Challenge 15: Colorado Avalanche (Discussion Thread)

Post by **CatchUp** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:42 pm

batdad wrote:Nice eternium. I completely forgot about that.

Boo-ya!

Thanks eternium.

Good signings though batdad.

Post by **batdad** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 4:08 pm

BTW--I have not made any waiver selections. I will if I need to. However, the team is pretty young (Hejduk, Salei exceptions) and I have a waiver issue myself.

Ruutu-Stastny-Hejduk
Wolski-Duchene-Svatos
McLeod-Hensick-Stewart
Willsie-O'Reilly-Jones
Koci-Hendricks-Haydar

1 or 2 of those forwards will have to be waived.

Then on D....

Hannan-Preissing
Quincey-Clark
Salei-Alberts
Macias-Wilson
Cumisky-Holes

I think I am okay on the D side of things, for waivers. But I may have to waive some of the depth to get it down. Also some of the older forwards not going to make the team

BTW--Stoa...has come up in scouting reports. He now has some 3rd line ratings and the rest are 4th lines. Hensick went from all 3rd line C to all 1st line C. Huge jump in a year. Even Stewart has 4 of 7 as first line ratings. Wow!

May also have to deal with goalie issues. That third goalie may be getting close to waiver status.

And CatchUp===Pfffyt

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 4:23 pm

Preseason for season 2 is coming to an end and I'm seeing teams put guys up on waivers. There have been a couple interesting options but I think I'm going to hold out and hope for someone better to show up. The most intriguing option was Ethan Moreau. He would be a great addition at LW. He's a good skater, strong, and can log minutes. He's also a great hitter and checker. He could be that physical LW that I need. The only problem is, he's 35 years old. He's got just this season remaining on his contract, getting paid $2M. Do I just grab him and take the immediate help for this season or wait for a younger guy that I can hang on to for a few years? Hmmm...

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 4:44 pm

Eh, what the heck, I'm going to put a claim in for Moreau. Let's see if I can get him or if a worse team gets him.

cstorring · Post by **cstorring** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:08 pm

bruins72 wrote:My preseason ranking made a significant jump from season 1 to season 2 without making any UFA signing nor any trades. In season 1 we were ranked either #29 or #30. In season 2 we're ranked #14. Not bad!

That's funny how that happens, I signed 2 (apparently poor) 3rd liners in the off-season and jumped from near last to 8th. Clearly didn't make a difference in the way the team played but it was interesting to see.

Post by **CatchUp** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:09 pm

I ended up with McLaren as my waiver claim about 20 games in. I tried for Bergenheim and Peca, but they both got grabbed. I'm not thrilled with McLaren so far, but it's only been a couple of games.

alexob18 · Post by **alexob18** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:22 pm

Oh did I ever get a scare today. I was in English class and since I haven't had time to play EHM for the past few weeks, I decided to give it a run. Well I had no saves!

I was like OH NO, the Challenge!

But I had them on my hard drive at home. So thank you Apple for making Time Machine.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:27 pm

I was able to get Moreau with my waiver claim. I think I'm satisfied with that.

Of course, I'll still be looking to make a trade once I'm allowed.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:52 pm

Hmmm... I was curious to see how much Duchene and O'Reilly had developed since the start of the game, so I took their starting attributes from the editor, plugged them into a spreadsheet and then took their attributes at the end of training camp of season 2. Duchene played the whole 1st season in the NHL while O'Reilly played 9 games in the NHL and was then returned to his junior club. Their development was pretty similar. Most attributes they both increased by the same amount (1 or 2 on the 1-20 scale). What's interesting is that while O'Reilly's skating seemed to develop a little better than Duchene's (O'Reilly went up by 2 in some categories while Duchene's only went up by 1), Duchene's defensive attributes took much bigger increases. Now I'm planning on keeping them both in the NHL for season 3. Let's see how they develop this season.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 7:53 pm

So in my game, Vancouver lost Loungo to free agency (he went to Dallas). So now Vacouver's goaltending is comprised of Andrew Raycroft (the starter), Dan Ellis (recent waiver claim), and Michael Garnett (recently placed on waivers). Lucky me, I was able to start the season with a home and home series with the Canucks. It's nice to start the season 2-0-0.

Oh and adding Moreau seems to have been a good idea so far. He and Chris Stewart (brought up from the AHL after spending all of last season with Lake Erie) have really added a physical presence to the team.

Post by **Manimal** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 12:42 am

I'll be damned! Darcy Tucker with a shoot-out winner! He has no goals and 1 assists in 33 games so far. Hopefully I can trade him when the off-season comes

Post by **Danny** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 2:02 am

Great, I've just lost Hensick for 8 months.

Post by **CatchUp** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:09 am

I'd rather lose Hensick for 8 than Anderson for 4 like I just did.

mustardstew · Post by **mustardstew** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 4:22 am

I'd rather lose Anderson, myself - he has been absolutely atrocious for me - gives up one, gets rattled and in go 2 more within 5 minutes... at this point I'm (sorta) trying to give him his confidence back, as it's unlikely I'll get to the playoffs...

but, I'm one point from being not in last place in the conference, and I'm ahead of the Islanders right now... 9-9-2 in the last segment... I guess I waited far too long to figure out lines and unit tactics

fine line between jumping the gun / waiting too long...

my lines right now are:

Willsie-Stastny-Hejduk
Wolski-Hensick-Svatos (best line)
McCleod-Durno-Stewart (pleasant surprise)
Koci-Jones/Tucker-Tucker/Haydar

Tucker has been horrible, but Haydar, Galiardi and Jones haven't been much better - just sucks that he's getting 2+ million... and we're starting to get the Hejduk out a week, Willsie out 10 days (better than Foote out 2 months, Hannan out 3 months, though... LOL)

finally got my PK settled and getting better... if I could figure out my PP I'd probably be in playoff contention...

Assuming the same players on the PP, what has worked for everyone - I've tried the Umbrella/Diamond, Overload Slot/Funnell, and can't get anything consistent, except 11.5%

Thanks for reading my novel...

Post by **Lidas** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 12:25 pm

Man... my game crashed, and I have tried everything I could to recover it.
17 games into season 2, and it's all bye bye. Ive tried to go back to ALL my autosaves, going on vacation on the day it crashes... but nothing helps. I had just done my trade, and I was really happy with it (O'Reilly for Chris Neil AND Mike Fisher). Got to use them in one game, but then the world collapsed.

Have fun everyone, I'll play around with another team, and be back for challenge 16.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:08 pm

Lidas wrote:Man... my game crashed, and I have tried everything I could to recover it.
17 games into season 2, and it's all bye bye. Ive tried to go back to ALL my autosaves, going on vacation on the day it crashes... but nothing helps. I had just done my trade, and I was really happy with it (O'Reilly for Chris Neil AND Mike Fisher). Got to use them in one game, but then the world collapsed.

Have fun everyone, I'll play around with another team, and be back for challenge 16.

Must be database issues

Just kidding of course. Sorry you had troubles.

kuulapaa · Post by **kuulapaa** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 4:15 pm

I didn't get into playoffs in season 1. Can't blame the injuries though, as my 3rd segment was the poorest and the injuries took place in 4th quarter (most of them). They just made sure I wasn't able to improve my play enough. We were on 10th place with 84 points, as Blackhawks were 8th with 87 points.

In my game Devils and Hurricanes were in Eastern Finals. 'Canes won in five games. In Western Conference Finals Blue Jackets challenged Red Wings but couldn't match them, Red Wings went to Stanley Cup Finals in six games. They were pretty convincing in there too winning Hurricanes 4-2.

I have re-signed most of the players I wanted to, only Clark hasn't signed a new deal yet. I think I try to sign him in July, maybe I can get him cheaper that way. In my game he was the under-achiever this season, only Salei had worse AvR in our defence. Liles, who many of other Challenge participants have criticized was good in my game playing all the regular season games with AvR 7.32. He hit 13 goals and gave 36 assists and was -3. He was 7th best player in points in Avalanche and superior to other Dmen. In AvR Hannan (7.63), Foote (7.49) and Quincey (7.45) were ahead of him.

In Entry Draft Avalanche got the 11th pick. In first round we took C/LW John McFarland, who was ranked as 8th. It seems he isn't quite ready to be brought up yet, but I think I'll check him out in training camp and if he looks good, sign a deal with him in August. My 2nd round pick was Stephen Johns, a huge 18 years old American RD/LD. For him I'm not offering a deal before maybe in next May, if he has developed well. Player his size (222 lb/ 6'4'') needs more time to build up his skills and that's what I'm going to give him. On third round I picked a Slovakian RD/LD Martin Marincin and after him I chose LW Adam Hughesman, RW/C Brendan Gallagher, LW/C Andrei Kuchin and RD Derek Ryckman. Marincin, Hughesman and maybe Kuchin too are the players who are going to make it in NHL/AHL in next three years. None of them still isn't going to help the team next season, those players I need to find elsewhere.

I last September I already gave a deal to three of our unsigned prospects. They are G Peter Delmas, RD/LD Jonas Holös and LW/RW Denis Parshin. Delmas played (not too well, unfortunately) in Lake Erie/Charlotte last season, Holös and Parshin joined the team in June. In the end of May I signed RD Colby Cohen, LD/RD Kevin Shattenkirk, LD/RD Stefan Elliott and RD Tyson Barrie. Some of them are necessarily playing their next season in their junior teams as we are going to have so many Dmen under contract then.

I'm in June 23rd right now, this evening I'm getting in the best part of the Challenge, signing UFAs and trading players

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:05 pm

Lidas wrote:Man... my game crashed, and I have tried everything I could to recover it.
17 games into season 2, and it's all bye bye. Ive tried to go back to ALL my autosaves, going on vacation on the day it crashes... but nothing helps. I had just done my trade, and I was really happy with it (O'Reilly for Chris Neil AND Mike Fisher). Got to use them in one game, but then the world collapsed.

Have fun everyone, I'll play around with another team, and be back for challenge 16.

That sucks! Sorry to hear it, Lidas. Our first challenge with your new DB and you only get to play a season. That's no good at all.

Post by **Danny** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 4:13 am

Yay we did it !

So we finished 4th in the regular season losing the Divison lead to the Nucks in game 81.

First round, revenge on the Blow Jackets. Couple of fluke OT wins and we take the series in 6.
On we go to round two where we meet the Nucks. We win the first game quite easily, scoring 4 PP goals in 9 minutes. However this is the game where Stastny goes to the IR for 3 weeks and we lose games 2 and 3. Hejduk and Svatos score OT winners in games 4 and 5 and we take the series in 6 with a 4-2 win at home.
Still without Stastny we travel to Anaheim for the Conference finals where Henrik Tallinder turns into Bobby Orr and gets both winners, one in OT. In the third game we find ourselves down 1-2 with two shorties from the Ducks, Wolski ties it in the third period though and wins it in OT. All 5 goals of the game scored on the Avs PP

Game 4 is rather unspectacular, well, except for Tucker scoring two goals, which tells you just how bad the Ducks are that night

and with the series tied at 2 it goes back to California. The Ducks take an early lead, we finally get on the scoresheet in the final minutes of the game thanks to Matt Lombardi. Duchene scores just two minutes into overtime and we travel back to Denver with a 3-2 lead in the bag. On the flight home a drunken Darcy Tucker gets angry at Tom Preissing for playing with his gameboy. He proceeds to beat up Preissing ending his season and sending him to the IR, Holos is called up from Lake Erie. Both Stastny and Hejduk have 4 point nights in game 6 and we reach the Stanley Cup finals without much trouble.
We play the Sabres and have home ice advantage but get blown out in game one, the Sabres take game two as well when Gaustad makes it 5-4 at 59:21. Tucker tracker says 1a +1 and a 9 rating though. We get an ugly 2-1 win in game 3 and destroy the Sabres 6-2 in game 4 thanks to a Svatos hattrick. Svatos adds another hatty in game 5 and we win 8-2. We find ourselves in a state of shock in game 6 when Boumedienne (!) gives the Sabres an early lead shorthanded. Tucker tracker says What the Dickens?! Game is tied at 2 in the third period when Eric Belanger decides it might be the right time for his first goal in 14 games. Good thinking. Wolski scores his 21st goal and 40th point of the playoffs to make it 4-2.

Post by **CatchUp** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 11:54 am

LOL.

So I'm attempting to make my trade for Season Two. It's January 18th and I'm getting frustrated because I can't seem to get the players I want. I decided to pick through the stats thread and try out some the trades that have worked for you guys. I tried to make EVERY trade that has been offered by every Challenge player for every season posted so far. And the result: Nothing. No negotiations, just straight up, flat out rejections from every team. Great.

Laker2415 · Post by **Laker2415** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 3:22 pm

CatchUp wrote:Anyone who doesn't use their 1st rounder on a D-man in the first season is nuts.

Now, if I got the number 1 pick in the draft and I ended up taking Taylor Hall with my pick, does that make me nuts?

I'm almost at the quarter poll in season 2 and not only is Paul Stastny leading the league in scoring, but new teammate Dustin Penner is in 4th, not bad for a team in 12th right now, 5 points out of the playoffs.

I have a question though. Matt Duchene is having a rough year in season 2, and he played the entire first season in Colorado. I looked at his profile and it said that I could still send him back down to his junior team. I was under the impression that if a player played 10 games with his pro team, he couldn't be sent back down. Am I correct and has anyone else seen something like this?

ie99jro · Post by **ie99jro** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 4:50 pm

CatchUp wrote:LOL.

So I'm attempting to make my trade for Season Two. It's January 18th and I'm getting frustrated because I can't seem to get the players I want. I decided to pick through the stats thread and try out some the trades that have worked for you guys. I tried to make EVERY trade that has been offered by every Challenge player for every season posted so far. And the result: Nothing. No negotiations, just straight up, flat out rejections from every team. Great.

It might have to do with how the players performed last year, if they had a great year for some of the challengers and a bad year with you they won't have the same value. Try to find some of your players that out performed them self last year or even having a good year so far as you are now in late January. Also look at the teams that have lots of IR players or a weak area that would make them overvalue some of your players.

eric1985 · Post by **eric1985** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:47 pm

CatchUp wrote:LOL.

So I'm attempting to make my trade for Season Two. It's January 18th and I'm getting frustrated because I can't seem to get the players I want. I decided to pick through the stats thread and try out some the trades that have worked for you guys. I tried to make EVERY trade that has been offered by every Challenge player for every season posted so far. And the result: Nothing. No negotiations, just straight up, flat out rejections from every team. Great.

I traded O'Reilly straight-up for Ryan Getzlaf in my second season.

eric1985 · Post by **eric1985** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:14 pm

Love games like this

Post by **CatchUp** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:51 pm

ie99jro wrote:It might have to do with how the players performed last year, if they had a great year for some of the challengers and a bad year with you they won't have the same value. Try to find some of your players that out performed them self last year or even having a good year so far as you are now in late January. Also look at the teams that have lots of IR players or a weak area that would make them overvalue some of your players.

Thanks dude. I was planning to wait for the trade deadline to make my trade, but we went on a 4 game losing streak and I just couldn't let us start to slip out of the playoffs. While watching the sim, I noticed that we were getting beat a LOT on rushes where the opposing forward would just zip around our D man like a pylon. In about 60% of the goals I watched scored like this - it was freaking Salei. I decided he had to be the one to go. But who would possibly want him? Oh wait - the FLAMES are interested you say? They have some D that play the style I'm looking for.

Now I had to figure out how to get good value for old, slow, overpaid Salei. The Flames were rating him ***. Who else on my roster is under performing and probably doesn't fit in my plans? O'Reilly. Compared to Duchene, he's a joke. Plus, other teams seemed to rate him even higher than Duchene in negotiations. So add him to Salei and I've got myself Dion Phaneuf. I'm now pretty set on D.

Liles - Phaneuf
Hannan - Preissing
Quincy - Clark

They are all pretty balanced pairs, so I've been playing the D on 'Equal' with good results lately.