EHM The Blue Line

Minty Edit: Decided to pull this discussion into it's own thread so we don't confuse the BJax thread too much... my post here was a lead-in from B72 talking about our old Minnesota Wild challenge back at Susie:

Minnesota was the first ever Challenge team! Yeah that was officially "back in the day" it was on the initial SI release of 05 I think that really was the one that sold us on the concept. I was all over that one saying we'd neve be able to do anything with it and were making it too hard since at that point the finances for the Wild were the toughest in the game but it proved to be the perfect team to do first to learn what we wanted to do with the Challenge concept in general. It's always been a "Yes, we know everyone can make a winner out of a powerhouse, but what could you do if you had to take over a team that really needs work?" thing.

Not sure who is up next I've pretty much turned the whole workings of the Challenges over to the Brothers now as it's wayyy too much like math to my performers/artists brain I'm just not cut out for it I will always be taking part though of course! I'm hooked

Minstrel wrote:Minnesota was the first ever Challenge team! Yeah that was officially "back in the day" it was on the initial SI release of 05 I think that really was the one that sold us on the concept. I was all over that one saying we'd neve be able to do anything with it and were making it too hard since at that point the finances for the Wild were the toughest in the game but it proved to be the perfect team to do first to learn what we wanted to do with the Challenge concept in general. It's always been a "Yes, we know everyone can make a winner out of a powerhouse, but what could you do if you had to take over a team that really needs work?" thing.

Not sure who is up next I've pretty much turned the whole workings of the Challenges over to the Brothers now as it's wayyy too much like math to my performers/artists brain I'm just not cut out for it I will always be taking part though of course! I'm hooked

I vote for Montreal as the next Challenge team!

I've gotten hooked playing this Columbus team. I think someone mentioned this earlier, but I was really surprised at how much the Jackets have when it comes to trade bait. I've been albe to pull some awesome deals out of my hat latley. But I'll fill you in on those when I post my end of season one stats tonight.

Cheers.

CatchUp wrote: I vote for Montreal as the next Challenge team!

We just did Montreal as the challenge team not long ago. I was one of the final ones we did on the old version of the game. We also had the option to use any Northeast Division team we wanted in the Fantasy Draft Challenge. We need to find a really hard team to use. We need a team with very little real talent, not much of a budget, and not a lot of prospects. That would be a challenge!

bruins72 wrote:We need a team with very little real talent, not much of a budget, and not a lot of prospects. That would be a challenge!

I give you the Boston Bruins.

Systemfel wrote:

bruins72 wrote:We need a team with very little real talent, not much of a budget, and not a lot of prospects. That would be a challenge!

I give you the Boston Bruins.

Funny!

In actuality, the Bruins are pretty easy to do well with. Chara and Stuart are a great core for your defense. I usually just work trades to fill out the rest. You've got your top two scoring lines in place already and they do quite well. Plus, you've got a decent checking line. The Thomas and Toivonen goaltending tandem doesn't do so well but it's pretty easy to trade for Niitty. Voila! You've got yourself a very competitive team.

I'm actually having a hard time thinking of a team that would be really difficult to make a winner out of.

I think Florida is in the running but there is a certain high profile user here that disavows that entire conference so I fear the wrath of such a suggestion honestly. The Hawks could work but we wouldn't want to use a team in the same division in back to back challenges... usually we will just drop out the winner from the previous poll and heave people vote again but any suggestions are welcome. Since we wouldn't want to go back to Chicago that would leave us from the prior poll

Phoenix Coyotes - Pacific Division - Full Budget
Calgary Flames - Northwest Division - Full Budget
New York Islanders - Atlantic Division - Full Budget & DiPietro ;-P
Florida Panthers - Southeast Division - 36.1 budget
Atlanta Thrashers - Southeast Division - 35.4 budget

We do however always go with however the votes come out since we always want to make this a group decision not a case of us saying "We've decided that next you will have to play as GM of This Team... and LIKE it!!!" Just not our style, ya know?

BTW the above lists the budgets available to the teams at the start of the year which are obviously a factor for any Challenge team.

I would like to give Pittsburgh penguins a go. Try to make Sidney-Malkin the best line players in NHL.

Flames, please.

In all seriousness, the Islanders might be a good one because of the DiPietro and Yashin contract mess.

I've played around with the Penguins a little at home (I usually do the EHM thing at work) and they're a little tricky. IMO, their defense is terrible and they're not a balanced team so you have to make a lot of trades. I've also found that they've got a lot of young players that could turn out pretty good but also might not. I tended to hold on to too many of those guys thinking they might end up good.

Didn't we do an Islanders challenge at some point? I seem to recall one. I'm leaning towards staying out of the Eastern conference. We seem to have done more challenges with Eastern Conference teams. I guess I'd probably go with Phoenix or Calgary then.

What about using a team that might not seem too difficult on the surface but we add some extra restrictions to it? Maybe we have to get the payroll down to a certain amount even though the board allows us more. Maybe we have to dismantle the team, trading away anyone over the age of 30, and build a fresh young team? Here's a really crazy idea. After playing a second season of the Blue Jax challenge, we have to take control of the team that finished last in the league. This would really change things up.

Maybe one of the Californian teams? San José, L.A. or Anaheim?

I think Los Angeles could be a good choice too... San Jose and Anaheim are too strong especially with young talent and depth I think, and I think Pittsburgh is close on that front as well. It's not exactly a challenge to make Malkin-Crosby into a great line, ya know?

But really if people want to do it I'm fine with putting it up to the vote. This thread isn't exactly for who should be the next team yet... but ideas for getting together a pool of teams that we feel would be good for a Challenge.

Now, there's a difference between that and "what team I want to play". We all want to play the team we most enjoy because we're comfortable with it. The Challenges are about learning the game and the game world and testing yourself as a player.

I assume with Challenges we have to use the NHL?? As why not go to a differnet league. Say Canada?

mark_htfc wrote:I assume with Challenges we have to use the NHL?? As why not go to a differnet league. Say Canada?

I've thought of this too. Would be fun if we played in a European league too, such as Elitserien in Sweden.

We could do a non-NHL team but we'd have to adapt the rules so that we can keep the playfield even so to speak. So we have the NHL system figured out and functioning well, so we'd have to "relearn" and retweak the system again and we'd have to go through a test run etc. and really I don't know if any of us have the time to re-invent something when there are other things we'd rather do than re-invent the wheel so to speak...

I think Phoenix would be a good challenge. They still don't have any goaltending and they only have a few good prospects.

I like both the Thrashers and the Flames

Thrashers, Leafs (cannot believe I said that), Kings, or even the seemingly difficult to win with Senators would be good by me. Please no Flames. I cannot imagine cheering for a team in those freaking horse uniforms in any sense of the word. Panthers are fine too.

I seriously don't think the Flames would be a good challenge. 50% of people will end up with the Stanley Cup, because Calgary is so high-powered in this game. However, maybe we could put restrictions on the salary if we used a team like the Flames. For example, no one's averaged club salary could go over $35 million or something like that.

Phoenix would be a good choice, IMO.

I agree with Phoenix.

I don't know about Phoenix. How hard is it going to be for me to fire Gretzky?

"Sorry Wayne, I just don't think your conditioning rating is where it needs to be. There's the door."

As much as it pains me, I think the Leafs would be fun. I've never attempted to dig them out of their hole.

But let's be honest, I'll be taking part no matter who the new team is. Why don't we put it to a vote? Narrow it down first, to which conference, then division. I'd be willing to keep track of the votes over the holidays if anyone was interested.

Cheers and Happy Holidays.

Minstrel wrote:We could do a non-NHL team but we'd have to adapt the rules so that we can keep the playfield even so to speak. So we have the NHL system figured out and functioning well, so we'd have to "relearn" and retweak the system again and we'd have to go through a test run etc. and really I don't know if any of us have the time to re-invent something when there are other things we'd rather do than re-invent the wheel so to speak...

Ok thanks for that Minty. I understand it would take some getting used to a different league etc. I have no problem doing challenges in the NHL I just thought it might of been good to do a new League for a change.

We will put it to a vote eventually as we always do, this was just a kind of "opening up of the floor" to comments of people if they think we should add a team to the running... because unlike the All-Star team we don't allow write-in cnadidates in the Challenge polls

So currently we've got these teams in consideration for the next poll, as I think we'll remove Calgary for now as there have been enough arguments against made:

Phoenix Coyotes - Pacific Division - Full Budget
*Los Angeles Kings - Pacific Division - Full Budget
*Toronto Maple Leafs - Northeast Division - Full Budget
New York Islanders - Atlantic Division - Full Budget & DiPietro ;-P
Florida Panthers - Southeast Division - 36.1 budget
Atlanta Thrashers - Southeast Division - 35.4 budget

* Are new suggestions... shall we put these six to a vote then?

I just noticed how good Phoenix is.

I looked at them in a few different games and they are always in the top half of the West, usually top 2.

They even won the Stanley Cup in one game.

Dunno if they are such a wise choice after all.

They got 66 points in my Columbus game to finish 29th and that's usually about where they ended up in my testing games too Who are you trading to them to make them so good