EHM The Blue Line

Since the pics don't show up in the public side for some reason, here's links to them:

After 40 games:
Standings: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/al ... pic_id=331
Player stats: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/al ... pic_id=332
Finances: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/al ... pic_id=330
Depth chart: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/al ... pic_id=334
Trades: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/al ... pic_id=333

I just wrapped up my first 20 games and it sure has been interesting! The most obvious thing I've noticed is that stamina is an issue with this team. Most of the players on the roster have the stamina of a 3rd or 4th liner. Also, Eric Staal doesn't start the game as good as he did in the real season.

Because of the way the abilities were set up in the game, I decided to do a lot of trading. I also had to trim some payroll because I was sitting right at the team's budget limit.

The first thing I did was trade Glen Wesley, Jessie Boulerice, and the rights to Ryan Bayda to the Kings for Dustin Brown and Tim Gleason. Obviously, I wanted to go younger and cheaper here. Unfortunately, neither one of the guys I traded for was really ready for a full-time role with the team. They've played some (Dustin Brown has played half his time with the Hurricanes and the other half in the AHL and Gleason has played all of his time in the AHL).

Next I traded the rights to Tim Kunes and my 4th & 5th round picks to the Devils for David Hale. Hale has turned out to be one of my better defensemen so far. He's averaging about 23 minutes a game, leads the team in +/- and is tied for the team lead in PIMs.

After that I traded Pavel Brendl and Frantisek Kaberle to the Flames for Rhett Warrener. Brendl has a weak workrate and isn't all that great for the money he makes. I wasn't all that impressed with Kaberle's skills either considering his salary. It was about an even trade in regards to salary ($2.2M outgoing - $2.3M incoming) but I thought Warrener was a better player. Also, the team was strong on the left side and kind of weak on the right. Warrener helped resolve that.

The last move I made before the regular season started was to send Rod Brind'Amour to the Penguins for Colby Armstrong. Brind'Amour was just making too much money for my liking. This was pure salary dump. Armstrong has been playing on my 4th line. His skills are coming along okay but he really needs to increase his stamina if he wants to play more.

Early into the regular season I still didn't like the way my team looked so I worked some more deals. I sent Craig Adams, Danny Richmond, and Bret Hedican to the Sharks for Brad Stuart. Adams wasn't really helping me, Richmond didn't look like he'd develop into much, and Hedican was too old. I figured I'd get a younger, speedy defenseman to help out my right side in Stuart. He's done okay so far.

This is the first of my 3 (yes three!) trades that enraged both the board and the fans. I'm making friends fast in my reign as GM! I sent Ray Whitney, the rights to Kyle Lawson, Sean Curry, and Risto Korhonen, plus my 3rd round pick to the Predators for Scott Hartnell. I had an overload of LWs and not much strength on the right side. I thought it was a decent move. Maybe I overpaid a little but it wasn't anything to get enraged over!

The second enraging move was to send Andrew Ladd, the rights to Joe Barnes and Casey Borer, plus my 2nd round pick to the Coyotes for Ladislav Nagy. Ladd was really sucking for me. He needed more time to develope and I'm playing for this season, not the future. Nagy has been hot in the current real NHL season, so I figured I'd see how he'd work out. He's done pretty well for me so far but I'm still trying to find the best linemates to pair him with. He's got a 7.67 rating but I'm not happy with his -4.

I sent Mike Commodore to the Wild for a 4th round pick. Nobody cared.

The last move I made, and it was one that enraged the fans and board, was to send Cam Ward, Jack Johnson, and my 1st round pick to the Rangers for Henrik Lundqvist. Cam Ward was doing okay for me but he didn't have the stamina to be a starter for me. I needed a #1 goalie and Gerber wasn't cutting it. I had signed Jack Johnson before the season started but he wasn't ready to play in the NHL yet. He played all but a couple of games in the AHL. I know I paid a lot but I had to get a big name goaltender. Lundqvist's first game in net for me he faced 54 shots and stopped 52. The game was tied 2-2 and Tverdovsky won it for us in the shootout. Lundqvist won his next game 3-2. He's going to get us going in the right direction.

I'm still juggling my lines a bit. Staal started off centering the 4th line but playing on the PP. Now he's on the 1st line throughout. He's doing okay with 13 points in 20 games. I think my roster is set unless something comes along that I can't pass up. I haven't had any serious injuries yet. Cole missed a few games and a couple of other guys have missed a game here or there. The next 20 games should be a fun ride!

That goalie trade looks oddly familiar How has Lundqvist been for you? For me he's been rated at average about 6.9 to 7.0. Definitely not stellar but he's still winning so I don't care much.

I dropped Ladd to the AHL as soon as I could, he really has no place in an NHL team just yet.

No trades in my second batch of 20 games. I almost pulled off the motherload deal though. The Bruins are in last place in the Eastern Conference. They were willing to deal Joe Thornton (a little to close to the current Bruins, huh?). They wanted Dustin Brown, the rights to Justin Peters, my 2 4th round picks, and another pick from 2007. Obviously, I couldn't give them the 2007 pick (I want to say it was no higher than a 3rd or 4th) because of the challenge rules. I also wanted to include a player or two with some salary because Thornton's salary would put me over budget. I tried dropping the2007 pick and including Stillman. No luck. I also tried giving them Tverdovsky. That didn't work either. All of a sudden, other teams started working the phones with the Bruins. The Capitals and Predators made them offers but they weren't anything special. Then the Blackhawks made them a good offer and the Bruins took it. They offered Tuomo Ruutu, Corey Crawford, and the rights to Dan Bertram. The Bruins snatched it right up. These are the things that makes this challenge difficult!

I lost Hartnell to injury for a couple of weeks and he hasn't done all that much for me while he's been playing. That trade hasn't worked out. Nagy has done well though. He's got 28 points in the 29 games he's played for me. Lundqvist has gone 7-5-6 in the 18 games he's started for me. He's got a 2.50 GAA and .920 SV%. Not too shabby. Various players have been out a game or two due to injury but nothing substantial (other than Hartnell's). I've just put Vrbata and Ward on the trading block because they didn't want to negotiate deals. Hartnell is the only guy I have left to work out a deal with.

I'm also thinking of trying to deal Warrener. He seems to get injured (or those psuedo injuries where you rest them after the game but they're not injured the next day, they just have a low condition) all the time. I've had to keep calling up Tim Gleason to fill in. I don't mind when he fills in for Tverdovsky (in fact, I'd like to unload Tverdovsky's contract and put Gleason in his place) but he can't fill Warrener's role on the PK. Gleason just isn't very good defensively. I think I might need to make a few deals for defense.

I'm still juggling lines quite a bit. I'll find a trio that works well together for a bit and then they'll do nothing for a while. I also have to swap guys in and out because of conditioning. If I could keep guys together for a while, I think I'd have more success.

Oh well! Time for the next 20!

Borlag wrote:That goalie trade looks oddly familiar How has Lundqvist been for you? For me he's been rated at average about 6.9 to 7.0. Definitely not stellar but he's still winning so I don't care much.

I dropped Ladd to the AHL as soon as I could, he really has no place in an NHL team just yet.

It looks like you were typing this post right as I was working on my 2nd batch. I didn't see an edit. Sorry about back to back posts.

DOH! I didn't even notice we pulled the same deal for Lundqvist. You wouldn't believe how many different offers I threw at them before finally getting that one. Were the fans and board "enraged" when you made that deal? Anyhow, Lundqvist is doing better for me that he seems to be doing for you. I've had him for less time than you (and NYR was using him very rarely) but so far he's got a 7.61 average rating. in 18 starts for me. He's started all but a few of my games since I acquired him. I think I ought to lay off him a bit before I burn him out. I just hate trusting Gerber.

If I was looking at the franchise for long term, there's no way I would've gotten rid of Ladd or Johnson. Neither one of them is ready yet. How are Williams, Stillman, and Cullen doing for you? I'd ditch all three of them if I could get the right offer.

The board hated me for the Lundqvist trade, so they seem consistent in that for sure heh.

As for Williams, Stillman and Cullen...well. For the beginning of the season Stillman and Williams played on the 2nd line, both picking up more minuses than my first line got points. That was one of my biggest problems for a while. After moving Stillman on the first line with Rolston and Jagr, everything seemed to click for both lines. Williams is becoming my #1 gun for powerplay, despite Jagr still being the RW on the 1st PP line, Stillman is climbing the ranks and getting points in just about every game I play. Granted that's not difficult when playing with Rolston and Jagr who are amongst the top scorers in the league for my game, but still, it's a great improvement for the beginning of the seasons.

As for Cullen, while he's skilled enough to show up as 3rd C in my depth chart, he just isn't 3rd or 4th line material, not when I want a defensive forward anyway. Thus Avery and Adams handled that job for a long time. It wasn't until recently when Avery started whining after I set him as fringe player (that's what he was for me), and that way earned the benching. Now Cullen's centering the third line with Whitney and Ortmeyer and doing it quite nicely I might add. You can check the pics I posted above for their stats

If I was on the Board I wouldn't be enraged over the Lunk trade, but that's mainly because he was the goalie I rode all the way through winning the Cup with my Washington Challenge team

With the Caps I got him for Eric Fehr and a 3rd. I really like how that team is going now so it's been hard for me to face starting over with Carolina but I'm sure I'll give in and enter a team soon.

Minstrel wrote: I really like how that team is going now so it's been hard for me to face starting over with Carolina but I'm sure I'll give in and enter a team soon.

I'm in the same boat, only its my Sabres dynasty that I can't stop playing.

Just finished my first 20 games and what an impressive set of stats I have

I absolutly struggled in trades. I got two rubbish defenders from Maple Leafs for F.Kaberle, Randy Robitaille for a 3rd round pick. My best move is probably getting Belak from waivers. Nothing very intresting happened for the first 17 games. I lost alot, won a few and kept complaining about Brind'Amour and Gerber. I seemed to constantly be on the verge of lifting off the foot of the table and kept losing by a few goals, many of which being on an empty net. The only excuse i could come up with was that thre quarters of my games were away. Game 17 vs. Montreal is my worst match. Gerber let in 7 goals! Straight afterthe match I looked for a good goaltender in the form of Khabibulin. I had to surrender Cole, Ward and a 1st round draft pick for him. This made the board and fans pretty unhappy, abit like everyone's goalie trades. Khabibulin has only played one game so far and let in 5 goals. To make my season's situation even better, Stillman is out for 3 weeks and Hedican is out for 4 months.

The only way is up

Another 20 games down and I'm still not having much luck. I think I may have over-tinkered with the lines. Oh well! I've now passed the trade deadline, so I can't do anymore damage.

I made another bunch of deal, mostly not to the fans or board's liking. I wasn't happy with the way Warrener was performing (see the above noted conditioning issues), so I shipped him out. I sent him (along with the rights to Justin Peters and a previously acquired 4th rounder) to the Bruins for Nick Boynton. Boynton is a good skater with a nice balance of offense and defense. He's put up 10 points in the 17 games I've had him (which is pretty good) but he's a -7. I'm hoping that will improve.

I wasn't using Kevyn Adams much (he was riding the 4th line), so I sent him off to the Capitals for Brian Sutherby. Sutherby is a good face-off man (he's centering my 3rd line right now) with decent defensive abilities.

Justin Williams had been bothering me for a while. I didn't like him on either of the top lines. He'd put up mildly okay points but he was always a minus, one of the worst on the team. I had him playing on the 3rd line and he really wasn't suited towards a checking role. I sent him off to the Flames for Jed Ortmeyer (they had previously traded Jordan Leopold for him and the rights to somebody). I've always liked Ortmeyer's defensive abilities.

My last trade came during the Olympic break, a week or two before the deadline. Of course, it enraged my board and fans. I sent Gordie Dwyer, Radim Vrbata, and the rights to Vojta and Blanchard to the Coyotes for Oleg Saprykin. I loved Vrbata's speed but he didn't have much else. He put up decent points but I wanted to see if I could do better. Saprykin has speed, stamina, stickhandling, and a decent wrister. I'm going to play him on the RW on the top line with Nagy and Staal or Stillman. I've only got one game played since the trade, so I can't say how it will work out.

The board is a little disappointed in me and they tell me to ignore the fans calling for my head on a pike. I'm worried that if things don't come together, I'll be fire before finishing the challenge. I hope that doesn't happen!

It hasn't actually happened to anyone yet, but should someone be fired you have the okay to 'Add a GM' and do a hostile takeover to regain the running of the team

Also, keep in mind we pick teams that might struggle on purpose to give people something to work with/challenge themselves with. I hope everyone will consider taking their teams through a second season as well, I can open recording for that Challenge (which would be 2.2) as soon as anyone has completed their first season and wants to continue on

Minstrel wrote:It hasn't actually happened to anyone yet, but should someone be fired you have the okay to 'Add a GM' and do a hostile takeover to regain the running of the team

Also, keep in mind we pick teams that might struggle on purpose to give people something to work with/challenge themselves with. I hope everyone will consider taking their teams through a second season as well, I can open recording for that Challenge (which would be 2.2) as soon as anyone has completed their first season and wants to continue on

Second season? Erm...Some of us have traded away the teams future with one season of success in mind Then again that'd be even bigger challenge, who knows, perhaps it'd be one I'd take

I usually trade away everything for the future. I would approach every team and try to get their 1st round picks. Sometimes I could stockpile picks with my prospects. Then I would trade like 2 or 3 players plus 3 or 4 1st round picks for Crosby and Malkin, and 2 or 3 1st round picks for Lundqvist.

Obviously this strategy wouldn't work for this challenge, so I approached it differently. I was impressed/inspired by Minstrel's first season Stanley Cup win. I really didn't think it was possible to take one of the lower tier teams all the way in the first year.

So, that's my goal!

By the way, if I remember correctly Cory Stillman got crossed with Cory Sarich I think it was in the original set and I made a corrected card but I'm sure if that card made it into the set, so if your Stillman doesn't look like Stillman save a copy of this, rename it with an .ehg extension and drop it in your players folder as a replacement.

Thanks for the Stillman card correction. I love the hockey card style facepack. I didn't really notice the mistake until playing the Hurricanes in this challenge.

I don't think I'm going to have to worry about being fired. With 4 games left in the season, I'm barely clinging to the #8 spot in the conference. That's an improvement from the rest of the season! I'm only leading #'s 9 & 10 by 1 point though. Anything could happen! What happens if we make the playoffs? Does that affect the challenge at all? Of course, I'll play through the playoffs either way. I'm also interested in playing a second season once I wrap up this one.

BTW, when we report our leading scorers, do we only include what they've done with our team? If we traded for them part way through the season, do we include their totals from their old team along with the ones they put up for us? For example, Nagy had only 6 points in 12 games before joining my team (and I didn't include them in past stat reports) but Saprykin had 59 points in in 57 games before joining my team.

After looking at some of the point deductions I will recieve for being over budget, I think I will start focusing on Challenge 2.2. Only 62 games to go! (excluding unlikely play-off qualification)

You've got 62 games left? You could always look at trading away some of your overpriced players and trimming you budget. That way you won't be penalized.

Well I just finished my season. My team barely held on at the end and we reached the playoffs. I had a decent winning streak going for a bit but I was having some coniditioning problems (and Hartnell was out the last week or two of the season) and I just barely made it. I had several games go to OT, including my last 4 of the season. It was just enough. I ended the season just 2 points ahead of the 9th place team.

It turns out trading for Saprykin was a great move. He's gotten 24 points in 23 games with my team. He's played on the RW with Nagy playing LW and Stillman at C. I'd like to see if I could get a speedy C in the offseason to play with Nagy and Saprykin. They'll be explosive once I do that. Stall is developing but not very fast. He still needs more speed and stamina... plus a better shot. His checking, passing, and getting open are really good though. For now, he's relegated to 2nd line C between Cole (who isn't scoring much despite being a goal-scoring machine any time I've played as another team and traded for him) and Hartnell (when he's not injured).

Playing the next season should be interesting. I've only got a 4th, 6th, and 7th in the upcoming draft (unless I make some offseason trades. I do have some budget room though. I've got about $4M available as the budget currently stands. If the board increases our budget for the next season, are we allowed to use that in the second season of the challenge? If so, I could be in VERY good shape for hitting the UFA market.

Anyhow... I had a great time with this challenge (and flew right through it). I look forward to starting the 2nd season and/or doing another challenge.

Two things:

Player stats are only for your team; you trade them they are dead to you So if you trade your leading scorer at the deadline then for games 60-82 it defaults to whoever at Game 82 leads your team in points.

Second season details: same rules but the trading picks rule stays in effect until the picks are used. By that I mean that rule is always you can only trade picks from the upcoming draft; when the draft in summer of 2007 occurs and those picks are used then you are able to trade only your picks that your team has for the draft which will take place in summer of 2008. The shift to being able deal picks for the next draft doesn't happen until after that year's picks become players.

There is a chance that going into a second season two TBL Users will have their Board set their budgets at different levels. Whatever that number becomes you are bound by it. Before beginning your second season you should post a screenshot of your budget screen to verify the budget your Board has given you.

Oh, and I have started my Carolina team though the team's defense petrifies me and I've had only limited success in addressing the problem... we're just through Camp so how bad things are I won't know for a while yet.

Interestingly the deals that I did and thought my Board and Fan's responses would be to lure me into a dark boardroom somewhere and point to a diagram saying "This is your head... and this; is your head, on a pike. We'd like you to keep this demonstration in mind the next time you pick up your phone to make a deal." They didn't And ones I thought were just kind of matter of fact they were grabbing pitchforks. Tough crowd.

Well if Minty started I guess I gotta start too..darn Hurricanes. WE COULDA PLAYED THE SABRES GUYS! COME ON!



I dunno if I can leave my Sabres long enough to play...this other team.

Minstrel wrote:Two things:

Player stats are only for your team; you trade them they are dead to you So if you trade your leading scorer at the deadline then for games 60-82 it defaults to whoever at Game 82 leads your team in points.

But if you trade for a player (in my case, Saprykin) and his total combine points for the season lead your team, he is who I put in as my team leader in points... right? The player may have only registered 20 points since joining my team because I picked him up at the trade deadline but if you add the 60 points he notched before joining my team, he's got 80 (these numbers are just for example). His 80 for the season are higher than Nagy's 75.

I think I might be making things more confusing that they have to be. I just want to make sure when I put my point leader, it's not just how many points he has since joining your team.

Also, should I post screenshots of the one round of the playoffs my team was in and the Stanley Cup Finals (that they weren't even close to getting near!)? I will post a screenshot of my finance screen to show my new budget when I get that far. Should these (or any of them) screenshots go in the stat thread?

I'm glad you're starting up your team! I know exactly what you're talking about with your defense! It's not the best defense to begin with and to make matters even worse, what you have for good defense is all on the left side! You're almost forced to make lots of trades right away!

Okay, I've started the challenge now!

Minstrel wrote:Oh, and I have started my Carolina team though the team's defense petrifies me and I've had only limited success in addressing the problem... we're just through Camp so how bad things are I won't know for a while yet.

No matter how bad Minstrel does no one can beat me. I've just reached game 32 and I'm 12 points from 14th place. I've only got 2 points from the past 12 games. Oh, and I've gone 16 games without a win

On the positive side of things I've almost got rid of my poor financial state by releasing Brind'Amour and I've got Konowalchuk off of waivers

Bruins72 The answer to the question is that you can only report what stats are displayed when you go to your team stats.

So if the player is dealt before the snapshot in time that your recording represents they don't exist on that listing when you are to record who has the most points on your team. Likewise if a player has 100 points before you deal for him that display will only show the games he played for your team and the stats he gained from them. What it says on your team's stats page is what you record; it's the only we can do it.

To clarify the playoffs screenshot, this is the screen I mean from my Washington team:

Playoffs Schedule

I am going with this screen because it is accessable even years after the fact by clicking the arrows in the upper right corner and it's more compact than the other screens.

Any 'official' recording/stat related screenshot links should go in the recording thread.

More on my Carolina team tommorow...