EHM The Blue Line

Arnott is best in the league in average rating at 9.29 after 14 games played and his line mate Jean-Pierre Dumont is the leauge leader in points with 23 (11+12).

But overall my team sucks, it's just my two top lines that plays very good.

Okay, after reading all the rules I'm going to attempt this challenge, but I'll probably finish last because I'm horrible with tactics.

JTavares,

Don't let that discourage you. I'm the same exact way. Usually, I play with my head coach setting all of the tactics.

I finished 2nd in the second season for the previous challenge, so anything is possible!

Check out the tactics suggestion threads for some tips, but no matter what, play to your team's individual strengths.

I just saw that we've got a couple new TBLers participating in the challenge. Hungrybologna and cstorring... why don't you guys introduce yourselves in the arrivals thread and take part in the discussion in this thread? The challenge is even more fun when you're talking about it with the other people playing.

I haven't really had the chance to play any EHM over the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to crank out the first season by the end of this week!

joehelmer wrote:Bonk is a solid thrid line center for me, he is 8.14 in average rating in 7 games and among them there's a 8-2 loss against the Devils.

Arnott is doing great, he's 2+7 in 7 games and a 9.57 in average rating. In the Devils game he had a 10 in rating and we were beaten the hell out of us....
I use Arnott the first line, 1st PP line, 2nd PK lin and in ES.

We had just a tour in the area of New York with games against Islanders, Rangers and Devils and lost all of them.

I went 2 and 1 against them during that same trip. To be honest though, I wouldn't worry as much about those games. Not all points are equal. I'd be much more worried about dropping conference and divisional games than those.

I can't stop being surprised over Arnott.

I just lost against Avalanch with 8-4 ( ) but still he and Dumont managed to get a 10 in rating.

Arnott has collapsed for me. He started really well, then suffered a shoulder contusion and hasn't been any good since. I've tried him with different wingers, but he's just in a major slump! Might try taking his captaincy off him for a little while... See how he likes them apples!

I just had a game against the Kings (we were the visiting team) where my top line guys all had HUGE nights. JP Dumont had a hat trick and an assist. Steve Sullivan had 2 goals and 3 assists. And the 1st star of the game was Jason Arnott with 1 goal and 5 assists! We won the game 9-3. Too bad we didn't have more games like that!

WOW! Joel Ward continues to surprise. He's not on 2nd scoring line and 2nd PP unit. He's averaging almost a point a game now. He's got 36 points (18G 18A) in the 38 games he's played. I made sure to re-sign him!

bruins72 wrote:I just saw that we've got a couple new TBLers participating in the challenge. Hungrybologna and cstorring... why don't you guys introduce yourselves in the arrivals thread and take part in the discussion in this thread? The challenge is even more fun when you're talking about it with the other people playing.

I haven't really had the chance to play any EHM over the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to crank out the first season by the end of this week!

Hey, thanks for the notice, ha.

After looking through the forums for about a month and trying to figure out the best way to stop sucking, I thought this would be a good way to spice up the game a bit and have some fun with it.

So far the goaltending situation is horrendous, coupled with de Vries being constantly injured, leaving me with the worst GA in the league, although this last set of 20 from 41-60 seems to slowly be turning around, but definitely not quickly enough. Just crossing the fingers for next season..

Jason Arnott out for about 8 months with a torn MCL after 45 games

nexer wrote:Jason Arnott out for about 8 months with a torn MCL after 45 games

Ouch, that got to hurt.

He is by far my best player this season, and he always seems to win the Best offensive player of the week/month award.
In december he has won 2 out of 4 weekly awards and he has won the monthly award in both november and december.

joehelmer wrote:

nexer wrote:Jason Arnott out for about 8 months with a torn MCL after 45 games

Ouch, that got to hurt.

He is by far my best player this season, and he always seems to win the Best offensive player of the week/month award.
In december he has won 2 out of 4 weekly awards and he has won the monthly award in both november and december.

Yeah, he's been my best player as well with 9.53 i Av R and 19+40 in 38 games.

wow that's awful sorry man...

anybody picking up (some of) the slack? Or does that pretty much destroy the team?

I had 6 straight wins before the injury and after i had 2 wins in 13 last games (Dumont was away for 2 weeks during this bad streak as well).

So my team seems to be random.

I defentley have very little to no scoring past my top two lines. The defence actually seems pretty strong as we don't get out-shot very often. And goaltending is roller coaster at best.

Pekka Rinne has shown flashes of brilliance but nothing consistant. Dan Ellis has been dependable and allowed us to compete every night.

I've had few injuries, but nothing major. I called up Nick Spalling for a few games while Ryan Jones was out.

As of right now (Jan 9th) Arnott, Dumont and Sullivan are 1-2-3 in league scoring with Sulivan having 61 points, my next player in points is Bonk with 33.

A reoccuring theme I see is the wonderful play of Joel Ward, he's pretty good for me too. He was out for about a week or two for me so he's got 27P in 33 G.

My second line of Bonk/Legwand/Ward has clicked very well.

The one surprise, Tootoo is not leading my team in PIM's...but it's more than likely because he's on the 4th line and not playing as much.

Overall I'm still scraping for a playoff spot and that's my goal for the season.

And then in the next game Sullivan goes down for 3 months with a partially torn ACL

cstorring wrote: After looking through the forums for about a month and trying to figure out the best way to stop sucking, I thought this would be a good way to spice up the game a bit and have some fun with it.

The challenges are a great way to learn how to play EHM better!

cstorring wrote:So far the goaltending situation is horrendous, coupled with de Vries being constantly injured, leaving me with the worst GA in the league, although this last set of 20 from 41-60 seems to slowly be turning around, but definitely not quickly enough. Just crossing the fingers for next season..

You might want to cut de Vries' ice time some and tone down his training a bit. He's been my top defenseman so far this season. Bad things happen when your players get too tired!

nexer wrote:Jason Arnott out for about 8 months with a torn MCL after 45 games

Well I guess this increases your chances of landing Tavares!

bruins72 wrote:Well I guess this increases your chances of landing Tavares!

I got 4th pick and drafted Hedman

That's not bad either.

Just a little friendly advice for everyone... once you've had a little success with your team, go to your board and request that they improve the practice facilities. They don't have the best ones to start out with. If you request the improvement in the first season, the facilities should be ready in the second and that should help your training.

Back to my team... My team was really starting to turn it around. We were up to 5th in the conference. Then went out for a month with an MCL sprain. I called Pihlstrom back up and he was doing okay but then Ellis went out for 7-10 days with an arm contusion. He had already missed 10 days with a groin strain. This time, Rinne is not up to the task of being the starting goaltender. We're hurting! I can't wait until Ellis comes back. Actually, I can't wait until I get to the point where I can try to get a better goalie!

I'm really looking forward to the time when Colin Wilson is ready for the NHL. He's really looking good at this point. I signed him and sent him to Kelowna of the WHL. I figured that was better for his development. He's got 45 points in 38 games there so far. He's going to be a great addition to my team at some point!

I was on my way to playoff, then I got a slump and now I'm back in the bottom area of the conference.

The best thing with that is that I can get Tavares.

My current slump, so far I've dropped from 5th in the conference down to 9th. Only 6 points separate the two positions though. It's also only 9 points difference between 9th and 1st. Ellis just came back in time for us to face the 1st placed Red Wings. Let's hope he can get the ball rolling again.

Right now the Senators are the front runners in the Tavares sweepstakes with the Islanders, Blues, and Bruins closing in on them.

The symbol for my slump has to be Arnott, after I posted my stats for 41-60 he only had average 1 point per game. Earlier he made 1.93 points per game, so that's one of the most obvious things with our slump.

Oh, and also our 8-3 lost against Red Wings.