EHM The Blue Line

I mostly just wing it

Basically numbers but switch things based on feel once in while. Guys make my team sometimes because I like them even though they probably shouldn't. I would say I have a 40-60 success rate with 5-7 round picks playing at least 3rd line minutes because I just stick with them.

During games I often when I am coaching switch top two lines up based on performance in 1st period. Especially if I see other team matching lines (I hardly ever do). I ALWAYS put young guys on pp2 from 3-4 line if they get a point in 1st. Not 2nd only 1st. D men will get on pp if young and a point in either 1 or 2 period.

If I am not having success with this it is almost always because I am not coaching.

So..started a game as unemployed and simmed a season (This is a test for TBL Challenges upcoming). On April 15 of season 1 I took over as GM of the Canucks. THey were in 11th and had already shipped out Hamhuis, Edler, Matthias, and Vrbata. In return for all these guys they got:

Read, AUbe-Kubel, Pastrnak, Goodrow, Tierney, Hakanpaa,
2nd round pick (Chi), 5th round pick (NYI), 2nd round pick (StL), 4th round pick (StL)

With the Challenge in mind I proceeded to trade off everyone over the age of 28 on the roster (Hence I Got to keep Read)

Henrik, Daniel, Burrows, Miller, Bieksa, Hansen, Higgins

In return

1st round pick (tor), 1st round pick (Nas), Cedric Paquette, Dmitrij Jaskin, Slater Koekoek, Anders Lee

I did not work hard on negotiations, the idea is get rid of guys and rebuild.


So...I drafted well and picked up 3 pretty darn good prospects, plus a couple of others.

Oliver Kylington D Swe
Mitch Marner C London
Nicholas Roy C Chicoutimi
Sebastien AHO D Sweden
Giorgio Estephan C Lethbridge
Brandon Carlo D Tri City
Tyson Baillie C Kelowna
Jacob Larsson D Sweden
Zach Bratina LW Peterborough
Joel Erikson Ek C Sweden
Joel Lassinanti G Sweden (22 years old)
Anthony Beauvillier C Shawinigan.

Yep...lots of C and D. LOL.
So now in my pipeline at C have all those guys plus Horvat, Gaunce, Cassels McCann.

Someday may ice a forward group of all C.

Made no FA signings or trades, so went to season with really young (And not strong team)


I Started the season 0-10-3. Needed a little bit of help, but not much...just a couple of middle aged guys...28-29 to balance the roster.

Edmonton waived and I claimed Boyd Gordon to help down the middle for now.
Montreal put Emelin on the block, so I gave them the other Subban D man, and a 7th round pick,
Nashille put LW speedster Viktor Staalberg on the block, so I dealt him Lahtinnteinenninit (that goalie draft I made)

This left me with the following roster:

Conacher-Bonino-Jensen
Baertschi-Gordon-Read
Stalberg-Pacquette-Kassian
Sestito-Vey-McMillan
Kenins Anders Lee

Emelin-Haakanpaa
Stanton-Weber
Sbisa-Tanev
Clendenning.

Lack
Markstrom

So...Clendenning is actually playing very well, and is really better than Tanev and Weber as well As Sbisa at this point. He gets into the lineup alot.

Want Tierney, Paastrinak, Horvat, Shinkaruk, Goodrow developing as well as a couple of the young dmen. SO they are down on the farm with ERicsson. Pastrnak started the year with me as did Tierney and Goodrow, but as time went on (Gordon and Stalberg) and KEnins lighting it up on the farm at age 24, decided to make a couple moves. Down they went


Anyway...after the 0-10-3 start?

Last 7 games

5-1-1

Yeah I do not understand it. Those three little changes (Emelin being the biggest as he solidified the D Core) this team has been completely different.

In first 15 games scored 24 goals. Last 5 games? 14 goals.
In first 15 games allowed 57 goals, Last 5 games? 6 goals.

GAmes 13 and 14 were good as well, losing 1-0 to San Jose and 2-1 in shootout to LA.

So yeah actually I am on a 5 game winstreak after losing 15 in a row (including shootouts and stuff)

Heh. I just do not understand this game sometimes.

One of my favorite EHM things to do is to remove an NHL team in the pregame editor and replace them w/ an inactive one, empty of all staff and players, and start over form scratch in-game.

Since I can't do that with EA (the DB crashes trying to import if you swap an NHL team out), I just emptied the NJ Devils' roster and staff instead. And I'm discovering something.

It's much, MUCH harder to get to the salary floor this way than it was in 2007. This is not helped by the fact that I lost two players to career-ending injuries on the season and have at times not even played with a full NHL roster. I'm getting fined every week or month or whatever for being under the floor and struggling to try to take on enough to get there without badly overpaying someone.

I uh... I'm also 1-41-3 on the season (and my 14% PP is STILL better than Toronto's 12%, hah!).

Yeah I am 8 mill under the floor, and have been fined 2.2 mill. Still only in November. LOL. Waiting for a big contract to go on waivers. None have so far.

batdad wrote:Yeah I am 8 mill under the floor, and have been fined 2.2 mill. Still only in November. LOL. Waiting for a big contract to go on waivers. None have so far.

That's what I had to do: wait until the trade deadline and start poaching terrible contracts on waivers. So I've grabbed Clutterbuck and Briere so far...

I have been under the floor since I started the game and have yet to be fined for it, was this added in a recent patch or is an option? I get warnings but no fines.

AustSaint wrote:I have been under the floor since I started the game and have yet to be fined for it, was this added in a recent patch or is an option? I get warnings but no fines.

Check your finances under income and expenditure - I've never had any notifications but it always shows in there. I think mine came out at 4.5 mil for the season, but I was 6+ mil under the cap, so job well done I'd say!

Well my first season was mostly as expected - had a good start but in the end only slightly overachieved finishing 3rd from bottom. Luckily as we're in the middle of a rebuild I continued to trade away my top talent for other picks - much to the annoyance of my fans (who don't seem to realise that ending up with Hanifin and McDavid was a bloody good deal).

The plan was to continue this rebuild into the following year as I already had some picks and looking at my young team I felt no chance of finishing above 20th. Having managed to pick up Allen in goal and Yakupov from Offer Sheets in the close season I had a few more oldies to trade away so picked up Gaudreau and another pick, although the draft this year seems less than impressive.

What followed was the most bizarre season I could have imagined, whilst there's huge potential in the squad it is most definitely not ready yet but despite goaltending injuries early on found itself marching towards a 100+ point total (4th highest in the west) and a 7th place spot for the playoffs!(with my other picks also sneaking in despite poor starts it looks like I won't get much from the draft but looking like I might not need it).

Had a tight scrap with the Wild in the first round, including a triple OT loss we managed to take the series 4-3, followed by a 4-2 win at the Blues. The Stars proved much tougher despite finishing 8th I was quickly behind in the series and 3-1 down but clawed it back to game 7, only to find ourselves 3 goals down a few seconds into the 3rd.

17 minutes of hockey later and an empty netter seals it, a 5-3 win! Huge comeback in conference finals game 7.

Unfortunately the fairytale ended against the Lightning, standout performers of the season and steamrolled in 5 games, but I never expected to get anywhere near a cup yet!
Massive concern with so many home defeats in the playoffs (for everyone) and a lot of really bad passes in front of our own net. If not for those rookie errors and a lot of fighting (I still don't get why my talented but weak players are ignoring my settings and fighting so much)....

Still, young team, well under the cap and Doaner retires this year (well, he isn't playing anymore and his contract is up) so hopefully contenders next year! Will post lines when I get home.

I resigned as Philadelphia GM after two consecutive Stanley Cups, and my reputation decreased to normal, how will i ever get another job in the NHL? That's just stupid that it goes down so much...

Yeah, I did it after 4 cups and went down. Got 3 offers on July 2.

batdad wrote:Yeah, I did it after 4 cups and went down. Got 3 offers on July 2.

Oh, its been 3-4 months and ive applied for a few jobs, havent got a single offer yet though.

That sucks.

I started again with the new patch. First season 5th with the Penguins. Lost 4-2 in the first round against Rangers. None of my players were really on top but I didn't trade so that was to be expected. After the season I've tried to make the team younger and have a little more identity:

Gone are Scuderi (NY Devils: Gionta), Kunitz + Gionta (Nashville: 1st + 2nd), Dupuis (2nd + 3rd), Spaling (3rd)

I've resigned Ehrhoff, Winnik, Comeau and Downie. Signed Frolik, Stewart, Loktionov and Hjalmarsson. Roster for next season is looking like this, but still need to get rid of 1 player due to cap issues:

Perron - Crosby - Hornqvist
Frolik - Malkin - Stewart
Bennett - Sutter - Comeau
Winnik - Loktionov - Hjalmarsson

Ehrhoff - Letang
Maatta - Lovejoy
Pouilliot - Cole

Fleury
Zatkoff


Looking to at least advance to semi final, don't expect to win but rather get some more good trades (such as a right handed RD to replace Lovejoy) and replace some cap heavy players with prospects (Kapanen, Sundqvist etc.)

I finally have the feeling this roster looks realistic in terms what could happen IRL.

Well things are not getting much better in Vancouver. Picked up Santorelli off waivers from Anaheim.

Lineup

Bartschi-Bonino-Jensen
Conacher-Santorelli-Kassian
Lee-Gordon-Read
McMillian-Vey-Sestito
Stalberg-Kenins

Emelin-Clendenning
Stanton-Hakaanpaa
Tanev-Weber
Sbisa

Markstrom
Lack

BTW--For challenge purposes do not worry about Conacher being too good. He sucks. AI makes him play well, you do not. LOL.

Highlights: Nick JEnsen 17 goals in 33 games. Bartschi 19 points in 28 games (injured for 10 days), Kassian 5-7-12 in last 15 games since moved to 2nd line, and has 4 fights, won em all. Tossed twice. CLendenning 3-8-11

Lowlights: BONINO 4-10-14 and MINUS 16, Conacher 3-7-10 in 33 games (Finally sitting him out). Tanev 6.12 rating.

But in the minors:

Horvat is doing great, Pastrnak is lighting it up. Shinkaruk is lighting it up, Jaskin is lighting it up, all of the young studs are kicking butt down there. IN terms of attributes only Horvat and Pastrnak are having increases though.

Juniors: Nicholas Roy and Jake VIrtanen are insane. Roy 16-28-44 31 games, Virtanen 25-18-43 in 36 games. Both have won Player of week multi times and player of month at least once (Roy twice)
Thatcher Demko is 20-2-3 with 2.07 GAA and 915 save percent at Boston COllege.

Ek, Marner, Kubel Bratina Beauviller and McCann all over or at a point per game. Kylington and Aho are doing well on their Swedish men's teams (not in junior).


Right now though the roster on my team is widdling me off. We are tied for 2nd last overall with Phoenix, only the Devils are worse...

Our record: 9-21-4 and that includes a 5 game winning streak from game 16-20. So.....our last 13 we are 3-10-0. Yuck. Includes a 7-2 loss to Anaheim where we were up 2-1 after one.


My coach is killing me. His lineups are terrible. He is changing who is out there even though I tell him not to and use my combos. Bartschi is taking a ton of PK faceoffs and losing them all. He is NOT EVEN ON MY PK! And the guys in the box when he does it are not either.

Oh well, already fired one coach, have to be patient and hope we do enough so that I do not get canned this year, and then next should be better. Unless of course this is Edmonton west.

Lines for season 3:

Gaudreau - McDavid - Yakupov
Bodker - Spooner - Duclair
Domi - Draisaitl - Kapanen
Perlini - Arcobello - Gagner

Ekman-Larsson - Stone
Hanifin - Gormley
Moore - Murphy

Gibson
Allen

Mostly what I started with, especially the D. Couple draft players, plus Spooner, Yakupov and Allen were free.
Major trade really was giving up Smithy and a first for Gaudreau and lower picks.
Apart from that, picked up a few players off waivers for depth (Darcy Ashley has now retired!) along with trading Moss, Hanzal, Crombeen, Vitale, Dahlbeck, Korpikoski, Chipchura plus anything else worth trading for Kapanen, Gibson, and Draisaitl.

Decided to play as the Bruins.
(Did one edit in the database, made Shawn Thornton a Bruin again and only 25yo - just because)
1st pre-season managed to snag Perry from the Ducks for Lucic, Erickson 1st and one a prospect.
Got Cody Ceci from Senators.
Traded for Michael Ferland.
Best trade though was Soderberg and Paille to CGY for Gaudreau (he had 45-14-11-25 for CGY, went 34-16-16-32 for me).
Got Harrington from PIT for Warsofsky.
Lindbland to LAK for Nolan (He went nuts too, 27-25-7-156PIMS)
We finished 5th in the East and lost to DET 4-2 in playoffs.
Bergeron won the Selke. Both Miller (7mths) and Seidenberg (5mths) lost significant portions of the season.

Off-season I made offer sheets to Mark Stone ($2.03/3yr and Emerson Etem ($1.74/3yr) - and got them. A few AHL-calibre players were signed and Jay Beagle.
So far, year two, we're 6-1-1. Gaudreau (who I've noticed is an absolute gun in this game) has 6-6-12 so far, Etem and Stone are playing strong, Rask has 1.68GAA in 7GP.
Looking good for season two so far.

So I just got a 1st and 4th Rnd pick from STL for Max Talbot - who I put on waivers and sent to Providence at the start of the season.

Didn't think he was worth so much, bit of a steal IMO.

Season 5 with Vancouver finally won the cup

madball1982 wrote:So I just got a 1st and 4th Rnd pick from STL for Max Talbot - who I put on waivers and sent to Providence at the start of the season.

Didn't think he was worth so much, bit of a steal IMO.

This should probably be in the Trade AI thread.

MWE wrote:Season 5 with Vancouver finally won the cup

Patrick Kane with 86 goals and 177 points? Seems legit...

RomaGoth wrote:Patrick Kane with 86 goals and 177 points? Seems legit...

38:04 ATOI

yeah seems like he's cheesing the system a bit and playing his top line more than what is realistic.

My top line is set to play 1:30 other lines are set to the lowest

Your goalie played in over 100 games? Did your backup even dress?