of this kid has been far worse. He gets called out by the media every couple of months, finished Season 1 at a minus-36 rating with 60 games played and hasn't improved as much in Season 2.

Nathan Dunnett was nothing short of phenomenal for me as the starting goalie during S1 and even captured the Jacques Plante Trophy as goaltender of the year but went 0-10 to begin S2. I had to turn to Simon Giroux to win games and sometimes he'd even blow a 5-0 lead with 10 minutes left in the 3rd period. Good thing I drafted Dennis Seikkonen (a Swiss-Finnish prospect) who looks to be a solid no. 1 for Season 3.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun to see how others in the Challenge are doing.

Cheers and good luck!

Beukeboom · Post by **Beukeboom** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:38 pm

Well i guess everyone has those injury issues. I always have my 15 year old new scoring machine Tanguay out. When he plays hes good but he doesnt often.

On another note: I just realized ECHL teams can just sogn away my vet centers without having rights or anything.

Funny fact: I just played the Drummondville Vs with Wayne Gretzky as GM. I think he is a little depending on names too much he has an Ash Gretzky , a Loik Lemieux and Alex lemieux in his team...

Post by **batdad** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 5:24 pm

Finished my first 17 games. IT went well defensively, not so well offensively, and I kind of hate most players on this team. However, I have a very strong record and am pleased for the most part with my defensemen and one or two forwards. Lets see what happens in 2nd part. Went 12-4-1.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:21 pm

I haven't even had the chance to touch my game since last week. I'm itching to play but have no time.

Post by **timmy_t** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 9:29 pm

Help!

So I'm at the 2008 QMJHL Draft. Everything is going fine and then after I make my 5th round pick, all of the ranked players disappear. It's actually about 2000 players that disappear from the draft. I actually tried re-loading the game and it did it again. Is this a glitch or something that happens in the Q?

Post by **timmy_t** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 9:48 pm

Nevermind!

I should have searched the forums first!

Our old buddy Flea wrote about it in 2007:

flea wrote:Good luck then Alex!!

I think I got the solution!!! Somebody in the SIGA forums told me that it isnt an error, but its like that in real life.
16 year old player in the Q-draft can be drafted only in the first 5 rounds!!! So I guess that it wasnt a bug, but only my lack of knowledge

I checked the game-manual and I could confirm it!!

Here's the full topic in the forum: "Strange thing during Q draft"

Post by **joehelmer** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:51 pm

My board may start to listening the fans who calls for my resignation.

I hope my players hears this and starts to play better.

Loosie · Post by **Loosie** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:38 am

SO I was finally able to play a bit more of my game today. Somebody lit a fire under this teams butt for this quarter. So in half the games this season we've been able to double our win total from last season with winning more games than last season in the second quarter alone.

Unfortunaltey we are still in 10th looking in.

Loosie · Post by **Loosie** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:47 pm

So I went through a really bad first season, and bad early second season, was starting to turn things around....and I got fired. YEAH!

Already 'rehired' myself (read: recreated and took over), but of course my line combos, practice setting, and scouting is all gone. *SIGH*

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:07 pm

timmy_t wrote:Nevermind!

I should have searched the forums first!

Our old buddy Flea wrote about it in 2007:

flea wrote:Good luck then Alex!!

I think I got the solution!!! Somebody in the SIGA forums told me that it isnt an error, but its like that in real life.
16 year old player in the Q-draft can be drafted only in the first 5 rounds!!! So I guess that it wasnt a bug, but only my lack of knowledge

I checked the game-manual and I could confirm it!!

Here's the full topic in the forum: "Strange thing during Q draft"

WOW! I hadn't noticed that before. Nice searching to find that old thread.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:58 pm

Through 34 games of Season 1 now. 10-7 in second segment, so not as good. Cliche has begun to come alive (pts in 9 of last 10). Villeneuve as well. Have had media boosts for both Dunnett and Lamarche. Lamarche is playing VERY well. Bernier, West have kind of tailed off a bit. Not surprisingly they have lost some ice time as Cliche and to some extent Olsson are starting to wake up a bit. L-P is rocking. Like him.

Right now my lineup looks like this, although it has changed and guys are up and down from farm left and right.

Bernier-Villeneuve-Cliche
Olsson-Richer-West
L-Parent-Fiset-Mimar
Duhamel-Samson-Darveaux
Boiland

Lamarche-Renaud
Cote-Parisien
Laperriere-Letourneau
Matthieu

Dunnett
Rajotte

I haev sent Caron down, and more recently Goasselin, Verpaelst, and Bussieres went down. They were really not performing. I only have 4 guys other than goalies with ratings above 7. They are: Lamarche, Renaud, Villeneuve, and Cote. So only one forward, and he was hurt for 2 weeks.

My goalies (as per always) have been outstanding, although they have not ever been outshot in a game.

MacPhal · Post by **MacPhal** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:01 am

Hey all! It's my first challenge and it looks like a good one.

I was lucky with coach's i got Manny Fernandez for a head coach with mostly green stats, and i got 3 Assistant coach's with good stats in there area. I got three extra scouts too with green stats.

Player wise its not so good

JP Caron is going to be a big bust. Bad stats and hes played poorly in training camp and the 3 pre-season games i've done. Plus i don't like centre's that have only a 3 in faceoffs! Olsson is really not playing well too, hes 5.67 in the 3 per-season games.

As a plus thou Mike Villeneuve, Marc-Olivier Mimar and Jordan Bernier are looking good.

My defence is being so-so. The only really bad apple is Alexandre Chenevert. Also Maxime Renaud had a rib broken in training camp. ( Wow there working hard to make the team

) He'll be out about a month.

The goalies are playing great! Giroux, Alain-Rajotte and Dunnett each got a start and the first two got 9's in there game. Going to play Dunnett next to see if he can keep up.

There getting better with each game. The first game we loss 5-2 and we didn't even get 20 shots! The last game was 3-3 with a shootout loss, but we got just under 30 shots that game.

I'll post my line when the season starts, things are still being moved around

MacPhal · Post by **MacPhal** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:28 pm

Finished the per-season. We beat Lewiston 7-1! giving us a 1-2-1 per-season record. This seasons starting lineups are:

Bernier - Villeneuve - Darveau
Bussieres - Richer - Mimar
Olsson - Caron - Cliche
Cote - Samson - Gosselin

Lamarche - Parisien
Chenevert - Simard
Laperriere - Lizotte

Dunnett - Alain-Rajotte

I don't think were going to do that good this year, but its looking better then it did before the Lewiston game

Also Olsson, Caron and Cliche line did better. Just need to set Olsson to take the faceoffs

I've started calling them Line overrated.

Leeman14 · Post by **Leeman14** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:59 pm

MacPhal wrote:Also Olsson, Caron and Cliche line did better. Just need to set Olsson to take the faceoffs I've started calling them Line overrated.

Olsson was no better and no worse than mediocre for me. I held on to Cliche until he turned 21 and Caron, despite being such an underachiever, is still on my roster although he's out for four months with a UCL tear after playing just 2 games in season 3.

Good luck! Hope the first season isn't too rough on you.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:27 pm

My team's board is smoking crack.

They say that they're extremely pleased with my overall performance but they're sad to see fan support fading. We're the worst team in the QMJHL! We've got a record of 7-19-4 after 30 games. My team stinks but the board thinks I'm doing great. At least the fans have a clue.

On the bright side, our JP Caron is second in the league in points, trailing behind the Huskies' Jordan Caron.

Ippo · Post by **Ippo** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:20 pm

Pre-season was just what I expected, 5 losses from first 5 games and finally a win in 6th, yay. In other words, a promising start for my career...

5-10-2 in first quarter, not that good even though the team is awful. Dunnett has been our best player with an average rating of 7.80, while Bernier is our top scorer with 6 goals and Villeneuve is leading in assists and points (3+10). In other words, my first line and starting goalie have enough quality to keep us in contention for playoff spot, rest of the team just sucks.

Ippo · Post by **Ippo** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 6:50 pm

Getting better now, although I haven't changed things too much: 8W-7L-2OT/SO losses. I've only made a couple of changes in lineup by switching players between lines. I've had some close games against top teams, which is always promising. Here's hoping that this good form will continue in next quarter, although that means that my key players must stay healthy.

Laker2415 · Post by **Laker2415** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:53 am

Just finished my third quarter of games and I'm noticing that this team is either really good or really bad for stretches. We ended December with a 5 game winning streak, then as the calender turned, we lost five straight, before ending the quarter winning four out of 5.

Dunnett had taken over the goaltending reins and has been our most consistant player, averaging an 8.53 rating in his last 15 starts, while Giroux hasn't played since the middle of December.

Renaud has been the man both offensively and defensively with a team leading 20 goals and a rating over 7. Freddy Cote has been a pleasant surprise with a 7.79 rating and 8-19-27 stats through 48 games.

Darveau, Olsson, Bernier and GLP have all chipped in 13 goals on the season and Caron has added 31 assists. I'm a little disappointed in Caron as he's been asked to shoot on his bias, but he just cant finish. He has 114 shots and only 6 goals.

We're tied for 7th place with Rimouski and Chicoutimi right now, 5 points up on Shawinigan for that last playoff spot, but with only 4 games combined against those three teams, we face a very difficult and daunting test to make the playoffs.

Ippo · Post by **Ippo** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:01 am

Well, that was a surprisingly good season for me. Second half of the regular season was pretty much the same as 2nd quarter, so we ended up with 68 points and a 7th place. Drummondville was our opponent in 1st round and we had a horrible record against them in regular season, only one win and they won 8 times.

Somehow we managed to put up a real fight and keep the games close. Games 4 & 5 were great, we won both games in OT and got a 3-2 lead in the series. We lost game 6 at home, so it all went down to game 7 which we won 4-3. No idea how we managed to pull that off, but it felt great.

Next up was Quebec, who had been a difficult opponent in regular season. First three games ended 3-2, Quebec won the first and we won the next two. Games 4 and 5 were horrible, even Dunnett was helpless when we lost 3-6 and 2-5, thus giving the advantage to Quebec. We won the next game, so again it all went down to Game 7... And we lost 2-5. In the end it was Rouyn-Noranda, who won the league.

Key players

Nathan Dunnett - Big part in our success, in regular season he played 57 games with a SV% of 0.894 and AV R of 7.88. In playoffs he was even better, SV% 0.915 and AV R 8.36. Glad to have him between the pipes for one more season.

Jordan Bernier - Ended up being our best goalscorer in regular season (35+28) and didn't slow down in the playoffs either (5+10).

David Cliche - Played a good season in 1st line (23+40), but now he's gone. Not sure who could replace him yet, maybe Mimar.

Mike Villeneuve - 46 assists surprised me, I thought Caron had the quality to be our no.1 center but he failed miserably, so I opted for Villeneuve and he delivered the goods.

Maxime Renaud - Leader in defence (16+25) but also the worst in +/- with -24. He's gone now, so I need to find a replacement for him.

MacPhal · Post by **MacPhal** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:42 pm

Well im done my first ever challenge quarter!

It was .....ok 6-8-2-1 and im 10th in the west, thou i would be 5th in the east.

My best player right now is Mike Villeneuve! Hes at 11-11-22 right now and right behind him is
MO Mimar at 8-12-20
J Berneir with 10-8-18.

My pp and pk are 6th in the league, so i'm hoping if that keeps up i should move up the standings abit.

Dunnett has been playing well to. He's 4-6-3 with a .901 sv% and a 3.01 GAA and a rating of 8.15

Marsac · Post by **Marsac** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:09 pm

After a long hiatus I just finished another segment. Following an amazing start to season two we had been free-falling in the standings, sucking all of my enjoyment out of the game. Now I'm back with a fresh approach to lineup selection and a complete tactics revamp and we finished the third segment strong going 8-2 in our last 10 games, hopefully I can keep the momentum going into the playoffs.

Fun fact: My leading goal scorer is Jonathan Parisien, the RD, with 27 goals in 51 games. He has a three goal edge on Guillaume Langelier-Parent who had 12 goals in the first 17 and then slowed down significantly during our losing streak.

Disturbing fact: The dislike of first overall import draft pick Marek Tvrdon is spreading rapidly. He is now disliked by Noreau, Caron, Bussieres, Giroux, Simard, Mimar, Darveau, Labrie, Poulin, F. Bernier, J. Bernier, Tremblay and Fiset. Xenophobic pricks, I might be forced to trade or release him for team morale reasons.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 2:58 pm

That's kind of crazy that so much of your team dislikes this player. What are some of his mental attributes?

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 4:57 pm

Well I finally finished the regular season of my first season. We finished last (10th) in the conference but we weren't the worst in the QMJHL. We were tied for second worst (same points but we had more wins, so technically we're 3rd worst). Still, no playoffs for us! Let's get to the draft!

Marsac · Post by **Marsac** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 9:30 am

bruins72 wrote:That's kind of crazy that so much of your team dislikes this player. What are some of his mental attributes?

His scouting report lists Casual, Unambitious and Strong Character. Here are his attributes.