EHM The Blue Line

I just had Wolski score at 08:39, 10:12 and 15:38 of the first period to open up a 3-0 lead over the the Oilers. He's totally on fire for me right now.

Speaking of on fire....
O'Reilly - Erie Otters - 14 GP - 16 G - 15 A - 31 PTS +10
Duchene - Brampton Battalion - 14 GP - 19 G - 20 A - 39 PTS +24
Shattenkirk - Guelph Storm - 20 GP - 7 G - 29 A - 36 PTS +12

Oh snap.

Well while manageing last place by 4 points at least my scoring and powerplay have improved slightly

Anyone else had sudden bursts of 6-0, 6-1 or wins like that? after losing 8 out of 11 my team smashes 3 games scoring 18-3!

alexob18 wrote:I can't believe you have Quincey on the wing... that actually makes me laugh a bit.

Same..but it works after all the injuries I've had he preform better on the wings than the depth players do.

10 games in we're 7-2-1, that's alot better than I could have ever hoped for. I kept Duchene but sent back O'Reilly, in hindsight perhaps a better option would have been to teach him to play second line LW. Duchene's playing third/checking line C and second PP LW right now but I expect him to be the second line C by the end of the season. 1G 6A -2 so far.

I'm having trouble finding a LW who works on the second line but Koci is making a strong case for a top six tryout. He has 1G 7A +7 playing fourth line minutes (6:44 ATOI). Ofcourse the trouble is that he's always in the box so if I put him on the second line Wolski or Stastny will probably end up playing way to many minutes and we will be shorthanded more than I'd like with the PK at a horrible 79.6%.

Teaching Quincy to play LW is certainly an interesting option as well but right now he is out for about a month.

I expect thing to turn around for the worse in the coming games as I now have Quincey and Foote on the IR, Ryan Wilson is -4 in 3 games.

Just finishing pre-season. The 2nd line left wing seems to be a bit of an issue here, I played Galiardi on the second line in the exhibitions, but he failed to impress. Tried Hensick also, but I guess I'll stick with Tucker in the opening games, even though he doesn't seem to be much of a player in this DB.

I considered signing Elliott and/or Barrie, but finally decided to keep my prospects where they are for now. Also, I sent O'Reilly down to the juniors, but I'm going to let Duchene start the season with the big team. If he doesn't produce, I'll think about sending him back to OHL as well, and let Hensick centre the 2nd line.

Did a few changes to the staff. Al Murray and Bob McCammon were hired as Scouts, and I also signed Peter Laviolette as Assistant Coach in favour of Paul Goldberg. Finally, I decided to fire Chris Billington and replace him with Bobby Carpenter.

Can't wait for the opening game.

I found Hensick to be a decent 2nd line LW. He put up 48 points and just under 7 rating in a playmaker role to Duchene and Svatos.

Although i just finished 3rd last in the confrence so that decision could of been one to cost me games

Haha you shoulda just bombed and taken Hall. He can fit right in on that second line.

Sigh, I thought the second season would be better, got Ovi with my trade, then proceeded to loose Hejduk and Anderson to injuries. Oy, 14th place still.

tksolway wrote:Sigh, I thought the second season would be better, got Ovi with my trade, then proceeded to loose Hejduk and Anderson to injuries. Oy, 14th place still.

You landed Ovi???

Who the heck did you ship out?? Duchene and Stastny? Jebus.

tksolway wrote:Sigh, I thought the second season would be better, got Ovi with my trade, then proceeded to loose Hejduk and Anderson to injuries. Oy, 14th place still.

I'm just wondering what was the price...

Meanwhile, after 9 games, I have a record of 6-3-0, so it's not that bad. However, there simply is no consistency in that team. My last two games were a 5-1 win at Montréal, followed by a 1-4 slump at home to the Kings. Lotsa work to do!

Right now I'm 19-1-4.
Not too shabby.
Counting on a win against a not so great Oilers team.

CatchUp wrote:I just had Wolski score at 08:39, 10:12 and 15:38 of the first period to open up a 3-0 lead over the the Oilers. He's totally on fire for me right now.

I've had a few guys go on streaks for me but nothing that last too long. Not even long enough to get the streak news item.

CatchUp wrote:Speaking of on fire....
O'Reilly - Erie Otters - 14 GP - 16 G - 15 A - 31 PTS +10
Duchene - Brampton Battalion - 14 GP - 19 G - 20 A - 39 PTS +24
Shattenkirk - Guelph Storm - 20 GP - 7 G - 29 A - 36 PTS +12

Oh snap.

Jeez! O'Reilly hasn't been that hot in Erie in my game. He's got 23 points in 22 games since being sent back. I hope I didn't screw him up by keeping him with the team for 9 games. Duchene is still doing okay with the Avs but not as good as he started out. His stamina has caught up to him. I had to move him down to 3rd line center because he was exhausted after games. He's still on the 2nd PP though. I wonder if I should have signed Shattenkirk? Maybe Cohen too? Next year!

Marsac wrote:10 games in we're 7-2-1, that's alot better than I could have ever hoped for. I kept Duchene but sent back O'Reilly, in hindsight perhaps a better option would have been to teach him to play second line LW. Duchene's playing third/checking line C and second PP LW right now but I expect him to be the second line C by the end of the season. 1G 6A -2 so far.

I'm having trouble finding a LW who works on the second line but Koci is making a strong case for a top six tryout. He has 1G 7A +7 playing fourth line minutes (6:44 ATOI). Ofcourse the trouble is that he's always in the box so if I put him on the second line Wolski or Stastny will probably end up playing way to many minutes and we will be shorthanded more than I'd like with the PK at a horrible 79.6%.

Teaching Quincy to play LW is certainly an interesting option as well but right now he is out for about a month.

I expect thing to turn around for the worse in the coming games as I now have Quincey and Foote on the IR, Ryan Wilson is -4 in 3 games.

I ended up putting Tucker on the 2nd line LW recently. He hasn't been that great though. Maybe I'll have Willsie switch wings and move up a line? You know who has been doing pretty well at LW? Durno! I put him on Duchene's LW on the 3rd line and he's been doing pretty well. I don't know if he could handle the 2nd line though.

20 Game in and its going to be a long hard season just to finish 7th - 10th.

I dont see anyone using Chris Stewart, I have him on my Second line learning Left Wing and Contributing a point a game.
Him Hedjuk and Hensick are really helping with the secondary scoring.

Duchesne is running things in the OHL for me, so good to see he will step into my top 6 next season.

Ryan O'Reilly is playing well as well, probably will be my Number 2 center behind Duchesne.

Has anyone made any calls on who gets resigned?

It's New Years Eve in my game right now and I just got the message about contracts expiring in 6 months. So I set about offering contracts to my guys. Really, with the way the rules are set up, you almost have to re-sign everyone and then dump whoever you don't need via waivers later on. So I made a couple contract offers and players wanted modest increases. So far so good. Then I get to Hejduk. I'm expecting him to want a big increase. Instead, he asks for less than he's currently making! He's making $3.9M right now and asked for a 3 year deal for $3.01M per season! He's got the Avs listed as one of his favorite clubs, so I guess he's giving us a "hometown discount".

Another 20 games in and the team still isn't clicking, I just haven't found line combos or tactics that work for more than a couple games. Svatos has been down for months and it seems 70% of players have gone down for at least 10 days at a time at some point. What a challenge, haha.

On the bright side, O'Reilly is killing the OHL with 2 points per game and Duchene is playing well as a 2nd/3rd line C with PP time.

Gotta get special teams clicking, I have the most opportunities on the PP with a horrible percentage and the most Penalty kills, also with a horrible percentage.

Bruins72, I was also able to sign Hejduk for less, at 2.9 M/season, which was a nice surprise.

Here's to hoping the team picks up

You guys killed me with signings.

Hedjuk did not want a raise, but he did not want to cut his salary either. He may score 50 for me, so all in all I can not complain.

Looks like I will be resigning everyone other then Salei. I got Foote to sign on for 2.5 next season, which is a little expensive for a 4-6 defenceman, but It opens up trade options.

TJ Hensick has been the biggest surprise thus far, point a game on the second line and his attributes are moving up.

Oh man, with injuries to Hejduk, Svatos and Wolski my top line is Jones, Stastny, Mcleod. But I just won the last two games after a few tweaks, and they were the most solid games all season. McLeod's ratings the last 5 games are 9-9-7-9-9 so something's working. Just hope this isn't a horrible joke the game's playing on me, something's got to give..

cstorring wrote:Oh man, with injuries to Hejduk, Svatos and Wolski my top line is Jones, Stastny, Mcleod. But I just won the last two games after a few tweaks, and they were the most solid games all season. McLeod's ratings the last 5 games are 9-9-7-9-9 so something's working. Just hope this isn't a horrible joke the game's playing on me, something's got to give..

I can only Imagine. I lost Svatos for about 2 weeks and went winless without him. He comes back and all of a sudden I string off 5 straight wins. There just is not enough depth to survive any injury.

First challenge participant here!

Maybe it is the game trying to prove to me that challenges are in fact challenging but...

Before the season starts:

Stastny - out 2 months
Tucker - out 1 month
Liles - out 2 months

I was pretty much forced to keep Duchene and O'reilly to start the season with a possibly competitive roster.

Geeeez, beginners bad luck?

markw96861 wrote:First challenge participant here!

Maybe it is the game trying to prove to me that challenges are in fact challenging but...

Before the season starts:

Stastny - out 2 months
Tucker - out 1 month
Liles - out 2 months

I was pretty much forced to keep Duchene and O'reilly to start the season with a possibly competitive roster.

Geeeez, beginners bad luck?

It seems so!

alexob18 wrote:

tksolway wrote:Sigh, I thought the second season would be better, got Ovi with my trade, then proceeded to loose Hejduk and Anderson to injuries. Oy, 14th place still.

You landed Ovi???

Who the heck did you ship out?? Duchene and Stastny? Jebus.

wolski and svatos

There are several forwards on this team that really confuse me.

Durno has no role, yet some players are having success with him. Then there is the Galiardi / Mcleod / Hensick combo. I wish i could melt them down and make on good checking forward.

High work rate, stamina, bravery, positioning, faceoff, bleh.

Johnnyluc wrote: Looks like I will be resigning everyone other then Salei. I got Foote to sign on for 2.5 next season, which is a little expensive for a 4-6 defenceman, but It opens up trade options.

I've started playing Salei (he was a healthy scratch) when Liles went out with an injury. He's actually doing pretty well. I went to resign him and he wants a 400k per season raise on a 2 year deal. I just don't think I'm comfortable offering that to a 35 year old defenseman. His physical attributes are going to take a big drop soon. I've seen it happen with others before.

markw96861 wrote:First challenge participant here!

Maybe it is the game trying to prove to me that challenges are in fact challenging but...

Before the season starts:

Stastny - out 2 months
Tucker - out 1 month
Liles - out 2 months

I was pretty much forced to keep Duchene and O'reilly to start the season with a possibly competitive roster.

Geeeez, beginners bad luck?

Welcome to the challenge! Glad to see another person joining in on the fun.

Are you over playing your top players? If you're giving them too much icetime they can be more injury-prone.

Lol.. Foote retires in July of the 1st off-season.

I mean lol.... I love that one

I merged your last two posts. Please refrain from double posting. -CatchUp