EHM The Blue Line

Never done a challenge before, but perhaps it's about time I participated. I've owned EHM for 3 years, however, I've never actually played an NHL season; I exclusively do ECHL, Juniors and the Central Hockey League, so this should be a challenge for me.

I was thinking that the Colorado roster would be an interesting one to do. Given their goaltending situation and young forwards, they are probably not rated very highly. Also, they don't have too many standout prospects in their system (according the EHM that is; FYI I actually love the Avs current roster)

Interesting that you say that about the Colorado roster. We used them for a challenge about a year or so ago for some of those very reasons.

You should definitely join in on the challenge when we run it. Even if you don't do well, it's still fun to compare your game experiences with others who are playing with the same team, under the same set of rules.

Aye, I too can't wait to take part in the next challenge. Even though I'm not that great at the game it will be good to see how well I can do.

How far off do we think we are from the next challenge?

I hope to start the next challenge shortly after Manimal releases his next roster update. We'll be using those new rosters.

Can we do something non-standard for once in a challenge?

I'd like to see something like try and have the best possible defense (fewest goals against) or something along those lines instead of just points. The kind of things where people have to develop their own plans and tactics based on things other than just winning.

Another option is:

2 rebuilding years... you get to do whatever you want for 2 years (trades,FA,tactics, development,etc) and you do the challenge based on the 3rd year of play.

No offense but you say "Can we do something non-standard for once in a challenge?" when you've got only 6 posts. How many challenges have you taken part of here? I've been participating in these challenges since the second or third one. They've changed quite a bit over the years. We've tried to keep things interesting. In the end, the more "non-standard" we try to make the challenges, the more difficult and time-consuming it is to administer these challenges. For a few challenges we went with "core" rules where we had to maintain a certain portion of our roster based on whether they were an "A", "B", "C", or "D" player and then incorporated rules on homegrown talent. That was very confusing for many of our users and an absolute nightmare for us to keep track of. We've had polls to determine a team's roster (the Winnipeg Jets challenge). We've definitely tried "non-standard".

In response to your first suggestion, we actually do get points in the challenge for the fewest goals against. We also factor in goals scored, PP, PK, and other categories. It's not just who "won". We've tried to keep the scoring balanced. Changes to the challenge rules have made it so that getting results in these areas has become more difficult because of who we've got to work with and the restrictions we're given for roster changes.

There wouldn't be much of a challenge if we allowed restriction free play for 2 years before working in challenge rules. Most of us could turn them into powerhouses in less than a season if we're not given restrictions. It's just too easy. Also, we have a lot of people that only play 1 or 2 seasons of a challenge. Having the challenge start at season 3 would lose a lot of our participation.

I agree with B72 on this one bud. If you want to participate in a "non-standard" challenge maybe we can do another Major Junior challenge in the summer. Now that's hard (and fun). By the 5th season (I think) the only players that you have on your team are the ones you drafted. It's all about the draft and player development there.

I'm guessing you've been a lurker for a little while and finally decided to join, which is awesome, but try the next challenge (even when it's an NHL team) because you've never played EHM like it before.

And for the record, I played in Challenge 2 and Challenge 3 and I like the way they've progressed/developed over time.

timmy_t wrote:I agree with B72 on this one bud. If you want to participate in a "non-standard" challenge maybe we can do another Major Junior challenge in the summer. Now that's hard (and fun). By the 5th season (I think) the only players that you have on your team are the ones you drafted. It's all about the draft and player development there.

I would agree with you, but I generally only do major junior and the ECHL, so I feel that a junior challenge would actually be far easier. I always take the worst team and I rarely finish below 2nd in the conference by the second season (and beyond). Just reinstalled EHM and am attempting my first season in the NHL. Now that is HARD. I don't know what I'm doing. These players ratings all look SO good and I'm completely lost in figuring out which players are the best on my team. Sometimes I find myself saying "OK, he'll be a good second liner", then when I finally set my roster at the start of the season, he has to get sent to the AHL. I guess the reasonable explanation is that I am managing the Blues, whose starting 12 are all third liners.

LordTC wrote:Can we do something non-standard for once in a challenge?

Here is my proposal for a new, unique challenge This is satirical, I am not a crazy wingnut....well actually I am, but in this case, I realize I am being ridiculous.:

Roster limitations
Each team will have to abide by a strict set of restrictions on their starting roster for each game (be sure to have backups in case of injury). You will be required to dress 20 starters for each game subject to the following limitations:
-1 Belarussian
-4 Swedes
-4 Finns
- 2 players born in the same town/city (these two cannot be from Sweden, Finland or Belarus)
- 2 players whose last names start or end with y (ie. Yves Lapierre and John May would be acceptable)
- Both dressed goaltenders must be fluent in German
- Two defensemen must be at least 6 foot 6 or taller
- The last 3 are your choice (because I'm nice)

Trading limitations
Trades will only be permitted on the second Wednesday of each month and on the 29th of each month (screw you, February!).

Coaching Limitations
Your goaltending coach must have the first name "Guy"
One assistant must have been born in Michigan
Two assistants must have identical first names (ie. James King and James Williams)
The final assistant must have been born in 1955

Also, your trainer must have the last name "Leblanc"

Practice Limitations
Each player (including goaltenders) are restricted to the following practice guidelines (at all times, including off season):
1- Fitness coaching must be set to "intensive"
2- Goaltending coaching must be set to "none"

Objectives
The winner of the challenge will be the first manager who is able to finish 8th in their conference with precisely 92 points and lose in the conference semi-final to either the Flyers (in East) or to the Kings (in West) in 6 games. This is the only condition to victory. If your team gets home ice advantage in ANY playoff series, you will be immediately disqualified.

Sound good?

Speaking of none of this: I must admit I find your name distracting....My real name is Tim Tremblay (and I am sometimes referred to as Timmy T).

I can't believe you would just steal my name like that.

Sorry but timmy_t had the name a whole 3 years earlier than you. You've got to be quicker on the draw!

As for your "unique" challenge... do a test run of that yourself and let me know how it turns out.

lol, I was hoping to get more laughs with that challenge. Oh well.

My favorite- No goaltending practice. ha.

I thought you were serious at first, and then I re-read your post. I chuckled a little bit with the Goaltending Coach can only be named "Guy"

Have we ever done the Wild? How about them? Just throwing that as an idea, because I do not have the newest rosters installed at the moment and can't look them up. They do have a decent goalie, though. Avalanche would be a good choice indeed, but we did them not so long ago.

I remember doing my first challenge ever with the Wild but that was over at Sortitoutsi's hockey section back before TBL came into existence. They would definitely be an interesting team to use but the goalie situation makes them a little too good. Goalies are a bigger factor in EHM than they are in real life. They've also got a few guys on defense that are pretty good. Their forwards aren't too shabby either. I could do some serious damage with Mikko Koivu and Martin Havlat.

I'm still leaning towards Dallas with Florida being the other in consideration. One of those two teams will be it for Challenge 20. I'm guessing 21 might be another junior team.

Forgot that they now have Théodore in addition to Bäckström and Harding... so yes, that's too much depth there.

Florida gets my vote.

bruins72 wrote:II'm guessing 21 might be another junior team.

WHL!!

Agreed there Timmy. I am really comfortable with the Q and the WHL. I would love that!

So Challenge 22 ended earlier this month, any word on Challenge 23?

Waiting I believe for the next release of a new DB.

Yup.

EDIT:

Actually... scratch that. Manimal just told me that the next update was taking a little longer than expected, so we'll kick off a new challenge shortly. Then the next challenge after that should be a WHL one with Manimal's new database.

Geez, you weren't kidding about 'shortly'

Yeah,I got word from Manimal about the next roster update and decided to just get the ball rolling on the new challenge.

I want a Seattle Thunderbirds Challenge!!