EHM The Blue Line

Rutherford was good for me in season 1 but he's been disappointing in season 2. I've given Brown more of the starts. Brown has only been marginally better though.

I haven't really had any injuries with Dionne. He was out for 9 days in the middle of the regular season in season 1. Dionne is also producing points at a higher rate in season 2 than he did in season 1. I think Hicke really clicks with Dionne and Grant. Dionne is currently 2nd in the league in points, only a few behind Esposito. Grant is second in goal-scoring, 4 behind Lafleur.

I swear this game is trying to make me lose, last game of the regular season Dionne gets thrown out of the game and suspended for 2 games, for which the appeal was denied. Game 1, Red Berenson gets injured out for 10 days. so now I'm heading into game 2 without my top two centres. ARGH....oh yeah..against CHICAGO!

Well I finished the regular season for season 2. I missed the playoffs this time. I was 9th in the conference, 10 points behind the 8th place Roadrunners. Despite my struggles, I had Dionne finish 1st in the league in points (130) and assists (88), while Grant finished 1st in goals (57) and 4th in points (115). My UFA signing, Ernie Hicke, 12th in the league in points with 101. Both Hicke and Dionne topped 40 goals while Grant was one of only 3 players to hit the 50 goal plateau (Lafleur and Clarke were the others). Persson had a great rookie season with 41 points. He was 18th among defensemen in scoring and 1st in scoring among all rookies.

I think my main issues were Rutherford really under-performing compared to last season, needing more depth at center so I could drop Berenson down to the 3rd line and get rid of Charron, and needing a true second line RW. I'm hoping to address at least a couple of these issues in the off-season.

I forgot to submit my stats for 4th quarter of the second season so I used a mulligan, meaning I've recorded all 22 games as losses and the other stats will not change at all. Will never forget again...

But now I'm done with my first 20 games of the third season, we were ranked as 21st in season preview, but we started far better than expected, for some time we were placed 2nd, but after some weak games we have dropped to 9th.
My first line is playing good together, but I'm sure they can produce more.
Dionne got 30 points (10+20), Grant got 29p (14+15) and Ftorek got 28p (10+18) and are all in top 15 in points, hopefully we can get back to our winning ways and that way they hopefully can score even more points.

So even though we didn't make the playoffs, the show goes on. The Montreal Canadiens went on to win the Stanley Cup again. This time they faced the Kings in the Final and won the series 4-1. They're just so good. I hate them!

The season awards rolled around and here is how we fared...

Dionne - Art Ross winner, Lady Byng 2nd place, Pearson 3rd place, First All-Star Team

Grant - Lady Byng winner, Rocket Richard winner

Hicke - Lady Byng 3rd place

Stefan Persson - Calder winner, Rookie All-Star Team

And my draft...

1st rd #13 Al Secord LW CAN 6'2" 202 lbs
I think I'm already pretty well set for toughness on the LW but I couldn't pass up Secord. I'm just hoping he can be a scorer too like IRL.

2nd rd #43 Darryl Sutter LW CAN 6'0" 180 lbs
Yet another LW. It seemed like this draft was chock-full of LWs. Still, Sutter was BPA and too good to pass up.

3rd rd #73 Kim Spencer RD CAN 6'6" 213 lbs
I wanted to nab a big defensive defenseman for my future. I've never heard of this guy but he looked like the BPA. Worse comes to worst, there's always room for a goon!

4th rd #103 Normand Lefebvre RW/LW CAN 5'11" 183 lbs
I really needed to add a RW to my prospect pool and this guy looked like the best one left at this point. He projects to be a 2nd or 3rd line guy.

5th rd #133 Shane Pearsall LW/C CAN 6'0" 187 lbs
A defensive forward with 2nd or 3rd line potential

6th rd #163 Adam Hurley LD/RD CAN 6'4" 194 lbs
A defensive defenseman with #7 potential. Pretty much just minor league filler but he's got decent mental attributes.

7th rd #193 Kelly Klassen RW CAN 5'11" 169 lbs
Projects to be a minor league energy forward. Not big but plays a big game. He'll be the kind of player that I keep wishing was good enough to make the roster.

And that's it! Now I've just got to get my screens and get to the off-season!

You had the Lady Byng winner and both runners-up!
That is pretty well set for toughness LOL

Yeah, I hate anyone from my team winning the Lady Byng, so it was especially irksome for that to have happened! I'm trying to add toughness to this team but within the challenge rules it has to be a process.

So I was able to make my trade in that short July window. Boston put Wayne Cashman up on the trade block and I swooped in and nabbed him. I offered them Guy Charron, who I've hated, and they immediately accepted the offer. Sweet! Now I just need a little help at center. I've got the $2M offer in on UFA C/RW Walt McKechnie. He's a great 2-way center with really nice skills at both ends of the ice. He was looking for more and there are several other teams with offers in but I've still got my fingers crossed. If not, Wayne Connelly has accepted my offer but I've delayed it. He's more of a defensive-minded center and he's 33 but he'll fill a role for a season or two. McKechnie is definitely my preference though.

EDIT: And as soon as I simmed to the next day, McKechnie signed with Vancouver, joining fellow former Bruins Derek Sanderson and Dallas Smith.

I'm in my 3rd year playoffs (again, I'm not actually doing the challenge, again FWIW)... and instead of getting hurt this time the game decided it should change things up and suspend Dionne for 3 games instead.

This is ridiculous... why does the game hate him so?

How on earth did Dionne get suspended?

Looks like Im missing all the fun with this challenge. Ive been away and havent even had time to download the 74 DB. Sounds great though
Im going to try to get at this early next week so i should still be able to get a few seasons in.
I know this is the wrong place but does anyone know of a good freeware program for un zipping the game databases ? Ive always used demo versions of winzip but they have expired on me.

Thanks

There's definitely plenty of time to still get in on the challenge!

I thought you could continue to use the demo versions of the zip programs even after they expire? I've never actually bought a zip utility. Anyhow, check out this one here...

http://download.cnet.com/7-Zip/3000-225 ... 45185.html

It was rated very highly.

I use 7-zip and it works great and has a large list of file types it works with as well including zips, rars ,tars and LZH's among others.
I also am playing the 74 DB but not the challenge or even the Red Wings. I'm playing the 74 Canucks who were pretty bad in their own right. BTW, The Red Wings finished 4th in the west and that's who I'm playing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Looking at the top 50 scorers most of it made sense as did the D and goalie stats. Orr ended up in 5th among D-men but missed around 15 games. No D-man had over 65 points tho and the top scorer, Jacques " mr D" Lemaire led the league in scoring. The East had 7 teams gather 100 pts or more, the West 3 but the west won the all-star game I'll report on the playoff results when I'm finished the first season.

CeeBee wrote:I use 7-zip and it works great and has a large list of file types it works with as well including zips, rars ,tars and LZH's among others.
I also am playing the 74 DB but not the challenge or even the Red Wings. I'm playing the 74 Canucks who were pretty bad in their own right. BTW, The Red Wings finished 4th in the west and that's who I'm playing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Looking at the top 50 scorers most of it made sense as did the D and goalie stats. Orr ended up in 5th among D-men but missed around 15 games. No D-man had over 65 points tho and the top scorer, Jacques " mr D" Lemaire led the league in scoring. The East had 7 teams gather 100 pts or more, the West 3 but the west won the all-star game I'll report on the playoff results when I'm finished the first season.

VAN is who DET was playing when Dionne got suspended. I was up 2-1, then went 1-2 without him, before taking the next 1* to win the series.

(* EDIT: Next 1. ONE! Stupid typo had 2 there)

bruins72 -
Elbowing. He gave an elbow to Holmgren (who they apparently got this year as a UFA). Holmgren and Snepsts both caused my team a lot of problem/injuries/were dirty SOB's all series long... Holmgren in particular had it coming I guess. I have no lack of toughness on my squad though so I have no idea why it was Dionne doing the work...

bruins72 wrote:How on earth did Dionne get suspended?

My Dionne was suspended for 2 games from a crosscheck in Game 82

Team toughness taken care...off-season signing? Eddie Shack

The picture that always comes to my mind when I think of Eddie Shack (Shack playing for Buffalo in 1970-71)...

I kinda want to see just for fun what it would take to get Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson or Jack Carlson. If I play enough seasons I may be able to get all 3.

I remember Eddie Shack and John Ferguson going at it on HNIC in the 60's....probably more than once. Can't find any pics so far tho

thunderbug wrote:I kinda want to see just for fun what it would take to get Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson or Jack Carlson. If I play enough seasons I may be able to get all 3.

Actually, Jack is portrayed by Dave Hanson in the movie because Jack Carlson was in the playoffs with the Oilers. There's actually an interesting bit about all the Carlsons and Hansons and all of that on the wiki page about them...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanson_Brothers

Well, I'm intrigued enough... I've been reading the rules and stuff, and I'll jump in and get started on Friday after work, when I'm at the weekend!

Nice! It's always good to have more people joining in the fun.

bruins72 wrote:

thunderbug wrote:I kinda want to see just for fun what it would take to get Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson or Jack Carlson. If I play enough seasons I may be able to get all 3.

Actually, Jack is portrayed by Dave Hanson in the movie because Jack Carlson was in the playoffs with the Oilers. There's actually an interesting bit about all the Carlsons and Hansons and all of that on the wiki page about them...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanson_Brothers

Right I knew that but was thinking it would be cooler to have the players it was based on. That being said after sniffing around I think Dave Hanson is the one of the 4 that I have the best shot at and doesn't have horrible attributes.

Even though I'm a ways off from the third draft (I've yet to hit 20 games in season 3), I'm really looking forward to it. I'm starting to recognize more and more of the players coming up. I'm seeing a lot of guys that I remember from the 80's. Rob Ramage, Brian Propp, Kevin Lowe, Mike Foligno, Dirk Graham, Craig Hartsburg (know him more as a coach), John Ogrodnick, Rick Vaive, Dave Poulin, Dave Christian, Charlie Huddy, Keith Crowder, Brad McCrimmon, and Kjell Samuelsson to name a few. Most of these guys are first round picks, so I'll be lucky to get one, maybe to of them (if they slip to the second) but it's still very exciting!

bruins72 wrote: I'm starting to recognize more and more of the players coming up. I'm seeing a lot of guys that I remember from the 80's...very exciting!

It really is so pleasing to see this for me...the payoff for all the (ongoing) editing efforts