Challenge 20: Dallas Stars (Discussion Thread)

[eric1985]

57 games in and im quite surprised. Richards has a star rep now and leads the leagues in pts with 114( 10 pts over ovie) and goals 48 (6 ahead of stamkos).

[braeden]

125 PIM in 7 games for Mark Fistric

[bruins72]

Honestly, I'm really surprised at how well this team is doing. I played about 30 or 40 games into the season on a test game before deciding on them for a challenge team and they really didn't do so well. I was probably 10th in the conference. Of course now that I'm playing it for the challenge they're floating between 2nd and 4th in the conference and looking pretty good. Of course, one injury can cause this team to spiral downwards.

[outdooral]

Ive got that injury . 2 games into the preseason and Ive lost Erickson for 3 months and Ribero for 10 days. Its going to be a tough start.

[dmarchuk1]

wow, you're done a season and I'm still in training camp...

Heh I work from Home. This is a good game to play to pass the time, plus Im a hockey junkie and PSN was down. Ahhhh Sweet NHL 11, how I have missed thee.

Held up from making a trade now in season 2 because Im too close to Salary floor lol. Hows that possible with Richards and Ribeiro

[racicot]

Ha, well I spent my entire preseason perusing through waiver wires and UFAs, so I guess I was a little behind there.

[timmy_t]

Finished preseason and played the first game of the regular season against the Avalanche.

I went 2-2 in the preseason, and was somewhat satisfied with my results. The two losses were using a positionally based tactic, and the two wins were a more free-flow tactic. I used the games to adjust my passing and have a few players on "very safe" passing as a result. My lines are basically set for the season, and I'm with B72: I hope I don't lose any of my big guns for any length of time.

My first regular season game was not to my liking: a 4-0 loss to Colorado (huh? they have a horrible team right now...)

[braeden]

What are your guys' lines looking like in the 1st season?

[eric1985]

I was toying with Ribeiro with Richards but now they look like this:
Offense - Defense
1 - Morrow - Richards - Eriksson - Daley - Goligoski
2 - Benn - Ribeiro - Langenbrunner - Fistric - Robidas
3 - Petersen - Sutherby - Burish - Woywitka - Grossman
4 - Ott - Wandell - Williams

[timmy_t]

Morrow-Richards-Eriksson
Benn-Ribeiro-Williams
Ott-Sutherby-Langenbrunner
Barch-Petersen-Burish

Goligoski-Robidas
Woywitka-Daley
Lukowich-Grossman
(Skrastins)

Lehtonen
Raycroft

[braeden]

Langenbrunner isn't on more rosters nor is Goligoski...****

Looks like I'm restarting...

[timmy_t]

I've read the rules so I don't have any questions at all...

Langenbrunner isn't on more rosters nor is Goligoski...****

Looks like I'm restarting...

Hmmmmm.....

[braeden]

I've read the rules so I don't have any questions at all...

Langenbrunner isn't on more rosters nor is Goligoski...****

Looks like I'm restarting...

Hmmmmm.....

Lol I just had the wrong set of rosters,I forgot to extract 3.1

I'm getting accustomed to this Timmy...

[bestrafer7]

I've only competed in a few challenges, but these three rules I have always had a big problem with:

6.7 No trades of any kind are permitted on draft day.

6.9 You may not trade in or out any draft picks or unsigned prospects at any time.

6.11 You may make a maximum of one trade per season. Only straight up 1-for-1 deals are allowed now. You may send one player out and you may accept one player in return. Nothing more.

I know these rules are to make the games more challenging, but it takes away from the realism of controlling an NHL team.

I can say the same thing about these rules:

7.1 You may not sign any RFAs whose rights are held by another team.

7.2 UFAs may only be signed between 1 July and 31 August, inclusive.

7.3 Players must be at least 24 years of age at the time of signing to qualify as a UFA signing.

7.4 The number of UFAs you may sign during a season is limited according to which tier of the UFA Pyramid you choose. You do not have to declare which tier you choose. You may choose one of the following tiers:

7.4.1 Tier 1: You may sign one UFA with an annual cap hit of up to US$2M.

7.4.2 Tier 2: You may sign up two UFAs with an annual cap hit of up to US$525k.

7.5 Instead of the UFA Pyramid, you may sign one player from waivers at any point during the year and without restriction as to annual salary. If you take this approach, you will not be able to sign any UFAs during that season.

I'm not bringing this up just to pain, but it really takes away from the game having so many restrictions on actual transactions. To truly take over this team and make it your own, some of these rules are too strict.

[outdooral]

5 games into the season and now Im missing Williams for 2 weeks, Grossman for 3 weeks and Burish for 10 days. Someone stop the bleeding please.
Im 1-4 and being outshot everygame by a wide margin.
Anyone getting Ott to perform ? Hes only got a 6.5 rating for me getting 2nd line minutes,as well as PP due to the injuries.

[timmy_t]

@ bestrafer7:

The reason they are so strict is to make it a challenge.

Bruins72 and myself started this a long time ago (challenge 2!), and although I drifted away from EHM for a while, B72 and Batdad (and some of the other mods) have refined the challenge rules to make it hard for both new players and old timers. They've gone through a ton of rules and refined it to where it is now.


As far as your second quotation, give it about 5 seasons and the Dallas Stars will be the vision of their expert GM bestrafer7! The rules are set up to favor good drafting and player development. A lot of the time people get bored and quit around season 4 or 5, but if you can keep playing you'll see the draft picks you've made turn into great players.


Trust me, you will become very good at EHM after a few challenges like this. You'll even feel bad when you play on your own and "cheat" the AI to get a good trade.

[eric1985]

5 games into the season and now Im missing Williams for 2 weeks, Grossman for 3 weeks and Burish for 10 days. Someone stop the bleeding please.
Im 1-4 and being outshot everygame by a wide margin.
Anyone getting Ott to perform ? Hes only got a 6.5 rating for me getting 2nd line minutes,as well as PP due to the injuries.

I ve had lots of little injuries.. Robidas was worst as it was a month. Ott is playing good enough for me. Really surprised with Benn though. turning out to be a good 2nd liner.

[bruins72]

What are your guys' lines looking like in the 1st season?

My lines...

Morrow - Richards - Eriksson
Wandell - Ribeiro - Langenbrunner
Ott - Sutherby - Williams
Barch - Petersen - Burish

Daley - Robidas
Grossman - Goligoski
Fistric/Woywitka/Skrastins - Blindenbacher

Lehtonen - Raycroft

The forward lines haven't really changed much yet. Williams and Langenbrunner have flip-flopped for a game or two. I think Ott and Wandell have flip-flopped a tiny bit too. I've also got Segal in the lineup for a little bit because Sutherby was injured. Bursh took Sutherby's spot and Segal took Burish's on the 4th line. Unlike many people, I don't have Benn in my lineup. I moved him down to the farm team. I felt that he might drag the team down a bit right now and he's be better served by getting more ice time.

My defensive pairings have been pretty stable too. That left side of the third pairing has pretty much been split between Skrastins and Fistric but Daley was suspended for a couple games so Woywitka was worked into the mix. He didn't do as well as they did. I think I like Fistric there best.

Right now we're 16 games into the season and Lehtonen has played 10 while Raycroft has started 6. Both have very nice (8.00+) Average Ratings but Raycroft's stats look a little better. I'm probably going stick with this kind of ratio though, with Lehtonen being the starter.

I've only competed in a few challenges, but these three rules I have always had a big problem with:

I understand your frustration with the challenge rules but as Timmy has said, we've been doing these challenges for quite a while. The rules used to be so much less restrictive but we've had to tweak them to make them more challenging. When you've got a game that's been out for 4 or 5 years and it's got weaknesses that are easily exploited, you've got to make things difficult. Most of us have been playing this for so long that if our trading isn't seriously restricted, we can have an all-star team within a month of taking over. It's just too easy to exploit this game's trade engine. In some of those old challenges where we didn't have these restrictions we'd have almost everyone winning the Stanley Cup and the difference between first place and last was so marginal. It began to lose it's fun.

Just give these rules a try. Most people find that it's still quite a bit of fun with these restrictions. It just challenges you to play the game differently.

[timmy_t]

Well, I made it through my first 20 games. When I say made it, I mean they were a rough 20 games. I went 3-6-1 in the first 10 games, and 5-3-2 in the next 10. What was the difference? I brought Fistric up from Texas and started fighting. I like to play EHM with bigger guys, and when my team's best enforcer (before Fistric) was Adam Burish, I knew I was in trouble.

I've had my share of injuries as well. Ott's out again for 10 days, and Lehtonen is out for a week with a groin strain. I'll admit I have/had Jamie Benn on my team splitting time between the 2nd and 3rd lines but his average rating is 6.67 and he's had 4 5's in the last 10 games so I think B72 is right in keeping him in Texas for a year.

For some reason I can't seem to get what I want out of Morrow. Don't get me wrong, he's performing, I just want "more." Like a string of 10's or something.

Last thought: I need to tighten up my PK. I've let 31 slip by on the PK already and some games were multiple PK goals against.

[bruins72]

I know what you mean about this team not really having any fighters. Burish just doesn't have the strength for it. Ott is a punk. I really don't want to put Morrow in that position. He's more valuable to us on the ice, not in the box. Fistric is a nice solution to that. I'm already thinking I'll be going the UFA route instead of Waivers for season 2. I think this team would benefit from adding a couple guys with some strength and toughness but low salaries.

I'm surprised that you're not having the best luck with Morrow. He's been awesome for my team. He's been our best player, even better than Richards. He's got a 9.06 Average Rating, leads the team in goals and points, he's also our best hitter. I have no complaints with him at all!

In the last several challenges I've had issues with my PK. I really can't complain so far in this challenge though. I'm running at 89.3% through 16 games. My PP is running at 18.9%, so that could get a little more productive.

Right now I'm in a stretch of 6 days between games and it's killing me. I click continue and then go to something else (like TBL or actual work) while it processes but then I don't get right back to the game, so it takes a while to get to that next game.

[timmy_t]

How is Scott Glennie doing for you?

He's got 70-something points in 27 games and has been the WHL player of the week/month every time.

[bruins72]

How is Scott Glennie doing for you?

He's got 70-something points in 27 games and has been the WHL player of the week/month every time.

I haven't been quite so fortunate with him. He was out for 12 days with a groin strain. I'm 20 games in and he's played 22 games and has 37 points. He's still looking good, just not as good as he is in your game.

[bestrafer7]

I've only competed in a few challenges, but these three rules I have always had a big problem with:

Just give these rules a try. Most people find that it's still quite a bit of fun with these restrictions. It just challenges you to play the game differently.

I've already started a game and playing to try. I understand the aspect of bringing in more challenging restrictions, this is the 20th Challenge, but I haven't played the game long enough.

What are your guys' lines looking like in the 1st season?

Wandell-Richards-Eriksson
Morrow-Ribeiro-Langenbrunner
Ott-Petersen-Burish
Sutherby-Williams-Barch
Gagnon

Grossman-Robidas
Skrastins-Goligoski
Woywitka-Daley
Fistric

Lehtonen - Raycroft

I'll admit I have/had Jamie Benn on my team splitting time between the 2nd and 3rd lines but his average rating is 6.67 and he's had 4 5's in the last 10 games so I think B72 is right in keeping him in Texas for a year.

I sent him right down to the Texas Stars as well. In 3 games with Texas he has 2 assists 4 PIM and a 7.50 rating

[fz50]

Ok, so in all my eagerness to get to July 1st with free agency and trading after my first season, I forgot to report my stats in the Challenge Stats Tool. I have all my screenshots taken at correct dates, but I don't know what to put in the fields for "Powerplays", "Powerplay Goals Scored", "Times Shorthanded", "Powerplay Goals Against" and "Penalties in Minutes". (I actually remember my payroll. Every other stat I can easily find in my screens).

Ofcourse my screenshots tell my Powerplay and Penalty Killing Percentage, but not how many opportunities I've had for example. With the team penalties in minutes, maybe I can add up every player on my teams PIM, if that's the way that stat work.

So, now I wonder what to do. I would hate for a stupid mistake like that to ruin this challenge, which I think is the best one this far. Great fun. Did you guys resign Langenbrunner for the 2nd season by the way?

[timmy_t]

Did you save the game at each 20 game set?