EHM The Blue Line

Just at the 20 game mark of season 1 and thought Id give a little update.Currently in 9th place in the East. 8-10-2.This team is wildly inconsistant. I can win a 2-0, defensive gem of a game and then the next one be blown out 7-1. Goals against is the biggest problem . I lead the league with 73. I also am leading the league in PIMs with 691, which is 170 more than the 2nd ranked team. Ben Eager is good for at least 17 mins a game and leading the league in pims with 371,4 game misconducts,21 fights .
Modin is leading the team in goals (9),just passed Peverly who was leading with (7). Oduya is my only defensemen with a plus (8).Ive been spliting goal duties with both posting similar stats but Pavelec coming away with more wins.
I need to cut down on the penalties without changing the teams playing style too dramatically.They are built as a tough hard hitting team.

Oops, I've been so engrossed in my season and trying to figure out how to win with swiss cheese in net that I forgot to post my game 20 and 40 stats...im at game 46 now. What should I do?

blueshirtnParis wrote:Oops, I've been so engrossed in my season and trying to figure out how to win with swiss cheese in net that I forgot to post my game 20 and 40 stats...im at game 46 now. What should I do?

Nevermind, I just went through manually and added it all up. I will never do that again...Ugh!!

I'm hoping to start this challenge (as my very first challenge) this weekend. I printed out all the rules and I'm ready to go - I'm amazed to see all the varying results - I'm hoping for the best, but not sure how it's going to turn out.

blueshirtnParis wrote:

blueshirtnParis wrote:Oops, I've been so engrossed in my season and trying to figure out how to win with swiss cheese in net that I forgot to post my game 20 and 40 stats...im at game 46 now. What should I do?

Nevermind, I just went through manually and added it all up. I will never do that again...Ugh!!

I've done that a few times. It's not fun having to go through and manually subtract goals and assists and other stuff like that.

Loosie wrote:

blueshirtnParis wrote:

blueshirtnParis wrote:Oops, I've been so engrossed in my season and trying to figure out how to win with swiss cheese in net that I forgot to post my game 20 and 40 stats...im at game 46 now. What should I do?

Nevermind, I just went through manually and added it all up. I will never do that again...Ugh!!

I've done that a few times. It's not fun having to go through and manually subtract goals and assists and other stuff like that.

Hehe I go through with this almost every time. I always seem to manage to play one or two games over the checkpoint. Backing up 26 games must be pretty terrible though.

jaateloauto wrote:

Loosie wrote:

blueshirtnParis wrote: Nevermind, I just went through manually and added it all up. I will never do that again...Ugh!!

I've done that a few times. It's not fun having to go through and manually subtract goals and assists and other stuff like that.

Hehe I go through with this almost every time. I always seem to manage to play one or two games over the checkpoint. Backing up 26 games must be pretty terrible though.

What I usually do is create a note. Click on a player and create a note on the date after the 20-game segment. When that day comes, your assistants lets you know in your news

That's what I do, too

Manimal wrote:

jaateloauto wrote:

Loosie wrote: I've done that a few times. It's not fun having to go through and manually subtract goals and assists and other stuff like that.

Hehe I go through with this almost every time. I always seem to manage to play one or two games over the checkpoint. Backing up 26 games must be pretty terrible though.

What I usually do is create a note. Click on a player and create a note on the date after the 20-game segment. When that day comes, your assistants lets you know in your news

Great idea! Thanks.

I am midway through season 2 now and was pretty surprised about the consistency this team managed to aquire, it's a totally different team than last year's Thrashers: After 40 games we are having a 22-12-6 record which is a miracle compared to last year's (I think we had about 35). Although we are "only" 8-10 points ahead of the ninth spot, I think the playoffs are more than realistic this year.

Some roster changes/development:
I tried to play Burmistrov on the second line along with Little and Parise, but he was simply not good enough yet; I sent him back with a 6.14 AVG after 6 games to juniors. Anyone had success with Burmistrov in his second season ? Or does he even need more time down in juniors? His stats don't look that bad, he is lacking shooting skills, but otherwise he is fine - I hope he will get a good playmaker in order to substitute Antropov somewhere soon.
Zach Parise was centering the first line for most of the season, until I figured out - due to a 3 weeks injury to Ladd - that a line with newly aquired Parise - Antropov - Bergfors is very, very strong. Evander Kane who was traded to the Devils for Parise developed really well, I would really like to have him back

Modin was signed to a contract extension and is playing pretty impressive, due to some injuries he is playing 2nd or 4th line and plays on PP2: He has 27P in 34 games, along with a +10 and a 7.94 AVG
Jim Slater is finally convincing: 27P in 40 games getting time on the PP and a 7.50 AVG, I wouldn't have expected such a solid performance from this guy.
Bergfors is in the race for the Art Ross and the Rocket Richard with 25G 28A for 53 points in 40 games
I wasn't happy with Hainsey last year, this season he is doing just fine, not outstanding so far: 9P in 40 games, +14, 7.38 AVG
The worst injury so far: Ladd out 3 weeks now and Dawes out for 3 months after a few games, he was really good for me, I mostly played him on the 1st line last year and 2nd this season, not to easy to compensate if you have no skilled substitutes. However, a few prospects from our AHL affiliate are showing their talent: Valabik and Kulda are my new 3rd def pairing, Holzapfel, Cormier and Klingenberg filled in for a few games and especially the last two seem to be relatively good players.

The goalie situation turned out the other way I thought it would be: Mason started to playing astonishing after game 10 or so, until the he shared starts with Leclaire. Leclaire however is a bit of a deception, I signed him hoping that he could be a good replacement for Mason when he retires, but I guess that his potential is slightly lower than Mason's is. Anyways, Mason is having a good season so far: 28 games with a 19-3-3 record / 2.92 GAA and a good 0.907 Sv%. I never thought that he could play that well for me as I am not the best defensive coach.

bruins72 wrote:

francis246 wrote:Just about to start Pre-Season. I didn't think about signing and NHL FA this season as the FA pool is kind of weak and it will most likely be better in season two, so I did some scouting and signed a player from the NCAA and another from CIS. Using the tier 2 on the FA Pyramid. I was gonna sign Travis Zajac's brother, but these two Prospects were two much to pass up.

You're not allowed to make UFA signings until the second season.

I was in season 2. When I said pre-season I meant Pre-Season of season 2.

2nd season is on the way and I currently have 7 games non-losing (2 OT loses during) streak going on. I had poor starting for the season, but when my new tactics started to work, we'r pretty unstobbable.
24 games is now played and Mason in the net is pretty decent with 91.7SV% in 18 games. Pavelec had poor season start like in 1st season, so he might go back to AHL until Mason is getting tired.
Girardi who's new addition in defence is actually my best defensive dmen with 7.40Avr and -1. He is currently playing in 3nd pairing with Kulda.. somehow Girardi didn't managed to play with Enström in 2nd/1st.
Another suprise in defence is Kulda. 10 games, 7.40AvR and -1, he played 5 games in first season.. even tho he were impressive I rather played Zubarev and Sifers as a backups then.
In forward lines Aliu made his braketrough, last year he won three throphies in AHL. Currently he is swapping places with Berglund in 1st/2nd lines. 20 games 17 points and 7.8AvR. Compared to Berglund's 21 games 24 points and 7.7AvR. Aliu still have a lot to learn in techical skills.
Another positive player is Evander Kane. 24 games, 28 points and 8.8AvR in 1st line. After season 1, I wasn't ready to drop Slater (117 points, 8.56Avr in 1st season) from 1st line LW position, but when I saw this guy playing with Anto.. wow.
Slater is still playing good as a 2nd line center, 21 games, 22 points and 8.4AvR

Oduya in defence has been terrible even tho he have +6 in stats. And my new PK additions Marchant and Ortmeyer had difficult season start, but they are doing better game after game.
Ladd and Little had poor season start and now Ladd is once again injured for 1 month. Ladd lost his touch in 1st season after UCL tear.. so talking about next year trade I would certainly see new 2nd line winger in team.

Third Season has been a disaster, all based on goaltending. My Second Season Trade was for Nabokov, and I hoped he would be my goaltender for a year or two until Pavelec was ready, he retired at 36, which widdled me off, but I hoped Pavelec could carry the team, no luck. At the trade deadline I was able to trade Buffy for Varlomov though, so my goaltending is now good, but it cost me the season, it looks like I will be in the lottery this year, not all bad since this year is the European regen year in the draft. So, hopefully with a decent draft we will be back on top next year.

I've been trying to trade for Carter or Mike Richards from the Flyers for two years in game now, I have offered them pretty much any player, including my 20 year old that was rated as the 4th best prospect in the league this year, no dice. Then at the deadline they trade Carter for the rights to a mid-level defensive prospect. GRRRRRRR. I don't know how everyone else has been able to get Getzlaf, Richards etc in the game, but my game will not do a 1-1 trade to save my life. As soon as i throw in another player (event a three star nobody) the game is more than happy to trade, but never 1 on 1.

The 2 Mil limit on signings means that UFA is not an area where you can really improve your team, you can only really augment your third line. I know this was the intention of the rules, but I can't say that I am really happy about it. I think it is totally legitamate for a team to augment the player's it develops with a UFA signing. Look at the Ducks, they won the cup with a core they drafted (Perry, Getzlaf, Geguire, Selanne etc), with important UFAs as well, such as Neidermyer. The other rules we have already limit the abuse of UFA signings. Since you can only sign a single person and you can't trade your signed player for at least 12 months (I would support raising this to 24 months, or perhaps not allowing you to trade your UFAs until their initial contract is complete) thus garanteeing that if you sign a UFA, you sign them to be an important part of your team. If we look at cup champs since the lockout, Most of the key players have been drafted, but every one also has a UFA in their top two lines, usually a big one.

Overall my impression of the rules for the last few challenges has been less than great. I understand that the intention was to go for more player development. Yet, quite frankly, the prospects in Lidas rosters suck. Number one picks have 10s across the board. That means that 3-5 years later they *might* become a second line player. Meanwhile in the NHL proper, the top picks have gone on to be effective top six forwards in their first season and first line forwards in their second seasons. Just look at Tavares this year, or Stamkos last year. Taylor Hall is on pace for a 45ish point season, just like Tavares and Stamkos's first seasons. Last year's Lidas rosters had 10s across the board as well. There is simply no reason to draft at all until the regens come up. So while the idea of going for player development is a good one, without any players to develop, it limits the fun.

Throughout the first two seasons this challenge I have routinely been frustrated at my inability to improve my team. My team has a huge amount of depth, since most of my prospects are automatically assigned 2nd - 3rd line potentials, however, Since I can only trade one for one the extra depth simply means I have to let UFA and RFA contracts expire to keep myself below the contract limit. I can't move my assets out for any gain for the team. When UFA time comes around all I can do is add even more depth with another third line player. I really galls me to see the depth players I developed signed by other teams for free. I have to believe that allowing us do the following type of trade would not unbalance the game either. One player on our side for a single draft pic on the other side. This allows us to trade some of our depth for the chance at more prospects to develop. Limiting our side of the trade to a single players means you will not get any three player trades for a first round pick. These trades would have to be seperate from the normal single trade we are allowed to improve the team each season.

Throughout this challenge my team has needed two things, a True #1 Goaltender, and a first line winger. Twice I have been able to aquire a goaltender, however, I was not able to obtain them through a *proper* trade, in each case, I have been forced to take advantage of a circumstance to get them. I was able to aquire Nabokov in trade because there were major issues in the Avalanche organization causing massive unhappiness for a large number of their players. Note: the Avalance had signed Nabokov for 2.5 mil. I would have signed him for twice that given the chance, instead I was forced to trade for him when the opportunity arose. I'm sure that his low salary was part of the reason he retired in game as well, since his attributes were still in the 19 range. If he was being paid 5mil, I don't believe the game would have retired him. Still, he retired and I was forced to look for another. In this case I took advantage of the Playoffs trade, I traded Buffy for Varlomov. the Capitals were in first place in the East, and had signed Guiguere in the offseason, this plus the fact that they had not yet been able to sign him to a contract extension allowed me to trade for him. Realistically I would not expect the Capitals to ever do a trade like this in the real world, but I was able to manipulate the trade rules of the game to make it happen. I would have been happy to simply sign a good older goaltender (such as Guiguere, Nabokov, etc) to a proper contract and have them play until Pavelec was ready, which is how most teams would do it in the real world, but because of the challenge rules, I cannot.

I can't pretend to have all the answers for how to make good challenge rules that attempt to keep both the realism while attempting to police the stupid AI in the game, but I wanted to post my observations of the effects of the current rules, and my thoughts on possible improvements. Please don't assume that I am trying to flame the Mods who have done a great deal of work coming up with these rules. The Rules have evolved constantly through all 19 challenges, and I assume they will continue to evolve, please see my essay here as my own humble opinion of the current implementation.

Regular season 2 is over and we finished 8th in the conference, although we were on 4th position for most of the season. With 90 points overall and 5 points ahead of the 9th placed Maple Leafs it wasn't a too tight decision at the end. The Capitals won the Presidents Trophy with 60 wins/122 points and were our opponents in the 1st round of the playoffs. I was sure that we would lose in 4 or 5 games, but it turned out to be the other way round: Although they outshot us in 4 of 5 meetings we managed to win the first 3 and the 5th game. I have to give credit mainly to Mason (0.936Sv% 2.41 GAA, 1 SO and a 9.00 AVG) Little (6 goals for 10 points in 5 games), Parise (8 points) and the 3rd line overall, that was playing against the Oveckin - Backström (overrated in this roster IMO) - Semin line.
Thorburn had one impressive night with 2 goals and 1 assist (including the game winning goal against the Cap's 1st line) - he never scored more than 1 goal.

Now we will be facing the Devils, that finished with 114 points closely behind the Caps and are last year's Stanley Cup champions. I have the same feeling as before round 1 - hopefully Mason can show the same once again. Although I was more than happy with getting into the playoffs in season 2, I think that team wants even more after that huge win against Washington...

tksolway wrote:Third Season has been a disaster, all based on goaltending. My Second Season Trade was for Nabokov, and I hoped he would be my goaltender for a year or two until Pavelec was ready, he retired at 36, which p***** me off, but I hoped Pavelec could carry the team, no luck. At the trade deadline I was able to trade Buffy for Varlomov though, so my goaltending is now good, but it cost me the season, it looks like I will be in the lottery this year, not all bad since this year is the European regen year in the draft. So, hopefully with a decent draft we will be back on top next year.

......


I can't pretend to have all the answers for how to make good challenge rules that attempt to keep both the realism while attempting to police the stupid AI in the game, but I wanted to post my observations of the effects of the current rules, and my thoughts on possible improvements. Please don't assume that I am trying to flame the Mods who have done a great deal of work coming up with these rules. The Rules have evolved constantly through all 19 challenges, and I assume they will continue to evolve, please see my essay here as my own humble opinion of the current implementation.

Well this is my first challenge so I dont know how and why things are done a certain way. I do share some of your frustrations. With Mason retiring my hands are tied in trying to improve this team. Nobody wants to trade a goalie straight up and I can sign a decent one since they all want more than 2mil. I am below the salary cap so I have money to spend and have no more room for any of my prospects for quite some time so I can realistically trade them away...but cant do either.

I just let the rights expire on 5 of my 7 picks in the 08 draft since they were all totally useless players. 19-20 years olds without even 10s in the best attributes.

I finally got myself set-up to play the challenge - Right now I'm suring up the Assistant Coaching staff, practice regimine, and unit line tactics before I proceed.

I read the rules...it says that I can only fire one assistant coach during the season...what about signing them to a different position with the team (I'm not firing them, just want them in a different role). I wanted to sign two of my assistants as scouts and then bring in some different coaches. I don't think this was covered in the rules...Can someone help?

Wow, things are pretty bad here in the 4th season. After an enormus turaround from the 1st season where we were 2nd last in the entire league to the second season where we were 2nd bast and only 5 wins from the Cup things have been pretty downhill since.

Starting the 3rd season Mason retired on me, but after I made my one trade. Didn't sign and FA in hope I could pick up a goalie on waivers...never happened. We got swept in the first round of the playoffs.

Now into the 4th season, no goalies of interest to sign for under $2mil...well Tim Thomas wanted $2.2 and would not agree to less until after the Aug 31st deadline> After that he would play for $1.8 but according to the rules, I cant sign him.

No trade market for goalies, didn't sign any FA (so now 2 years of no FA signing) holding out for some miracle that a goalie will pop up in waivers.

Pavelec is sporting a 4.65 GAA and .859 SV%

Ugh!!!

blueshirtnParis wrote: Pavelec is sporting a 4.65 GAA and .859 SV%

Ugh!!!

About what he got with me when I was forced to use him as a #1

I was able to trade my great Prospect Klingberg for Jordan Staal, since the Pens were beginning to have Budget issues. I am really happy about this trade since Klingberg is said to have first line potential, but seemed to level out with 12s and 13s in all his stats (his high stats were checking and bravery etc at 17-18), so not really a top six forward.

I finsished season 2 with winning the Cup - I didn't expected it at all after the team started to get worse and worse in the last quarter of the regular season. I completly overworked the tactics just before the playoffs and didn't change major things until the end. A key of success was for sure that the only serious injury during that span was Bergfors, who was out for 10 days.
But most surprisingly Mason really stepped it up and had a ~0.930 Sv% after the first 2 series.
only the Semifinals and the Cup final went over the full distance. The Caps (quarters) and Sabres (Finals) were beaten in 5 games. The Stanley Cup finals where somewhat of a "lucky loser" - encounter: We finished 8th in the east and the Oilers were 7th in the west. Antropov played impressively along with linemates Zach Parise and Bryan Little, gaining him the Conn Smythe.


The draft was a major decepction, hopefully 1 or 2 are Nhl-material. I tried to make a trade before the first no-trade-period, but there was nothing interesting, so I'll try to wait a while until something interesting appears. I don't necessarily need someone at the beginning of the season. Although the goalie issue - as many of you mentioned - is a serious one. This season or next one I will have to trade for a decent #1 goalie, since Leclaire isn't that good I hoped he would be and Pavelec is far from being ready...

I take back everything I said about Hainsey (except that he doesn't deserve 4.5M): He finished with 25 points and a +36 rating - 7.46 AVG
Enström is still really bad, although he has pretty decent attributes. However, Kulda took over his 1st d-pairing spot and I hope to be able to trade Enström as soon as possible. Currently he is sitting on the 3rd pairing without playing on any special teams.

@tksolway: I can't agree with you that the 2M for free agency signings are not enough, I signed Leclaire (pretty good backup, possible to reach the playoffs with him as #1 I guess) for about 1.5 last season and Pahlsson for about the same this season. He is playing on the 3rd line and a pk specialist, yes, but he could as well fit in for any injuries within the top 6.

But I understand your point that there is no way to handle any "special encounters" like an UCL tear to your #1 goalie or the unexpected retirement of Nabokov in your case. As the goalie is the most important piece of your team in EHM that's the most vulnerable point. I would be really pleased to see a rule about that incidents. Or as in BlueshirtnParis case, he should be able to fill that gap Mason left with his totally unexpected retirement - by signing Thomas after the signing period...

jesusrocks150
PostPosted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:46 pm Post subject:
I finally got myself set-up to play the challenge - Right now I'm suring up the Assistant Coaching staff, practice regimine, and unit line tactics before I proceed.

I read the rules...it says that I can only fire one assistant coach during the season...what about signing them to a different position with the team (I'm not firing them, just want them in a different role). I wanted to sign two of my assistants as scouts and then bring in some different coaches. I don't think this was covered in the rules...Can someone help?

I guess you may do that. You are allowed to assign your scouts to be the head coach as well - after 6 months with the franchise. So why shouldn't you be able to do it the other way round?

Círyatan wrote: At 75th we went with Brett Ritchie from the Sarnia Sting, described as a future second-liner in the mould of Shane Doan. If he proves he can do it, that can really turn out to be an amazing pick.

To finish the draft we chose another blueliner, Nathan Chiarlitti from the Sarnia Sting (and no, I haven't played the Sting Challenge, so you guys tell me if Ritchie and Chiarlitti are good picks). He went undrafted the previous year, though he is described as a solid defender similar to Ian White. Sounds good enough to me.

I know Brett Ritchie was a mainstay on my Sarnia team in the challenge. He was one of the early highlights there. IIRC, he does have some variability to his potential though. Chiarlitti was a pretty good defenseman, IIRC but he wasn't my top guy in Sarnia.

jesusrocks150 wrote:I finally got myself set-up to play the challenge - Right now I'm suring up the Assistant Coaching staff, practice regimine, and unit line tactics before I proceed.

I read the rules...it says that I can only fire one assistant coach during the season...what about signing them to a different position with the team (I'm not firing them, just want them in a different role). I wanted to sign two of my assistants as scouts and then bring in some different coaches. I don't think this was covered in the rules...Can someone help?

Yes, you can sign your assistants to other positions like scouting and then have more open assistant coach positions. Some of these guys might not be interested in becoming scouts though. I've found that the staff positions have a sort of "ranking" to them and Assistant Coaches are higher than Scouts. But if you can get them to go for it, more power to you!

tksolway wrote:I was able to trade my great Prospect Klingberg for Jordan Staal, since the Pens were beginning to have Budget issues. I am really happy about this trade since Klingberg is said to have first line potential, but seemed to level out with 12s and 13s in all his stats (his high stats were checking and bravery etc at 17-18), so not really a top six forward.

I used Klingberg anyways and am pleased to report he turns out awesome. He won the calder in season 2 and in 4 seasons he is 123-223-346 in 325 games.

So I had a questionfor all those past the third season or so. does Matt Duchene become easy to obtain? for two season he appeared to be unhappy so I scooped him up for Cody Hodgson (who U picked up on waivers a couple seasons ago) and so far I am very happy with his production. 20pts in 21 games with a 7.88AvR.

eric1985 wrote:So I had a questionfor all those past the third season or so. does Matt Duchene become easy to obtain? for two season he appeared to be unhappy so I scooped him up for Cody Hodgson (who U picked up on waivers a couple seasons ago) and so far I am very happy with his production. 20pts in 21 games with a 7.88AvR.

The AVS in my game are riding Duchene and Stastny, neither are available. I beat them in the finals last year (year 4) and they went far in year 3 as well. But ealier in season two I was able to get Nabokov out of the AVS when they had unhappiness problems.