Blog Update (November 2008)
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:03 am
This blog update is slightly larger than September's as I have merged October's update into this November update. I had hoped to post the October update a few weeks ago but I returned from a short holiday to find a broken router and now I am having internet connection issues! So this is why October has been merged into November's:
AvesFan (Hartford Whalers)
To make things a bit different AvesFan has renamed some of the NHL teams and shuffled them around in the Divisions - particularly within the Eastern Conference. He has taken over as Hartford coach, who finished 30th last season. His best players are Daymond Langkow, Ryan Smyth and John Grahame. There is plenty of talent to groom in Tomas Karpov, John Tavares and Cole Penner, and so the future could be very promising if this talent is carefully managed.
Having become GM after the Entry Draft, he has immediately started to put his mark on the team, hiring new coaches and an Assistant GM as well as a number of forwards and D-men. The previous GM released Nabokov and so AvesFan is looking for a new goaltender as a priority.
Laker2415 (Fort Wayne Komets)
It's nice to see a non-NHL blog for a change. Laker has taken control of the Komets, an affiliate of Colorado Avalanche, from the UHL.
Having made a number of changes in the pre-season, the Komets had a good start to the season with 5-2-0 at the end of October 2006. As the season has progressed, the Komets continued to put in a solid performance and found themselves in 5th place at the end of December. Luciano Aquino was consistently finding the net and led the league in goals. Mario Larocque was spending a lot of time in the box, leading the league in PIM.
Into the new year, the Komets continued t be in fifth place, closing the gap on first-placed Elmira. Aquino continued to lead the league with goals scored and Bruce Richardson became the assist leader. Clearly this is a sign of a top team - perhaps they could push for top spot.
On a separate note, Laker became the GM of the USA U-20 team and led them to gold in the World Junior Championships.
Manimal (Saint John Sea Dogs - Challenge 11)
Manimal's blog starts off with an entertaining dialogue between himself and his agent, describing how he decides to hang up his skates and become a GM. His agent arranges for interviews with both the Portland Winterhawks and the Saint John Sea Dogs. The Winterhawks interview turns into a disaster when Manimal discovers the interviewer is none other than Mike Williamson. Mike and Manimal were teammates at Texas during the time of Manimal's "mishap"! I won't reveal what the mishap was, but will leave you to find out for yourself by reading his blog! Presumably, he'll be taking the Saint John job, then...
sjsharkz (San Jose Sharks)
At the start of the season, sjs decided to strengthen the LW and who better to sign than Zetterberg?!? He also signed Glen Murray to give him some depth and experience. However, Doug Murray and Joe Thornton suffered serious injuries, fracturing the team. This put a lot of pressure on Zetterberg, who struggled to settle into his new team.
However, he still managed to reach second place in the Western Conference and made it to the Conference finals of the playoffs before losing to the Flames.
Pre-season for 2007/08 and sjs managed to get his first pick 9th overall and acquired Thomas Hickey, Mike Neal, Logan Couture, Nick Petrecki, Lars Eller, Brendan Smith, Mike Hoefell, Ryan Wilson. Having had what he feels was a good draft, sjs has decided not to acquire any FAs and instead concentrate on developing his rookies.
Space_Monkey187 (London Racers - EHM 2005)
Space_Monkey has chosen to go retro by coaching the now defunct London Racers. He went into the preseason looking to strengthen his team as he felt there was a great deal of room for improvement from their performance in 03/04. He managed to sign ex-NHLer Chris Lipuma and he brought in Hubert Veilleux from Rimouski. In front of the net, he signed Joe Watkins from Bakersfield Condors.
However, despite these signings, the Racers had a poor first season under Space_Monkey, finishing sixth in the EIHL. Ian Mcintyre struggled to light the lamp, going twenty games without a single goal. These problems were compounded by the loss of captain Steve Moria for three months due to injury. Into the playoffs, the Racers lost to Belfast in the first round - despite Belfast being one of the weakest teams in the league that season.
Going into the next season (05/06), team morale is low and Space_Monkey will have a lot to do in order to turn things around.
Stone169 (Ottawa Senators)
Stone had a great start to the 2007/08 season, with his players picking up plenty of player of the week awards - in both the NHL and his two affiliate teams. As the season progressed, his notable players were Alex Auld, Chris Phillips, Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, and Alexandre Picard. Come the mid-season and things became a little tougher; in particular Alfredsson picked up an injury. However, his team picked improved and he managed to give his rookies some NHL experience. Alfredsson returned from injury and recorded his 800th career point (all of them scored for Ottawa).
Come the end of the season and both the Sens and his two affiliates made it to the Playoffs. More next month...
Syvis (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Syvis has set himself the challenge of turning around the fortunes of the Lightning, having finished 30th in the NHL the previous season. He felt the best way to do this was to overhaul the rosters, bringing in a total of ten new signings. So far in the preseason exhibition games, Tampa Bay has been undefeated. Olli Jokinen and Mike Smith have shined during these games. A good start but the start of season will be Syvis' real test.
Wildiofan (Minnesota Wild - Fantasy Draft)
Having played many long term games, Wildiofan has chosen to mix things up a bit by playing a fantasy draft using Lidas' 08/09 rosters. In his next blog post, he will be revealing who he acquired in the fantasy draft...
You can view all of the blogs mentioned above (and more) HERE. Additionally, you can discuss any EHM blog featured on TBL (either your own or another user's) HERE.
AvesFan (Hartford Whalers)
To make things a bit different AvesFan has renamed some of the NHL teams and shuffled them around in the Divisions - particularly within the Eastern Conference. He has taken over as Hartford coach, who finished 30th last season. His best players are Daymond Langkow, Ryan Smyth and John Grahame. There is plenty of talent to groom in Tomas Karpov, John Tavares and Cole Penner, and so the future could be very promising if this talent is carefully managed.
Having become GM after the Entry Draft, he has immediately started to put his mark on the team, hiring new coaches and an Assistant GM as well as a number of forwards and D-men. The previous GM released Nabokov and so AvesFan is looking for a new goaltender as a priority.
Laker2415 (Fort Wayne Komets)
It's nice to see a non-NHL blog for a change. Laker has taken control of the Komets, an affiliate of Colorado Avalanche, from the UHL.
Having made a number of changes in the pre-season, the Komets had a good start to the season with 5-2-0 at the end of October 2006. As the season has progressed, the Komets continued to put in a solid performance and found themselves in 5th place at the end of December. Luciano Aquino was consistently finding the net and led the league in goals. Mario Larocque was spending a lot of time in the box, leading the league in PIM.
Into the new year, the Komets continued t be in fifth place, closing the gap on first-placed Elmira. Aquino continued to lead the league with goals scored and Bruce Richardson became the assist leader. Clearly this is a sign of a top team - perhaps they could push for top spot.
On a separate note, Laker became the GM of the USA U-20 team and led them to gold in the World Junior Championships.
Manimal (Saint John Sea Dogs - Challenge 11)
Manimal's blog starts off with an entertaining dialogue between himself and his agent, describing how he decides to hang up his skates and become a GM. His agent arranges for interviews with both the Portland Winterhawks and the Saint John Sea Dogs. The Winterhawks interview turns into a disaster when Manimal discovers the interviewer is none other than Mike Williamson. Mike and Manimal were teammates at Texas during the time of Manimal's "mishap"! I won't reveal what the mishap was, but will leave you to find out for yourself by reading his blog! Presumably, he'll be taking the Saint John job, then...
sjsharkz (San Jose Sharks)
At the start of the season, sjs decided to strengthen the LW and who better to sign than Zetterberg?!? He also signed Glen Murray to give him some depth and experience. However, Doug Murray and Joe Thornton suffered serious injuries, fracturing the team. This put a lot of pressure on Zetterberg, who struggled to settle into his new team.
However, he still managed to reach second place in the Western Conference and made it to the Conference finals of the playoffs before losing to the Flames.
Pre-season for 2007/08 and sjs managed to get his first pick 9th overall and acquired Thomas Hickey, Mike Neal, Logan Couture, Nick Petrecki, Lars Eller, Brendan Smith, Mike Hoefell, Ryan Wilson. Having had what he feels was a good draft, sjs has decided not to acquire any FAs and instead concentrate on developing his rookies.
Space_Monkey187 (London Racers - EHM 2005)
Space_Monkey has chosen to go retro by coaching the now defunct London Racers. He went into the preseason looking to strengthen his team as he felt there was a great deal of room for improvement from their performance in 03/04. He managed to sign ex-NHLer Chris Lipuma and he brought in Hubert Veilleux from Rimouski. In front of the net, he signed Joe Watkins from Bakersfield Condors.
However, despite these signings, the Racers had a poor first season under Space_Monkey, finishing sixth in the EIHL. Ian Mcintyre struggled to light the lamp, going twenty games without a single goal. These problems were compounded by the loss of captain Steve Moria for three months due to injury. Into the playoffs, the Racers lost to Belfast in the first round - despite Belfast being one of the weakest teams in the league that season.
Going into the next season (05/06), team morale is low and Space_Monkey will have a lot to do in order to turn things around.
Stone169 (Ottawa Senators)
Stone had a great start to the 2007/08 season, with his players picking up plenty of player of the week awards - in both the NHL and his two affiliate teams. As the season progressed, his notable players were Alex Auld, Chris Phillips, Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, and Alexandre Picard. Come the mid-season and things became a little tougher; in particular Alfredsson picked up an injury. However, his team picked improved and he managed to give his rookies some NHL experience. Alfredsson returned from injury and recorded his 800th career point (all of them scored for Ottawa).
Come the end of the season and both the Sens and his two affiliates made it to the Playoffs. More next month...
Syvis (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Syvis has set himself the challenge of turning around the fortunes of the Lightning, having finished 30th in the NHL the previous season. He felt the best way to do this was to overhaul the rosters, bringing in a total of ten new signings. So far in the preseason exhibition games, Tampa Bay has been undefeated. Olli Jokinen and Mike Smith have shined during these games. A good start but the start of season will be Syvis' real test.
Wildiofan (Minnesota Wild - Fantasy Draft)
Having played many long term games, Wildiofan has chosen to mix things up a bit by playing a fantasy draft using Lidas' 08/09 rosters. In his next blog post, he will be revealing who he acquired in the fantasy draft...
You can view all of the blogs mentioned above (and more) HERE. Additionally, you can discuss any EHM blog featured on TBL (either your own or another user's) HERE.