Challenge 6: Columbus Blue Jackets Chat Thread

Krieger99 · Post by **Krieger99** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:40 pm

Good God... The Jackets staff is absolutely horrible. I'm jumping on the "Fire Gallant" bandwagon as well.

I'm trying to hire Dave King as head coach, and if he accepts, Gallant is gone. I want to overturn the rest of the coaching staff, as well as most of the scouting staff. It's terrible!

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:48 pm

munky wrote:You traded for 2008 picks? That's against the rules dude.

Nope, it's against the rules to trade out your own 2008 picks, to stop people trading away the future for a short term challenge.

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 7:15 pm

Games 41-60, Marleau on fire, 49 points so far in his 28 games for Columbus. Only trade was acquiring Patrick O'Sullivan for Vyborny, also got Blair Betts on waivers and signed Nastiuk and Tesliuk as free agents. Brule is down at Syracuse to regain form.

Deadline day in two days, there are a lot of major players attracting attention, Jagr has already moved for Gleason+prospect only! If I had the budget I could get so many stars, but I doubt I'll be changing much at deadline day as I'm the form team in the NHL

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 9:55 am

Well I made a few trades on deadline:

Traded Caron for Chiodo
Acquired Shea Weber for fourth, sixth and seventh picks
Acquired Peter Bondra and rights to R.Muller for Garlock
Acquired Datsyuk for Malhotra and two sixths
Acquired Hartnell for Klesla and Motzko
Traded Balastik and Kloucek to Sabres for 2009 first and 2007 fifth

Lines then looked like:

Niitymaki
Leclaire

Regehr-Foote
Matvichuk-Weber
McGilllis-Cairns

Nash-Marleau-Bondra
Modin-Datsyuk-Zherdev
Moreau-Madden-Hartnell
Collins-Betts-O'Sullivan

With Picard and Brule at Syracuse and Brassard (70GP 101+106 for 207 points), B.Ryan (105 points in 33) and M.Staal (GP 68 30G 99A 9.49 AVR

) in juniors.

Sabres won the cup with ease (16-1-0 in playoffs) as well as Presidents Trophy. Every single playoff bar one (4th v 5th in first round) went with the seed in 6 or less games, which has been true for every playoff series I have seen in EHM 2007.

I went out of the playoffs in the Western Final to the Flames. The team lost money through the season but not by much, I will have to trade out a couple of players to get back under budget for next season after some deadline trades. Datsyuk was disappointing both in regular season and playoffs, so is probably the one to go.

repetius · Post by **repetius** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 12:12 pm

2nd quarter report from Columbus. Had couple of losing streaks, but overal pretty good 11-8-1 record.
Nash has woken up and has 12+25 in 33 games. Zherded is still red hot 25+25 in 40 games.

In trade department has been a lot going on.

Acquired Denis Arkhipov from CHI for 7th round pick 2007
Traded rights to Kirill Starkov to DET for 2nd round pick 2007 and Chris Chelios
Traded rights to Peter HÃºdak to CGY for 2nd round pick 2008
Traded rights to Derek Reinhart to DET for 5th round pick 2007
Traded rights to Greg McTavish to TB for 2nd round pick 2007
Traded rights to Derek Dorsett to CGY for 5th round pick 2007
Acquired Lasse Kukkonen from CHI for Filip Novak and 2nd round pick 2007
Acquired Antero NiittymÃ¤ki and Ben Eager from PHI for Pascal Leclaire, Geoff Platt, 4th round pick 2007 and right to Dmitri Komachev

Current lineup:

Nash - Madden - Zherdev
Jokinen - Brule - Vyborny
Modin - Sutherby - Eager/Zubrus
Shelley - Svitov/Fritche - Hagman

Berard - Martin
Kukkonen - Campbell
Woolley - Klesla
(Semenov)
(Chelios)

NiittymÃ¤ki
Norrena

redwingsfan · Post by **redwingsfan** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 1:02 pm

i just tryed to sign tom renney as my head coach, but he signed with a bchl team instead

redwingsfan · Post by **redwingsfan** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 2:32 pm

lol. grant marshall has 629 pim's for me in 56 games.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:34 pm

It seems like a lot of us are struggling on the PP and some on the PK...I know I'm having a really tough time now matter what tactics or players I use.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:13 pm

redwingsfan wrote:lol. grant marshall has 629 pim's for me in 56 games.

Okay, that has to be a typo

Just to clarify something guys, sorry I missed it when first posted:

You can recieve picks from any year you want, you just cannot offer anything but your upcoming picks to other teams in deals. If you trade for 2008 picks you wouldn't be able to offer them to anyone until after the draft following the 06-07 season...

And yeah the staff at Columbus is pretty darn worthless...

I am doing real well now only lost a few close games but I did start off dropping my first five

then we won six in a row with nothing more int he way of changes than a swapping of wingers from my first to second line. This is why I say you have to make small incremental changes so you can keep track of what it actually helping. If you change too much all at once you never know what helped and what didn't.

munky · Post by **munky** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:46 pm

You can recieve picks from any year you want, you just cannot offer anything but your upcoming picks to other teams in deals. If you trade for 2008 picks you wouldn't be able to offer them to anyone until after the draft following the 06-07 season...

My mistake, I guess I just misread the rules.

And to think I had been turning down deals that involved the other teams future years draft picks...

Post by **batdad** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:48 pm

First two games. Outshot Vancouver 49-16, won 5-3; yep Nittymaki got his arse in trouble from Mr. Ftorek. I think he threw a sweater at him. Nice yellow one.
Game 2...who the heck is it? Phoenix I think? Beat em 4-0 with Leclaire in net. Shots were 52-12. Something is working right for me. But guess what...EVEN WITH A NEW TEAM, my power play? 1-13. Jesus. And noone Kloucek,Shelley, or Svitov will frigging fight.

redwingsfan · Post by **redwingsfan** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:03 pm

Minstrel wrote:
redwingsfan wrote:lol. grant marshall has 629 pim's for me in 56 games.
Okay, that has to be a typo

its not a typo. he is a beast. the reason i got him was because i wanted paul martin from nj for anson carter, but they had salary problems so i took marshall of their hands.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:47 pm

Wow, talk about mixed emotions: We just buried the Hawks including going 5 of 9 on the powerplay!!! We ended up throwing a snowman up on the board outshooting them 68-21. Obviously a huge game as well as Conference game but I still feel kinda bad forcing Hawks fans to endure my BJax posting an embarrasing 8-0 schellacking... but this is how I anticipated the team playing and they're now 7-2-1 in their last 10 after as I mentioned after dropping the first 5.

Krieger99 · Post by **Krieger99** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 9:07 pm

Well, the first season of this challenge is over for me. I really blazed through it, letting the coach handle the tactics.

My version of the Columbus Blue Jackets finished 6th in the West with a record of 41-31-10, and 92 points. We took 3rd place Nashville out in 6 games, before losing to the 4th place Hawks in 6 games. Not a bad season, considering I'm mostly building for the future.

The trades I made this season were:
-Traded rights to Ben Wright to Minnesota for Martin Skoula
-Traded Geoff Platt to Toronto for Carlo Colaiacovo
-Traded Sergei Fedorov to Detroit for Evan McGrath and Kyle Quincey

It was tough letting Fedorov go, as he was on pace for 95 points. But he's old and expensive ($6 million contract), and Evan McGrath is usually a player that becomes an 80+ point guy in the future. He even had a couple 100+ point seasons in a game I played in EHM 2005. Kyle Quincey should also become a solid defenseman for me.

Fredrik Modin led the team in points with 81 in 82 games. Really good value for someone only making $2.4 million.

My young guys did really well this season:

Rick Nash (LW) - 82 GP, 41 G, 35 A, 76 PTS
Nikolai Zherdev (RW) - 82 GP, 25 G, 36 A, 61 PTS
Alexander Svitov (C) - 74 GP, 15 G, 35 A, 50 PTS
Rostislav Klesla (D) - 82 GP, 10 G, 30 A, 40 PTS
Gilbert Brule (C) - 81 GP, 12 G, 21 A, 33 PTS

I'm going to have to go back to the Fantasy Draft Challenge now or something. But I'll have to start again, because I deleted my old game because I didn't think I'd need it, and I was trying to save space.

I should be able to start again, seeing as I never got to game 20 originally, so I never recorded any stats.

redwingsfan · Post by **redwingsfan** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 9:40 pm

my regular season is over and i ended up as #4 in the conference with a 44-31-7 record and 95 points. and i'm up against detroit in the first round of the playoffs. i dont remember all my trades, but here is my team going in to the playoff.

niittymaki
norrena

nash-fedorov-zherdev
michalek-brule-balastik
picard-svitov-vermette
hagman-betts-marshall
ward

martin-foote
kronwall-van ryn
kloucek-klesla
johnson

i struggled all season on special teams. especially on the PP, but my team was very good 5 on 5 so it didnt really matter that much. i was second in the league in goals scored and 16th in goals against.

sergei fedorov showed he still has some points in him. he had 116 points to win the art ross trophy. i was also very surprised with some of the young guys on my team. here is the stats for my best players.

sergei fedorov: 77 GP, 34 G, 82 A, 116 PTS
nikolai zherdev: 82GP, 40G, 67A, 107 PTS
Rich Nash: 82 GP, 42 G, 49 A, 91 PTS
Gilbert Brule: 82 GP, 27 G, 42 A, 69 PTS
jaroslav balastik: 72 GP, 27 G, 40 A, 67 PTS
mike van ryn: 79 GP, 19 G, 43 A, 62 PTS
milan michalek: 50 GP, 25 G, 31 A, 56 PTS
paul martin: 78 GP, 19 G, 29 A, 48 PTS

and my fighter grant marshall ended the season with 716 pim in 69 games. destroying the old singel season record for most pim's with 244.

Caseus · Post by **Caseus** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:37 pm

If it's not too late, I'd like to give this a try.

I skimmed through the instructions, and should probably reread things to make sure I've got things straight. As far as I can tell, I need to keep to within 1 million of the budget and I'm not allowed to trade any of the picks past the 2007 draft. I've never played the CBJ before but I know they have some interesting prospects.

Two quick questions: First, is there any limit as to how you can change your team? Can you trade 80% of your players, provided you stay within budget and dont' trade any future draft picks?

Second, I didn't see anything about quick simming. It is pretty trivial to win the President's Trophy if you turn off full sims, since according to Riz that does not properly simulate a game. Is full detail a requirement?

Post by **Minstrel** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:55 pm

You can trade 110% of your team if you do so within the rules

We haven't invoked a "you must coach" clause because some people just don't care to play that way and one of the things about EHM is that everyone plays and approaches their games differently. And Riz didn't say it doesn't properly simulate games, he said that basically the quick sim is more basic and doesn't take advantage of the full tactical options available to you if you 'coach' or at least run your games through the full simulation.

Caseus · Post by **Caseus** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:11 am

Minstrel wrote:You can trade 110% of your team if you do so within the rules

Awesome! This could be most amusing. If I never see my fiancee again, she'll blame you.

Minstrel wrote:And Riz didn't say it doesn't properly simulate games, he said that basically the quick sim is more basic and doesn't take advantage of the full tactical options available to you if you 'coach' or at least run your games through the full simulation.

In my tactics thread, Riz said: "The quick sim was only implemented in the game to create statistics for non-playable leagues and background leagues. It was never meant to be fully realistic simulation of a game."

The more I read about these challenges, the more intrigued I am. I've been hesitant to join an online league, but a challenge with clearly defined rules is a different thing entirely. I'll start my game tonight.

red-dog · Post by **red-dog** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 12:12 am

OK, gone through pre-season and just won the Canucks in my first game of the season. Lines after pre-season trades are as follows:

Pascal Leclaire
Ty Conklin

Yeah, didn't think I'd be starting Leclaire either, but so far he's given no reason to get rid of him.

Rick Nash-Sergei Fedorov-David Vyborny
Brad Stuart-Mike van Ryn

Fredrik Modin-Dainius Zubrus-Nikolai Zherdev
Tomas Kloucek-Rostislav Klesla

Matt Pettinger-Alex Svitov-Gilbert Brule
Marc Methot-Ben Clymer

I have no idea how Methot broke into the lineup, but he's doing quite well and infact just scored the equalizer against Vancouver.

Jody Shelley-Manny Malhotra-Boyd Gordon

I also signed d-man Adam McQuaid, who seems to have at least some potential. I haven't gotten rid of any young players (except for Fritche) or draft picks. I was thinking of doing more trades, but I'll let the lines gel for now, until someone gives me areason to get rid of him. Oh, and I did fir Gallant too, just had to. I would've gotten Ftorek, but he chose Ottawa instead, so I got Dallas Eakins as head coach and Brian Sutter and Shawn McKenzie as his assistants. Kept Malarchuk and fired all the other losers.

red-dog · Post by **red-dog** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 12:32 am

...and I just signed "Nasty" Mirasty.

19nazzy · Post by **19nazzy** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:43 am

Won my first 2 games 5-4 and 7-5

Fedorov was named player of the week.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:20 am

Can't stop laughing or crying. 10 games in 6-3-1. Power Play at 25% and penalty killing at 71%. Um, usually I have been the other way around.

Lines

Nash-Drury-Vyborny
Modin-Madden-Brylin
Balastik-Brule-Zherdev
Shelley-Gaustad-Svitov

Conroy cannot get in the lineup and play with any consistency...Guess who is being shopped. And I know, 3rd line should not look like that...but god they are lighting it up in the last 5 games. 3-5-8 for Balastik, 4-4-8 Brule, 5-6-11 for Zherdev. I just dont get how in my last 5 I have scored 25 goals and only given up 12...11 of which were pp goals for the other team.

Pitkanen- Martin
VanAanen-Salo
Kukkoneon(Kloucek)-Klesla

Nitty
Leclaire--who is playing better..so far just alternating though.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:38 am

At about the 55 game mark I've really started to take on the injuries. Since then I've always had someone out of the lineup, but its only been for no more than 10 days.

My PP(17%) and PK(77%) are still sucking it up...

My team seems to have an awesome work ethic. I'd say that about 2/3 of our games, we get scored on first. Often times the other team will be up 2, 3, or 4 goals to our 0 goals and we will usually come back to win the game in the 3rd period.

19nazzy · Post by **19nazzy** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 5:51 am

Holy smokes my first line is RIPPING it up.

After 5 games they have a combined total of 45 points. 16/15/14.

I guess that's good because my next highest point getter has 5

Post by **joehelmer** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:28 pm

Roster moves for games 21-40

Traded Bryan Berard, rights to Maxime FrichÃ©tte and rights to Peter HudÃ¡k for Robyn Regehr and Flames third round pick 2007.
Traded rights for Jesse Dudas for Nashville's fourth round pick.
Fired Gerard Gallant and later I signed Calgary's recently fired head coach Jim Playfair.

Gallant took the blame from me for the bad results, he got signed later by Calgary.