EHM The Blue Line

timmy_t wrote:Hey bruins72, the Bruins are in 12th place at the mid-point of the season. The Senators are in last place in the east, though.

IIRC, the Senators were towards the bottom of the league in my first season. The Bruins were probably around 12th in the conference or something like that too. Right now in the second season, Bruins are 11th in the East and Senators are 14th in the East. Both of these teams should have enough talent to be winning games!

timmy_t wrote:I agree with sjsharkz about the rules really helping out the challenge. I can remember us talking about all kind of rules to make the challenges harder. I think you guys did a great job with this current set up. Not quite as hard as the "no trade" challenge with Phoenix, but pretty close.

Yeah, the NTNB rules on the Phoenix challenge were tough but we found that a lot of people were having trouble following them because they were so complicated. I think we found a nice balance with these new rules. They're easy to understand but still a tough challenge.

timmy_t wrote:By the way, where's Batdad?

He still pops in occasionally but he got too busy to be around regularly.

Thanks

joehelmer wrote:For season 2 I decided to go for UFA Tier 2, with one player who got "Very good" as reputation and one with "Good", and once again one them is dropping in rep after I sgined him.

Marty Murray (Good)
James Sheppard (Very Good), before he signed with me.
James Sheppard (Good??), after he signed with me.

Well, now it happened to me too. Went with Tier 2 and signed Peter Budaj as the "Very Good" reputation player. He I signed him as a Regular player as that was what he expected, so that might be the reason why his reputation dropped from Very Good to Good when he joined my team. Now this would be a good way to cheat if you would know for a certainty that the player reputation will drop. I even had to overpay him so that I could sign him as a Very Good player.

After reading through all threads about challenges, I decided to join myself. This is the first time I'm writing anything on this forum, allthough I have been reading it at mixed intervals the last year or so.

Allthough my skills in EHM is pretty limited, I'm looking forward to giving Tennessee something else then music to be proud about. Worst case scenario would be to draft John Tavares after season one, which for me doesn't seem that bad at all.

Enjoying to read what you all have wrote about your challenges, and now with the season opener approaching rapidly, I'm looking forward to see what wonders the Ellis/Rinne duo can do for me.

hey fz50 why don't you go introduce yourself in the introductions forum. As for your first season good luck.

eternium85 wrote: Well, now it happened to me too. Went with Tier 2 and signed Peter Budaj as the "Very Good" reputation player. He I signed him as a Regular player as that was what he expected, so that might be the reason why his reputation dropped from Very Good to Good when he joined my team. Now this would be a good way to cheat if you would know for a certainty that the player reputation will drop. I even had to overpay him so that I could sign him as a Very Good player.

I think it would be a good idea to take screenshots of the player's reputation before and after they sign, just to be safe. If someone were to ever call your signings into question, you've got your proof ready and available.

fz50 wrote:After reading through all threads about challenges, I decided to join myself. This is the first time I'm writing anything on this forum, allthough I have been reading it at mixed intervals the last year or so.

Allthough my skills in EHM is pretty limited, I'm looking forward to giving Tennessee something else then music to be proud about. Worst case scenario would be to draft John Tavares after season one, which for me doesn't seem that bad at all.

Enjoying to read what you all have wrote about your challenges, and now with the season opener approaching rapidly, I'm looking forward to see what wonders the Ellis/Rinne duo can do for me.

I'm glad to see another new person joining our challenge! Welcome! As Thunderbug said, you should head over to the Arrivals forum and introduce yourself. And don't worry about your EHM skills being limited. As you can see from everyone else's results, we've all struggled with this team. It's all about building and developing!

I'm new here and decided to try out this challenge. To say the least, it's been very entertaining/frusterating. My goals against average is close to 4, but my goals for is around 3.5. I had two games in a row where J.P. Dumont had a hatrick yet my team lost . I can't wait till the off-season for when I can replace Dan Ellis with a real starter! Adding to my frusterations is that my powerplay started around 23% for the first ten games then dropped to 15% in the last ten games. Consistency is an issue, but when I should be able to solve come next season.

bruins72 wrote:

eternium85 wrote: Well, now it happened to me too. Went with Tier 2 and signed Peter Budaj as the "Very Good" reputation player. He I signed him as a Regular player as that was what he expected, so that might be the reason why his reputation dropped from Very Good to Good when he joined my team. Now this would be a good way to cheat if you would know for a certainty that the player reputation will drop. I even had to overpay him so that I could sign him as a Very Good player.

I think it would be a good idea to take screenshots of the player's reputation before and after they sign, just to be safe. If someone were to ever call your signings into question, you've got your proof ready and available.

Yeah, I'll have to do that next time.

In the season preview for season 3 I was ranked 29th.
But I'mglad to tell you that my team really isn't that bad, we're fighting in a very close Western, where if you win two games in a row you''re in top 3, if you lose two you're outside top 8.

thecupismine wrote:I can't wait till the off-season for when I can replace Dan Ellis with a real starter!

Me too! My defence is really my team's Achilles heel at the moment. I only won three games in the first twenty games and this solely down to my poor defence. There have been seven or eight games where I have thrown away a good lead - this is all down to my poor goaltending and defence. I was initially planning to bring in another winger in the summer but now I have no choice but to acquire a decent goalie.

Makita21 wrote:

archibalduk wrote:Heh I've lost Ellis to injury for another two weeks

Call up McIntyre like I did. He played 6 games for me and did as well as Ellis and better than Rinne.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try playing McIntyre for the two weeks Ellis is injured.

timmy_t wrote:I've been reading all of the tactics threads and going through my notes and I hope I can get this team turned around this season.

I'm going to be tweaking my tactics too. I'm not having much trouble scoring, it's the defence that's letting me down. I think some heavy backchecking and a neutral zone trap might be the way to go.

So, Season 2 is over and it's time to look to Season 3. The 2008 draft was weak as someone here said, only four or five 5 star players and not that many 4 star players either. I had the 11th pick and went with Maksim Kitsyn although he was ranked only 40th. I'm guessing that he doesn't have the same potential with Lidas rosters as he does with the original database. He was still a 4 star player and I'm hoping he can develop as a 2nd line winger. There really wasn't any other player who I would have more interest in.

What comes for the Predators roster for Season 3, there has been dramatic changes. I signed Kulyash in Season 2 so he joined me for the Season 3. That signing made possible for me to trade one of my defenseman away. I decided that Hamhuis was the one who had to go. He did okay for me, but I really couldn't get him produce anything special for me. So I traded Hamhuis and Sullivan to Sabres for Thomas Vanek. It's kind of sad to see Sullivan go but like others have said he's getting old and I really needed a true first line left wing. I've never had Vanek before in any of my saves so I'm keen to see how he can produce for me. I know someone else acquired him in the Challenge and although I don't really want to follow someones footsteps, there really wasn't anyone other available that I liked, (Kovalchuk was a free agent, but you don't really have a chance for him because of the 4 500 000$ salary limit) I went with Vanek.

The second trade I made was sending Ellis, Jessiman and Legwand to Trashers for Marian Hossa. I wanted a new backup goalie 'cause I just couldn't trust Ellis (Bad flashbacks from the Season 1, I guess ). I relied on my luck that I could get someone to sign with me from the UFA. It is also sad to see Legwand go as he produced nicely on my second line, putting up nearly a point-per-game in the two seasons. But I had to make room for Colin Wilson as I think he is ready to NHL and in my second line. He did prove that to me last season when he was called up to replace the injuries of Arnott and Legwand.
I did have a few other choices for this second trade. The choices were: Ellis, Legwand and Ward to Oilers for Alex Kotalik, and Ellis and Legwand to Islanders for Trent Hunter and Shawn Bates.

I actually feel now that I should have gone with the Kotalik trade, as I've never had him before and he would have been alot cheaper. And also I feel that maybe acquiring Hossa was a little too drastic move. And now I have 2 very highly paid wingers that will limit my next season signings and trades. And concerning the Islanders trade, that would not have been a bad one either. Hunter would have been a nice 2nd line winger and Bates would have brought a nice defensive aspect to my team and he can even do a good job offensively as he put up 73 points in 78 games in Islanders last season. But I've had Hunter before and Bates was just a little too old for my future plans and as I wanted a 1st line right wing, I didn't go with this one.

In the free agent market, I went with Tier 2 as I signed Peter Budaj and Thomas Bellemare. So now I actually have a little competition in my goalie section. I tried to sign Stephane Yelle as the "Good" reputation player but he signed for alot less with Oilers, so I just acquired Bellemare to just give my team a little more toughness as I let Tootoo go after last season.
Safigulin also joined my team for season 3.

Next season I need to get a Top two defenseman, some defensive forwards for my 3rd and 4th lines and maybe even a goalie who can win us the cup, as I'm still a little unsure that the goalies I have can do that. But we'll see how they produce next season. In the 2009 Draft I need to focus on defensemen and a goalie prospect would be nice. I hope it's a little better draft than the 2008 draft. Atleast there will be a few regens...

Setting up season #3. In May I signed 8 unsigned prospects, Matt Duchene, Blake Geoffrion, Brett Theberge, Richard Manley, Andrej Kudrna, Cole Penner, Toni Rajala and Konstantin Glazachev. Viktor Sjödin and Roman Josi, who were signed last summer were also joining us in June.

In Entry Draft we got the 3rd pick. I chose LD Alex Theriau. Our other picks were Denis Coghlan (LW, #32), Kristofer Westerlund (G, #62), Colin Archer (RD, #92), Michael Betz (RW, #152) and Brody Sutter (RW, #182). In July I signed Theriau, Archer and Coghlan.

After last season's UFA & waiver disaster I was more careful and awake when July 1st came. As de Vries was gone, I decided to go after a strong and accomplished stay-at-home d-man. Team also needed a goalie, as Rinne didn't want to sign a new deal with us and a depth LW. For the d-man I finally got three choices, Stephane Robidas, Josef Melichar and David Hale. Hale's attributes seemed to be better than others and he was also youngest of them, so I signed him. For goalie I could've gotten Joey MacDonald or Jamie Storr, but I took a chance and signed young and acrobatic Sebastian Dahm. He is going to start in Milwaukee and Smith or Dekanich is going to be Predators' backup goalie. And as much as I hate to acquire same players than fellow challengers, I signed Marcel Hossa. There just wasn't so many UFA left wingers to choose from...

And this time I'm going to save my trades to December and/or even trade deadline time if it is anyhow possible. There is more depth in our roster now so I shouldn't be forced to trade to replace injured players this season (well, I guess Theodore will get injured in October for the rest of the season and it'll make me eat my words...).

And then the whining section: I hate when suddenly there appears some strange out-of-hat -like rules in this game. In this summer there were two different incidents. With Predators there was this reserve list thing. After signing those prospects in May the game made me to reduce the number of contracted players on my reserve list FOUR times in May and June. I have done it once every summer before, but I don't have a clue why I had to do it so many times, especially when between the second and third time and also between the third and fourth time no new players came in the team. I lost de Vries in waivers because of that (it didn't hurt so much because I wasn't going to offer him new deal any more). But it really p***es me off when that kind of things happen and I don't know the reason to them.
Another one was in Milwaukee. I (or should I say he) offered deals to some players. They accepted it but weren't able to join the team until summer '09. I (he) thought that I'll (he'll) do the deals anyway, they were good young players. But after I (he) had approved the deals, I (he) got a message like this: XXX XXX's proposed transfer from YYY to Milwaukee has been cancelled as the transfer deadline has already passed. The next possible date for transfers to take place is... and the date in the message was always the same day I (he) got the message.

thecupismine wrote:I'm new here and decided to try out this challenge. To say the least, it's been very entertaining/frusterating. My goals against average is close to 4, but my goals for is around 3.5. I had two games in a row where J.P. Dumont had a hatrick yet my team lost . I can't wait till the off-season for when I can replace Dan Ellis with a real starter! Adding to my frusterations is that my powerplay started around 23% for the first ten games then dropped to 15% in the last ten games. Consistency is an issue, but when I should be able to solve come next season.

Glad to see yet another new member joining in! Be sure to stop by the Arrivals forum and introduce yourself!

I definitely feel your frustration! Be very careful when choosing who you're going to acquire (via trade or UFA signing) to be your new goalie. That seems to be a make or break decision in this challenge.

I don't have any problems with my PP but my PK is terrible! I just can't get it to work for me. I'm always around 81%.

I was just looking at the standings in my game. I'm in 2nd place in the conference right now but the 4th place team actually has a couple more points than us. It's because they're 2nd in their division. Leading the West is Vancouver. They've got 95 points in 65 games. We're 2nd with 80 points in 63 games. The Stars are 3rd with 78 points in 63 games. Calgary is 4th with 83 points in 65 games. The Red Wings and Sharks aren't far behind the 2-4 spots.

So I decided to take a look at the East. I had noticed that the Thrashers had been making a lot of deals for really good players. I was surprised to see a team seeming like the AI was smart enough to be a real GM. So when I look at the East I see the Thrashers are sitting in 1st place with 89 points in 64 games. The Rangers are 2nd with 87 points in 63 games. So take a look at the roster the Thrashers are sporting now. It looks pretty scary!

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They brought Heatley back to Atlanta, got a great center (Briere) for a line with him and Kovalchuk and even got Pronger! The scary thing is, they've got some really good players that you don't see on that lineup. For some reason they weren't dressed at the time. They've also got Zidlicky, Skoula, Todd White, and Colby Armstrong waiting for action. Yikes!

So far I'm 31 games into season 2. The predators are 1st in the league. Roloson and Pavalec are playing tremendous hockey. I think this is the year. My goal is the cup.

bruins72 wrote:I was just looking at the standings in my game. I'm in 2nd place in the conference right now but the 4th place team actually has a couple more points than us. It's because they're 2nd in their division. Leading the West is Vancouver. They've got 95 points in 65 games. We're 2nd with 80 points in 63 games. The Stars are 3rd with 78 points in 63 games. Calgary is 4th with 83 points in 65 games. The Red Wings and Sharks aren't far behind the 2-4 spots.

So I decided to take a look at the East. I had noticed that the Thrashers had been making a lot of deals for really good players. I was surprised to see a team seeming like the AI was smart enough to be a real GM. So when I look at the East I see the Thrashers are sitting in 1st place with 89 points in 64 games. The Rangers are 2nd with 87 points in 63 games. So take a look at the roster the Thrashers are sporting now. It looks pretty scary!

[align=center][/align]

They brought Heatley back to Atlanta, got a great center (Briere) for a line with him and Kovalchuk and even got Pronger! The scary thing is, they've got some really good players that you don't see on that lineup. For some reason they weren't dressed at the time. They've also got Zidlicky, Skoula, Todd White, and Colby Armstrong waiting for action. Yikes!

kovalchuck,heatly ,pronger. wow nice team!

Ok. Just started my second season guys, and I have one question about the free-agent signing; I just signed Robert Esche. Before I signed him, his reputation was "Good", so I only offered him 1 million $ per year for 3 years. After he accepted my contract offer, and signed, his reputation rose to "Very Good". When looking at the UFA pyramid I saw that I then had (?) to offer him salary of between 1,5 million and 3 million $ with a reputation of "Very Good". Of course I didn't think about making a screenshot of his reputation before I signed him, something I ofcourse should have done, seeing everybody else's problems with reputation changing. So, what should I do now? Have I done something illegal by signing a "Very Good" UFA for only 1 million $? Hope for a quick reply, since I want to continue to play, as long as my career is still "legal".

If his reputation rose after you signed him then that's no problem. What is important is that at the time of signing him, his reputation was "good". So long as that was the case then you're within the rules. A player's reputation may fluctuate after signing him if your team is of a higher reputation or you give the player a higher status (e.g. "regular" rather than "depth", etc).

Ok. Thanks for the fast reply. One more question in realation to this though; Am I allowed to sign one more UFA now, as I understand that Tier II means two UFAs?! And if I am, must he be of "Good" or "Very Good" reputation? To rephrase the question; can I sign two "Very Good", or two "Good" UFAs on Tier II, or do I have to sign one "Good" and one "Very Good"?

Justin Abdelkader has been signed and released about 5 times by the Stars.

This is a lovely AI glitch I assume.

The Stars always seem to do this.

fz50 wrote:Ok. Thanks for the fast reply. One more question in realation to this though; Am I allowed to sign one more UFA now, as I understand that Tier II means two UFAs?! And if I am, must he be of "Good" or "Very Good" reputation? To rephrase the question; can I sign two "Very Good", or two "Good" UFAs on Tier II, or do I have to sign one "Good" and one "Very Good"?

As I understand the rules, Tier II is one "Very Good" and one "Good."

That would be correct. One good, one very good.

Finished the first season, and realized I forgot to offer my head coach a new contract. Hopefully he resigns.

jbsnadb wrote:Finished the first season, and realized I forgot to offer my head coach a new contract. Hopefully he resigns.

Do you mean re-sign ?

Or are you hoping he quits?



I hope that Coach Trotz says, hey Tim, I'm horrible, I'll quit so you can hire a real coach!

Re-signs. Which he did.