Challenge #36 - Philadelphia Flyers Discussion Thread

[batdad]

I have had a long standing battle with the PP system in this game. Never have been able to make it work from way way back when it began. I can be at 20 percent or higher and happy as all get out, then all of a sudden barely get 10% over the next 20 games. The slump has happened to me in all 4 quarters somewhere along the way and I almost ALWYAS end up at about 14-15% overall for a season. Year 1 in Philly challenge was a nice change where I ended up at 18%. Anyway...I seem to be getting a few more goals again.

Last three games I Have had 2,1 and 3 PP goals. Unfortunately I gave up a shorty in each of those games.


Dumped Gudas for a 4th, just before game 60. Oops....I got a good laugh looking at my PIM stats leaders. Game 40 it was Gudas with 124, Game 60 it was Simmonds with 121. That might hurt in stats calcluation eh? LOL

Lineup at game 61

Umberger-Giroux-Voracek
Raffl-Couturier-Simmonds
Leier-Lecavalier-Read
Drazenovic-Matthias-Bourque
Laughton Jensen

Brought Bourque up when Schenn went down for 3 months with partial torn UCL. THat hurts. Then Voracek out for 10 days, so brought up Laughton. Laughton scored 3 PP points in his first game, nothing in game 2 or 3. He is going back down as is homegrown for next year. Will probably try and pick up another guy like Jensen who has both PP and PK skills for my forward line as deadline approaches here.

Some hilarious deals already.

Minnesota in season 1 traded Pomminville to Nashville at the deadline for Kevin Fiala and Aaron Irving. Now this year they trade Matt Dumba (who is looking good in my game) to Nashville for Pomminville.
Nashville has so many d-men. True to real life there. Wild have also traded for Josh Ho-Sang and Mike Green (they got Green and a decent prospect out of New Jersey for Matej Tomek)

Preds sent Franson to Boston for Fredd Anderson


BEST DEAL: OTTAWA SENDS MARC METHOT TO TORONTO STRAIGHT UP FOR DION PHANEUF.

THe Jets are a mess. Wheeler for 3 mid round picks, Buffy for 3 mid round picks and Enstrom for 2 mid level prospects. Enstrom-LA, Wheeler-NJ Buffy-Dal

At the same time as New Jersey GETS Wheeler they send Henrique to Buffalo for 2 mid picks and ALec Martinez who Buffalo got early in the year from LA for some guy named Daniel SProng.

Wheeler cost New Jersey Cammalleri, a 2nd and two third round picks. LOL.....

[sao.phim]

Are you playing Gap Control on "Relaxed" or "Tight" for Power Play? Do you set some defender with "Normal" or "Defensive" mentality?

[Peter_Doherty]

The only problem i have is that the game resets my o-zone tactic on my PP from time to time, i mostly use umbrella but sometimes it just auto sets itself to 2-1-2 Really annoying... Season 3 i had an amazing PP at almost 22%, alot of it had to do with my insane goal scoring start to the season where Voracek was on pace for 200+pts or something 15-20 games in

[batdad]

Ok so finished regular season of #2.

Record: 71-7-4. Yeah insane...146 points

Losses:

Regular: Detroit 0-2 (last game), Toronto 2-3 (what?), Mon 0-1, CBJ 0-2, Tampa 1-3, Ott 0-1, Tampa 0-2
OT: LA 3-4 (Gaborik hat trick, only hatty in any game of mine all year), CBJ 0-1
SO: SJ 2-3, Tampa 2-3[/b


So yeah bit of a problem with Lightning and with Jackets. Guess who I play in first round? Bob, Hartnell and the Jax. YAY!

Tampa not only finished 2nd in conference (123 pts) but 2nd overall with Chicago right behind them.

ANd I Start the series without Voracek for at least the first two games. No B Schenn either who has been out for almost 2 months.


Lineup like this:

Raffl-Giroux-Simmonds
Umberger-Couturier-Read
Leier-Matthias-Jensen
Bourque-Drazenovic-Straka
Extra: Vinny

Streit-Del Zotto
Schultz-Stone
MacDonald-Connauton
Extra: Weircioch

Mason
Zepp

IR: Voracek, Brayden Schenn

[Peter_Doherty]

Insane record, what kind of cheat tactics do you have?

[batdad]

Called defense defense defense. I have posted way way more advice here in the last 2 weeks than I ever have. It is pretty simple IMHO to put these ideas all together, and maybe only need half of them to make it work

[sao.phim]

For many years I considered this game as heavily offensive-first oriented, but these numbers of batdad with so defensively lame team as Flyers are proving me wrong.

I passed through mediocre Q2 of my second season, few points:
- we maintained very solid PP
- Vinny already slowed down, HG Laughton can't adapt to NHL level competition (last season in AHL he played as top notch center)
- claimed O. Lindberg from waivers and put him to AHL, so far doing well there
- AMac has very very poor season, AvG 6.34, still a lot of giveaways, has been accused of complacency by former Flyers GM, critized by myself and this critique was even backed by fans. I may try to trade him after playoffs, will see. But definitely not worth of 5 m/y
- Edler and MDZ (our first d-pair) are league leaders in +/- (30/26)
- B. Schenn is doing great - 36 points (17+19) in 37 games


Around the league:
- Connor McDavid having disappointing rookie season in Buffalo - scored only 7 points in 24 games and speculation about him not being able to adapt to Senior Pro level hockey yet are running around
- Flames claimed A. Larsson from waivers
- Taylor Hall is leading league in point scoring with 51 pts
- Jayden Schwartz (STL) is the best sniper - 32 goals
- Lightning having great season - 0.784 Pct
- in the bottom sitting Senators (0.306), Leafs (0.402), Sabres (0.410)
- the only team from the West with Pct under .50 are Flames with 0.490

[batdad]

The majority of people have a much easier time of making it an offensive game. I just cannot do that ....scared of injury. So many guys double shift and even triple shift stud players....play them way too much. I never have, as want to be realistic. My actual feeling is there are just as many guys who have success beyond belief wth offensive minded tactics to the extent that I do without double/triple shifting players...and getting lucky or reloading upon injury. Maybe 1-2 or 3 guys.

Honestly...I just started this game with a set tactic in my head way back when I got EHM 2007, and have refined it here and there to get better. I have always had these kinds of results....and very rarely have I ever had a top scorer in the league. Giroux in season 1 was maybe my first or second art ross winner.

I played around with getting more offense out of my top players a while back, and got injury after injury. Thought maybe I was missing something, but I did not. as ice time goes up, so does injury.

I keep very very balanced ice times. have a look at my numbers...rarely will you see a guy over 22 minutes in any challenge I have played in the last 5 years, and on forward rarely over 21.

Goalies rarely if ever play more than 2 of every 3 or 3 of every 4 games. I set a ridiculous league record with 71 wins....Mason only had 45 of them


O yeah Raffl my highest point guy in year 2...73 points. Voracek 72, Giroux 71

TAylor Hall??? ONly kid over 100 points in entire league 113

[batdad]

Year 2 done. Stanley Cup 2nd year in a row. Having a hard time getting rid of Vinny at year end. Not surprised by this, and will end up dealing for pick and weak young goalie or left winger just to get rid of him.

Steve Mason won all goalie awards, except one....2nd team all star....that went to Robb Zepp...why? BEcause he played 30 games exactly and had the best numbers. LOL. Mason was the 1st all star goalie. Too funny that both my guys were on an all star team.

Giroux had a great playoff, still got beat out by mason for Conn Smythe.

Jensen and Leier did great for guys who are young and playing 3rd and 4th line minutes.

Off to the draft.....not my best did not spend as much time as normal. We shall see.

ON July 1----let Craig Berube 2x Jack Adams award winner walk....and have offered head coach job to my assistant Dan Bylsma. I had fired Joe Mullen as well and brought in Darryl Sutter after he was let go by the Kings. But he has not been with me long enough.

So....coaching staff needs an addition, and I may also fire Hatcher. We shall see how things go.

I had thought for sure that GOtisbierre or Laughton would be my homegrown for season 3, and that still may be the case. But in the last month of the year the attributes and play of Samuel Morin have gone through the roof opening the door for him. We shall see come September

[sao.phim]

Holy moly, three shotouts in the final series!
Good to see Morin growing into new Chara
Connauton's numbers also impressing, better than MDZ or Streit's.

[batdad]

Yeah Connauton has been huge! I knew that if he was built right he would have some offesnsive upside, but I sure did not realize how good he could be. With Streit he made the PP tick. When one or the other was out of the lineup...PP Stunk.
*Del Zotto though in the playoffs? 8-6-14 including 3 two goal games. He was a beast.

[batdad]

Season 3 starting lineup for your Philadelphia Flyers.

First of all got my lowest rating in the season preview. 17th. After two Stanley Cups and a completely dominant 2015-16. Oh well. Made no real changes to my lineup in the summer as did not get Milan Lucic or Justin Abdelkader. Both signed for big $, much more than I was prepared to offer either..2 mill more for Looch and 1.5 mill more for Justin. Looch is a Capital and Abdelkader a Panther.

Pre season saw some really bad results. But I was an exclusively young lineup for all but 3 games, which I won.

Went 3-7-1 with some serious bad losses.

For homegrown chose Laughton purely on age and ability to mix it up. If I were to go on preseaosn play would have been Sammy Morin or Rantanen who had good times. Gotisbierre was terrible, and Laughton was barely okay (only came around once I Told him to fight and mix it up more) But went with age as the other two can star in the AHL this year.

Lineup

Raffl-Giroux-Voracek
Umberger-Couturier-Simmonds
Leier-B Schenn-Read
Drazenovic-Laughton-Jensen
Matthias Straka

McDonald-Del Zotto
Schultz-Stone
Streit-Connauton
Weircioch

Streit is aging, but still playing well so far. Likely he comes out at some point and Weircioch goes in.

Mason
Zepp

Callups: Gotisbiere, Morin on D. Up front-Rantanen, Joakim Nygaard
IN goal it will be whoever is playing better-Stolarz or Bibeau (from leafs for Vinny)

So the only change is Laughton is in for Vinny, pushing Matthias down the pecking order.

[batdad]

Oh yeah and going to try and be more offensive minded in year three for fun. Game 1...not so much. Beat Hawks 2-0. LOL

[nino33]

I have posted way way more advice here in the last 2 weeks than I ever have.

It's true! And thanks for doing so Batdad

[batdad]

Figured it was time to share a bit. But not going to lay it out for everyone. This game is something that people should work on and learn something every time they play.. I know I do.

[batdad]

Not much chatter in here for this one.

Anyway through my first 20 of season 3. Offensively I have pushed things harder, having a couple of D jump into the rush at even strength. Upped my pace and trying to get more shots. Started slow with the changes, losing game 3 to FLorida in a shootout and game 7 to the Isles 2-0 in regulation time. That rarely happens to me, but I swore I would stick with the plan.

Interestingly, this has not hurt my defensive play AT ALL. Season 2 I gave up 24 goals in first 20 games--ridiculous, but what is scary is I improved that in season 2, even trying OPEN defensive coverage at even strength for 5 games between games 10 and 15. In those 5 games I gave up exactly 6 goals and scored 18. But the game before I tried it I beat Colorado 5-0.

The game after when I went back to collapse? I beat Western Conference leader Minnesota 5-1. Then I beat Washington 7-2...Detroit 4-2 and Pittsburgh 6-1.

Game 20 saw the scoring slow down a bit and beat Boston 3-1.


PP did nothing for first 10 games going 10%, and then it took off and scored at least 2 for 3 games, and 1 in all games betweeen 11-19 before Boston shut me down.

Scoring is incredibly balanced on my team, in spite of using overload for 10 minutes in every game just about (either first to start, or 2nd period to start)
Giroux has 23 points, Schenn 22, Simmonds 21, VOracke 20, Raffl 16

Interestingly...my defense is not scoring for me so far this year, like they did last season.

Stone, Streit and Weircioch have 2 goals each, MacDonald only has 1, and Connauton who scored 15 for me in about 65 games has ZERO, as does the almighty Del Zotto. Schultz is not a surprise at 0.

Asissts? Streit 12, Stone and Del Zotto have 9, Connauton 7, Schultz 6, MacDonald 5 and Weircioch 2. So they have dramatically slowed down in all points.


Shots: Del Zotto has 70, followed by Voracek, Giroux, Raffl, Streit, Simmonds, COnnauton, Schenn and Wiercioch. Brayden Schenn is scoring on 30% of his shots and Del Zotto at the other end on zero.

Del Zotto leads team in shots and has zero goals. Ugh.

MAson 15-1 with 3 shutouts
Zepp 3-0-1 with 2 shutouts.

[batdad]

January 2016.

* Claude Giroux finally becomes a star, and one of the NHL all star teams is his team. Would it not be cool if game let you pick the all star team if one of your players was the Captain?

*traded Matt Read to Calgary for 21 year old LW Morgan Klimchuk. Klimchuk comes in and immediately goes 1-3-4 in 3 games.

* Most unrealistic trade in NHL history occurs. Vancouver deals Bo Horvat (still stuck in Utica) to Calgary for Keoni Teixara a 4th and a 5th. Right...dealing with Calgary and getting that little back. Maybe Monahan or Bennett straight up.

[CeeBee]

Is Horvat any good in your game. I've had quite different outlooks of him in the 3 games I've started with EA. In none of the 3 is he as good as he should be but in at least one he looks like a dud so far, anyway. (2 years in)

[batdad]

Looks okay. He is rated as a #1 prospect by two of my scouts and a second liner by two. Made the Canucks in 2015-16 and played 59 games on fourth line before getting sent down to minors. Was injured in London in 2014-15 but had a point a game including 25 goals.

Scored in Utica this season and is scoring in Adirondack as well. 10+25-35 in 37 games between the two.

[Kopi]

Ok about to start my 2nd season soon.

Let lots of players go and sign on UFA two C tier players in Drew MacIntyre (780k $ per season for 2 seasons) for my back up goalie and Sean Bergenheim (3M $ per season for 5 seasons). Scott Laughton will be my HG (was considering even Stolarz but decided to give him one season in AHL and thats why i sign Drew). Didnt do any trades yet or claim anyone from waiver.

To get under my Salary cap i had to put Vinnie on Waiver so i guess some AHL games for the legend.

If last season I had 3 enforcers in the team this year i have only one and thats Rinaldo who will be as substitute.

So here is the line im about to start and then see how it goes and if i need to change anything in first 20 games:

Raffl - Giroux - Vorachek
Bergenheim - Couturier - Simmonds
Umberger - B.Schenn - Read
Bellemare - Laughton - Akeson

Del Zotto - Streit
Grossman - L.Schenn
Schultz - MacDonald

Mason
MacIntyre

One interesting point is USA won the WC and Umberger did pretty well for them!
Also media gives us a prediction that will struggle whole season and be dead last

[batdad]

Cool for Umberger. he is not having a good third season for me. But he has lost some ice time as well, so could explain it.

Headed to trade deadline day, and am as I was last season looking to do something on my blueline. Still according to my AGM I am short a key dman and a core dman. So I decided to make a move that would help in that area I hope.

I was looking at a couple of the proven studs on weak teams (Weber, Josi, McBain in NJ, Voynov) and was willing to move McDonald and Gotisbierre for them. Noone took and then Josi got injured for 3 months.

So I decided to search around to see what I could get just for Gotisbierre. WIth the development of Sammy Morin coming on so strong, Shayne will likely not play for me on a regular basis and if he does...it would be in a super support role. But with McDonald, Schultz and Streit on the blueline I need someone else who is fairly young, but can play at the NHL level, and has a chance to be a super star player at the show level.

Well....along come the OIlers. They are currently in 3rd in the west and have Erhoff, Myers, Justin Schultx, Falk, Nurse and gragnani....as well as this other guy on their roster...OSCAR KLEFBOM. Klefbom is getting third unit minutes and not getting much action. They actually offered this deal to me. Klefbom straight up for Gotisbierre. I was in shock.

I had to look at this deal over and over and at Klefbom to see what the issue was. Nothing. Shayne is small....like tiny small at 167. Klefbom is big. Shayne can't skate, Shayne can't shoot Shayne can't hit. Klef....does all of this.

So yeah....my fans went nuts and celebrated this one as did the board. Oscar Klefbom is now a FLyer.

Now with him coming in looking to move out Nick Schultz as he will hardly play. Have a couple offers out there for him. We shall see what happens. When Connauton gets healthy (injured for a month) may have to waive Shultzy if cannot move him in the next few days. Oh well.

[Peter_Doherty]

Great trade, Klefbom might be a stud, Shayne will never be a stud. But "Shayne can't skate"?! he's by far my best skater, kinda weird

[batdad]

At 167 pounds.....noone can skate. They float and get killed.

[Peter_Doherty]

Haha, okey

[sao.phim]

As for Josi - I tried really hard to trade for him several times, but couldn't make it happen. Even when he was out with longterm injury. I think he should not be considered as "B" tier player, because it makes trade for him nearly impossible.

I was considering Klefbom as well - in Q1/S2 Oilers wanted to get rid off him for AMac. That was utter stupidity of mine to not accept such deal. AMac is playing still worse and worse..