EHM The Blue Line

OUCH! That's gotta hurt! To come so close and then have the rug pulled out from under you. Oh well! Remember, this is a long term challenge. We're planning on taking this one 7 years if people keep participating.

I just offered Chad Kilger to all teams in the league (I got him off waivers). As you would expect, numerous clubs made me an offer. I negotiated Washington's offer and managed to get Alexander Semin for Kilger and Dingman (who I also got off waivers). So basically, I got Semin for two AHL players claimed off waivers.

Dingman is by no means an AHL player. He's the best enforcer in the game and a very valuable asset if used properly. Fights can turn around games and he's darn good at it.
There are many players like Semin, not so many like Dingman.

Hmm...I may have to see if I can get Dingman back then...

Hehe, no worries, not saying you lost there, just you seemed to underrate Dingman, I love the guy
You might want to try Mair, Gaustad or Hollweg, similar players to Dingman.

Ok, thanks for the advice. My left wing is so much better than my right at the moment, I am trying to trade Tucker (who I love IRL but never performs in EHM) or Ray Whitney for a scoring RW but with no luck. My defence is also playing poorly. I have been losing a lot more games recently, and having Drury out for a few weeks hurt. My lines at the minute are:

N/Ms: Emery, Lalime (hopefully when Lalime has played his 2100 required core minutes I can recall Belfour from my AHL team)
D
1. Hannan + Aucoin
2. D. Keith + Visnovsky
3. Barker + Seabrook

F:
1. Heatley + Drury + Ruutu
2. Vanek + McDonald + Tucker
3. Whitney + Sharp + Vrbata
4. Holmqvist + Bolland + Blunden

Looks good on paper, but you should consider giving Blunden and Bolland some time on the PP, I've noticed, at least in my game, they don't really like playing the 4th line.

Meanwhile, I finished the 3rd set of games earlier, not really good, shootouts are killing me as usual. I think I've had about 25 in this challenge so far and I don't think I won more than 2-3

I've got 7 games left, 10-5 in the fourth set, and I still have a shot at the Conference title, 4 points behind the Sharks but a game in hand. Can only repeat what I said, never had such a streaky team before. I had a run of 6 back to back wins when I left for a road trip to the NY area. I came home with 2 losses and 3-17 goals
I lost the next game to the Oilers and started hammering my opponents again rarely scoring less than 5-6 goals in the next 10 games, although Tim Thomas shut me out once

Hagman, Sharp and Blunden are the best third line I've ever had and Dingman is getting his job done on the 4th line as usual, 7.2 rating, 17 fights and 16 points so far.
Pahlsson is being criticized by the media all the time although my PK does ok and Bolland was rubbish on the 4th line. The game solved that problem for me though as Blake broke his shin and I moved Bolland up to a scoring line. Furthermore I've got Hagman and Morrisonn out long term, they might be even done for the season, well, Morrisonn is but Hagman might come back at some point during the playoffs.

Encountering some problems planning my team for next year, Vrbata and Keith will be the 2 core players leaving my team, with Barker and Grabovsky replacing them, but I don't quite know what to do with Blake and Bolland next season. Blake only scored 11 goals in 44 games until he got injured and Bolland just can't play the 4th line
And I still have Dawes in the AHL. I might trade him for a great D prospect before the draft so I could use him as homegrown in 2009-2010.

You're right, Bolland and Blunden are terrible on the 4th line. Luckily, Bolland has now played his core requirement of 45 games so I can send him down to the AHL for the rest of the year.
I have done some trades to try to improve things, but I am still after a top 4 d-man. Derek Morris is injured so has 3 star trade value - is he any good on EHM? I have got Niitymaki (yes, yes, he is an overachiever but I got him and the rights to Claude Giroux straight up for Emery. I couldn't turn it down.) as my new go to goalie and can't wait until Lalime plays his 2100 minutes so I can have Niity-Belfour as my NMs.

I had Morris once and remember trading him after one season or two. But I can't recall anymore whether it was due to his performances or large contract.

Thanks, but it doesn't matter now - I have traded for Tomas Kaberle.

Probably his contract because he plays pretty well. I've had good luck with him in the past at least. It's just that $3.9M per season contract that's a little hard to swallow. I probably would've gone after him for this challenge but I've already got Aucoin in my core making $4M per season and I don't really like having too many defensemen getting paid like that.

I'm going to have some tough decisions to make after this season. I know I'm only half way through the season but I'm already thinking about who I'm going to drop from my core for season 2. I've got to get rid of either Lalime or Boucher (leaning towards dropping Boucher) and find myself a real starting goaltender. So that leaves 2 more available drops. Bochenski is useless, so I'd really like to drop him. Of course, I wouldn't mind getting rid of Holmqvist either but he hasn't been as bad as Bochenski. At least Holmqvist can play the PK. I'm starting to wonder if I should trade Havlat after the season. He wasn't working out on the top line with Kariya and Handzus for some reason. He just wasn't putting up the kind of points I'd expect from him. I've got him on the second line now and he's doing well, 44 points in 40 games, but I kind of expect more for $6M per season. Vrbata and his $1.225M per year contract is tearing it up on the top line with 56 points in 40 games, good enough for second on the team and sixth in the league. Kariya has been a good acquisition. He's third in the league in points, fourth in goals, and leads the team in both of those categories. He's got 26 goals and 58 points in 40 games. I could bring up Blunden to take the place of Havlat on the second line and then trade Havlat for some help on defense or maybe some good prospects and/or picks. Of course, I'd free up some budget space by doing this too (unless I traded him for a big money defenseman). I wouldn't mind clearing Duncan Keith off the team. I don't see him getting much better.

Speaking of Keith, looking back I should have taken either Smoke or Arkhipov as Group B selections to my core instead of Keith. I've still got both of these guys on my roster and they're doing pretty well in their roles as 3rd liners and PKers. They've even gotten a little bit of time on the PP when the regular guys aren't up to it. If I had taken one of them, that would've allowed me to go out and acquire another defenseman (I wouldn't have used Barker... he's just too much of a defensive liability). Oh well! You live and you learn!


EDIT:

Just a word of advice, laskey. You could be hurting your team by constantly trading players all season long. If keep the roster on a revolving door, your players are never going to generate any chemistry. You might want to give them some time to gel. Too many new faces in such a short time can be bad for your team.

Oh rubbish. I just noticed I can't use Grabovsky as a homegrown because he'll be 24 when he joins the big team

bruins72 wrote:
Just a word of advice, laskey. You could be hurting your team by constantly trading players all season long. If keep the roster on a revolving door, your players are never going to generate any chemistry. You might want to give them some time to gel. Too many new faces in such a short time can be bad for your team.

Thanks for the tip, I think I am set now for the playoffs anyway, and I can only see a few players move in and out for next year. It's nearly trade deadline time and there have been some crazy moves, the Leafs have been going mental. First they send me Kaberle and then they trade Kubina straight up for Stephen Weiss. Next they get Ilya Bryzgalov from the Ducks for a 2nd and a 3rd and then they send McCabe straight up for Ryan Smyth! They are in dead last place in the East, could be why they are so active, but I am surprised they are not looking for picks...

Hah! The Leafs never look for picks...they trade picks, 1st rounders...for guys like Travis Green.

Anyway Danny...that sucks man. Poor guy, wish I had noticed for you earlier...or not!!

batdad wrote:Hah! The Leafs never look for picks...they trade picks, 1st rounders...for guys like Travis Green.

Picks AND prospects, I'll have you know.

I'm 2-3 down against the Flames in the first round

Match ball one well defended. 2 to go

Trade deadline went well for me. I acquired Brewer and Cammalleri.

Cup is not coming back to Chicago

darn you Flamers

And now even Wirtz agrees with me, I'm losing my mind

Nice . I went after Cammalleri but with no luck. What did you give for him?

I have finished the regular season as conference champion! It went right down to the wire between me and the Wings, we played each other twice in the last 3 games and my team won both. We finished equal on points, but I edged the first place on goals for/against, or whatever. My last 20 regular season games have been great, Kaberle has been awesome, as has Niitymaki, Vanek and Trent Hunter, who has scored a few hatricks and has over 1 ppg on the 2nd line. Tucker is still a headache though, he has had ratings of 4 and 5 and I have had to move him to the 3rd line. He definitely will not return in season 2... First round of playoffs is vs the Avs.

Hey Catchup! I see you've got Lecavalier on your roster. He may cost a bunch in salary but I had him on my team in the past and he earns every penny! He should do quite well for you.

I have went 5-1-0 right off the bat... Pretty decent start, just praying the guys can build on this and don't go classic Blackhawks on me...

Chistov - McDonald - Bertuzzi
Roy - Roenick - Blunden
Pettinger - Sutherby - Ruutu
Holmqvist - Sharp - Bolland

Cullimore - Niedermayer
Keith - Seabrook
Barker - Aucoin

Niittymäki
Lalime

Coach Pat Burns and his first lieutenant Pat Quinn agreed with my assessment about the captaincy and gave the "C" to Scotty Niedermayer. The assistant captains will be Brian Sutherby and J.R..

Nice grab of Chistov. He's not always so easy to get and he's extremely overrated in this game. He's at over a point per game for the Ducks in my challenge game.

I'd worry about your second line though. Will JR hold up? You might have to bump Sharp up there for stretches.

+/- is a pain but if he get's his name on the scoreboard as he have done so far, I'm pleased!

WOW! I just had my first ever 4 power play goal game. I love playing Nashville. IT does wonders for my Hawks morale.

Also, I am scared to say this...my lineup in 32 games is the following with rotations on both 3rd and 4th lines...

Heatley-Handzus-Vrbata
Michalek-Arkhipov(Roy)-Havlat
Saprykin(Arkhipov)-Roy (Richards)-Lapointe
Holmqvist(Worrell)-Hamilton(Richards)-Blunden(Saprykin)

Bracket guys are in and out of those spots. Only thing consistent is my top line.

D pairs

Kukkonen-Aucoin
Volchenkov-Salo
Keith-Seabrook
Seidenberg plays almost every game spelling off guys.

Emery
Lalime

Now, what I was scared to say...is that since the 20 game mark, this team has somehow managed to go...12-0-1. I have no idea what I am doing right. The team should not be that good. Arkhipov should not be a pt a game player with an over 8 rating but he is. Heatley only has 22 goals, as does Vrbata. Havlat 19 and the next guys are at 11. It is insane! I keep edging teams and then occasionally hammer someone like Nashville, St Louis, Colorado.

I just don't get it. Mind you Worrell and Lapointe are winning their fights every single time. Lapointe is 5-5 and Worrell is 7-8. But this is well below my normal fighting major pace. Noone else on my team has even had one.