Challenge 6: Columbus Blue Jackets Chat Thread

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:24 pm

I do a crazy amount of stuff on the first day as well, but really there is no bad time to make a deal, and I'm usually making deals for the first couple months of each Challenge really... it just has to do with a lot of different factors and the best thing to do is be open to having a set of players that could fill the need your looking to cover. That way if it doesn't match up for you to get one because the team just won't give you a reasonable deal you can look elsewhere.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:34 pm

I have to post this becuase I cannot believe I have this line up (AT ANY TIME)

Year 2 half way through...I have not posted stats but will get to it...Was too happy to stop playing.

Right now my record: 34-6-3. Yes 43 games in and a Blue Jax team has only 6 losses. Unreal.

So my lineup which I can hardly believe: The defense especially.

Nash-Sundin-Zherdev
Modin-Brule-Trent Hunter
Picard-Conroy-Prucha
Pettinger-Gaustad-Dawes
Shelley(for obvious reasons)

Pitkannen-Phaneuf
Erhoff-Sarich
Kukkonen-Klesla
Kloucek-Vaananen

(And I have Lepisto in the minors -- 3 years at $500 k)

Nitty
Toskala

Yep 38.4 million for this beaut of a lineup. 2nd year budget is 41...so I will be looking to add a vet for playoffs. One who is a playoff monster...who likely played on my 3rd line last season at Center...Bye Bye Prucha.

Brule is awesome. After his great start, (12 points in first 10, then I think had 25 or 30 after 20 games), but is still doing quite well. Leino sucked. Course I did not give him much of a chance when I decided to go after Dawes.

Nash has 40 in 43...so here is to hoping for a few 2 goal games. Sundin has 70 points. These guys love each other. Constant raves in info page about Sundin, Phaneuf, Pitkannen, Nash, and Nitty. Yet Nitty not doing that great. I AM AVERAGING 5 goals for per game. Christ. Average....and I have only scored fewer than 3 twice. And I won one of those.

Anyway, now I will sit back and wait for them to collapse....

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:37 pm

batdad wrote: Anyway, now I will sit back and wait for them to collapse....

LOL! This is something we've all done. "Wait for them to collapse". It seems inevitable. Even the best team will crumble all of a sudden. You've got a great lineup there, especially your defense. I've gotten Pitkanen but I've never been able to reel in Phaneuf. I swear Calgary is one of the hardest teams in the league to deal with. They really don't want to trade. They always rate everyone you have very low. I just don't understand it. I've found Kukkonen hard to get as well. Chicago never seems to want to part with any of their defensemen (kind of like in real life). I've haven't been persistent about going after Kukkonen though. I usually kill myself trying to get Seabrook.

Good luck with the rest of the season! I've found that the Blue Jackets are one of the best teams in the league to take control of. They've just got so much to bargain with!

Post by **Minstrel** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:16 pm

I too am surprised how much I've enjoyed my Blue Jax; this is one of those things that the Challenge is great for though, I mean who'd have taken on Columbus otherwise? Taking on new teams forces your to learn more players too and the more players you know the easier it is to fit the pieces of your team together.

I'm still enjoying the hell out of my team even though as I've said I did have a collapse in the Cup Final last year... but yeah I'm loving my lineup. I am working on writing up the tales of my team before I start my season. More on that later.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:41 pm

I agree with you about how the challenges encourage you to try other teams that you might not normally use. I remember doing a challenge over at the susie boards (I think it was with the first non-freeware EHM but can't be sure) and I used the Minnesota Wild. It was a blast! I ended up playing them for a couple of seasons before trying the Blue Jackets on that version of the game. Of course the current version of the game is incredibly different, so it's still a new experience. Ever since then, I've gone out of my way to try many different teams. Sometimes I don't even finish a season with them. Other times I play them for a while.

After my second season with Columbus, I put that game on the back burner and now I've started a game with the Flyers. I wanted to have Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, plus not have to try to deal for Pitkanen and Nitty. I was surprised. While the Flyers have some amazing players, they've got a lot of dead weight to deal with. I even got rid of Forsberg (I don't like players over 32 or so on my teams). I'm still doing pretty well though. Any idea who we'll do for the next challenge?

Krieger99 · Post by **Krieger99** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:20 am

We're allowed to start season 2?

Post by **batdad** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:29 am

Yep, whenever you want. You have to stay at the budget your board assigns you, and post the screenie of it when you start the season. My budget was 41 mill, and Bruins72 had the full 44. So it will be different for all of us. Best of luck!

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:32 am

I ended up being granted 44.2 I think which is technically over the Cap amount

Haven't started yet though just got through preseason.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:37 am

Phfft to you rich toads...Guess I should have won the cup in year 1, instead of letting those smelly Sabres win because I felt bad for them.

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:00 am

batdad wrote:Phfft to you rich toads...Guess I should have won the cup in year 1, instead of letting those smelly Sabres win because I felt bad for them.

I didn't win either

Post by **batdad** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:49 am

Bah! Go buy yourself a cup then. Rich bas$%@$ (like $3mill makes such a diff)

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:06 pm

Krieger99 wrote:We're allowed to start season 2?

Most definitely! I've already completed season 2.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:15 pm

batdad wrote:I have to post this becuase I cannot believe I have this line up (AT ANY TIME)

Year 2 half way through...I have not posted stats but will get to it...Was too happy to stop playing.

Right now my record: 34-6-3. Yes 43 games in and a Blue Jax team has only 6 losses. Unreal.

So my lineup which I can hardly believe: The defense especially.

Nash-Sundin-Zherdev
Modin-Brule-Trent Hunter
Picard-Conroy-Prucha
Pettinger-Gaustad-Dawes
Shelley(for obvious reasons)

Pitkannen-Phaneuf
Erhoff-Sarich
Kukkonen-Klesla
Kloucek-Vaananen

(And I have Lepisto in the minors -- 3 years at $500 k)

Nitty
Toskala

Yep 38.4 million for this beaut of a lineup. 2nd year budget is 41...so I will be looking to add a vet for playoffs. One who is a playoff monster...who likely played on my 3rd line last season at Center...Bye Bye Prucha.

Brule is awesome. After his great start, (12 points in first 10, then I think had 25 or 30 after 20 games), but is still doing quite well. Leino sucked. Course I did not give him much of a chance when I decided to go after Dawes.

Nash has 40 in 43...so here is to hoping for a few 2 goal games. Sundin has 70 points. These guys love each other. Constant raves in info page about Sundin, Phaneuf, Pitkannen, Nash, and Nitty. Yet Nitty not doing that great. I AM AVERAGING 5 goals for per game. Christ. Average....and I have only scored fewer than 3 twice. And I won one of those.

Anyway, now I will sit back and wait for them to collapse....

Disgusting

Post by **batdad** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 5:04 pm

Yeah, and the collapse that I am sure is to come will show it. Wish I had time to play and collapse, but I actually have a job to do today. A real paid one. (I am a stay at home dad)

Krieger99 · Post by **Krieger99** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:58 pm

I'll restart this challenge later today, or maybe tomorrow. Right now I'm really into my Flames fantasy draft game.

Krieger99 · Post by **Krieger99** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:44 am

I'm done the offseason and I'm ready to start Season 2. I selected Goaltender Justin Leclerc with my 1st round pick, 18th overall. He had a 2.25 GAA and 0.905 Save % with the Lethbridge Hurricanes in 06-07. The first thing I did was trade Adam Foote and his massive contract to Pittsburgh for Dan Carcillo and the rights to Phil Hartman. Pure salary dump there.

The players of note I signed in the offseason are:
-Martin Biron (G)
-Derik Brassard (C) (Young player drafted by Jackets)
-Sami Salo (D)
-Tom Poti (D)
-Eric Belanger (C)
-Janne Niinimaa (D)

I expect my lines to look something like this:

Nash-Svitov-Zherdev
Modin-Belanger-Vyborny
Fritsche-Malhotra-Balastik
Picard-Brassard-Brule

Berard-Salo
Kloucek-Klesla
Poti-Skoula

Biron
Leclaire

I'm still in the rebuilding phase as far as I'm concerned, but I'll see how I do this season anyway.

Krieger99 · Post by **Krieger99** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:47 am

Well, my "B-Jax" team has completely exploded lately. We went 16-2-2 in the last 20 games, which puts us in 1 point behind 1st place in the Conference behind the Flames, but we have 1 game in hand on them. I made a couple trades since I last posted:

-Traded Duvie Westcott to NYR for Mikko Lehtinen
-Traded Kirill Starkov and CBJ 1st round pick in 2008 to LA for Lubomir Visnovsky.

Right now my lines look like this:

Nash-Brule-Zherdev
Modin-Belanger-Vyborny
Svitov-Malhotra-Balastik
Picard-Brassard-Fritsche

Berard-Visnovsky
Poti-Klesla
Niinimaa-Salo

Biron
Leclaire

Lubomir Visnovsky has been excellent since he arrived in Columbus. In 7 games, he has 3 goals, 5 assists, and 8 points. He's a +6 as well.

Some of my better offensive players so far have been:

Rick Nash - 60 GP, 30 G, 38 A, 68 PTS
Nikolai Zherdev - 60 GP, 29 G, 28 A, 57 PTS (Very inconsistant though)
Eric Belanger - 55 GP, 22 G, 31 A, 53 PTS
Gilbert Brule - 56 GP, 17 G, 34 A, 51 PTS
David Vyborny - 60 GP, 20 G, 26 A, 46 PTS
Bryan Berard - 60 GP, 8 G, 35 A, 43 PTS
Fredrik Modin - 38 GP, 15 G, 20 A, 35 PTS
Lubomir Visnovsky - 7 GP, 3 G, 5 A, 8 PTS

A lot of players are chipping in on offense, which is very nice to see. Martin Biron has a 2.62 GAA and a 0.908 SV%, so he's been pretty solid in net. Eric Belanger is a very nice surprise for me. 53 PTS in 55 Games. Young guys like Nash, Zherdev, and Brule have been some of my best players, so they should be with me for a while.

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:11 pm

Well seen as I have finished college now and got all my assignments in

I can finally get more playing time as well as updating my season

.

I have currently played 32 games and I am doing better than I did in my first set of games. My 4th line seemed week so I promoted Dan Fritsche from the Syracuse Crunch. He seems to be doing alright. I put him on the 4th line.

Im still currently in 12th and 9 points of a playoff spot. I have 4 games in hand though on Anahaim(covering final playoff spot) who have played 4 more games than me.

Krieger99 · Post by **Krieger99** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 7:31 pm

Hmm, let me tell tou how my team ended up doing. We finished the 07-08 season with a record of 52-23-7, good enough for 111 points and 1st in the Western Conference. We started the playoffs against the 8th seeded Minnesota Wild, and finished them off in 6 games. The second round was us against the 6th seeded Colorado Avalanche. We again won the series in 6 games. The Western Conference Finals were against the Calgary Flames, who finished just 3 points behind us, in second place. We lost the first game 5-3, but fired off 3 straight wins to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

We now had a chance to win the West in front of our home fans. The first period ended in a 0-0 tie. 5 minutes into the second period, the Jackets turned the puck over to Dion Phaneuf and sprang Stephane Yelle on a breakaway. Biron stopped the first shot, but Yelle scored on the rebound. The second period ended in a 1-0 Flames lead. But just 25 seconds into the third period, Lubomir Visnovsky took a big slapshot and the puck deflected off a Flames player and past Kiprusoff. There were no more goals in regulation time, and the game headed to Overtime. 3:29 in, Eric Belanger blew by former Jacket and overpaid bum Adam Foote and scored on the breakaway. The Jackets were now headed to the Stanley Cup Final.

The final stretch would be against a very scary opponent, the Buffalo Sabres. They swept the first two rounds, and then beat the President's Trophy winning New York Rangers in 6 games. The first game was a high scoring affair, which Buffalo won 5-4 in OT. However, the Jackets bounced back and beat the Sabres 4-1, and a surprising 2 goal performance by Jaroslav Balastik. Game 3 was another OT win for the Sabres, as they won 4-3. Game 4 saw the Jackets winning 5-3, including an Empty Netter. Game 5 in Columbus saw the Jackets winning 5-3 once again. Buffalo was up 3-2 at the end of 2 periods, but the Jackets scored 3 quick goals to take a 5-3 lead and win the game.

Game 6 would be replayed commonly on the NHL Network's "Classic Game", mainly because of a dominating performance by captain Rick Nash. 15:30 into the first period, Nash scored on the powerplay off a rebound of a shot by Bryan Berard. 1-0 Columbus. In the second period, Buffalo scored a PP goal of their own (Daniel Briere scored it). Actually, it was a 5-on-3, and I was very angry at the refs to say the least. Less than 2 minutes later, Nash scored a shorthanded goal as he was left wide open in front of the net. Three minutes into the third period, Nash completed his hat trick on a Powerplay. It was now 3-1 Jackets. With less than 4 minutes left, Tallinder scored a goal to make it 3-2. The Sabres put on a LOT of pressure, but Biron shut the door and the Jackets won the cup! Rick Nash was first star, of course.

Post by **CatchUp** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 9:18 pm

Krieger99 wrote:Hmm, let me tell tou how my team ended up doing. We finished the 07-08 season with a record of 52-23-7, good enough for 111 points and 1st in the Western Conference. We started the playoffs against the 8th seeded Minnesota Wild, and finished them off in 6 games. The second round was us against the 6th seeded Colorado Avalanche. We again won the series in 6 games. The Western Conference Finals were against the Calgary Flames, who finished just 3 points behind us, in second place. We lost the first game 5-3, but fired off 3 straight wins to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

We now had a chance to win the West in front of our home fans. The first period ended in a 0-0 tie. 5 minutes into the second period, the Jackets turned the puck over to Dion Phaneuf and sprang Stephane Yelle on a breakaway. Biron stopped the first shot, but Yelle scored on the rebound. The second period ended in a 1-0 Flames lead. But just 25 seconds into the third period, Lubomir Visnovsky took a big slapshot and the puck deflected off a Flames player and past Kiprusoff. There were no more goals in regulation time, and the game headed to Overtime. 3:29 in, Eric Belanger blew by former Jacket and overpaid bum Adam Foote and scored on the breakaway. The Jackets were now headed to the Stanley Cup Final.

The final stretch would be against a very scary opponent, the Buffalo Sabres. They swept the first two rounds, and then beat the President's Trophy winning New York Rangers in 6 games. The first game was a high scoring affair, which Buffalo won 5-4 in OT. However, the Jackets bounced back and beat the Sabres 4-1, and a surprising 2 goal performance by Jaroslav Balastik. Game 3 was another OT win for the Sabres, as they won 4-3. Game 4 saw the Jackets winning 5-3, including an Empty Netter. Game 5 in Columbus saw the Jackets winning 5-3 once again. Buffalo was up 3-2 at the end of 2 periods, but the Jackets scored 3 quick goals to take a 5-3 lead and win the game.

Game 6 would be replayed commonly on the NHL Network's "Classic Game", mainly because of a dominating performance by captain Rick Nash. 15:30 into the first period, Nash scored on the powerplay off a rebound of a shot by Bryan Berard. 1-0 Columbus. In the second period, Buffalo scored a PP goal of their own (Daniel Briere scored it). Actually, it was a 5-on-3, and I was very angry at the refs to say the least. Less than 2 minutes later, Nash scored a shorthanded goal as he was left wide open in front of the net. Three minutes into the third period, Nash completed his hat trick on a Powerplay. It was now 3-1 Jackets. With less than 4 minutes left, Tallinder scored a goal to make it 3-2. The Sabres put on a LOT of pressure, but Biron shut the door and the Jackets won the cup! Rick Nash was first star, of course.

Awesome read! Congrats on the Cup win!
Cheers.

Post by **Calv** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:22 pm

Bonus Points A have been awarded as follows:
19nazzy 12
bruins72 9
CatchUp 8
Minstrel 3
red-dog 3
redwingsfan 3
joehelmer 2
batdad 2
hluraven 2

Deadlines are as follows:
60 Games: 1 Feb 2007
82 Games: 15 Feb 2007

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:56 pm

When is the deadline for 40 games? I have played the 40 games but just need to record them. I am askin this as I have not seen a date yet for the 40 games.

Post by **Calv** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:06 pm

As there are no bonus points at the 40 game mark there is no need for a deadline imo. Post it anytime before 1st Feb

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:22 pm

Ok thanks for that CalV. Well ive just recorded them now and I am about to post them.

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 10:02 am

Update on my first season as Blue Jackets.

Well as you all know I started the season poor finding it hard for a win. I traded away Anson Carter and Sergei Federov for Chris Clarke and Ben Clymer. So far out of these playes I would probably say Clarke is doing the better of the two. Getting on the score sheet 10 times and assisting on 12 occasions in 44 games.

After 20 games things still didn't look any better. I traded away Phillipe Dupuis for John Pohl. I have not played him yet as he is there for backup if need be.

At the moment I am on a streak. I have currently won my last 4 games and now in 12th position, so things are starting to look good for me. So hopefully I will make the play-offs and also have a good set of stats to record.