Challenge 16: Edmonton Oilers (Discussion Thread)

Post by **visualdarkness** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:20 am

batdad: Just checked your posted stats, I looks like you're already winning

Post by **batdad** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:53 am

Not necessarily. Trust me, I have lost with much better stats than I am showing here. I do not score as much most of the time. Just luck so far. I have come 2nd and 3rd and out of the running many times. Also, when I do this well...my improvement points do not go very high, and others pass me in years 2 and 3 alot.

I do believe what CatchUp says winning 2nd and 3rd years of challenges is hard to do. Much harder than year 1

mustardstew · Post by **mustardstew** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:47 am

Those are some mighty impressive stats... you are a patient man

So Thomas went to the Islanders, lol. The then proceed to waive Roloson, who gets claimed by the Sens. So they now have Timmy and Dipietro. Wow.

Meanwhile, the Coyotes, virtue of a SO win - over the Isles (hah)!!! get shafted and don't get any goaltender.

The Oilers got beat 2x by the Flames (4-3, 7-4) and then proceed to outshoot the Sharks 45-21 in a 5-3

win. Good times!

Hursa75 · Post by **Hursa75** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:15 pm

Hi !

This is my first challenges. And i start that very bad. I have big problems whit my goalie and defense. I hope i can get my defense little bit better for next 20 games and get my self close to playoff spot.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:23 pm

batdad wrote: I have not yet sent Roy back to Junior and he has played 4 games going 1-3 with 2.78 GAA and 893 save percent. He has a 7.75 rating though. Not sure what I am going to do, but considering he has taken 3 of my losses he is likely going back. Maybe one more game to see how he does.

At his age, I think he needs to play. If you're not going to give him many starts, I think he's going to suffer. Put him back in Junior where he'll be a starter.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:25 pm

batdad wrote: I do believe what CatchUp says winning 2nd and 3rd years of challenges is hard to do. Much harder than year 1

Except for the people that tank the first season when they're not allowed to make trades or signings. Then they do a whole lot better once they've brought in some talent (along with a player that was a high first round pick). If you do consistently well throughout the seasons of the challenge, then it's hard to win years 2 and 3.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:28 pm

Hursa75 wrote:Hi !

This is my first challenges. And i start that very bad. I have big problems whit my goalie and defense. I hope i can get my defense little bit better for next 20 games and get my self close to playoff spot.

Welcome to the challenge! Make sure to read the rules very carefully.

Post by **batdad** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 5:02 pm

bruins72 wrote:
batdad wrote: I do believe what CatchUp says winning 2nd and 3rd years of challenges is hard to do. Much harder than year 1
Except for the people that tank the first season when they're not allowed to make trades or signings. Then they do a whole lot better once they've brought in some talent (along with a player that was a high first round pick). If you do consistently well throughout the seasons of the challenge, then it's hard to win years 2 and 3.

True, I was kind of looking at the teams that try hard to win in year 1. I think most do that. For me it is extremely hard to improve in year 2 and 3...it seems so much harder to win year 2 and 3 of challenges.

As for Roy...I know development states to send back to junior. But I do not think the dude is really gonna get that much better anyway. Maybe, but to me career backup 3rd stringer. If he does the job better than Dubnyk...so be it. Plus with only 3 goalies eligible I do not feel comfortable. Pitton playing scares the rubbish outta me. Figured I would see how he does for 9 games and go from there. Keep him half the year and then send back.

Thomas cleared waivers in my game. He is still with the B's.

FromOC · Post by **FromOC** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:53 pm

I'm in the end of my first season. It's going really bad. Last in totals and conference... and it looks like a poor draft coming up. But I will turn it around..

Tampa Bay (just a few points a head of me) have done these trades:
~Lecavalier to Columbus for Commodore, Strålman, 2nd pick, 3th pick
~Tanguay and Gotovets (who?) for to Montreal for Gomez

I know i would't have done those trades... thats for sure...

Salming · Post by **Salming** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:55 pm

doesnt taylor Hall look good in your game?

Post by **batdad** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:52 pm

Through 28 games Shawn Horcoff has points in EVERY single game save game #11. So 10 game point streak, and now 16 gamer. Outstanding. (And now he will not get a point for 10 games...watch)

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 9:36 pm

So I just wrapped up games 21-40 of season 1. I struggled a bit in this segment. I had JDD out for 12 days with a groin strain and he missed 3 games. That wasn't too bad. Dubnyk actually won all three starts even though he didn't play all that well and let in a lot of goals. The offense really bailed him out. My real struggles have been since Moreau has been out of the lineup. He's got a fractured wrist and he's out for 3 weeks. He's missed 5 games so far. I think his play on the third line really helps round the team out. So does his leadership. Anyhow, we had 1 more win this segment but 5 more losses. We had a lot of OTLs in that first segment and none this time around. Either we win or we lose.

The thing that really hurts our team is our inconsistent special teams. Our PP is the best in the league. We're running at 23.9% and Colorado is next best at 20.9%. That's great. The bad part is our PK. We're currently the worst in the league with 77.5%. That's just atrocious! Calgary leads the league with a 90.2% PK. That's just sick!

Speaking of Calgary, they currently lead the league in points with 63. Next closest are the Red Wings and the Hurricanes (the Hurricanes have played 3 more games than the Red Wings though). We're currently sitting at 4th place in the Western Conference.

Hemsky currently leads the league in points with 64. Horcoff is 4th with 56. O'Sullivan is 9th with 51. Comrie comes in at 15th with 49. Souray and Gilbert are tied for 2nd in points among defensemen. Visnovsky is 9th. O'Sullivan is tied for the lead in rookie scoring with 51 points. Cogliano is 6th with 43.

Círyatan · Post by **Círyatan** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 10:03 pm

bruins72 wrote:The thing that really hurts our team is our inconsistent special teams. Our PP is the best in the league. We're running at 23.9% and Colorado is next best at 20.9%. That's great. The bad part is our PK. We're currently the worst in the league with 77.5%. That's just atrocious! Calgary leads the league with a 90.2% PK. That's just sick!

Same here! Our Powerplay's been really lethal at 24.9%, with Philadelphia second at 20.2%. Penalty Kill is different story, however. 76.5% and that's dead last in the league. I believe I tried everything to get it clicking, but it simply won't. Having Dubnyk in the crease hardly does anything to help, the guy wouldn't be able to stop a beachball thrown at him from 20 yards out by a 3-yr-old girlie. We have brilliant offense and no defense whatsoever.

Speaking of offense. After 42 games Horcoff leads the league in points (69) and assists (46), with Hemský close behind with 65 points and 33 goals. O'Sullivan's eight with 56 pts, Penner and Comrie aren't too far away either. No complaints here. Let's pray it doesn't stop.

Still, it's weird to feel happy come full-time buzzer when your team managed to give up only three or four goals...

Salming · Post by **Salming** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 10:39 pm

Cogliano won calder trophy year 2 after i traded him away. Smid was traded by maple leafs to ATL for some picks.

Whut keeper are u all gonna gun for in seson 2 when u can trade for 1?
lehtonen,corey,mason,di pietro ??

I used my first trade on kessel wich now looks stupid when i look back. But it was damm hard even get a computer team talk about a keeper in trade talks.

Bruins
Yes the teams lacks defensive forwards and its going to get harder, Moreau needs a Ortmeyer,Pyatt player on 3rd line to make partnership with and play in PK1 with.

But the team got so many holes and the old defenders and missing starting keeper needs to be fixed first.

I am gonna play all night, i update tomorow.

Círyatan · Post by **Círyatan** » Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:24 pm

Salming wrote:Whut keeper are u all gonna gun for in seson 2 when u can trade for 1?
lehtonen,corey,mason,di pietro ??

Dude, that's too much for me. I can hardly decipher that.

I don't know. I'm just halfway through the first season and it's a little bit too early to plan anything. I guess I'll just wait and see who's available. Any goalie would be an improvement over the ones I have now, that's for sure.

Good luck with your trades!

Post by **visualdarkness** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 1:02 am

I think Horcoff plays like a god for everyone. Lidas lowered his skill in the 2.2, bit still don't reach the bottom of the real Horcoff:
http://oilers.nhl.com/club/player.htm?id=8467423

Post by **visualdarkness** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:17 am

"Oilers qualifies for playoffs"
Feels good!

Salming · Post by **Salming** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:10 am

good job.

did u get PO spot in first year?

who did u use as keeper?

Post by **visualdarkness** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:53 pm

Salming wrote:good job.

did u get PO spot in first year?

who did u use as keeper?

Easy answer: Deslauriers for 69 of 78 games to the date! At first I wanted to roll JDD and Dubnuk but the later one played just awful and was sent to ECHL and up cam Pitton. I then played JDD for every game he was healthy. He got injured one time but Dubnyk was like a new player after his minor league stint and went 8-8-5-10, not too shabby.

Even though winning the conference may halt my team the next seasons due to drafting I still want to go for it!

cstorring · Post by **cstorring** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 8:56 pm

Although doing rather poorly with the Avs, I am going to take a shot at this one as well, as they make the game more entertaining.

At first glance, I have no idea what to do with the team. The lack of defensive ability is brutal. Clearly goalies will be an issue, but that's the point. Going through the month or so before the start of the season i racked my brain trying to come up with a style but my lack of success making up styles to match teams has continued. Funny, just before this I had started a new game with Columbus and after a handful of games had the least shots against by a landslide, and thought I was getting the hang of defensive tactics. Then, along come the Oilers and lets just say i'm no batdad (sick stats, by the way).

The first three games consisted of a shootout loss and two losses where I gave up 7 goals, which made me sick.
This team is so hard to define when everyone is so evenly mediocre. Having a tough time even making lines that look right. Oh well, time to take a long look and get lucky with lines and tactics, I suppose.

Is anyone using Souray and Visnovski on separate lines to have a d-pairing with a huge shot on two lines? So much stuff to try to figure out with this team.

Anyways, i'm off to attempt to construct a winning team

Post by **Danny** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:43 pm

Successful defensive system in EHM=very difficult. Lots of fiddling around with individual settings required. Wanna play safe...Every player with less than 15 in passing has to pass very safe, no player with less than 15 in stickhandling is allowed to carry the puck and so on and so forth. And trap trap trap

Post by **visualdarkness** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:48 pm

cstorring wrote: Is anyone using Souray and Visnovski on separate lines to have a d-pairing with a huge shot on two lines? So much stuff to try to figure out with this team.

I sometimes do that depending on from and health, but mostly I start with them as the top pairing. I also monitoring my players closely during the games and makes changes like that in the second or third period when needed. Although I don't know to play defense at all (except the PK i gotten hang of), so that is not my cup of tea.

toddpaul · Post by **toddpaul** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:13 am

Danny wrote:Successful defensive system in EHM=very difficult. Lots of fiddling around with individual settings required. Wanna play safe...Every player with less than 15 in passing has to pass very safe, no player with less than 15 in stickhandling is allowed to carry the puck and so on and so forth. And trap trap trap

Really wish I could get a hang of a defensive system. You'd think it'd be easier to do a defense first over an offensive tactic, as it's easier to teach defense than offense.

And I used Lubo with Souray the whole year. Not exactly a shutdown pairing, but put up some nice points.

Post by **visualdarkness** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:24 am

My first season just ended. I finished 5th in the conference but to my frustration I had to face my deepest fear, the Canucks.

First two games actually went ok and I could have won them both if it wasn't for a few players that succumbed under the pressure. Deslauriers played absolutely brutal and for the upcoming I went with Dubnyk. Dubnyk posted 3.00 GAA and 0.902 sv%, pretty good but Luongo was invincible and I lost 0 - 4 without any playoff points.

Bad draft pick here I come...

Post by **Lidas** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 9:35 am

visualdarkness wrote:My first season just ended. I finished 5th in the conference but to my frustration I had to face my deepest fear, the Canucks.

First two games actually went ok and I could have won them both if it wasn't for a few players that succumbed under the pressure. Deslauriers played absolutely brutal and for the upcoming I went with Dubnyk. Dubnyk posted 3.00 GAA and 0.902 sv%, pretty good but Luongo was invincible and I lost 0 - 4 without any playoff points.

Bad draft pick here I come...

Pretty similar to my season.

I reached the playoffs, and was drawn against the Canucks.

Got a 2-1 game lead, but I lost Lubo to injury in the 2nd game, and Gagner+O'Sullivan in the 3rd. My thin squad couldnt handle the key injuries, we lost all momentum and lost the series 2-4.

Off we go to the draft, and the hunt for a new keeper. Could also need some defensive players. I conceded by far the most in the entire league. No team except for me conceded more than 300. I conceded 324...