Challenge 6: Columbus Blue Jackets Chat Thread

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mark_htfc
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Post by mark_htfc »

Ok thanks for that. Well last night when I came to save it EHM shut down with an error so it never saved. :rant: Just going to start again now though. Just set up my league according.

Will also offer federov to everyone as you suggest. Didn't know thats what the lock thing did. thanks for that.

I just need to try and find some decent players who are cheaper. only thing is though I don't want someone in replacement who is high paid aswell as it won't really send my cap down by much.
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mark_htfc
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Post by mark_htfc »

Right just done my first trade.

I traded Sergei Fedorov and Anson Carter for Ben Clymer and Chris Clark from Capitals.
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munky
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Post by munky »

mark_htfc wrote:Right just done my first trade.

I traded Sergei Fedorov and Anson Carter for Ben Clymer and Chris Clark from Capitals.
Nice salary dump. That's about $8M right there.
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Post by mark_htfc »

I noticed that too. My budget now is on about 30 instead of the 38 it was.
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Post by mark_htfc »

Just got another trade done. I traded the rights for Marek Bartanus from Tampa Bay and gave them the rights to Adam McQuaid.
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Post by munky »

Montreal was having a fire sale, they had dumped Kovalev, Samsonov, Souray and a couple other guys so I jumped in and got Michael Ryder and the rights to Juraj Mikus for Fredrik Modin.
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mark_htfc
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Post by mark_htfc »

Well im currently in pre-season. Im on fire at the moment. I am hoping it is not just pre-season luck.

So far I have played 3 exibition games. (only playing 3) I have played Pheonix Coyotes at Pheonix. I beat them 12-1. :-D My biggest win on any EHM yet. I then beat Washington Capitals away 7-2. Then in my final game I beat Bruins away at Boston. I beat them 3-1.

So overall so far im very pleased. Going to start the proper season tomorrow as I need to get to bed. (need to be up at 5am to start queing for the Wii)
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Post by inSTAALed »

mark, are you starting your normal roster for exhibition games?

That would most likely be why you are blowing teams out, IMO.

Most teams use exhibition games to figure out if any younger players have a shot at some playing time rather than risk their regular players getting injured.
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mark_htfc
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Post by mark_htfc »

Yeah I am. I prefer to use my normall roster as it saves messing with it all afterwards. Hopefully I can do well in the season but we will soon see how I start off. :)
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Post by bruins72 »

I do the same. I pretty much know who is going to make my team each season. I might make one or two call-ups here and there but for the most part, the team is how I've designed them. When I invite players to training camp, it's mostly to see who I might want to sign for my farm team or to give my unsigned prospects a taste of a pro camp. I use the exhibition games to get my players some game time to work on their tactics and chemistry.
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Post by Calv »

First deadline
20 Games: 20 Dec 2006
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Post by batdad »

Holy rubbish! I traded some draft pick .. .Janne Mittula? A guy I got in the early 3rd round for ... Dion Phaneuf! Washington was also going to take him and Zherdev for Alexander the Great...I don't get it! Guy did not look that good, but several teams wanted him...like 7. I guess I will watch him from now on. Flames quickly signed him after the trade. I also got Trent Hunter straight up for Balastik.

BTW--what is all this great talk about Balastik?...he is useless in my game.

note: way behind on my posting of numbers in the thread. Season 1 is done. Finished 1st, and lost in the final to the Sabres. I knew I should have forced the Pomminville trade on them. He had 7 goals and 2 assists in the final.
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Post by bruins72 »

batdad wrote:Holy rubbish! I traded some draft pick .. .Janne Mittula? A guy I got in the early 3rd round for ... Dion Phaneuf! Washington was also going to take him and Zherdev for Alexander the Great...I don't get it! Guy did not look that good, but several teams wanted him...like 7. I guess I will watch him from now on. Flames quickly signed him after the trade. I also got Trent Hunter straight up for Balastik.

BTW--what is all this great talk about Balastik?...he is useless in my game.

note: way behind on my posting of numbers in the thread. Season 1 is done. Finished 1st, and lost in the final to the Sabres. I knew I should have forced the Pomminville trade on them. He had 7 goals and 2 assists in the final.
I had a very similar experience trading a couple of players after the draft too. Washington wanted one of them badly and I ended up packaging him with some other players for Ovechkin and Eminger. The other one was traded straight up for Getzlaf. These guys weren't in such demand until the day after the draft and then everyone was crazy for them.

I think Balastik was better before the latest patch. In the current database he's got a low determination or workrate (can't remember which) and never seems to do much. He was great in EHM 2005 though. I don't know if he was good pre-3.02 patch though.
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Post by Joe »

Balastik put up over 20 goals for me, and with his contract, thats a bargain. I had him on the 3rd line all year and a little bit of pp time.
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Post by Minstrel »

My Blue Jax have made the playoffs just after game 70 :joy: In those 70 Balls has scored 31 and assisted on 25. He's been playing on my second line with Hadzus and Nash.
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Post by batdad »

Interesting. Cause for me he would score 3 in 5..then 0 for 10 and end up with ver low morale for over a month. Then I would finally scratch him. He just never performed with Nash or Modin. Centers were always Drury or Conroy. Maybe my expectations were too high. Oh well, Hunter seems to be fitting in fine wth Brule and Modin in year 2. Conroy now my third line center. Brule is flying outta the blocks. 10 points in 4 games.
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Post by mark_htfc »

I really dont think I have masterd tactics what so ever.

I have now played 4 and lost in 4. I have lost in 2 shootouts in my last 2 games. In my last game though I should of beaten Minnesota Wild as I was winning 5-1 after 40:35 on the clock. Drew 5-5 though then lost in the shootout.
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mark_htfc
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Post by mark_htfc »

Well got my first win now. I beat Toronto. Currently in 12th in the Western Conference on 4 pts after 5 games.

Will see how it goes up untill ten games then may make some changes. have 2 games in hand on most teams though.
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Post by Minstrel »

My team started with five straight losses :dunno:
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Post by Systemfel »

I can still jump in on this challenge, right?
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mark_htfc
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Post by mark_htfc »

Systemfel wrote:I can still jump in on this challenge, right?
Yeah you can. The deadline for the first set of results is the 20th of December.
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Post by timmy_t »

I'm in on this challenge too! :joy:
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Post by mark_htfc »

Could somebody please help me with my tactics? as something isn't right at all. I am (1-6-3). So only won the one game so far.

My lines are

Clymer -- Foote -- Nash -- Brule -- Vyborny
Berard -- Klesla -- Modin -- Dupuis -- Clark
Johnson -- Westcott -- Shelly -- Svitov -- Balastik
LD -- RD -- Chimera -- Malhotra -- Zherdev.

Norrena played the first 5 games then Leclair played the last 5. Leclair has just been injured though for ten days so Norrena will be back in.

I would just like a little bit of help. I wasn't going to ask as I was going to try and learn myself but I have not masterd tactics yet what so ever.

So would somebody please be able to help me out a little??

thanks
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Post by bruins72 »

I'll see what I can do to help. I've traded away most of these players, so I'm not working from the same position as you. First things first. I would move Zherdev up to either the first or second line. He's a big talent and he's going to be wasted on the fourth line. He can handle playing on one of the top two line. I'd probably stick him on the second line RW. I'm assuming that's Pascal Dupuis that you've got centering your second line? He's a winger (and not at all good at Center) and he's got a terrible faceoffs stat. Chances are, your team is losing most of the face offs when that line is on the ice. I'd look for a real center with offensive abilities and a good faceoff ability to plug into that slot. You might find one in your system (could be a guy you've got playing with your AHL affiliate The Syracuse Crunch) or you might have to trade for one. You could always plug Dan Fritsche in there but I'm not sure if he's ready yet. In my game he's still down on the farm but he's doing very well down there. Oh yeah, Jody Shelly is mostly just a goon. I'd move him down to the 4th line. Maybe see what kind of center you can get in return for Chimera and/or Dupuis? Of course, this is all subjective. This is my style of what I'd be looking for (except the second line center... you really need to get someone in there that's going to dish the puck to Modin).

Here is what I would do with your lines...

Nash - Brule - Vyborny
Modin - ???? - Zherdev
Svitov - Malhotra - Clark
Shelly - Chimera - Balastik or Dupuis

Your first two lines would be your scoring lines. Your third line would be your shut-down line. Match them against your opponent's top line. Your fourth line would be your energy line. They'd go out and just try to stir things up. They wouldn't play much though. I'd also look at trading away Balastik (just my personal preference there). You don't really need another offensive winger at this point. You've got that covered. He'd probably help you more trying to bring in a second line center.

Here's the tactics I'd use for those top two lines. I'll go Unit Options, Tactical Settings, and then Tactical Systems. You should be able to see what I'm doing.

Brule / (whoever your center is for the second line)
Vyborny / (either Zherdev or your new second line center)
60 Seconds
Zonal

Offensive
Normal
Hard
Tight
Heavy
Normal
High
Normal
Heavy
Rarely

Free Flowing
Crisscross
Overload Slot
Positional High
1-2-2
Positional
Basic
Overload

Your third line is going to be more defensive. I'll give you a suggestion but I'll warn you, I'm not the greatest with the defensive tactics. I'll go in the same pattern as I did with the first two lines...

Svitov or Clark (even Malhotra could take face-offs)
Svitov or none (you don't have to choose a playmaker, if there isn't a really good one on the line, sometimes it's better to leave it blank)
40 seconds
Zonal

Defensive
Aggressive (you can tune it back to normal if you find you're getting too many penalties)
Hard
Normal
Heavy
Hard
High
Safe
Normal
Normal

Positional
Positional
Positional
1-4
1-2-2
Positional
Basic
Basic

I'd probably go the same on your fourth line except I'd change to "Very Defensive" and set Dump the Puck to Often.

As for team tactics, I'm sure you can pick your own Captain and Alternates. Also pick two guys who will be extra attackers, just make sure you don't pick two from the same line. Maybe go with Nash and Modin? Here's the rest...

Overload
Normal
Favor 1st
1vs3,2vs2,3vs1,4vs4
Not Specified

I think one of the most important things to do is set individual tactics. Make sure to set all of your forwards (and I do defensemen too) to Join Rush. Here are a few other general guidelines I follow.

Passing + Creavtivity = 30+ = Set Passing to Creative (or Adventurous if they're well over 30) For example, Vyborny is definitely a guy to set for creative.

Hitting > 15 = Set Hitting to Hard. Hitting <10 = Set Hitting to Easy.

Passing > Wrist or Slap Shot = Set Shoot/Pass Tendency to Pass. Wrist or Slap > Passing = Set to Shoot

If Deking, Getting Open, and Stickhandling are all fairly high and a player is a good skater, set them to carry the puck.

Players with high Strength, Hitting, Aggression, and Bravery (say Jody Shelly) set Fighting to Allowed. If you want them to really fight a lot, set Fighting to Encouraged.

Anyone with Passing < 10 = set Passing to Safe.


This should put you in the right direction. Keep in mind, I did not come up with this all on my own. I've put together little bits I've learned from reading poston the SI forums, the TBL forums, the Guides that Archie and Shad have made, and some of my own experimentation.
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Post by bruins72 »

In season 2, Ovechkin has scored 50 goals in 50 games for me! I've got a screen shot. Unfortunately, I didn't notice this until he had 52 goals in 48 games. There should really be some sort of news item for this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/ ... /50-50.jpg
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