Challenge 39 Rebuilding the Bruins - Discussion

[visualdarkness]

Wow, that was a dramatic end to the regular season. Game 82 and I am one single point in the playoffs but facing the Wings who are just outside.



If only I were in the sucky West where only the Oilers dominate.



So what about the game? Detroit scores two quick ones early in the first and Fitzpatrick who is hot gets injured. Vladar who has lost so many games for us on his own for us enters the net and I kiss the season goodbye.

Somehow my team fights back but but in the third it it is still 2-4.

What, 3-4?! Can we make it?

We get a PP with three minutes left and I pull the goalie, nothing to lose. The PP was impotent and I keep Vladar on the bench.

As I see the the clock running down to 10s I cry on the inside but wait! Miracle Milano puts it in with 5s left making it 4-4!

We lose the game in OT, some Vladar magic.... but the result works in our favor and we are in the playoffs for the first time!



Edit:
With an Fitzpatrick injured we got sweeped by Tampa in round one. The atrocious Wener/Vladar vs a wall called Bishop wasnt fair at all.

[sao.phim]

VD: congrats for reaching playoffs!

My Second Season Recap:
Not much to write about, after very good Q1 team could not keep the pace and reached 0.425 Pct in Q2&Q3, then felt even more in Q4. Finished on the 13rd place in EC, 14 points behind playoff spot. Most of the players were rather stagnating. The only positive was development of Merkley (11+25) and quite fine adaptation to senior game by Chychrun a Zboril. I also liked Senyshyn's performance on 3rd line, he will become a star.

Also junior prospects were doing great.

For me it is really hard to get better performance with hidden attributes.

Moves before trade deadline:
M. Irwin for B. Lemieux (Jets)
Hayes for Marner +3rd + 5th (Leafs)

Providence came one point short of the playoff spot.


In the Draft 2018 I went for:
#6 Wahlstrom
#36 Levin
#66 Zadina
#88 Stotts
#96 Dias
#121 Kawaguchi
#126 Morris
#156 Bohmbach
#186 Frydenlund

Next season outlook - hope to continue and develop my youth in Providence - will be joined by Patrick, Juolevi, Jaeger White, Marner, Luke Green, McLeod - so definitely looking forward long playoffs run!
Incorporate Logan Brown into Bruins first team and continually improve my young core there.

[visualdarkness]

So here comes the season 4 summary.

As I posted earlier we snuck in the playoffs with no marginal at all but got sweeped round one. I was genereally quite happy with the team except for the PP, but I almost never pass 12% with my teams.

Had some really nice spread out scoring with a bunch of guys at 30-50 points.

Pro:
Sprong had a weak start but finished extremely well and got voted fan favorite again.
Milano had a second solid season and always scored when badly needed, as you know he saved our season!
Patrick is becoming a great playmaker with 40 assists.
Senyshyn stole the rookie race with his 57 points and 29 goals.
Volkov played well for a rookie in a nr1 role.
Murray is solid in both ends.
Klefbom isnt providing the offense I would like but he was my best plusminus player with +21.
Fitzpatrick was bad the first half but he took about a hundred step forward in the second half.

No:
Jurco, I got no idea why he just stopped scoring.
Spooner was playing blindfolded or something and got traded.
Pastrnak just dont work out for me, he is a line killer.
Vladar, oh boy.....





Prospect:
Ang scored a wopping 41 goals and 103 points in AHL! I need to try him out in NHL next season.
Mario Rahm got good +/- and decent points but a disappointing 6.39avg.
Vesalainen isnt doing much despite 1st line potential.
Sean Day was the best D in AHL by far.
Wener was one of the best goalies in his first season.


Awards:
Senyshyn got the Calder (second season in a row we got it!) and the rookie allstars
Patrick third place for Lady Byng, not bad for a checking C.
Captain Volkov entered the rookie allstars
Trades:
Spooners line killing curse got to me by Christmas and he got sent away with Di Guisseppe for Anthony Duclair
Cleared some scrap with Stransky (though I liked him), Grzelcyk, Johns for Yotes nr 1
Made some room for next year with Yakupov, Zadorov, Jurco for Avs nr 1, Jets nr 4


Draft:
#17 Claude Lacroix - 1-2RD, big stay-at-home guy. I almost got no right handed D at all.
#19 Roch Dumas - 1RW/LW, power forward strong and smart.
#20 Reilly Kampfer - 1-4RD, speedy tiny offensive shooter.
#47 Cal Cote - 1LW, huge all-offense goalscorer.
#77 Dallas Patterson - 2C, flashy smart all-offense.
#95 Pierre-Luc Cameron - 2C, Huge playmaker with no stickhandling
#107 Torin Leach - 3-4D, speedy all-offense.
#137 Garret Petruzzelli - 3C, flashy all-offense with speed and smarts but cant defend or skate with the puck.
#167 Nikolaus Zeheleitner - 2-3C, smart speedy German checker. Ranked #7 in CHL Import.
#197 Dan Lamoriello - 2C, Checker with no puck skills.


Switched out some staff and my squad on the bench is one quite interesting bunch. Malarchuk has been cowboying this team for quite a while now.

[visualdarkness]

Entering season 5

Last season final regular D:

Volkov - Dietz
Klefbom - Murray
Zboril - Harrington
Zadorov

Now:

Volkov - Dietz
Klefbom - Murray
Zboril - Harrington
Sean Day

Last season final F:

Milano - Patrick - Sprong
Pastrnak - Brown - Yakupov
Jurco - Visuri - Duclair
Korostelev - Khokhlachev - Senyshyn (team Russia)
Malmquist

Now:

Milano - Patrick - Sprong
Khokhlachev - Brown - Pastrnak
Bittner/Malmquist - Ang - Duclair
Korostelev - Visuri - Senyshyn

Fitzpatrick is ranked 7th best goalie in NHL. We are ranked last, as usual.

[sao.phim]

Third Season Recap

Another season rather dissapointing, way behind the last playoff spot (16 pts). We continue with our strategy to build from within. Merkley (52 pts) and Logan Brown (50 pts in his rookie season) establish themselves as Centers on two top lines. Pastrnak and Toffoli both produced over 50 pts. Second defensive pairing Chychrun-Honka does work - both reached +/- plus 31 and produced offensively as well. Subban was doing Ok too. That's all for the good side..
I was dissatisfied with Krug (our #1 D), Zboril (rather stagnating), Khokhlachev, McIntyre, Phillips, Connolly.. Some changes will have to come during this offseason.

Prospects in Providence were improving fine - Baby Bruins reached finally playoffs (second place in their division), but were beaten by Portland in the first round (ouch!).

As for trades during season:
- In the summer we sent Kemppainen and Trotman to Vancouver for 2nd/3rd/4th round picks
- Traded center Jaeger White (our 2016 5th round pick), who was leading AHL scoring, to Ducks for 1st+3rd+5th round picks - he produced even more in San Diego and won AHL scoring
- After the season we packed Kevan Miller and Brett Connolly to Flames for late 1st round pick + 4th round pick in upcoming draft

We are coming to 2019 Draft with following picks:
3x1st (#8, #22, #27)
2x2nd (#34, #37)
3x3rd
3x4th
2x5th
1x 6th, 7th

[Asher413]

I'm at a loss and hoping someone has help:

My team is now 2-13 in shoot outs, and we have 19 OT and Shootout losses. I started tracking the shootout stats on my guys:

Senyshyn Good: 50%

Then a group of 20-35, Krug, Khokhlachev, Griffith, Phillips

The... Connoloy, Spooner, Landeskog have one in several attempts

Just at a loss, I've tried switching to the backup goalie for the last two but no difference... we just really really stink if we tie it in regulation. Just tired of leaving the points on the table- if we were .500 in those OT/SO games, we'd be in the playoff fight instead of the Veleno fight.

[Asher413]

Well, Season 2 is done.

Good stats:
6 guys above 50 points, Tops in drawing PP's, last in power play goals against. Senyshyn had double the next rookie's points.

The Bad:
The aforementioned lack of clutch/shootout play. Neither backup goalie (McIntyre or Subban) wanted to keep the job, both played terrible (and we were 2-14-2 with them in). Down the middle it was Spooner, Keller (saved a season after 39 games since we weren't going far), then guys who looked good for a week, then terrible the next.

The deals:
Breen/Irwin to LA for picks (2nd, 3rd)
Smith to Jets for 4th
Beleskey and Cross to MTL for de la Rose and a 4th
Hayes to NYI for a 2nd (for a guy they used 11 minutes... 30 point guy, not bad, but not a 2nd round value)
Marchand to WPG for Crouse and 2nd
Vladar to CAR for Wesley (Teams were overvaluing the guy who I think has the #4 potential out of my 5 goalies. In classic AI fashion he didn't play a game the last two months of the season at any level).

We have 7 picks in the first two rounds, here's to hoping I can hit on a couple and actually get SOME defense. Providence did well, #4 in the AHL, Atlanta made the playoffs. Hopefully these guys get some mental toughness from those games. And hopefully I make it though season 3 before the deadline!

[batdad]

Completed season 3. Won the cup over Minnesota after taking out Detroit, Tampa Bay and New Jersey. Devils have Stamkos on their roster....they were the toughest of the bunch, but never lost a game. 16-0-0 in playoffs.

The interesting part is Toffoli got hurt in game 81, and did not get in a single playoff game. He was what apparently made Pastrnak go during the season, as after a 38 goal campaign on the left side, in the playoffs he scored exactly 4 goals and 6 points.

Svechnikov, Sinystyn and Colin Miller tied for the team lead in playoff points. Yep...Svech had 4-4-8 in regular season in 50 some games, and had 7-4-11 in the playoffs. LOL. Same stat line for Sinystyn and Miller was 2-9-11. That has put me in a bind for next year.


Prior to the draft...

Zach Phillips and Brett Connolly sent to Tampa Bay for their first round pick *26th overall*
Zack McIntyre sent to Edmonton for their 3rd, 4th and 5th round pick. Now with my deal with CBJ earlier--sending them that Dman I had who was very overrated for Wennberg and their 2nd....I have 2 picks in each of the first 5 rounds.


Now on to my issues for next year. Logan Brown was an AHL all star. 23-44-67 in his rookie year in 69 games (0-2-2 with Big team in 3 games.) Forsbacka-Karlsson was good and average rating was 7.5 over the season, Barzal scored a point a game, and was 7.4 avg rating. Akesson led the team in goals with 36 as a rookie, and was on all rookie team for sure (if there was one) as led AHL rookies in scoring.....

BUT...and here is the but....Aslam Volkov. ....rookie season on D....

won AHL Dman of the year, rookie of the year, and was the AHL MVP ....

20-40-60 in 71 games with the Baby B's. Guess he will make my team next season. But these guys have me in a bind. Big time.

Spooner, Horvat, Khoklachev (who AvR was 7.4 in playoffs this year and played well) F-K, Barzal, Dergyachov, Wennberg, Brown.....that is a lot to choose from at centre. And it does not even include Visuri, who is ranked as my #1 C in my depth chart, LOL (He was just okay on the farm at 7.2 rating)

On D....young still with Krug, Morrow, McCabe, Pokka, Zboril, Meloche, and the playoff surprise Colin Miller. Plus with Volkov and Fabbro pushing for spots. And they are all too young to trade, save Krug...who I cannot deal yet. Morrow had 53 points in the regular season including 17 goals to lead NHL dmen. He is not going anywhere.
Meloche will likely get sent down to make room for Volkov but he did well for me, did not get in a single playoff game as not one of my dmen was bad at all. The lowest playoff AvR for my top 6 was Zboril at 7.15.

Up front...Jost and Akesson are rated as second on my depth chart at LW and RW respectively, but neither have played a game for me yet. Both did very well going 1-2 in goals for the Baby B's...BRown 3rd and Volkov 4th.

The Baby B's lost in the final to one of the Admiral teams,....think it was Milwaukee.....but they did very well and finished 1st overall in the AHl.


So lots of choices for season 4.....


Best guess right now?

Pastrnak-Spooner-Toffoli
Svechnikov-Horvat-Bjorkstrand
Marchand-Visuri-Sinistyn
Blidh-Brown-Forsbacka Karlsson

But that leaves Wennberg, Khoklachev, Dergyachov, Klimchuk, Shinkaruk all fighting for 2 spots. Think i may lose two on waivers, and the other will be a draft pick deal. And I do not know yet if Barzal, and a couple others are waiver eligible or not. So many young stud prospects and no room to play them. That is the most interesting part of this type of challenge. I hope Meloche is not waiver eligble as well as the D.....is tough to land a spot on as well.

Krug-Morrow
McCabe-Pokka
Zboril-C Miller
Volkov-Fabbro
Meloche

Goalie...since I dealt McIntyre may have to make a deal for a fourth goalie. Mac was on loan all season, but then Providence lost their on loan back up when the Canucks waived him, so I called him back for the playoffs and he started every game ahead of VLadar. I was fine with that. Vladar got 45 games in the season up from his 30 the year before with Gillies as the starter. Did well, and is ready to handle the load.

Oh and my 7th round pick from last season-Owen Sound goalie, won player of the month in OHL 6 times during the year. But he will have another year in junior before I sign him. May have to deal for an AHL eligible scrub for a year....to back up Vladar. Which hurts my draft pick that I will get for one of the above listed forwards. Oh well.

GOalie depth looks like this

Subban
Gillies

(These two are pretty much dead even)

Vladar
Owen Sound goalie.


As a final note here,....although still playing by challenge rules and all...my inability to get screen shots, means I will be sending a note to archi to keep me out of the stats and winners for all seasons past season 1.

[Asher413]

Is there a plan to extend this challenge? (It's just that time where I'm not quite sure I can finish the season in time, so need to determine if I'm going crazy to get it done, or can take my time).

[bruins72]

If you need a little extra time I can extend a bit but I'd rather no extend too much. I'm sure there are plenty of folks that would like to get started on a new one.

[Asher413]

If you need a little extra time I can extend a bit but I'd rather no extend too much. I'm sure there are plenty of folks that would like to get started on a new one.

Don't worry about it... I'm not too passionate about this one. I was just checking because if there was going to be another week or two then I'd get the season done.

[visualdarkness]

I can´t advance any longer as my game crashes whenever I press "transactions" or some of the the other screens.

[sjgoglin]

Question regarding trading players.

If I extend, for example, Brad Marchand, during season 2, am I allowed to trade him, or do I have to keep him for the remainder of his contract

[bruins72]

It's okay if you've extended a player's contract. They're tradeable as long as they meet the age requirements.

[visualdarkness]

Maybe you will hate me for bumping an old challenge thread, but you probably already hate me anyways.

As my challenge saves are corrupted I decided to reveal the attributes of my players and boy was that fun!

1. No wonder my defense was awful, seeing their attributes made me cry.
2. I had loads of interesting draft choices, almost all my draftees had awesome mental attributes!
3. I was actually decent drafting and trading for goalies as they were better atts-wise than my scouts reports.
4. The roles the scouts gave players almost looks random.
5. I pretty much ranked my players as I would have even with attributes.

[sao.phim]

VD, You at least had 60% PCT in one season and reached playoffs. My steady decline in this challenge was just utter disaster. Some of the guys I drafted were doing quite OK, but those staying with Bruins before my arrival there were mostly going downwards. Most of my initial trades went just wrong (Nurse, Dal Colle, Honka). Terrible, terrible record from me. Glad it is over

[visualdarkness]

VD, You at least had 60% PCT in one season and reached playoffs. My steady decline in this challenge was just utter disaster. Some of the guys I drafted were doing quite OK, but those staying with Bruins before my arrival there were mostly going downwards. Most of my initial trades went just wrong (Nurse, Dal Colle, Honka). Terrible, terrible record from me. Glad it is over

Nurse was playing in Germany in my game, that gotta sting! On the other hand Galiev, Davidson and a lot of my other guys also ended up in Europe. My defense was only 5-6 guys in ability. I just got very lucky with guys like Milano and Sprong who played way better than 2-3rd liners they were scouted as.