EHM The Blue Line

Sorry to say i'm not much of a story teller and lack grammar, so you aren't gonna get much of a story here.

My Buffalo Sabres Team:

05/06:

Started off with so many trades, by the time pre-season rolled around the team was looking nothing like what it did in August. I tried bringing in a lot of young (mostly Canadian) guys, with one or two vets to help mix it up. I was pretty happy with my team in the end, had two lines that were very capable of scoring and two lines that could definatly shut the other teams down.

Forwards:

Ovechkin - Briere - Dumont
Pyatt - Drury - Connolly
Konowalchuk - McCauley - Grier
Peters- Mair - Lindin

Souray - Morris
Mckee - Boynton
Numminem - Tallinder

Miller - Leighton.

Notable Prospects: Phaneuf, Weber, Perry, Guastad, Pogge, Syvret

Draft picks: Two 1st round picks, along with a few other picks scattered around the rest of the draft.


Finished in 4th place in the East conference, about 10-15 points behind conference leader Senators.

Surprisingly, went on to win the Cup beating the Flyers (6th seed) in 4 games in the conference finals and the Canucks (presidents trophy) in 6 games for the Stanley Cup.

Ovechkin won both the Calder and Conn Smyth and was named to the Rookie All Star team.

Point leaders: Ovechkin 44 goals, 87 points
Briere: 37 goals, 87 points
Dumount: 46 goals, 83 points
Drury 31 goals, 77 points

Drafted: Peter Mueller 4th overall, Jonanthan Toews 8th overall, Nathan Martine 14th overall.

Expect the next season in a few days aswell.

Edit: Fixed all the obvious spelling errors.

I've never actually progressed far in the Stanley Cup. I guess it serves me right for always choosing the Bruins

You've made some pretty decent acquisitions: Ovechkin and Phaneuf obviously stand out as the two main ones.

What on earth did you give up to get these players???

First thing I did was put all the players and prospects I was unwilling to trade as untouchable, then I asked every team that I didn't expect to make the playoffs what they wanted in exchange for there first round pick. Ended up with seven 1st round picks. Then I just proeded to offer out those picks to all the players I just happened to want.

I got Phaneuf + 3rd round pick for: 1st round pick, 6th round pick and Jochen Hect
Ovechkin: two first round picks and Dmitri Kalinin
Morris: straight up for Mika Noronen (my board was so proud of me )
Perry: 2nd round pick and Brian Cambell
Boynton +3rd round pick: 2nd round pick, rights to denis Ezhov and Martin Biron

If there's any other players your curious about, just ask.

Lol you're a draft pick b!tch

No idea what you're talking about.

E5150_ca-

I always do the same thing to get draft picks. I started a team as the New York Rangers and was able to get 11 first round picks. I had Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, Phaneuf, Stewart, Brule and Horton. Needless to say I got pretty bored with all that power.

What I do is ask each team for their next two first round picks. (You can get lucky and get two picks for one prospect) Then, if they decline, I ask for one first round pick, then ask for a second rounder, ... etc

timmy_t wrote:E5150_ca-

I always do the same thing to get draft picks. I started a team as the New York Rangers and was able to get 11 first round picks. I had Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, Phaneuf, Stewart, Brule and Horton. Needless to say I got pretty bored with all that power.

What I do is ask each team for their next two first round picks. (You can get lucky and get two picks for one prospect) Then, if they decline, I ask for one first round pick, then ask for a second rounder, ... etc

Yea, I probably could have 'abused' the system more, but I wanted to keep it atleast semi-realistic. I don't think I went too overboard with the 'cheating' of the system...did I guys?

06/07

Kept basically the same team, with a few improvements here and there.

Line-up

Ovechkin - Briere (A)- Jokinen
Connoly - Drury (C) - Dumont
Konowalchuk - McCauley - Hinote
Pyatt - Roy - Bates

Lidstrom (A)- Morris
Souray - Boynton
Phaneuf - Praetsch/Eaton

Miller - Dafoe

Notable Prospects - Weber, Perry, Guastad, Pogge, Syvret, Toews, Mueller, Martine, Fluery

I enjoyed totaly dominance all season, finishing with the Presidents Trophy and a record of 57-18-7.

I picked up Eaton on waivers mid-way through the season as Praetsch wasn't playing very well.

THe draft didn't look any good past the top 5 or 6, so I traded my first round, 2nd round and a prospect to Pittsburgh in exchange for M.A. Fluery.

I didn't enjoy the dominance in the playoffs that I enjoyed last year. I took out the Leafs, Sens and then Flyers on my way to the cup finals, before fallings to the Stars in 6 games.

Trophys:
Ovechkin:
Winner: Hart Memorial, NHL First All-Star team
Runner-up: Art Ross,
3rd place: Lester B. Pearson.

Briere:
Winner: Art Ross, NHL Plus-Minus Award, NHL First All-Star Team
Runner up: Bill Masterton, Hart Memorial, Lester B. Pearson

Jokinen:

Runner up: Maurice 'Rocket' Richard, Plus-Minus Award

Point Leaders:
Briere - 53 G, 138 P
Ovechkin - 59 G, 135 P
Jokinen - 61G , 112 P
Drury - 25G, 65 P
Lidstrom - 12 G , 63 P

07/08

I had the goalies, defense and first line all in place from last year, what I wanted add over the off-season was a 2nd line with some punch and another veteran or two.

This is how my team looked in the pre-season, and how I hoped it would continue to look for the rest of the season

Ovechkin - Briere (A) - Jokinen (A)
Smyth - Stoll - Perry
Niedermyer - Hinote - Maltby
Bates - Roy - Tootoo

Lidstrom - Morris
Souray - Boynton
Phanuef - Cairns

Miller - Fluery

Started the season off great, only losing once in the first 12 games and being way out in first. Then the injury bug hit, and hit hard. Smyth was out for 6 weeks, Souray was out for a few games, Roy was out until April and Ovechkin missed all of January. Every one of these injuries happened in December. Everyone was too busy thinking what they would buy there families with there Christmas bonus to bother keeping there heads up.

Despite having more ice time due to all the injuries, Perry was playing horrible, and it was clear he needed more time in the AHL, so down he went. Hunter came up to replace Ovechin on the first line and played average. It was clear Stoll wasn't 2nd line material, but neither was Neidermyer and Roy was hurt, so I had a big hole in the line-up there. Cairns wasn't filling his roll as team enforcer very well, so I was pretty sure I would move him at the deadline.

Going into the trade deadline, we were sitting in 5th place, with 2 teams right on our back, but only 1 point out of 4th and 3 points out of 1st. I dealt of Cairns and Bates for Ortmyer and some draft picks to get some room under the cap, then sent Justin Pogge, two 4th round picks and a 6th round pick to the Hurricanes in exchange for 05/06 First Team All Star Brendan Morrison.

Lines going into play-offs.

Ovechkin - Briere - Jokinen
Smyth - Morrison - Maltby
Nidermyer - Stoll - Ortmyer
Hunter - Hinote - Tootoo

Lidstrom - Morris
Souray - Boynton
Phaneuf - Weber

Miller - Fluery

We cruised through the last 20 games, and despite missing 12 games earlier in the season, Ovechkin managed to steal the Art Ross from Naslund by 2 points. We finished in 2nd place in the Eastern conference, one point behind the Lighting. The Canucks took the Presidents Trophy with 126 points.

Final Season record: 56 wins - 20 losses - 6 O/SL 336 GF, 259 GA

Our first playoff match was against the Rangers, we took the first, and they took the second. The Sabres must have then set some sort of record, winning there next 15 games to be crowned Stanley Cup Champs of 2007/2008.

Top Scorers.

Ovechkin: 58G, 128P
Jokinen: 61G, 123P
Briere: 41G, 122 P
Morris: 22G, 65P
Lidstrom: 9G, 59P

Trophies:

Ovechkin-
Winner: Art Ross, Lester B Pearson, Hart Memorial
Runner-up: Conn Smythe

Jokinen-
Winner: Conn Smythe, Plus-Minus Awards
Runner up: Art Ross, Rocket Richaurd, Hart Memorial
3rd place: Lester B Pearson

Briere:
3rd place: Conn Smythe

Lindy Ruff got Jack Adams

Kirk Maltby got the Selke.

I'm scared to advance to the off-season. Jokinen, Briere, Lidstrom, Morris, Smythe and Morrison are all to become unrestricted free agents, and a whole host of prospects (including Ovechkin) are going to be restricted prospects.