EHM The Blue Line

I assumed according to the rules that you can only fire a limited number of assistants (1) and it doesn't say anything about being allowed to fire a head coach...

Anyway, I'm finally onto the 40 game mark! It's been a tale of two halves this quarter. We were playing like rubbish, so I decided to do a big overhaul on our tactics. I really have to thank the EHM Guide for our solid results .

Here's our record after my tactic change:

Dec 6 - @ CLB - W 4-1
Dec 8 - V TB - L 3-4
Dec 11 - @ BUF - W 5-3
Dec 13 - V ANA - W 5-1
Dec 15 - V PIT - L 3-5
Dec 18 - @ FLA - W 5-2
Dec 20 - V SJ - L 3-5
Dec 22 - @ PIT - W 5-4
Dec 23 - @ NJ - W 4-2
Dec 26 - @ MTL - OTL 1-2
Dec 27 - V BUF - W 4-3
Dec 29 - @ NYR - W 3-2
Dec 31 - V STL - L 2-3
Jan 3 - V WSH - W 7-4

So, in that 14 game stretch, we have gone 9-4-1, and overall we have finally climbed over .500 with a 18-17-5 record!!! We are 3 points behind Washington, with a game in hand. We're still 23rd on the PP, but our PK (85.2%) is 6th in the league (it's a positive, because our team loves taking penalties). In this quarter, we have gone 11-8-1 and we scored more goals than we allowed for once .

Player wise, Jake Virtanen is our saviour, with 27G and 19A in 40 games. At this pace, he'll be nearing his career high of 56 goals. He's nowhere near last year's pace (100 pts in 67 games!) but we would be closer to 30th in the league standings without him.

Other players contributing:

Aberg - 14G, 23A in 40 games, 7.3
Vandersteen - 13G, 19A in 38 games, 6.97
Skoda - 13G, 19A in 38 games, 7.39 (he's especially been amazing, We were struggling and I benched Owens and put him on the second line and he's playing like a beast. Leading all rookies in scoring)
Schenn - 5G, 23A in 37 games, 7.30 (he's doing the two things I want him to do: win faceoffs, and give Virtanen the puck)
Jacobson - 12G, 15A in 39 games, 7.62 (if he can survive a full season and play 90% of our games, he will have career highs in everything)
Skudra - 9G, 11A in 39 games, 7.54 (can't really ask much more since he only plays 10 mins a night. Surpassed his rookie output already)
Khomutov - 8G, 11A in 35 games, 7.46 (only a 3rd line center, but I think he's really improved in that role. Would be very happy if he keeps his current pace and reaches 20 goals)

Defense also improving. Pairings Carrier-Gormley, Severson-Berthet, Liebsch-MacKinnon/Prikryl are great. Riekkinen hasn't had much of an opportunity to play, because we're on a roll and I'm not gonna mess with the lineup.

I've been playing Bernier for the majority of games (he's played in 35 already) and he's holding up well. Reijasalo has been average in spot duty, but Woodcroft (P-Bruins) and Jimme Astrom (S Carolina) have been great in the minors. Our AHL affiliate sucked last season but this year they're fighting for 2nd in the division.

Prospects:

Top prospect Ted Schroeder doing okay, 29 points in 40 games. Plays good defense, but he's tiny (5'9", 165).
#2 prospect Dicks sucks. Still trying to find a good trade for him.
#3 prospects Hans Downing averaging ppg pace at Michigan Tech, will go to Providence.

We have 4 prospects (#4 Prikryl, #5 Skoda, #6 MacKinnon, #11 Noble) who have made their debuts in the NHL this season.

Trade wise, I'm narrowing it down to Dicks or Owens. Still can't find a good trade. I won't trade any of our older players (Bernier, Gormley, Schenn, Aberg) because they're worth much more than a 2nd rounder and I need them for my playoff push...

6th October 2024 is here, let's make some news about team.

Staff In:

Alan Voučko (Croatian, I need to have him) - Assistant Coach
Nicklas Lidstrom - Assistant GM, I need to sack other GM, he's traitor and he "help" to build this team up, he doesn't deserve to be here. Only problem is that I take this one from Medveščak Zagreb, eh.

Samuel Bergin - Head Scout
Bryan Vines - Scout
Erick Durencau - Scout

Bentley, Leach, Benning, Whitesides out. Interesting thing, Boston ex GM Joe Will is now in Providence when I put all new staff list there.

Draft:

#6 - Herman Dicks RW/LW
#36 - Zech MacKinnon RD
#66 - Laurent Bellier C
#96 - Gaetan Caillard LW
#109 - Marty Thocker RW
#126 - Ian O'Brien RW/LW
#186 - Woddy Kaufman RD/LD

Almost all I want.

Players Out:

Rousell, Tessier, Lauko, Parise, Calvert, Cheechoo, Rychel, Shalla, Rouleau, Arneson, Liebsch, Mathieu. That lasy fool Anisimov retires after resign in my game too.

Players In:

Dicks, Kaufman, Aquino, Borzik, MacKinnon, Thocker, Bellier, Ellis, Audette, O'Brien, Noble, Serebryakov, Kučera.

I have space, so, why not. In three years I will have enough space to pay them and maybe some of them become something in this team.

Still thinking about line-up and I have some things to do and this will wait few hours.

EDIT: Yes, board want Stanley there and NHL Preview told 27th. Board is realistic, that's good.

Wow... so that was the worst season I've ever had in EHM. These are dark times for my Bruins. We finished last in the East and next to last in the league. I just couldn't get these guys clicking. Every time I'd think I'd have them going in the right direction, somebody would go down for a week or two and cause me to shuffle the lineup. Plus, I never really figured out my 6th defenseman. Berthet was always at low morale because his game ratings were so low. I tried bringing in other guys but they suffered the same fate.

So the Kings won the Stanley Cup, beating the Rangers. We went into the draft with the 2nd overall pick. Our 1st round pick looks good but overall I was pretty disappointed with this draft.

#2 Travis Pelletier LW/RW 6'2" 178 lbs
#32 Kenneth Paolini LD/RD 6'3" 167 lbs
#62 Roman Dunayev LD 6'5" 202 lbs
#92 Korey Bourque RW 6'3" 207 lbs
#122 Nic Carrier C/LW 6' 178 lbs
#135 Raffaele Boutin LW 6'1" 211 lbs
#152 Enrico Daniels LD/RD 6'1" 174 lbs
#182 Maxime Clayton RW 5'11" 174 lbs

There didn't seem to be a ton of talent outside the first round so I mostly went with size. I also went with guys that had the physical and mental elements that I like. We'll see how it plays out. I'm not holding my breath for these guys.

Now I've just got to sim through to July 1st so I can get my last screenshot. I wonder how hard of a time I'll have trying to sign a UFA with my team coming off such a bad season.

Curious B72--What is the rule on coach hire and fire? Not one draft the same as mine but likely difference in position killed that.

Head Coach-if you fire him does that count as your coach staff firing?

Head Coach firing does NOT count against a staff firing. You're only limited in your firing of Assistant Coaches and Scouts. You can fire Assistant GMs, Trainers, and Head Coaches as often as you want.

So I've agreed in principle for a trade:

To Bruins: C Ryne Pare - he's 21 and was the first overall pick in the '23 draft. He had a solid rookie season with the Flyers (11G, 23A in 74 games, 7.14 rating). This season he has 3G, 13 A in 39 games, 7.18). He's also willing to take the body and block shots which is always a plus. Pare is a career 56% on faceoffs so one of our centers will have to play the wing. He's only playing 4th line minutes for them right now.

To Flyers: W Herman Dicks - 12 points (3G-9A) in 22 games, 6.55 so far in Providence. Enjoy him Philly!

My first choice was 23 y/o LW Nevin Pelletier, who fits a need at LW and scored 34 goals last season. Ducks weren't willing to deal him though, so Pare is the next best thing right now. I rather deal Dicks now than near the deadline if he somehow injures himself again.

I wouldn't mind trading a pick for the right player but my preference is at most to give up my 3rd rounder.

In other news, Sabres announced our old coach, Jeff Kealty, as their new head coach. Hope they enjoy his coaching skills!

B72: Where did Ted Schroeder and Cody Quenneville go in your draft? I wanted Pelletier but he wasn't available at #3.

rancer890 wrote: B72: Where did Ted Schroeder and Cody Quenneville go in your draft? I wanted Pelletier but he wasn't available at #3.

Schroeder went 6th and Quenneville went 11th. Schroeder didn't really interest me but I did take a good look at Quenneville. He looked pretty good but I liked Pelletier just a little bit better.

There was a small group of guys I had hoped to pick from in the second round that I thought were really good. Apparently, other teams thought the same thing. Gianni Pasche, Robert Phillip, and Michaell Barber were all guys that I had shortlisted and really liked. I would have been happy to have grabbed any of them in the second round. They were all ranked in the 40's so I didn't think it would be too much of a stretch that I would get one of them. They were all taken in the second half (16, 20, and 22) of the 1st round.

Just went through the draft and signed my free agent. Got Albin Nordström with my first round pick at #17, with my second round pick i picked up Mojmir Bondra and with my third round pick i got Bryan Battani. In the summer i managed to sign Dmitrij Jaskin to a cap hit of $3m, he will start as my 2nd line LW with special team duties. Overall i'm happy with my off season, i also signed alot of the prospects we had rights to. I'm really glad Jaskin signed, exactly what i needed. Speed, size, scoring and PK.

Finally! Something is going my way. My #1 UFA target accepted our offer. We signed super-stud 2024/2025 NHL leading scorer (57 G 74 A), Anton Karlsson! We signed him to a 3 year deal with a cap hit at $2.995M. He should be just what we need. He's a LW. He's big, fast, strong, and physical. He's got elite offensive skills and very good defensive skills. He's the man!

My Assistant GM, Andrei Nikolishin has accepted the Head Coach position that was vacated when Kealty's contract expired. I brought Andrew Shaw in as my new AGM. I dropped Geoff Ward from my coaching staff and brought in Pierre-Paul Lamoureux as a new Assistant Coach. Now, it's July 7th and I haven't looked at making any trades yet. I'd really like to land a good RD. I need somebody big and defensive-minded. I'm also open to trading for a top notch goalie. I'm not convinced that any of these guys that we have in the system are the rock solid starter that we need. Still, things are moving in the right direction!

Game 2 with Ryan Pare: 1 goal, 3 assists, 12 PIM in 14:15. Dicks scored in his Flyers debut as well.

Jake Virtanen has been on fire: 7 goals in the past 5 games. He already has 34 goals, 23 assists this season (47 games).

Current lines:

Virtanen - Schenn - Skoda
Jacobson - Pare - Aberg
Khomutov - Vandersteen - Fahas
Noble - Skudra - Stoughton

Carrier - Riekkinen
Severson - Gormley
Beausoleil - MacKinnon

Bernier
Reijasalo

IR - Zakharov
Spares - Liebsch, Berthet, Owens

FA first season seems to be a mashup of the 4 guys I chased down, and got one to sign.

Sam Bennett, Anders Karlsson, Jake Virtanen, and I forget the other one right now. I think all 4 are draft eligible this year. Maybe not Karlsson

48 games in 4th in conference. Lines when healthy (which I am not right now--Rhino missing a week)


Bennett-Reinhart-Owens
Jacobson-Vandersteen (schenn)-Aberg
Groleau-Schenn(Vsteen)-Skoda (Fahas here some times)
Khomotov-Skudra-Fahas (petterson or Groleau here some times)
Brouwer-Petterson

Severson-Riekkinen
Carrier-Berthet
Liebsch-Rouleau
Chauvel

Bernier
Haas (Hurt so Woodcroft up)

So, here we go... Boston Bruins line up for season 2024-25 is:

Eriksson - Owens - Vandersteen
Jacobson - Schenn - Aberg
Khomutov - Zakharov - Fahas
Polyanski - Skudra - Brouwer

Carrier - Riekkinen
Beausoleil - Berthet
Severson - Gormley

Bernier
Haas

Healthy Scratch:

Goalie: Serebryakov
Defender: Kaufman and Paltamaa
Winger: O'Brien
Center: Noble

For now, I'm very happy how it look with my ultra offensive tactics in first two lines, offensive third and aggressive fourth line. Of course, some tweaks are done, but it works really good. That Jacobson is crazy guy, AvR in first 6 games over 9. Second line works perfect, looks more like first line, and first is good. Looks like I have deep forward, lol.

Also, playing only with 20 guys, we'll see how it goes after.

Resign: Carrier, Polyanski, Gormley, Owens, Khomutov, Haas, Skudra, Fahas, Zakharov and Beausoleil. Most for just a year, probably 3 for two years. I doubt I'll have a problem with cap in next three years.

19th game, Vandersteen 2 months out. Heh. O'Brien in 4th and PP, Brouwer in 1st and 2 goals in first game there, nice.

Not bad for me at 20 games mark. 11-7-2. 24 points, 0.600, 8th place, 3 points in front Pens. Now my first stats upload.

EDIT: Unbelievable, Riekkinen request move. Really great, that newspaper stories are for chickens.

Going down really hard, 6-12-2 in second quarter with some top 6 injuries. Looking for top 10 draft pick.

So it's the Olympic break and I send down Noble and Pare to play in the AHL. 4th game for Pare and he tears his ACL. Out 3 months (pretty much season ending). Sigh. There goes my 2nd line center and my best PK guy.

Then Vandersteen twists his knee when the Olympics semi-finals occur. Brilliant.

Oh and the final is on March 1, the same day we resume NHL hockey games, so in addition to 2 injuries, I lose 4 players (including my 2 goalies). And then we lose of course.

Good news though at the 60 game mark: 32-22-6 and we're 4th in the East. Bad news is the following:

4th - BOS - 70pts
5th - TB - 69
6th - MTL - 69
7th - NJ - 69
8th - NYI - 68
===
9th - CAR - 68
10th - DET - 64
11th - OTT - 61

I would be annoyed if I missed the playoffs and was fired again because of freaking ACL injuries. I have to make the playoffs.

BTW is there anyway of knowing who will ref a game before it starts?

Stephane Noble is your best PK?

No not Noble. At best he's a 3rd line centerman. Pare was my second line centerman and on my PK before the injury. I sent both of them down to get them some PT in the AHL during the break.

I've made it to game 40 in my first season and I'm doing a lot better than I thought. 21-14-5 has me 6th in the East, but I'm only 2 points back from the Maple Leafs for the Northeast Division. If I can overtake them in the second half I'll lock up the 3rd slot. (probably harder than it sounds with their firepower - who the heck is Jack Eichel? He has Crosby-like attributes)

Troy Jacobson is my best forward and has 23g 21a +17 and an avr of 8.07 in 40 games. My top line was Jacobson-Owens-Aberg and they played really well until Ownes blew out his elbow (UCL). I called up Stephane Noble and sent him to the second line and moved Schenn up to the top line. Schenn's done pretty well between Jacobson and Aberg, but the last two games against the Lightning weren't pretty.

Alexandre Carrier is my best defenseman with 3g 17a +21 and an avr or 7.94 in 32 games. He's also currently injured with a rotator cuff strain but should be back in a week or so.

Overall I'm happy with my team's even strength performance considering the mix of players we inherited. Special teams are a concern though, specifically my PP, which is at 8.6%. I'll tinker with it a little bit and see if I can get them scoring. If I can hold on and make the playoffs then special teams will either win or lose games for us.

I ended up signing my first three picks Herman Dicks, Jadon Grouleau, and Fredric Axell. If you recall, I sent them all back to juniors for this season. Here's their stats:

1st round: Herman Dicks @ Kootenay Ice - 33g 36a +31 avr 8.34 in 35 games
2nd round: Jadon Grouleau @ Barrie Colts - 27g 26a +11 avr 7.86 in 36 games
3rd round: Fredric Axell @ Shawinigan Cataractes - 22g 24a +13 avr 7.89 in 36 games

I'm not sure what I'll do with them next season. I'm tempted to keep Dicks just because some of the other guys are trading him (even if I have to send him back for another junior year).

Depending on how the next 20 games go I may throw in another update, otherwise I'll summarize the second half after game 82.

P.S. - Along with Eichel, there are a ton of newly created guys with all green attributes: Connor McDavid, Matt Barzal, Tyler Benson, Roland McKeown, Ryan Pilon, Nick Ritchie, Rasmus Andersson, Jack Eichel, Jared McCann, and the list goes on... Seems like they need to fix them in the next DB update. Also, doesn't seem like the consistency adjustment has affected scoring. There are seven guys on pace for 120 pt seasons and 16 more on pace for 100 pt seasons. Not sure about the PIM adjustment though, as my team is a bunch of wussies that probably wouldn't take a lot of penalties anyway.

Eichel, McDavid, Strome, Barzal, Pylon, Andersson, Noel... all players who will be available on draft 2015. Most of people already say that this will be best draft ever. At least, that draft have a ton of good centers, maybe not all of them new Crosby like (McDavid have probably same number as Crosby in juniors), but most of them are first line potential centers. Also, that draft have few all-around defenders and goalie like Maxim Tretyak.

At least, that draft will be good like 2003 draft. That's why people talk about stupid Garth Snow trade with Vanek, because almost any of teams in NHL don't want to trade their 2015 1st and 2nd round picks.

About my game, almost near end of the regular season, how it looks like:

7th Red Wings 73G 83P
8th Devils 71G 82P
9th Bruins 73G 81P

This will be interesting, because Bruins are hot right now.

Someone made a mistake in this DB so the 2014-2016/2017 draftees are really overpowered. That's probably the reason to the high amount of scoring aswell, atleast part of the reason. I'm also going to keep Dicks, i still believe in him

Dammit, I thought I would be original for keeping Dicks.

Well, nice season for me, go into playoff, but Rangers are too much. Not really all of them, only Price. Can't score more then 1/40+, so... it's mostly him. One win is our limit for now.

Next point, draft... and finally chance to sign something usefull.

So I'm torn on Berthet. Are people keeping him? If so, do you use him on the PP or just even strength and PK? He's got that 20 in creativity and okay passing but his shot isn't that great. He's not fast and my scouts say he's a defensive defenseman (obviously with his defensive attributes being so high). I'd really like some opinions on this guy.

I will keep Berthet, and he only plays ES and PK. He does have the worse rating out of my d-men, but I think if I can sign another defemseman in FA, maybe it'll help him get better. And he's too valuable of an asset to give away imo. He can be a good trade candidate next season (along with Owens).

The 2015 drafted players are overrated in 6.1. Something odd happened, and mistakes were made. They will be corrected for the future. Some of the 2014 players as well (Reinhart, Virtanen)

Berthet sucks. So would be gone if I could afford to lose the little midget. Plays 2nd unit PP for me, although Petterson steals it some time (as he is competent on RD or LD, cannot remember which one). Carrier sucks, Riekkinen sucks, all my D suck. Severson is competent

And I forgot to mention


Game 59

Reinhart out for 2 months
Skudra out for 2 weeks
Nobel out for 2 weeks

Game 61
Aberg goes out.


Yeah, lost game 59 3-0 and game 60 4-0. Beat Flames 6-1 in game 61

So there goes some of my offensive production.

I looked at using Berthet as a trade piece during our trade window in the offseason. My AGM was acting like I was crazy for trying to trade him. Oh and my team report ranks him as my number 1 defenseman! I'm guessing this is solely because of his defensive attributes because it's sure not based on his play. I'm about to start the regular season. I'll probably try working a deal to ship him out once I can trade again. I'll have to bring in a RD to replace him though because I don't think Prikryl or Kaufman are ready for the NHL yet.