Challenge 21: Quebec Nordiques (Discussion Thread)

[visualdarkness]

darn, screwed up the first week of regular season by getting my guys down to 30% due to training.
Pray for me.

Edit: Went pretty well! 5-2 despite my players conditioning. 4/9 on the pp!

[Loosie]

That's all I really have to say about these teams (I say these because I'm GM the Aces and the K-Wings as well), At least the Aces and K-Wings are in a hunt for a playoff spot. THe Nords are solidly in 15th place right now.

Although Rypien might pass the All-time CAREER PIM record in just one or 2 season at this rate. 51GP 634 PIMs

[visualdarkness]

11 games in we got the divisional lead, yay!
Huet is a beast and my tactics really helps the goalie stats (maybe my first Vezina ever?) as he gets bombarded by 36 shots/game but most of them from really bad angles etc. Lapierre is an offensive dynamo with 12 points in 11 games. Biggest disappointment by far is Foote, who plays much worse than expected.

Scoring is ok, defense awesome and special teams B+. Doesn't sound like me coaching the team with those stats but this team really seem to fit me well.

Let's continue this way!

[kabbott50]

Gonna have to start this when I get home from work. I know it's late, but I will play the rubbish out of this because I love the Nords so much!

[Loosie]

So Rypien finished with 1083 PIMs, this included 60 fights, and with an ATOI of 5:25 he still managed 7 points. Also the K-Wings were the only team to make the playoffs out of the organization, and we get to play Adirondack...we're screwed.

here's to drafting soem good young players and making some improvments for next season.

[outdooral]

Just in to season 2. We drafted Ryan Strome with our first pick, so hopefully have a #1 centre in either him or Seguin soon. Foote retired and we let Nolan and Simons contrcts expire. Finger was lost on waivers, so out with the old guys and time for the youngsters to step up.I had trouble finding a free agent but finally settled on Matt Bradley a Quebec native . He should add some toughness we lost as well as be a boost to our PK.I have a bit of a bad feeling though. we are 2-3-1- after 6 games so far but Huet is way off last years perfomance. Just .89SV% and a 3.85 GAA.

[Loosie]

Season 2 started of great going 3-0 to start but we quickly fell close to last year levels, but at least this year we are still competing, we are currenlty 8-10-2 at the 20 game mark. However my ECHL GM was just fired. Not much I can do at that level. Especially with Adirondack and Springfield being strong teams in my division.

[outdooral]

At the 20 game mark we were in 15th in the east and 29th overall only Dallas was worse.We still cant score (same problem as last year) and Huet/Garron are way off their performances of last year. The defnse while capable just cant hold up. Seguin was really struggling and getting bumped from 2nd to 4th lines but always getting time on the PP.
At the 25th game I finally had to make a move . I wanted to get rid of Pouliot but couldnt find anyone to take him. After much searching and dealing I finally sent Sequin to Boston for Patrice Bergeron. Looks like a good deal so far. Just hope I havent left it too late to make a run to make the playoffs.

[outdooral]

Now at the 40 game mark and Beregeron has made a real impact with this team. He had 0G,2A,-11 with a 6.52 rating in 21 games with Boston
In the 15 games here he has 7G,11A +14 with a 8.27 rating. and we have gone 10-4-1. Even Huet seem inspired winning the defensive player of the week for the end of Dec with 3wins and 1 shutout.
We have moved up to 12th in the east only 3 points out of 8th. Playoffs might be possible.

[Loosie]

So the 2nd quarter wasn't kind to us at all. I eventually traded Garon for Clutterbuck, and wow, Clutterbuck has been great for us. Also now the 3rd quarter was a huge improvment, Deslauriers is slowly starting to take the starting job away from Huet, He's just been amazing for us. Actually helped us get a winning record in the 3rd quarter...sadly we are still in the basement.

[bruins72]

I've been so busy at work these last few months that I haven't had a chance to even finish the first season of this challenge. I'm really upset about that because this is really a great team for a challenge.

The new Lidas/Manimal rosters aren't ready yet (and look to still be a little ways off). Is anyone still playing this challenge? Would anyone like to see it extended?

[Loosie]

I just finished the second season, I can go either way with it.

[outdooral]

I'll be finishing season 2 over the next day or so.I could keep going with it, but there doesn"t seem to be many others involved.

[visualdarkness]

Is there any plan to add some extra days to the challenge? I've been way too busy to play and can barely get one season done.

[bruins72]

It's looking like we might extend it a bit. There's no sense in ending this challenge until Manimal's 2011/2012 DB comes out.

[thunderbug]

At the 20 game mark we were in 15th in the east and 29th overall only Dallas was worse.We still cant score (same problem as last year) and Huet/Garron are way off their performances of last year. The defnse while capable just cant hold up. Seguin was really struggling and getting bumped from 2nd to 4th lines but always getting time on the PP.
At the 25th game I finally had to make a move . I wanted to get rid of Pouliot but couldnt find anyone to take him. After much searching and dealing I finally sent Sequin to Boston for Patrice Bergeron. Looks like a good deal so far. Just hope I havent left it too late to make a run to make the playoffs.

I'm curious what you did with Couture. He turned out for me to be a legit no. 1 center. It gave me the ability to not rush Seguin who played 2 years of Junior. Hall played 1 year of junior and then stepped up into the NHL with a 50 goal season playing with Bergfors (who put up 40something goals) and Couture who fed those two the puck.

[outdooral]

He was a bit of a disappointment in season 2.I started him as #1 center but he just wouldnt perform well there so I moved him down to #2 .Even then he was off and on.His final stats for season 2 were 74 games 9G 30 assists -13. His ability stats have also seemed to stay the same. I dont track them but he was all green on the practice screen but i dont see much improvement.
I'll try him again season 3 as #2 (I have Begeron now) but with Strome in the wings he is going to have to step up or he'll be down in 3rd or 4th spot

[outdooral]

So season 2 is over and we made a spirited run including winning the last 5 games but fell just short (2 pts) of making the playoffs. A slow start and a weak PP ( 29th overall ,12.5%) were our downfall.
Bergeron gave us the #1 center we needed,Huet picked up his game (but Im worried again for next year) and Hall stormed into the league with 31G 29A
Off season FA we'll be looking for goalies or solid dmen

[thunderbug]

Well Season 2 ended well for my Nordiques. Our goal at the beginning of the season was to improve on last year and win a playoff series. In the end we ended winning two playoff series. Though the Buffalo Sabres destroyed us in the Conference finals. Our draft is not worth mentioning. The only one who I think has a shot at the team ever came to us in the first round. The draft as a whole this year was rubbish. Looking at this team Huet was a rock for us, and Dubnyk was putting up good numbers in the AHL Garon was decent as a backup, but I felt Dubnyk would be a better backup for us. So I sent Garon to Edmonton for Smid. The day after that trade was confirmed, Huet decided to retire, because of a recurring injury. He has only been injured once. He was out for a few number of games in season 1 and wasn't in 2. With that in mind I made our offseason signing, bringing Cory Schneider at 1.5./year.

[darkhorse]

Season 4 was so up and down, patches where we dominated and won 8 games in a row, followed by times where we won twice in 12 games. Then the playoffs come, Huet who had been relegated to back up during the season was sensational, injury saw Visnovsky who was a spare during the season come into the team and contribute. And best of all we drew all the teams that we went well against during the season. 2-1 up against the Blackhawks in the Final, Couture gets injured in practice, done for the series, and Hawks take the next 2. Must win Game 6 up 3-1 in the 2nd when both Colin White and Sbisa go down in the space of a couple of minutes. Lose 4-3 in ot. Gutted, so close to the 1st Stanley Cup in a challenge. Hopefully next season for us.

[Loosie]

Anyone else who has played into season 3, have a VERY euro heavy draft? I'm only ealry into the 3rd season, but in top 30 of the Preliminary rankings there are only 2 Canadians, and only 5 of the top 30 playing in the CHL.

Just seems very odd to me, that or maybe this is the first round of regens?

[visualdarkness]

Wow, went from a PO team to last in the conference in the last 30 games. Brutal...

Anyone else who has played into season 3, have a VERY euro heavy draft? I'm only ealry into the 3rd season, but in top 30 of the Preliminary rankings there are only 2 Canadians, and only 5 of the top 30 playing in the CHL.

Just seems very odd to me, that or maybe this is the first round of regens?

Yeah, it's a tough problem to fix. The Euro regens enter the draft a couple of seasons before the NA ones (later it becomes NA heavy instead) and makes it unbalanced. At least some of it was fixed when Lidas changed the retiring players PA to more random values but dunno how to solve it completely?

[Manimal]

There isn't really a way to solve the draft from being like that. The only thing I can think of is to create younger NA players and overrate them so that they can compare to the regens. AdamOates is looking into the future drafts(not 2012) maybe he'll find some good ones

[visualdarkness]

There isn't really a way to solve the draft from being like that. The only thing I can think of is to create younger NA players and overrate them so that they can compare to the regens. AdamOates is looking into the future drafts(not 2012) maybe he'll find some good ones

Oh, I really dislike overrating so that the avg ability level rises to ridiculous levels in a couple of seasons. I think Lidas and Manimal have lowered the atts just fine to get more realistic stats from the players and I rather take the unbalanced drafts if the choice is overrating prospects.

[Loosie]

So Season 3 is starting off quite well, backed by Huet's absolutely STELLAR play. In the last 6 games before the 20 game mark, he had 3 shutouts, and only allowed 2 goals each in the other 3 games. Which makes me feel like I wasted my free-agent signing on Giguere, but at least I know I have a solid backup too. I signed Giguere with the intention to trade Huet for assets, but I think I may be keepign Huet for now.

Couturier (1st overall 2007), Cizikas and Lowry (2nd round 2007) are shaping up nicely, Ashton has turned into my first RW callup, and may be breaking into the NHL full time soon. I haven't been using Rypien as much this year, and it's actually making him better. (Or he's playing with better linemates) Rypien has 5 points in 17 games (1G 4A), which is only 2 less than his career high (7 points the last two seasons), his PIMs are down, but I'm ok with that.

Our D took a bit of a hit as Cumisky's been out for a month, and is still out for another month, We also lost Visnovsky for a breif time, but I have soem good depth on D, and Aulie has stepped in nicley, Ekman-Larsen still hasn't quite broken into full-time NHLer yet, but he's been good as injury relief. I seem to have a few spare parts, that I'm trying to figure who I could move to give me the best return and not hurt my lineup too much. Those spare parts would be Pouliot, Lapierre, and I hate to say it but Couture. After two solid seasons, he's slipped, oof course it doesn't help his casue the Seguin and Couturier have developed very nicely, which is partly why Couture has become expendable, he just doesn't quite seem to fit a third line center role. Right now he's sharing 2nd and 3rd line duties with Couturier.

We are top of a very weak Northeast division (if it was straight 1-8 placements we'd be 8th), but I'm ok with that, we may be looking at our first playoff birth. Still very early though. Here's to hoping we can keep this momentum going.