TBL Challenge 1.1 & 1.2: Washington Capitals Chat Thread

Post by **timmy_t** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:32 am

This is something you don't see everyday. Someone up there likes me...

Post by **E5150_ca** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 4:19 am

Heh, lucky you.

In my game hes not in the top 3 rookies in points so if he got injured it wouldn't even make a difference to me.

Systemfel · Post by **Systemfel** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:34 am

http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/uplo ... 563456.JPG
Yeah!

Post by **timmy_t** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 4:08 pm

Cam Ward fought in your game. Like when Roy fought Osgood at center ice..

Sweet!!!!

Post by **timmy_t** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 4:12 pm

He fought Ouellet, I just saw that.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:07 pm

OMG

:jawdrop: What a war!

That's awesome! We'll fire that baby up in Cool Pics if Arch hasn't beaten me to it

Okay so here are the stats and stories of my first 20 games:

My top goal scorers were linemates Semin & Zubrus with 7.

Their center John Madden had most assists and overall points with 10 and 15.

Ovechkin was out with a hip injury for two weeks and in the 12 games he did play he's done nothing, nada, zippo: 2g3a for all of 5 points.

I'm going to have to have him room with recent aquisition Trent Hunter who was just one shy of the goals lead with six. In 11 games! From the checking line!!

My +/- leader was Clymer (who is playing wing on my checking line) with +7 having played all 20 games.

Pettinger, centering my checking line, had 37 PIM but Witt and Marchment should get a mention as they both had 36.

I really feel like my team has done much better than their stats, but part of that is my Eastern Conf standings are crazy. I am 4pts from taking 3rd as division winner.

I am also however two points from being in 13th!

It's outta control.

Out of control however seems to be the team motto of the Pens in my game, boasting a 20-3 record with 93 goals!! That's 23 more than the next closest team. Their defense? Awesome too... only 44 against tying them for 3rd on the PK. That just ain't right I tell ya.

Speaking of standings and gaudy numbers... it should be mentioned that my AHL team has now won it's last fourteen games

It's all Niittymaki all the time basically. He is the

with his 1.67 GAA and .934 Sv % leading the way for the team!

Lundquist has been nearly as good except for two bad games. He was recently named Defensive player of the week sporting a 2.39 GAA and .918 Sv%. In 19 games he's had three shutouts and three one goal games.

Here's hoping for more of the same even better maybe as the team settles in. According to my stats I've aquired 31 players and shipped out 20

Yet to play a game in this set is my most recent aquisition; Dion Phaneuf

Post by **archibalduk** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:28 pm

Man, your game is crayzee

You've made some pretty shrewd acquisitions; especially Hunter and Phaneuf. I really should follow suit and get another D in. I don't know why but I really don't trust Witt

Maybe Systemfel could get us a screen of the ingame commentary for that brawl. Looks like I've got some catching up to do if I want those PIM bonus points.

Random fact: NiitymÃ¤ki literally translates as meadow hill. Now that's a cool name

Post by **E5150_ca** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:05 pm

Ovechkin had a really slow start in my game aswell. Try putting him on a line with Hunter and Madden at center. Let Madden basically play as a 3rd D and let Hunter and Ovechkin go free. It worked VERY well for me.

I picked up two more defense over the course of the last few in-game weeks, Danny Syvret (who was surprisingly VERY easy to pick up) and Nolan Pratt.

My D for the next few years is really looking up. Eminger is having a great season playing with Stevens on the 2nd D-pairing. Morisonn is jumping back and forth between Hershey and Caps when I need him to fill in for injury prone Doig and now Syvret is playing very well for Hershey.

My D for this year isn't playing very well though. Doig is alwyas injured, Stevens can't play more then 2 games in a week, Pratt is a HUGE disapointment (barely over 7.00 rating) and Clymer isn't doing anything special either.

I stayed home all weekend due to a bad cough, so i'll probably have the next 20 games up tonight.

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:27 am

We've hit stormy seas

In our game with Buffalo we got beat 0-4 and beat down with Phaneuf going down for two weks in his third game and my second line RW who I was considering dealing at the time blew out his knee and will be out three months

Before that as well we seem to have forgotten how to score goals... hopefulyl things will come around but we've definitely hit a rock patch

Post by **E5150_ca** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:43 am

Decided I'd give everyone a little update on my team after such a great 3rd quarter.

Lines:
Ovechkin - Madden - Hunter
Semin - Spezza - Halpern
Battaglia - Zubrus - Tootoo
Pettinger - Horcoff - Cassels

Witt - Clymer
D - Eminger
D - D
(Depending on whos playing the least worst that week gets to play: Doig, Morisonn, Pratt, Stevens and Biron)

Ovechkin and Hunter have been playing incredible together. Ovechkin was managing 2 points a game in mid-late January but has cooled off a bit since. Hunter has weird bursts of 5 game point streaks before cooling off for one or two then another burst. Madden has basically become a 3rd defenseman, which is fine.

My second line hs been giving me mixed results, I originally planned for Horcoff to play LW here, but hes playing the worst hockey i've ever seen from him. Spezza has fineally started playing like I expected him too, has doubled his point totals in the last 15 games to bring him to 40 points this year. Semin was playing very consistant when I had him paired with Ovechkin on the top line, but his staminia was horrible by the end of the game and Hunter just ended up being better suited for the top line. Since being demoted to the second line has really slowed down. Halpern has been playing oddly all year, not sure why though, I have him playing heavy D while Semin doens't backcheck, it seems to be working alright.

My 3rd line is rather uninteresting. Nothing really stands out about them. Not playing wholly bad or rather good. They just kinda sift throught the year. Tootoo seems to be like Hunter where he has a few good games followed by a string of bad ones.

My 4th line is absolutly horrible. No other way to say it. They all played under 7.00 hockey when I put them on the second or 3rd line so there stuck doing PK and the odd shift on the 3rd line when someone is injured. Really regretting trading Kolzig for Horcoff straight up.

Not even gonna bother posting about my defense, suffice to say all of them but Emminger suck.

At the beginning of the year I had Miller doing the goalie job by himself, but I noticed he tired easy so I brought Oullette up from the minors to tag team. This worked alright for awhlie, but Oullette just wasn't up Miller's level and I eventually sent him back down.

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 11:02 pm

Okay, I've posted my second set of games to the GLR site. Since I enter my stuff directly here were my leaders:

Semin and Zubrus again tied for the goal lead at 15. Their center John Madden has most assists with 22 and points with 31. He also took over the +/- lead with +11. Witt has taken over the PIM lead with 94.

As I'd mentioned we had a rockey start to this set. Phaneuf went down for two weeks, and a few days later we lost Pitkanen for around 10 days and had then 2nd line RW Kotalik go down for two months. He was close to being traded at that point and I ended up jsut dropping him when I was able to bring in Varada and a d prospect from Ottawa for some picks. That allowed me to solidify my checking line and move Hunter up to 2nd line RW.

That put us on a nice run and we pulled ourselves upfrom 13th back to playoff contention in the 8th slot. We finished the set unbeaten in eight in a row with a few shootout wins making us currently the third best team in the league over the past 10 games.

To follow up on other things I'd mentioned in my 20 game notes:

Ovechkin has started picking up the pace and was named Rookie of the Month for December with 7g4a. Madden recently won Offensive Player of the Week and Lundquist received his second Defensive Player of the Week honor.

Lunk has lowered his GAA to 2.14 and raised his Save% to .924

My Hershey Bears continue to maul the AHL (pun intended) now the owners of a 32-2-2 record! They finally had their wins streak stopped by going to a shootout win after 14 straight wins in regulation time. They remained undefeated for a total of 24 games, eventually losing in a shootout game. Since then they have rattled off another 15 games without a defeat, including four shootout wins.

Niittymaki's numbers have gone from unreal to borderline rediculous as he now boasts a 1.56 GAA and a .936 save percentage

Now I'm trying to sign everyone but I've noticed it's a lot harder to get players to sign in the Cap Era NHL... we'll see what happens now that the team has pretty well been put together now and are starting to play well together. Pending injuries I hope to break my 11 wins mark and claim that 3rd slot as division leader in games 1-60.

Rubbinio · Post by **Rubbinio** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:13 am

My top line:

Ovechkin - Spezza - Crosby

and still 1-3-0 ..... grrrrr

Post by **Minstrel** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:43 am

Rubbinio wrote:My top line:

Ovechkin - Spezza - Crosby

and still 1-3-0 ..... grrrrr

Just a guess... but could what you had to give up to get Spezza and Crosby have anything to do with that?

I shudder to think what you had to give up for Pitt to give you Crosby

On another note though, that is most certainly a talented line but also a verrry young line.

Post by **Minstrel** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:45 am

Well I was really rolling and have reached my goal of leading the division and claiming the #3 slot but again we've got trouble. Just as Ovechkin was really ramping it up he's out three weeks with a groin injury

Rubbinio · Post by **Rubbinio** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 2:51 pm

For Crosby i had to give up 5 players if my memory server me right ( 3 older ones + 2 prospects ) + 1 draft pick.

And for Spezza 3 prospects as the Sens were negociating with 4 team including TO and I could not let that happen so i put in a bid for him.

Post by **E5150_ca** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:31 pm

Wow Rubbino, do you mind posting a screenshot of your transaction page? I really would like to see those deals.

I myself just passed the trade deadline (I really need to slow down) I picked up Gratton to help with my depth problems. Also made one or two deals to get some prospects I like into my system. I tried picking up a D man or two but noone seemed to be biteing.

Post by **archibalduk** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:38 pm

E5150_ca wrote:Wow Rubbino, do you mind posting a screenshot of your transaction page? I really would like to see those deals.

That's a good idea

Rubbinio, head over to the Cool Pics section and add a Rubbinio gallery to the Users Gallery category

Post by **Minstrel** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:54 am

Well... since Arch read my mind...

check out the new announcement thread about posting your own screenshots. You can just use that gallery for all Challenge related stuff. If you want to make your own gallery as well check out this Guide:

http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/index.php ... &Itemid=36

Devils88 · Post by **Devils88** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 3:37 pm

oh my god

the second stint of my caps-career was pretty awful.
in the first game of 21/40 i lost 2/3 of my first line. both ovechkin and halpern went down 3 weeks.
that was the beginning of the end. i couldn't win my next 7 games, even with a red hot sebastien caron in goal.

semin (my best with 20g/20a now) was left alone by his teammates in offense. most of the games i lost was by one goal
but the major reason of my downfall was the powerplay.
i knew i couldn't hold my 25% of the first stint.....

BUT.....105 PPlays and only 7 goals...6,6%

THATS A DISASTER

after the return of my first line i got back into playoff contention and ended with a 9-10-1 record.

i'm still searching for a second line. only zubrus is good on mine at the moment.

my actions in this stint:

got steve ott (DAL), gave up nolan yonkman.
got two 2nd rounders (2006/07) and a 4th rounder(08) for quellet
picked up brooks orpik for ivan majesky and a 7th rounder (06)
sent jason doig to la for lauri tukonen
traded 6th rounder (06) and rights for viktor dovgan to the devils for brian gionta.

still on my trading-block are: kÃ¶lzig, clark, verot and maybe scott lachance (signed as free agent, but wasn't that good either)

my lines at this stage

semin-halpern-ovechkin
pettinger-zubrus- gionta
ott- cassels- clymer
zalesak - laich -gordon

witt- ference
jackman- lachance
eminger- orpik

klepis (3 months) , sutherby (1 month), morrisonn (2 months) are out of action.

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:11 am

Seems that Devils88 and I ran into the same bad injury luck in our recent sets. Here's what went down for my games 41-60:

We were able to achieve and hold onto the division lead and 3rd in the conference with runs early and late but as it has been all year the conference is rediculously close. I have a one point lead in the division but dropping back two points would put me down into 10th...

Hershey continues to wail on the AHL and qualified for the playoffs with 25 games remaining in the season.

Zubrus pulled ahead in the goal scoring race with 28.
Witt continues to be the PIM leader now with 117.
Madden continues to dominate every other category: Most Assists with 37, Most Points with 48 and Best +/- at +16.

As mentioned previously Ovechkin went down on January 25 for three weeks (groin). I then had three injuries in three days that caused me to limp into the Olympic break very very thankful for the time off to heal because I lost four in a row going in. On February 9 Varada went down for two weeks (Thigh Strain) and the next day Semin went down for a week and a half (sprained wrist) and down on the farm Niity went down for two weeks (groin).

Vasicek (1+1), Hagman (1+2), Pitkanen (2+4) and Orszagh (1+0) joined the skaters while Stana and Lundqvist played goal as they represented their countries at the Olympics.

Stana had the most impact backstopping his Slovakian team to the Bronze with a one goal game vs the Czechs in the Bronze Nedal game. Overall he sported a 2.38 GAA. Lunk had beter stats but his Sweden team lost to eventual Gold Medal winners Canada.

Gold: Canada, Silver: Russia, Bronze: Slovakia

Post by **E5150_ca** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:12 pm

Yikes Minstrel. You have an injury prone team and you and I seem neck and neck. Should I be worried about the last quarter?

I should have my final quarter done this weekend, if theres anyone who prefers I wait a week or so please speak up and I will.

Post by **archibalduk** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:26 pm

Post it whenever you like

Rubbinio · Post by **Rubbinio** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:51 pm

my school keeps me of advancing in this game .... but i will chatch up with you once i am done .....

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:52 pm

archibalduk wrote:Post it whenever you like

Yeah, what Arch said

Whenever you finish go right ahead.

I am hoping my team will finish strong but who knows with the injury bug going around. I'm hoping we're past that since having two of my top 3 forwards a top pairing d-man and my best checking line forward hurt all at the same time didn't exactly yield the greatest results

I'm real nervous about hitting a bad stretch and/or someone getting real hot and my team doing one of those 3rd to 11th slides and missing the playoffs.

Though it would be just as bad to fall to 8th and have to face Pittsburgh I think, since 64 games in they are at 99 points already

We'll see I guess.

Post by **E5150_ca** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:11 pm

Maybe the problem is that you are practicing your guys too hard? Other then Jason Doig, who gets injured atleast once a month, I've only had one other injury (Eminger was down for 2 weeks)

Also, Ovechkin, Spezza and Hunter have really turned on the jets coming back from olympic break. I'm only 2 or 3 points away from 3rd place, and if they can keep up the scoring I think i'll have it no problem taking the divison.