Challenge #32 - Belleville Bulls - Discussion Thread

[bruins72]

All Challenge #32 talk goes here!

[jesterx7769]

Hooray I was secretly hoping for an OHL but didn't want to jinx it!

[Leeman14]

Heavens to Gretzky! This team sucks.

Time to get busy on this.

[bruins72]

Yeah, these guys are really bad!

[jesterx7769]

At least they have a cool mascot Haven't been to Belleville since they got their butt kicked in the Memorial cup lol

edit: On a serious note, and not to double post, I am interested to see how playing with a bad OHL team goes. I have only played as an OHL team once a long time ago and that wasn't with strict rules. Usually in the NHL challenges drafts aren't as important since you rarely see those players mature and be able to contribute, but with a junior team I expect the draft to matter much more and have players make an impact much quicker.

[Manimal]

I made an OHL guide some years ago. Might be useful to some.

[jesterx7769]

Link doesn't work (unless its a me problem)

[bruins72]

I think it's been entered as an image. If you right click and choose to open the image in another tab, you can see it.

[jesterx7769]

I did that but when I dl it and open it its just random symbols in the pdf file $/%?#

[sampadz]

Yeah me too

[bruins72]

Hmmm... you're right. I just downloaded the file and opened it. It's a bad file.

[bruins72]

Okay, so I'm in the preseason and I got the regular Season Preview news item. They actually ranked us 5th best in the OHL! How do they figure that? We're horrible! The board also wants to make the playoffs. I can't see that happening.

[Manimal]

I've got the guide on my computer. I'll get it uploaded soon.

[jesterx7769]

Okay, so I'm in the preseason and I got the regular Season Preview news item. They actually ranked us 5th best in the OHL! How do they figure that? We're horrible! The board also wants to make the playoffs. I can't see that happening.

I just got there and am predicted 18th

[joehelmer]

I was ranked in 19th in season preview.

[Leeman14]

Ranked 8th in season preview.

[bruins72]

I've actually got these guys doing pretty decent right now. I'm 11 games in and they're 7-4-0.

Does anyone have any favorites on their team so far? I'm thinking there's going to be some randomness to these players so we'll have different players performing better than each other. For me so far, Raycroft has been my favorite defenseman. I was even able to get him to learn LD (he's a RD) pretty quickly. Berisha has been my top goal-scorer. He's got 8 goals so far in 11 games. Getting Quine sent down from the NY Islanders has helped solidify things a center but Marchment has been strong too.

[Leeman14]

Berisha, Marchment and Tomasek have been my top performers. I wish we had a halfways decent PK unit.

[jesterx7769]

ah poop, a quarter in OHL is only 17 games, not 20, now i gotta do some math on stats dangit

[Leeman14]

Haha, I hate it when that happens.

(Subtract PP goals, PP goals against, shorthanded opportunities, individual player stats, etc.)

[bruins72]

Sadly, I've done this so many times in the past. I've even done it a bunch on NHL challenges with a standard 20 game quarter.

[totch]

OMG OMG OMG !!!! Boston Bruins sent back Malcolm Subban

Spoiler: Click to reveal

[Leeman14]

I am having a brutal challenge thus far. None of my NHLers were sent back to junior so I've been trying to work with what I have. Graham and Giugovaz are my 1A and 1B goalies but neither are able to remain consistent enough to rely on especially with such a slow and porous defense. Raycroft is barely a 5th or 6th D-man in my game. Bignell, Subban and Besner are somewhat reliable. To a lesser extent, Worrad and Yuill are fair. My forward group is also thin--Tomasek shows up when he wants to but can go 5 games without appearing on the scoresheet. Berisha and Harper are both solid scorers who are just below a point-per-game pace but I can't seem to find anyone for them to play with. Marchment is horrible.

Personally, I try to match all of my coaches' strategies if possible. I usually lean toward an attacking style but I thought I'd try (because of Burnett and the other coaches hired) to go with a patient and defensive style. This resulted in being shutout 3 straight games (8-0, 4-0 and 7-0). I've modified it to more of a semi-trapping, forechecking strategy that is working better than anything else I've tried.

I'm hoping the OHL draft and the CHL Import provide me with some better options for Season 2.

BTW, our team captain, Cameron Brace was signed to an NHL contract by the Winnipeg Jets in December. Kind of surprising since the guy has such terrible numbers.

[bruins72]

I'm getting the same results with my goalies. No clear starter. One will be decent for a stretch and then put up a stinker.Then I'll go with the other for a bit. Back and forth with Graham having the slight edge.

Raycroft and Bean have been my best defensemen. All of the others have a sub-7 average rating. Subban is really disappointing. He's just too small. Quine and Marchment are my best forwards now. Everyone else is sub-7 average rating. Berisha had started off really well but he's kind of tapered off. He's very inconsistent, as are many of these guys. Brace isn't even on my roster. He was sent down to the farm team very early on.

We've been sitting at #2in the Eastern Conference pretty consistently for a while now. nI a way I wish we weren't doing so well so we could get a better draft pick. I'm sure drafting is going to mean quite a but more at this level.

[totch]

I'm getting the same results with my goalies. No clear starter. One will be decent for a stretch and then put up a stinker.Then I'll go with the other for a bit. Back and forth with Graham having the slight edge.

Raycroft and Bean have been my best defensemen. All of the others have a sub-7 average rating. Subban is really disappointing. He's just too small. Quine and Marchment are my best forwards now. Everyone else is sub-7 average rating. Berisha had started off really well but he's kind of tapered off. He's very inconsistent, as are many of these guys. Brace isn't even on my roster. He was sent down to the farm team very early on.

We've been sitting at #2in the Eastern Conference pretty consistently for a while now. nI a way I wish we weren't doing so well so we could get a better draft pick. I'm sure drafting is going to mean quite a but more at this level.

I got the same problem even if he's one of my top scorers. Anyway, to put him back on his good performances you'll have to have to discipline him with a warning