Challenge 18: Baie-Comeau Drakkar (Discussion Thread)

Post by **McQwak** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:26 pm

His attributes look quite standard

It must be due to some hidden one.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:28 pm

Those characteristics don't indicate somebody that would cause problems. Hmmm... maybe your team really is full of xenophobes?

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:00 pm

So the end of season awards came out. I was pleased to see Maxime Lamarche win the award for best defensive defenseman. Nobody else won any awards but honestly, I didn't expect to win any at all. So this was a pleasant surprise.

Rouyn-Noranda won the President's Cup. Barrie won the Memorial Cup.

I'm doing my draft and oh boy is it terrible! I've got the second overall pick and a fat lot of good that did for me. There is nobody good in this draft. I took 6'3" 196 lb defenseman Tadz McClintock. Too bad his attributes don't look too hot. I won't bother detailing my other picks. Ugh!

The import draft went a little better. I picked 4th and was able to grab Victor Rask. In the second round I took Marcus Sorensen. I took him in the Sarnia challenge too but he looks a little better in this one. If not, he's at least good enough to hold me over until the third season.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:00 pm

So I'm getting a start on season 2. Preseason rankings had us at 15th. So that's a move up in the world. The board expects us to make the playoffs. Maybe we'll actually do it this time? Rankings by position came out. Dunnett is ranked 8th among goalies. Rask is ranked 3rd among rookies. Also, Danny Dupont, a 6'4" 205 lbs LW I drafted, is ranked 8th among rookies but he really doesn't look all that special. He's certainly going to be sent down to our farm team. I've got more talented (barely) rookies than him that will make the team.

Post by **macdman** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:18 pm

oh god I wish i had more time to play its taking me forever to finish season 1.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 3:03 pm

macdman wrote:oh god I wish i had more time to play its taking me forever to finish season 1.

I know what you mean. I usually play slow but that first season too me forever to finish!

Post by **McQwak** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 3:30 pm

Well, that was just great. 3 of my 4 assistant coaches and assistant GM retired during July

It's impossible to get Jank signed. I offered him bonuses and still no success.

Overall, I improved my roster with fresh draftees (Hudon, Paquin) and am ready to season 2

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 4:53 pm

Ouch! Bad luck on the staff! How good was your remaining assistant? I guess on the bright side, you've got 3 open hiring spots!

I don't think Jank can be signed. I gave up on him. If a European player is under contract to a team, it's pretty much impossible to convince him to sign with a CHL team. He looks fairly talented but to be honest, I'm not heartbroken that he won't join us. I think I've got more depth on defense. I needed help up front.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:17 pm

I am not going to get through even season 1. Just no time.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:24 pm

How far have you gotten? The challenge ends November 1st.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:43 pm

Yeah I know. I will not get any time. I am cleaning up house to sell it.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:49 pm

Ugh! I can't imagine what a PITA that is! Going through the whole home-buying process was bad enough. Good luck!

Post by **batdad** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:53 pm

Its a huge pain. But the house has over doubled in value since we bought it...and it is time to move on and reap the profits. Getting something a little smaller, with no yard.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 6:00 pm

Good luck! Right now I've got just enough room and just enough yard. I hope that doesn't change too much as the boys get older because I really don't want to have to move again... not for a long time. When we moved in I told my wife that I was going to die here because I'd be damned if I moved again.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 6:19 pm

And if she was smart she would have said..then my dear, you will die alone.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:45 pm

Nah! She's as sick of moving as I am. She agreed.

So I'm in October of season 2. The ISS rankings just came out and I've got 3 players ranked for the NHL Draft. The highest was Victor Rask, ranked 19th. He's been excellent for us so far. In 9 games he has 11 points (5G 6A), 4 PIM and he's a +2. Not too shabby! So far he's been my #2 center but he might have to move up to #1, bumping Caron down to #2. My 1st round pick (#2 overall) from the QMJHL draft was Tadz McClintock and the ISS has him ranked 123rd for the NHL Draft. My 2nd round pick from the QMJHL draft was Ryan Tesink. The ISS has him ranked 187th in the NHL draft.

I've had a nice start to the second season but it's been a strange one. I'll start with goaltending. Of course, I went into the season with Dunnett penciled in as my starting goalie. He was one of the bright spots last season. Rajotte was okay and Giroux spent the season with the farm team. I drafted 2 young goalies that looked decent, Perez (#21 overall) and Ribourg (#33 overall). My team report rates Ribourg as the team's top goalie. He didn't impress me much at training camp and Perez's attributes looked better, so I sent Ribourg down to the farm team and went with Perez as my backup. Well Dunnett hasn't quite shined and Perez has gotten some starts. He looks like he's stealing the starting goaltending spot. In 4 games, Perez has 4 wins, 244 minutes, 6 GA, 1.48 GAA, and a .942 SV%. Dunnet on the other hand has 3 wins, 2 losses, 305 minutes, 16 GA, 3.15 GAA, and a .869 SV%. I'm going to ride Perez for a bit.

This season a few players lost their roster spots due to the overage player limits. Dunnett, Boilard, and Samson were the overage guys to make my roster. Boilard mostly made the cut because he didn't have much competition at LW. Other guys weren't so lucky. Laperriere played 67 games for us last year but he was moved down to the farm team because he was overage. I went with Lizotte in his place. So far, Lizotte is doing pretty good. Richer played 45 games with us last season but he wasn't so great, so even if he wasn't overage, he wouldn't have made the cut. Villeneuve, on the other hand, would have made our roster if he weren't overage. He played 66 games with us and at times looked decent. He might have won the 4th line center spot if he weren't overage. The biggest name to drop from the roster due to overage limits was Langelier-Parent. He was our 1st or 2nd line RW all of last season, playing 70 games and putting up 51 points. He didn't make the cut because we were able to draft pretty well at RW. That's a shame.

Parisien isn't an overage player but he got bumped from a roster spot early on in the season. I wanted to start my #1 pick, McClintock and Parisien got sent down. Well, McClintock got injured and now Parisien is making a strong case for staying with the big club. He's got 5 points in 4 games!

After 9 games we're currently 7-2. Let's see if we can carry on with the good play and make a strong showing in the 1st quarter stats!

Laker2415 · Post by **Laker2415** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:19 pm

[quote="bruins72"]Ouch! Bad luck on the staff! How good was your remaining assistant? I guess on the bright side, you've got 3 open hiring spots!

I don't think Jank can be signed. I gave up on him. If a European player is under contract to a team, it's pretty much impossible to convince him to sign with a CHL team. He looks fairly talented but to be honest, I'm not heartbroken that he won't join us. I think I've got more depth on defense. I needed help up front.[/quote]

I was able to sign him for season 2.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:33 pm

Really? Nice work. I never seem to be able to pull off those moves to get contracted Euros over. Did his team release him or something? I know if my game, his team loaned him out to another team in October.

Laker2415 · Post by **Laker2415** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 1:58 am

His European team released him and I was able to sign him, which shocked me. He's been a great penalty killer in the first 5 games of season 2 and we've been rotating him between the 2nd and 3rd d pairs.

What's shocking to me, Darveau, who had over 20 goals last year, is having difficulty cracking the lineup this season. Which is great news for a team that lost to Little Caesars U16, the Toronto Junior Canadiens and the Colorado Thunderbirds in a pre-season tournament.

hypno · Post by **hypno** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 10:15 pm

I can't the friggin' info on the challange (or any other challenge for that matter). Looked everywhere on the forums now and still nothing, not even a hint of where to find it. So, where do I find the info to this challenge (and others)?

Post by **McQwak** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 8:18 am

hypno, read through the Challenge rules in the top left corner of this page. Especially #1: Gaining Entry to the Challenge & Game Setup. If you have any question regarding rules etc. post it here. Simple, isn't it?

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 3:30 pm

I just wrapped up my first quarter of the second season and I've seen a vast improvement over the first season. 11-6 is a much better start. I'm scoring a good deal more than I'm allowing now too (74 GF vs 50 GA). I think the biggest difference has been our power play. We just couldn't score on the power play in season 1 and we were always on the PK (and giving up goals). So far, our PP is running at 21.4%. Our PK still isn't that efficient, running at 79.8% but we're taking less penalties, so that helps.

In goal, Perez has cooled off some. He's no longer putting up insane numbers but he's still solid with a 5-2 record, 17 GA, 2.30 GAA, and a .912SV%. He's still out-performing Dunnett (6-4, 33 GA, 3.39 GAA, and a .866SV%). I tried Rask at #1 center for a few games. He started off doing really well there but then it seemed to mess with line chemistry because some players got cold due to the new line setup. So Rask went back to the 2nd line for now and Caron is back on top. Parisien has been one of our top defensemen since coming up to replace the injured McClintock. Once the rookie McClintock came off his injury, he was sent to the farm team and Parisien kept the spot on the main roster. I thought RW was going to be a strong position for us but neither Tesink nor Sorensen have really flourished.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with our start to the second season.

Marsac · Post by **Marsac** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:32 am

I completed my second draft a few days ago, picking up a new starter and two top four defensemen. The other picks weren't anything special but we'll see how they develop. Did you know that everyone in Europe plays RW? Me either but the import draft seemed to be full of them. Ended up drafting two RWs, one of them might be ready for a depth role this season and replaces my second round pick from last season on the roster. I was temped to release Tvrdon instead but I'll wait and see how he performs in the pre-season.

The team is kind of weak down the middle right now but solid goaltending and defense should keep the goals against down to win us some close games.

Post by **timmy_t** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:52 am

I'm curious to know if anyone has completed (or will complete) a fifth season. I'm getting the bug to move on to bigger things...

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:28 pm

I haven't had too much time to play lately. I'm still in the middle of my second season. I'll be lucky to finish the second season. I hope some folks are able to complete 5 seasons or more though.