EHM The Blue Line

What's wrong with this picture:

New York Islanders - 54 Total Points
Atlanta Thrashers - 67 Total Points
Anaheim Mighty Ducks - 72 Total Points
St. Louis Blues - 72 Total points
Boston Bruins - 73 Total Points
Pittsburgh Penguins - 76 Total Points

That is the bottom 6 from this latest season I've simmed through. Now it's draft time, and the Islanders won the lottery. Here's how the top 6 picks look:

1st overall - New York Islanders
2nd overall - Pittsburgh Penguins
3rd overall - Atlanta Thrashers
4th overall - Mighty Ducks
5th overall - St. Louis Blues
6th overall - Boston Bruins

If you notice what you're supposed to with this order, then What the Dickens ? Does this team have to pick in the top 2 for 5 seasons straight no matter what?

Please click 'edit' and give this a topic that actually relates to it's content or I'll delete it.

It's 3:25 am here and I've had a "through the wringer" kinda day so my brain can't begin to comprehend this... looks like math

This could go into my "Penguins make me sooo mad" thread.

I think the Penguins cheat in this game. But in order to not make it look so obvious they always lose in the playoffs.

Stupid flightless water fowles

Are you sure the isles won the lottery? Because could be that the pens won and moved up of maximus 4 positions to get the 2nd place. That's what Riz said

I read over the sentence about 5 or 6 times, "the New York Islanders won the draft lottery". So no mistake there

Doesn't the lottery determine all the picks for non-playoff teams?

I like penguins. That is all.

E5150_ca wrote:I like penguins. That is all.

Heh, reminds me of Monty Python

The entire draft order for the first round is set at the time of the draft (in the game that is) but the lottery itself only applies to the first fourteen slots, after which teams are entered according to how they did in the previous year's playoffs. In real life obviously there is a delay between the lottery and the finalizing of the draft order.

Here's a good article about how this year's NHL Lottery came out and why:

http://www.nhl.com/news/2006/04/269532.html

All it says is the Islanders won the lottery, so since they already owned the first overall pick, doesn't change anything.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say it did... I was responding to munky's question about how the lottery affects teams' selections in case people didn't understand the real-life lottery concept/workings.

The display/order you mention could simply represent that the Pens own that pick, not that they were awarded that pick in the draft lottery. They could have traded for the pick that became the #2 pick at any time in the previous year and it would only display I believe as their pick since they have ownership of it. That #2 pick is still designated by the game as the pick of it's original owner; the picks' identity does not "clear out" when it changes hands.

If it was (for example/discussion purposes) let's say Chicago's pick originally it is even on the draft order listing during that draft still designated as Chicago's pick; though the current owner of the pick is also shown. So... if that pick, Chicago's #1 was dealt to Pittsburgh ar any point prior and then Chicago did well enough in the lottery/badly enough during the season to move up to 2nd overall pick (even if NYI won the #1 slot and thus "won the lottery") Chicago's 1st round pick would be the second overall pick in the upcoming draft.

In a listing whether it would say Pittsburgh (current owner) or Chicago (original owner) would depend on what criteria the news item is calling upon. In my fictional example the Penguins would have the #2 overall pick but it had nothing to do with their record or how they did in the lottery they weren't actually in it only ended up that way because Chicago traded their first round slot to them.

Clear as mud?

All I know is everyone owned their own first rounder (according to the picks screen), except for me owning the Thrashers first pick. The Islanders picked first, they had the first overall pick AND they won the lottery, then the penguins had the second pick for no particular reason (that I can tell). Meanwhile the Thrashers had the 2nd lowest amount of points, but ended up with the third pick, even though the 1st overall team won the lottery and no positions should have changed, period.

My best guess is that, even though it says the Islanders won the lottery, they didn't. Or maybe it's just the title of the thread- the penguins cheat. I think I'm going to take them over and make them trade their next 4 first rounders as a penalty

Teams can increase their position up to four slots via the lottery, and can only slide back at most one. Only the five with the worst records (or teams they traded their #1 picks to) have a chance to "win" the lottery meaning they ended up with the #1 overall pick. That's all "winning" means, just because NYI had the first overall and won the lottery all 13 other non-playoff teams could have changed position due to their luck or lack thereof in the lottery. So "even though the 1st overall team won the lottery and no positions should have changed, period" isn't correct either. It all depends on how the ping pong balls bounce on lottery day

All that said though; yeah, they probably just cheated and should have to pay the price I say the picks are fine but really for such a heinous act they should have to rescind their last three #1 picks as well. It's only fair I think since what kind of punishment is that for the current season? None; and we can't just let them get away without paying the price immediately.

Ok so now I'm confused. If only one team can win the lottery, and the one team that wins it happens to be the team that owns the #1 overall pick (and has the least amount of points during the regular season), then the order should not change at all. Meaning the first overall pick should be the Islanders (who had the lowest amount of points), followed by the Thrashers (who had the 2nd lowest), then the Ducks, Blues, etc etc.

Nothing you have said has explained why the Penguins, who finished with the 6th least amount of points, jumped up 4 spots without winning any kind of lottery at all. Unless there's an invisible lottery somewhere the game doesn't show, or perhaps the Islanders said, "we don't need to win the lottery, we'll let the Penguins have the victory". The Blues won the lottery in the NHL and no positions changed because they had the first overall pick to start with, which is exactly what should've happened here.

Perhaps there is an error in the game. The Islanders have the first pick, so the game automaticcaly assumed that they won the lottery and displayed that news item, even though it was the Penguins who actually won it and moved up the 4 spots.

E5150_ca wrote:Perhaps there is an error in the game. The Islanders have the first pick, so the game automaticcaly assumed that they won the lottery and displayed that news item, even though it was the Penguins who actually won it and moved up the 4 spots.

That could very well be it.

Sounds like an easy mistake to make, although I'm not a game programmer so I dunno