Challenge 15: Colorado Avalanche (Discussion Thread)

Post by **Danny** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:49 pm

Rather surprisingly, Brian Willsie is not a good choice for the first line

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:49 pm

Yes, I did mean Maxime Sauve. He's been doing really well in real life this season... better than expected. He had a really good camp with the B's too.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:51 pm

Danny wrote:Rather surprisingly, Brian Willsie is not a good choice for the first line

heh. Nor for 2nd line, but someone has to play there...

And Brian Campbell just went on the market in my game. Jesus.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 10:02 pm

And 1st NHL coach fired...his name:

RON WILSON. BWAH BWAH BWAH

Post by **Danny** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 10:42 pm

I'm done with my first 10 games, 7-2-1. That's good enough for 2nd in the West and 4th overall but with games in hand.
Stastny, Wolski, Svatos and Hejduk carrying most of the offense as expected, Duchene a bit inconsistent but contributed with 8 points. Clark is 4th on the team in scoring with 10. Special teams are alright, 17% and 85% respectively. Preissing, Clark, Quincey and Foote are playing well above my expectations now, but Liles and Hannan have disappointed so far. Both goalies playing outstanding.
Lake Erie sucks but at least they've now destroyed Manitoba for their first regulation loss.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 11:26 pm

cstorring wrote: On top of waiving Recchi in my game, they waived Thomas and then waived Rask at the end of the season with no discernible plan to replace them

Thomas was waived in my game as well...right after the trade deadline.

Johnnyluc · Post by **Johnnyluc** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 11:55 pm

Year three ends in disapointment with a sweep by the Dallas Stars in the Eastern Conference Final. Hiller and Budji both where out heading into the series so Trevor Caan was the starter, big shocker that I was swept.

Post by **Danny** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:27 am

So I've just finished the first set of games. The second half didn't go quite as good as the first, lost Stastny for 4 games and lost 3 out of those, including being shutout by the worst offence in the league.
Anyway, question about stat recording, sorry I couldn't find any info on this, what if I've got more than one player tied for the team lead ? Should I write down all of them in the recording sheet ?

Post by **CatchUp** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:53 am

Danny wrote:So I've just finished the first set of games. The second half didn't go quite as good as the first, lost Stastny for 4 games and lost 3 out of those, including being shutout by the worst offence in the league.
Anyway, question about stat recording, sorry I couldn't find any info on this, what if I've got more than one player tied for the team lead ? Should I write down all of them in the recording sheet ?

Correct, sir. Just put them in with a slash - ie Wolski/Stastny.

Also, the correct thread for Challenge related questions is RIGHT HERE!

Post by **Danny** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:05 am

CatchUp wrote:
Danny wrote:So I've just finished the first set of games. The second half didn't go quite as good as the first, lost Stastny for 4 games and lost 3 out of those, including being shutout by the worst offence in the league.
Anyway, question about stat recording, sorry I couldn't find any info on this, what if I've got more than one player tied for the team lead ? Should I write down all of them in the recording sheet ?
Correct, sir. Just put them in with a slash - ie Wolski/Stastny.

Also, the correct thread for Challenge related questions is RIGHT HERE!

Thanks. Yeah I know I could've asked it there too but I didn't want to post boost

Peterman5000 · Post by **Peterman5000** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:55 am

I didn't want to go for a big trade in the off-season.

I felt that adding a young LW, and a solid two way center were key for my new season.

I traded Shattenkirk and Stewart to Tampa Bay for Carter Ashton and Ryan Craig.

Ashton looks like a young version of Erik Cole or maybe Milan Lucic at some point. More discipline though.

I really like Craig as he is a solid checker, face off man and excellent work rate. Should be a great 4th line center, PKer and overall upgrade over Durno.

I haven't used my UFA signings as I feel waiting for waivers could prove to be more fruitful...maybe landing a puck moving defenseman.

I drafted well too I feel - I took the following key guys.

Quinton Howden, a LW out of the WHL - He looks like he will be an excellent two way winger, and fits my play style.
Brock Beukeboom, Defense out of the OHL, and I hope he's half as good as his dad.
Jacob Berglund, LW/C out of Europe who looks like he end up being a solid offensive winger. Maybe replace Hejduk when he leaves.
Brock Nelson - USA - Centerman with solid ratings at 18 - hopefully ends up being a solid two way pro. Plus he's 6'3 and this team needs some size.

After my second round exit to the Red Wings in Season 1, I feel my team could go further in Season 2, barring injuries of course.

I also have no IDEA what to do with Cody McLeod, what a weird player.

kuulapaa · Post by **kuulapaa** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:58 am

batdad wrote:And 1st NHL coach fired...his name:

RON WILSON. BWAH BWAH BWAH

In my game it was

JOHN TORTORELLA

and Rags aren't even doing that bad, they are 11th in East and over .500 winning %.

Speaking about Bruins, in my game it's January 2007 and they put Savard on the block. He has been out since the end of November because of partially torn ACL and is DTD now. No-one seems to be interested of him. Bruins are 14th in East. In East the top 4 teams are Hurricanes, Canadiens, Flyers and Lightning. In West they are Flames, Blue Jackets, Ducks and Canucks. Avalanche had a horrible six-game losing streak and dropped 6th.

I've been playing Stewart as 2nd line LW from mid-November, if I remember right. He has been doing well and sometimes even great, as for example in our last game he got 1+3 and was the first star of the game. But I haven't trained him for LW, I just play him there. He is 6th in points in Av's with 9+21 and has AvR of 7.43, which is 10th highest in team and 4th highest of forwards in team. My lines are now:

Wolski - Stastny - Svatos
Stewart - Hensick - Hejduk
McLeod - Duchene - Jones
Koci - Durno - Willsie

Liles - Quincey
Hannan - Preissing
Clark - Salei

Hejduk ended up in second line after coming back from his injury in early November, first line was playing so well I didn't want to break them up. Tucker has played 35 games but is now definitely the 13th forward, he is no use and I'm planning on re-signing him and then trading him. Just out of curiosity I offered him for all last month and there came several interesting offers. I hope someone's interested in him next summer too.
Foote is on the bench because of taking too many penalties. I suppose our tactics caused him to be late all the time and therefore being forced to take penalties, but anyway, I can't tolerate six minors in a game, can I

ratedrbear · Post by **ratedrbear** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:35 pm

Hell Yeah i just traded 3 million worth of useless Ruslan Salei and Ryan O'Reilly for Jay Bouwmeister!

Sad to lose Ryan but i think Stastny and Duchene have the centre covered now i have my franchise D-Man i so badly wanted

Marsac · Post by **Marsac** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:04 pm

This division sucks. Not in the bad teams sense but rather the opposite, the only ones who can keep up with the Canucks and Flames are the Red Wings, and us until the last stretch of games. 7/20 games were played vs those three teams. We're at fifth in the conference now and ten points ahead of the third place Coyotes...

Last three games Flames 6-4, Flames 3-4ot, Canucks 4-5. Next game is vs the Flames again... Our record for games 41-60 ended up being 11-8-1 and our scoring crashed back down to earth from 80 goals to 63 while allowing 61. Only Stastny remains in the top three in league scoring, tied with Datsyuk and Jokinen at 81 points. Hejduk has 37 goals and still a small chance for 50, Wolski has 33 and Svatos 32.

Currently on IR: Clark and Foote. Wilson gets another shot to be worse than -1 per game.

So far our record has gotten worse in every set of games, will we end up with a losing record for the last 22? We'll see. I still expect us to make the playoffs (18 point margin to hold on to) but have no hopes for a deep run.

ie99jro · Post by **ie99jro** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:58 pm

ratedrbear wrote:Hell Yeah i just traded 3 million worth of useless Ruslan Salei and Ryan O'Reilly for Jay Bouwmeister!

Sad to lose Ryan but i think Stastny and Duchene have the centre covered now i have my franchise D-Man i so badly wanted

I can't agree with you on the Salei part as I have found him a good d-man with a great slapshot, his season with me was 10+26 and +19 in 82 games and 7.60 Avr. Better than Liles who I have found much disappointing, the rock at the blue line for this team is Hannan. He may not produce points in overflow but a +30 and 8.46 Avr is pretty nice.

ie99jro · Post by **ie99jro** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:00 pm

ratedrbear wrote:Hell Yeah i just traded 3 million worth of useless Ruslan Salei and Ryan O'Reilly for Jay Bouwmeister!

Sad to lose Ryan but i think Stastny and Duchene have the centre covered now i have my franchise D-Man i so badly wanted

I forgot. It still looks like a good trade!

ie99jro · Post by **ie99jro** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:12 pm

eric1985 wrote:
Peterman5000 wrote:
bruins72 wrote:Yeah, I guess they are. Still, he makes a pretty good offensive defenseman. He's been doing pretty well for me in that role. Still, I'm curious to find out if Quincey ever picks up the LW for you under his positions.
I will post any and all screenshots

He really is playing great.

Quincey / Duchene / Svatos
He actually does pick it up, I brought him up 22 games in and he has been a pleasant surprise considering i lost Wolski and Tucker(Wolski just about to come back). Check shots below. He is going between 1st and 2nd lines.

Position
Stats

I finally got Quincey to show a position at the LW but it took something like 75-80 games, it all happened suddenly. He went from nothing to being accomplished. I thought it would increase slowly, but no!

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:02 pm

Got bounced in the first round by eventual Stanley Cup champion Calgary (they swept Buffalo in the Finals). Wolski picked up the Calder and second team All Star honors - recording 99 points in 77 games. He missed some time near the end of the season with a concussion. Stastny collected the Plus-Minus Award (+45).

I also picked up Quinton Howden with the 16th overall pick, then went pretty heavy on the blueline after that.

Duchene was remarkable centering the second line, with 71 points, and Chris Stewart was one of 5 Avalanche players with more than 20 goals (24) and was one of only 4 players to participate in all 82 regular season games.

Johnnyluc · Post by **Johnnyluc** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:52 pm

My first draft pick was John MacFarland, and so far so good. He is centering my second line with Wolski and Hedjuk, and has roughly 26 points in 20 games.

Kovalchuk - Duchesne - Statsny
Wolski - MacFarland - Hedjuk
Stewart - Schenn - Svatos
Koci - Jones - Hendricks

Lilas - Myers
Hannan - Quincey
Clark - B. Allen

Hiller
Budaj

After three seasons im pretty happy with the roster. Need to work on the defence a bit, but we should be a cup contender this season. Also have Sean Coulter coming in next year, so that will open up more trade options for either the Defence.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:05 pm

After going perfect in six preseason contests, opened the season with back-to-back wins over the Wild. I wanted to see how training camp went before adding to the roster, so I opted to go the waivers route. After being placed on the block early in preseason by Tampa, I snatched up Radek Martinek just before the start of the season.

So far, so good:

Wolski - Stastny - Hejduk
McLeod - Duchesne - Svatos
Durno - O'Reilly - Stewart
Hensick/Willsie - Stoa - Jones

Liles - Preissing
Hannan - Clark
Quincey - Martinek
Macias

Anderson
Budaj

Johnnyluc · Post by **Johnnyluc** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:19 pm

I always struggle with free agents, no one wants to play in colorado. I had Gleason and klesla identified in the offeason and had given them both more then they wanted contract wise, but really had no interest. I ended up with Bryan Allen, who is a good #6, but is not Tim Gleason. Martinek should be good for you.

Peterman5000 · Post by **Peterman5000** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:37 pm

ie99jro wrote:
eric1985 wrote:
Peterman5000 wrote: I will post any and all screenshots

He really is playing great.

Quincey / Duchene / Svatos
He actually does pick it up, I brought him up 22 games in and he has been a pleasant surprise considering i lost Wolski and Tucker(Wolski just about to come back). Check shots below. He is going between 1st and 2nd lines.

Position
Stats
I finally got Quincey to show a position at the LW but it took something like 75-80 games, it all happened suddenly. He went from nothing to being accomplished. I thought it would increase slowly, but no!

I gave up on this experiment - I like how Galiardi has progressed, so he is my second line LW for now.

I may use Ryan Craig there too.

tksolway · Post by **tksolway** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:14 pm

The Nucks won the Cup for the second time in four season (were runners up last season, and the Wings who won it in the first season beat them in the West final). They beat me in the first round, at least I took them to 7 games. Kinda sucks, I was aiming for a playoff date against the hawks instead of the Nucks, but got stuck playing them. Oh well.

Peterman5000 · Post by **Peterman5000** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:51 pm

Why does everyone go against the intentions of the challenge.

Seems like trading for star players defeats the purpose of this challenge.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:41 am

Seems like those who buck the spirit of the challenges tend to not do so well, since they sacrifice depth for stats. Meanwhile, all I did was claim Martinek off of waivers and we've started 5-1.