Sea Dogs - Challenge 11 - Discussion Thread

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:40 pm

Batdad... your boy Randell hasn't been having the greatest junior career in my game. I just saw a news item saying that the media think he's a liability to his team. This is actually his first season in The Q. He played last season with Amherst of the MJAHL and just did okay. I've got my scouts looking at him now. If he doesn't turn out to be a dud in my game I might try to swing a deal for him when trading opens up. I'm itching for trading to open. I've got a couple guys that I want on my team.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:43 pm

That is not the deal I was talking about...

Heh three threads I have corrupted today already.

Anyway, gotta love the randomization.

Can anyone tell me how Kirk Sinclair is doing in their games? And what he is doing? Cause he is lighting it up in my game.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:49 pm

I can't even find a Kirk Sinclair in my game. Are you sure he's not a regen?

Post by **batdad** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:51 pm

Yep--Took him with my second pick in the first draft. Right after Randell

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:04 pm

I just got an offer to take over the Bruins. I think I'm going to see if I can finish season 3 before trying that. The Bruins are really a mess. Their scouting is all bad except for Bradley. Their coaching is about the same as you start with. Jody Gage really stripped down the team, trading guys like Chara away. They've traded away their 2nd and 4th round picks in the next draft. They could be a real project.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 6:07 pm

So I'm just about done with the second segment of season 3 and I was planning on trying to crank out the rest between today and Monday. Well we were having some really bad rain/wind storms here this morning. I was loading up EHM so I could run it in the background while I worked. As it was loading my saved game, THE POWER GOES OUT! This has happened in the past when the power has gone out with the game running but not while the save is being loaded. So the power comes back a minute later and I get all of my work apps running. I launch EHM and there is no problem. Then I go to load my challenge save... and after a while I get a message about corruption! So I'm bummed and figure... that's it, the challenge is done for me. I go to load the save where the Bruins offer me a job, it's about 1 month of game time before where I left off. That one won't load either! So I try 2 other saves I have... same thing. Now I'm thinking my install of EHM might be damaged. I find my registration info and I'm just about to uninstall EHM so I can re-install it but I think about the error message. It said something about corruption but also mentioned possible bad sectors. So I tell my computer to run CHKDSK after a reboot. The first two stages are taking a few minutes, so I leave my office for a few minutes. I come back a little later and I see that it has found a bunch of bad indexes and deleted them. I'm thinking "Maybe that did it", so I hit Esc to try and end CHKDSK. No such luck! I can't get it to stop. It took over 2 hours more (closer to 3) for it to finish verifying files and free space. Finally, I'm into windows and low and behold... my saves load fine now! It's all okay and now I can try to finish my season!

Post by **batdad** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 6:13 pm

Yeah it is weird sometimes. I had that happen to me. Checkdisk always takes forever...nothing abnormal there.

So started season 5. I am 18-2-1 or something. And well...the Sharks sent me Sauve back. Dude is 20, and may play in his 5th. I have decided to wait and see who is the first NHL coach fired in this season and then move there from SAint John. Not go back and take Flyer job....

Post by **joehelmer** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:50 pm

I'm going to do like Batdad, continue to play with the team but not in the challenge. But hopefully I will win my fourth Memorial Cup.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:25 pm

Well it doesn't look like I'm going to finish my 3rd season in time. I didn't have the chance to play at all over the weekend and the deadline is today. I've got 43 games played and just too many left to go.

Post by **Calv** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:57 pm

The challenge deadline is today, I'll get the points and winners done over the next few days

Post by **batdad** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:50 pm

So it is Xmas time. I decided to go and be Canada's World Junior GM, since no NHL jobs (or AHL for that matter) have yet become available. NOTE: I AM NOT DOING SEASON 5 in this challenge, this is for my personal fun...

Anyway..2-0 for Canada so far. Top Scorer: Saint John Seadogs own Travis Randell 2-5 in two games...a 4-1 win over Russia and a 6-3 win over Suisse. (Backup goalie and all my regular scratches in the game.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:37 pm

I went back and took that Bruins job from the other save. It's season 3, late November, and the Bruins are in last place in the East. They've got plenty of talent up front but their defense has been picked apart and I don't like their prospects. I've only made one change to the coaching staff (I will make bigger changes in the off-season probably) and I'm trying to replace most of the scouts now. I'm going to trade off a lot of dead weight for picks and see what I can do.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:04 pm

Hey B72---I think we should take our franchises over to the blogosphere

Nothing big, just little updates once we get jobs...I am waiting for the capitals to blow apart. McPhee is insecure and the team has lost 5 in a row since he became so. I have no idea who is on their roster right now. But they are 5-22-4 or something stupid.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:48 pm

If I only had the time to blog!

If I had that kind of time I would've completed more than 2 seasons of the challenge. Still, I'll play my 08-09 Bruins here and there when I have the time. It's just to tide me over until the next challenge.

Post by **Manimal** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:07 pm

Am I the only one that found the randomness to be boring. It felt like we played with totally different teams. Maybe in a future CHL-challenge we can all start with a saved game? Everyone would be on equal terms. One problem is probably that some would wait and see who'll develop well and then build around them, perhaps. Just a thought

Post by **batdad** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:21 pm

NAh I really did not have a problem with the different development levels. That happens in every challenge. In the Hawks challenge I got Toews to be a super star, and others well...he could not even make the team. There was someone else I got on the Hawks to go real well, and everyone else dealt him right off the bat.
I think some had WAAAAYyY more success with Duncan Keith than I did too.

No issue...seeing different players do well in other people's games than in mine made me realize you have to look at different guys all the time. I thought that part was real good.

McPhee just fired...they still have AO...but he has been injured for a bit. Gee I wonder why they have been struggling? Never used the Caps before so may give it a go, but may deal AO out just to make it harder.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:45 pm

I found the randomness to be a really fun part of challenge. Nobody got really ripped off or really set up good. It all balanced out. You just had to make sure you took the time to evaluate your talent. Also, since I was inexperienced with The Q, I didn't know who were the good players and who wasn't. I really didn't even trade very much at all. Maybe like 2 or 3 trades in 2 1/2 seasons. I focused almost purely on development. I loved it! I really loved the simplicity of the challenge. No worrying about finances. Plus, the rules were VERY basic. Mostly, you got to just play. I'd definitely be in favor of playing a Junior challenge again but I'm thinking it might be best to save that for Challenge 13. I'd really like to do a challenge using Lidas' rosters and I don't think the CHL is done yet.

Batdad, the Caps are a pretty easy team to play with. Then again, I don't know what kind of boneheaded moves the computer GM has made. You could be inheriting a stripped down team. I know they're super easy to play with if you're starting out with them and not dealing with the challenge's restrictions.

What month are you in? Maybe should try to get hired by the worst team in the league at least half way through the season? Wait for a good mess to clean up.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:05 pm

Already in January. McPhee only fired guy this season. I just won the World Juniors..Travis Randell led the tournament in scoring!! Gotta love the homegrown. He was the only guy I took from my team though. I could have taken Sinclair but played it the way it should be played. He was close to being there though. Beat Sweden 6-2 in the gold game. Russia 4-0 in round robin and semi.

USA---Relegated. Lost to Belarus

Post by **batdad** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:42 pm

Washington Roster with 17-27-2 record. Last place in East...29th in NHL (Kings 30th)

Semin-Nylander(38 years)-Ovechkin (currently inj)
Loui Eriksson-Petteri Wirtanen-Fehr
jeff O'Neill (34)-Burish-Boyd Gordon
Matt Kassian-Jason Gardiner (19)-Vrbata
Hollweg-Hennessy-Steen

Liles-Salo(36)
Grebeshkov-Joel Bouchard (36)
Malik (35)-Mke Green
Lidstrom (40)....8 speed, all else still awesome.-Erskine

Legace (37)
Varlamov

They have Kellan Tochkin as well as a first rounder. Rest of prospects look brutal.

I may trade Ovechkin for a pick and get fired right away!!!

This team looks horrible.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:32 pm

Wow! That's looking like they really set the stage for you to rebuild them. I wonder what happened to them? They really did have a decent team to start with.

I started without a 2nd round pick, in the upcoming draft, so I traded Bochenski and Neckar to Vancouver for their 2nd. The other deal I did was J.P. Vigier, Andrew Alberts, and the rights to Grant Scott (a NCAA prospect I had never heard of) for Cam Barker. I haven't really been able to work any other deals to my liking. I'd like to rebuilt the rest of the defense and I really don't like a lot of my forwards, even though they're doing well. I'd also like to replace my goalies. Here is what I've got...

Kessel - Savard - Havlat
Sturm - Bergeron - Sykora
Chistov - Stajan - Vrbata
Nilson - Pahlsson - Kobasew

Barker - J. Smith
Ference - Wideman
Lepisto - David Schneider (a 29 year old I never heard of but he has decent skills)

Fernandez - Thomas

Mark Stuart is still on the IR for 10 more days. Matt Greene and Brian Willsie are healthy scratches. Hanzal is the only guy on my farm team that could be useful soon. I've also got Luke Lynes and Aaron Snow as 20 year olds that still need a lot of time. I've also still got Rask on the farm. Stephen Lund and Logan Couture are under contract but assigned to their junior teams. For unsigned prospects Keith Aulie and Patrice Cormier are the only two worth mentioning.

I'd really like to clean house here. Like I said, most of the forwards aren't my type of forward and most of the defense is just bad. I like Dennis Wideman in real life (he's been awesome this year and was really good last year) but he's terrible in the game.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:42 pm

So before I got the job..Semin got hurt too!!! And they dealt away Hennessy for Betts.

The 19 year old kid was the first round pick from last season. Sent him down to hershey immediately (only 6.25 ratings), and recalled a bum.

Going to do my scouting first give these guys a shot. Pat Burns is my assistant GM...coaches not bad, not good. Scouts are actually quite good! Hiring a new trainer and that is it for now.

Hypnotist · Post by **Hypnotist** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:05 pm

I personally loved the randomness at the lower levels. It removes the That's why I play more in the ECHL than in the NHL. I had some fun with this challenge even though I only had time to complete 1 season (got to the end of stage 3 in season 2 and then got super busy). The issue I had was with the scouting system. The scouting AI seems to be set up for the NHL/AHL/Elite League levels. It seemed that a player was either rated at a 1st liner or not good enough. Very few players were considered 2nd-4th liners. Also the player projections were definitely skewed towards the pro level. All in all, a fun challenge and I learned a lot about Canadian Juniors. Maybe Europe next!

Post by **joehelmer** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 6:31 am

Yeah, I really liked the randomness too, KGC was a star in my team while he was 3rd or 4th liner on others.

And it was fun to use players that really wasn't that good on paper and still they performed better than they maybe should have, once again I use KGC as an example, his attributes wasn't really good but with good line mates he was awesome.

Post by **Calv** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:15 pm

Bigargon posted incomplete stats for the first season and will not be eligible for points

Post by **Calv** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:55 pm

All of the first 2 seasons stats have been added, the rest will be up either tomorrow or saturday and then I'll get the winners done on saturday