EHM The Blue Line

Howdy guys! This is my first blog post. I have run a lot of different style dynasties with EHM. A month ago I started again EHM 07 and I guess I could try to share my game experience with my lousy english.

I started game again as unemployed like always. It is so fun and my goal is once again to become NHL GM. My general manager name is this time Jeremy Makinen, Finnish American and a junior player as hockey past career. I did not want to make Hall of Famer or a rec. player because it is too easy to get NHL spot

Roster what I use with this save is Lidas 3.2. I modified it a bit. All players are five years younger and I have update SM-league rosters and moved some “big names” in their right teams like Jagr in Flyers.

Now I’m at the season 2015-2016 so I quickly summarize what is happened.

Season 06-07
25.2.2007 Makinen was named as GM for Borås HC. Team played in Allsvenska (Sweden). Season was already end and Boras was finished as 10th place. So there was not much to do.

Season 07-08
Some new players and staff were recruited in the team at the summer break. Also some promising juniors were picked up in the main team. Season started bad but before the short break at autumn Borås startrd play better. Team end up at the 8th place and it was good start I guess even team did not get to play in play-offs.

Season 08-09
I stayed with Borås but when the new season started Borås was totally poor team. Narrow loses and long lose-strakes. Soon team was onto bottom of the table. I fired head coach and signed new players in the team but it did not help a much. At the December I did get team lifted up as 10th place but it was not enough for the team management and I got fired.

25.2.2009 I got signed with OHL team called Saginaw Spirit. Old GM was moved to AHL and he left quite a good team for me. Saginaw was 6th on the Western conference but before season end I got it up as the 4th place. Play-off trip end up at the conference semi-finals.

Season 09-10
Well I don’t know much about a Canadian junior hockey league so my first draft was not a succeed one. I drafted US players which almost all want to play college hockey not CHL so I did not get any great young players on the team. Anyway season started well and Saginaw was in top shape. Wins after wins and team won the western conference. We’ll have to say that Saginaw defense and goalie were totally rubbish but offensive was pure gold…so all games were won by big numbers. Team easily won OHL (Ross Robertson Cup ) and Memorial cup.

Season 10-11
Now I got some good players on the draft and team was become turn into a really great one. Season was started where it was end in the last year but now we had good goalie and defense. But it was not enough. In the play-offs team was knocked out in conference semi-finals.

13.11.2011 I got chance to be USA national team GM in Deutschland cup. I build really good team (also I took some NHL UFA players ) and so on team won hold tournament. US Hockey Association was happy for good results so they did not fired me. At the spring I got chance to build good team for World Championships tournament. Well I was lucky when almost all top US players were free to get to team (like Kane, Oshie, Miller and so on). US team was quite a monster and gold came easily.


Seasons 11/12 & 12/13
Well I continued my journey with Saginaw Spirit and it was turned into really monster club with talented players. In both seasons Saginaw won all three cups; Hamilton Spectator Trophy, J. Ross Robertson Cup and Memorial Cup. Still I was not good enough to become NHL GM. At least my job offers were not accept

Seasons 13/14
25.10.13 I moved back to Europe and took Tappara <3 under my control. Team played in SM-league and last season they were national champs but now they were underachieving and old GM got fired. Well surprise me, Tappara was total monster team for this league. 2,6 million salaries and lots of high profile players. So it was easy job to get team back to top. At end of the season team repeated their glory.

Seasons 14/15
It was easy to build team for the next season. I manage to keep all important players..some flop players left the team and new players who substitute for flop players were again high profile players, like Pirnes and Daugavins

here this season roster and the line up

Daugavins - Pirnes - Kostopoulos
-Väänänen - Mäntylä
-Noronen-

York - Hytönen - Vihko
- Välivaara - Laamanen

Nieminen - Viitaluoma - Armia
- Berg - Immonen

Koivisto - Tuomainen - Burton (20y)
- Saravo – Lehtivuori

Well Tappara won again SM-League but Euro-championship was only dream. Team underachieve really bad in those games

After I was won the SM-league again, Minnesota Wilds offer me the general manager position and I took I right away. My dream has come to true

Seasons 15/16
To be continued…now it will be much more detailed story with the pics

btw feel free to comment...

Seasons 15/16

Well I took over Minnesota and here are team stats for the season 2006 for season 2015.
G, W, D, O/L, Pct, GF, GA, PP, PK, Points


Here is starting line up
Vanek– Koivu (A)– Anrtopov
Bergenheim– Jacobsson– Setoquchi (A)
Veilleux– Millhouse– Dorsett
Yakupov– Kontiola– Moulson

Hannan (C)– Meszaros
Strälman– Byfuglien
Gorges– Hjalmarsson

Goalies (both from Swiss )
1. Hiller
2. Perrin

1st and 2nd line should be scorer lines, 3rd is some kind a checking-line and 4th is mixed with checking-line and scorer line...Millhouse/Kontiola also get some time playing time in PP.

Here some my farm/backup players who is close to get chance to play in main team.
Nigel Dawes
James Blomqvist
Roman Polak
Chaloupka
Duaine Tidball
Jean-Francois Leblanc


My 1st line has been surprisingly good. Vanek score lots of goals at the begging of the season (he also was NHL lead scorer for a moment) but when he injured at the December he started give more passes. Also 2nd line has been quite good (even centers has change a lot) and sometimes 4th line have done a big plays and turned games for us. 3rd line is still under working but I think I’m close to get some kind tactic for our checker line.


Now Wilds are on the 4th place on their own conference and team has avoided for bad injury crises but season is long and there is no room for injuries if we want to succeed in the play-offs. I guess this season goal is achieved and that was to get team into play-offs everything else is welcome.

Only trade what I made is when “AI” Pens offer me Roman Polak for my AHL player Austin Watson and I approved it because I think I need my expericend 7th defender. I don’t want to take any advantage for AI…so I don’t try to do any unrealistic trades. Moulson is guy who I would want to get rid of…I have to pay over 2million and he has 2-year contract...I have younger and better players which could suit his role. Well let see if I trade him in near future

Minnesota played a great regular season (15/16) but in the playoffs team playbook was totally empty when Calgary Flames crashed them easily in the western conference quarter finals. Well at first playoff game agaisnt Flames Wild got really bad news when Vanek (1st liner) and Hiller (1st goalie) got injured and they were out of the hold series. Two key players out in one period, talk a about bad luck

Wild – Flames 0-2
Wild –Flames 0-3
Flames – Wild 3-2
Flames – Wild 3-2 ot.
Dam you ”Kipper”!

Eastern Quarter Finals
Rangers (1) – Canadiens (8) 4-1
Leafs (2) – Capitals (7) 4-0
Lighting (3) – Hurricanes (6) 4-1
Jets (4) – Devils (5) 4-0

Western Quarter Finals
Canucks (1) – Blue Jackets (8) 4-1
Red Wings (2) - Blues (7) 4-3
Stars (3) – Blackhawks (6) 4-1
Wild (4) – Flames (5) 0-4

Eastern Semi Finals
Rangers – Jets 4-0
Leafs – Lighting 2-4

Western Semi Finals
Canucks – Flames 4-1
Red Wings – Stars 4-2

Eastern Final
Rangers – Lighting 2-4

Western Final
Canucks – Wings 4-1

Stanley Cup Final
Canucks – Lighting 4-1



Art Ross Trophy
Patrick Kane – Blackhawks

Bill Masterton Trophy
Patrick Sharp– Hurricanes

Calder Trophy
Gerry Matte - Coyotes (72GP 10G 32A)

Conn Smythe Trophy
Patrick Marleau - Lighting

Selke Trophy
Aaron Voros- Kings

Jack Adams Award
Andy Murray - Canucks

Norris Trophy
Jay Bouvmeester - Rangers

Hart Trophy
Sidney Crosby - Penguins

King Clancy
Martin St. Louis- Lightning

Lady Byng
Sidney Crosby - Penguins

Lester B Pearson
Mikko Koivu - Wild

Maurice Richard
Sidney Crosby - Penguins

Vezina Trophy
Roberto Luongo - Canucks

William M Jennings
Henrik Lundqvist - Rangers

Plus-minus
Alex Pietrangelo - Blues

Roger Crozier
Henrik Lundqvist- Rangers

Golies
Jonas Hiller: 33-year-old goalie is on the paper team 1st goalie. Played five seasons on the Ducks and three seasons with the Coyotes. Now is starting his 3rd season in Minnesota and just singed 5-year-contract with Wilds.

Clarence Perrin: Another Swiss goalie. 21-year-old-goelie which is said to be next “Hiller”. Starting his 3rd season with Wild. Last season Perrin played 34 games in NHL and he played quite well. Contract is ending in this season.

Defensemen
Andrej Meszaros: 30 year old Slovak defender. Started his NHL career in Ottawa after that he moved to Philadelphia where he played nine seasons. Now he is starting 3rd season with Wild. Scouts said he is no. 3-4 talent but last season I put him on the 1st d-line with Hannan and he did pretty good (10G, 40A, +18). Andrej gets also playing time on the PP and PK. Core player but important defender. Just signed three year deal with Minnesota.

Anton Strålman: 30-year-old Swedish defender. Starting his 11th season with Wild. no. 1-2 talent but last season I played him as no. 3 defender. But he got lots of playing time in PP and PK. Great defense abilities with great pass and slap shot skills. Contract is ending in this season but I try to get him signed because soon Hannan will retired and we need great defender to fill his spot. Anton has two world cup silver medals (08/12), Olympic silver medal (10) and WC gold medal (15).

Scott Hannan: 37-year-old hard working defenseman. Played one season (06-07) with the Kings next season he moved to Islanders but mid-season Islanders traded him to Capitals. There Scott played 1½ season before he was traded to Toronto. There he played three seasons, being two times row in Stanley cup final. First time Leafs lost final but next year (2010) Leafs won the cup. After Leafs year he played two seasons with Dallas Stars before coming Minnesota. Experienced defender who played last season great year as no. 1-2 defender and same role will continue.

Dustin Byfuglien: 31-year-old American offensive minded defenseman. Big Buff played three seasons with the Jets before he was traded to Blue Jackets. There he played another three seasons and on the fourth season he was traded in Minnesota. Now it is 6th season with Wilds. Last season was Big Buff's best season; 82 games 11 goals, 30 assist, plus/minus +16 and season average rating was 8.77. He played as no. 4-5 defender and 1st PP and of course he got PK time as RW. He has World championship gold (-from 2011 and I was USA’s team Gm back then), silver (-07) and bronze (-14).

Niklas Hjalmarsson: Another Swedish defender. 29-year-old skilled defenseman who has played five season with Blackhawks before he got traded with Senators. In the Ottawa he spends four seasons before coming to Wild. Last season he played as no. 5-6 defender. It was not a great season for him because plus/minus static shows -21

T.J. Brennan:27-year-old American defenseman. At the summer I traded Moulson for him with the Senators. Should be good Goges replacement.

Forwards
Mikko Koivu: 33-year-old Finnish 1st line center. For now he has played hold NHL Career with Wild and I just got he make new 5-year–deal. Last season was great 32 goals, 86 assist, total 118 points, and average match rating was 9.21. Also last season Lester B awarded. Same role continue what was in last year.

Nikolai Antropov: A Huge player who play in the 1st line RW. Played four seasons in the Jets after that he spend three years at Florida and now he start his 5th season at the Minnesota. Key player on the team, get playing time in PP and PK. Last season was his best season at the NHL (51G & 52A).

Thomas Vanek: Last piece of our scary 1st line. 32-year-old Austrian goal-scoring forward played almost eight seasons with Sabers before Sabers traded him to Blue Jackets. Vanek spend two seasons in the Columbus before he came to Wild from free agency. This is his 3rd season with Wilds and he just made new 5-year-deal with Wild. Last season he played 68 games and finished 34 goals and made 62 assist.

Devin Setoguchi: 29-year-old Canadian right winger. Played ten seasons in the Minnesota and always made over 40 points per season. Last season was his best season on the NHL (38G & 35A). He will continue as second liner and he will get playing time in the PP.

Sean Bergenheim: 32-year-old skilled offensive forward. Played five seasons with Bruins before he was traded to Pittsburgh. At the summer he came back to Bruins from free agency. He spend two more seasons in Boston before he was picked up to Wild team from free agency. Last season he played as 2nd line LW (29G & 31A)

Jean-Francois Leblanc: 23-year-old defensive minded center. Last three seasons he has played in the AHL with good results. Now he will start season in the Wild’s 3rd line center.

Kristian Jacobsson: More Swedes . 22-year-old goal-scoring playmaker, great center prospect, 1st line talent. Last two seasons played in NHL with the Wild. Last season get chance to play 2nd line and power plays but now he will start in 4th line center. Last season he made 12 goals and 31 assist.

Torren Millhouse: 24-year-old American reliable center. Three seasons played in NHL on the same team - Minnestoa Wild. Last season he started as 3rd line center but when Jacobsson were bad at the end of the season Torren became 2nd line center. Now he will continue as 2nd line center and there will be much more power play time than last season. Right now much better prospect than Jacobsson.

James Blomgvist: Another Swedish player. 24-year-old grinding winger who is pure goal scorer. 1st line talent but right now it doesn’t look like it. Rangers’ number one draft but they traded him two seasons ago to Minnesota. Last season James played in 3rd and 4th line by finishing 11 goals and 11 assist.

Derek Dorsett: 29-year-old grinding Canadian winger who has bouncing with NHL and AHL. Played three seasons with Columbus. After that period he played NHL and AHL games in the Columbus. Two seasons ago Blue Jackets trade him to Wild. Last season he started as backup player but soon he got the spot on the 3rd (cheking)line and same role continue in this season.

Stephane Veilleux: 34-year-old Canadian two-way forward. Played five seasons in the Europe before he came back to NHL. Lighting was the team who signed him. There he spends four seasons before he came back to Wild (team who drafted him a long time ago). Now he has played three seasons with Wild and last season he end up 15 points (11G 4A) on the 3rd line.

Nail Yakupov: 29-year-old Russian LW speedster. 4th line talent and Wild’s 4th round draft from 2007. Three first Wild years he played in the AHL. After that he played three season in the NHL. Next two season he spend againtime into AHL. Last season he was backup player, played 37 games and he finished 19 points (8G 11A)

Petri Kontiola: 31-year-old skilled forward. Played one season in the RSL before Anaheim signed him. After five AHL years he played three seasons with the Ducks point average something +15. In the last season Wild signed him from free agency and he played quite well at the first Wild year (10G 16A). Cheap playmaker can play as center or left wing.

Lines
Vanek - Koivu - Antropov
Bergenheim - Millhouse - Setoguchi
Veilleux - Leblanc - Dorsett
Kontiola - Jacobsson - Blomgvist

Hannan - Meszaros
Strålman - Byfuglien
Brennan - Hjalmarsson

Hiller (Perrin)



Well season goals are just get the playoff spot and after that all other is welcome. Even roster is quite same what it was last year but many other teams seem to be more powerful than last season. Malkin is still a free agent even he played two season in the RSL but Pens own his rights :S

Btw Finland won world cup…on the semifinals they won Sweden 4-3 and in the finals they won Canada by 3-2. Koivu (C) and Bergenheim were on the Finland roster so I get more cup winners on my team!

Wild played a great regular season by finishing 1st on the Western Conference. Team started a season with great performance. At the first ten games Wild won eight and same kind tempo carried on the hold season. Well Wild had great power play and they make in each much lots of goals so it helps a lot. Hiller and defense were a total rock at the begging of the season but when mid-season was over Wild defense (goalie) were not any more so hot and goal against increased.




Even at the November faced injury cries (four key players out) did not affect too much on Wild’s play. Vanek was out 4 months, Setoguchi was 3 months out and also Derek Dorsett and Anton Strålman were two weeks out. This was bad injury cries but Wild’ had great backup/prospect players on the farm so team still manage to get wins. Of course during the season there were other minor injuries but those were not so bad and we had good backup players and backup tactics for situations like these. Only on the mid-season and end of the season team showed a little fickle performance. Especially recent games performances have been little bit out of the shape. Hope it won’t carry on the playoffs.


Koivu & Antropov were a great duo and if Vanek wasn’t injured I’m sure he would be also on top of the table with Koivu and Antropov.



Playoffs are next and Wild are set to battle 8th seeded St. Louis Blues. In the regular season Blues outscored Wild 17-11 as they clinched the series 3-0-1. So Wild play against the only team what they could not won in the regular season

Little “cool” trivia about my game:
- Evegeni Malkin is still free agent but he will move in RSL when season is over
- World Juniors U20, the final results: 1. Canada, 2.Slovakia 3. Russia 4. Sweden

Playoffs

Wild – St. Louis 3-5
Wild – St. Louis 9-2
St. Louis – Wild 2-3
St. Louis – Wild 2-6
Wild – St. Louis 6-4

Pretty easy series even we did not won Blues in the regular season.

Wild – Flames 4-6
Wild - Flames 3-1
Flames – Wild 0-3
Flames – Wild 2-4
Wild – Flames 3-2 ot.

Last season re-match and now Wild were better. 40-year-old Kipper was not so hot what it was last year In the 3rd match we lost our 2nd line center Millhouse for three months so he is out of playoffs :S Really bad lost for us.

Wild – Blackhawks 1-2
Wild – Blackhawks 3-4 ot.
Blackhawks – Wild 1-2
Blackhawks – Wild 0-4
Wild – Blackhawks 1-2
Blackhawks – Wild 4-2

Well Blackhawks were better. We lost Bergenheim for two weeks on the 4th match and Anton Strålman for a week at the second match so we faced up injury cries in deep of the playoffs. Three key players out of this series and one out of the playoffs. Well there is always a next year

Eastern Quarter Finals
Capitals (1) - Canadiens (8) 4-2
Islanders (2) – Devils (7) 4-1
Leafs (3) – Senators (6) 1-4
Hurricanes (4)– Rangers (5) 4-0

Western Quarter Finals
Wild (1) – Blues (8) 4-1
Blackhawks (2) – Kings (7) 4-0
Coyotes (3) – Flames (6) 2-4
Canucks (4) – Red Wings (5) 3-4

Eastern Semi Finals
Capitals – Senators 4-1
Islanders – Hurricanes 4-0

Western Semi Finals
Wild – Flames 4-1
Blackhawks – Red Wings 4-1

Eastern Final
Capitals – Islanders 4-1

Western Final
Wild – Blackhawks 2-4

Stanley Cup Final
Capitals – Blackhawks 4-3 (Capitals were 1-3 behind on the series ))

Season Awards

Art Ross Trophy
Alexander Ovechkin - Capitals

Bill Masterton Trophy
Henrik Zetterberg- Coyotes

Calder Trophy
Jimmy Zetterberg - Kings

Conn Smythe Trophy
Alexander Ovechkin - Capitals

Selke Trophy
Donivan Reed - Islanders

Jack Adams Award
John Tortorella - Capitals

Norris Trophy
Mike Green - Capitals

Hart Trophy
Dion Phaneuf - Leafs

King Clancy
Pavel Datsyk - Panthers

Lady Byng
Mikko Koivu - Wild

Lester B Pearson
Mikko Koivu - Wild

Maurice Richard
Alexander Ovechkin - Capitals

Vezina Trophy
Roberto Luongo - Canucks

William M Jennings
Marc-Andre Fleury - Red Wings

Plus-minus
Alexander Ovechkin - Capitals

Roger Crozier
Roberto Luongo - Canucks

Little trivia:
- Sweden won championship, it was 3rd in row. In the final they beat Canada by 3-2 results. Bronze went to Russian. Russian beat Czech 4-2.

Championship list

Wild lost some good prospects and 3rd/4th line players when their contract expired. Also what was suprsing Wild did not recuirt anybody on the free agency. They just call up some youngster from Houston Aeroes to fill up those holds.

Players who left Wild (all who has NHL games on my save)
James Blomgvist: Hmm what I could say him. I had really high hopes for him but he just was not that kind player what I need and want. Role what I try to put him was wrong or he is just not the right NHL guy in my team. Also he wanted over 1, 5 million salaries for next seasons…so good bye for him. Now he plays in Tampa Bay.

Petri Kontiola: Well he was good regular player but I decide to let younger players take his spot. I don’t think anyone in NHL will take him so he might go back to Europe.

Jean-Francois Leblanc: I really want and tried to make contract with him but he doesn’t want to continue with Minnesota. I still have player rights so in future I will try again get him on my team. He was good center in my checking line. Probably continue hockey in AHL or maybe even Europe?

T.J: Brennan: Good defender but my Czech defender prospect is showed that he belongs in NHL. So I let TJ go and renew new contract with my Czech defender.

New players who are in Minnesota line-up
Branislav Chaloupka: This is the Czech defender prospect who taked T.Js place. Real “Cinderella” story for him. I draft him into Wild’s when he was 20-years old. He has played in Czezh lower division (CZE-1) team so reputation was not so high any NHL-team was not interested him. Also my scout said that he is narrow prospect. I draft him and first season in AHL was really great for him so he got chances to play in NHL and he played well so this season is his first real NHL season.

Aki Kangas: Quite interesting player. In first draft season no one did not draft him but in next seasons there was many teams how was interested him. Well we got him because I really need good defensive mind player in my roster and Aki seemed be goo choice. Aki first hockey games in Ilves junior team but when he was 17-year-old he moved Jokipojat (FIN-3) league. There he spend two season and both times he was fans season player. Next season he played in SM-League in the Jokerit team. In that season he was rookie of the year and now he start in NHL!

Matvei Kharlamov: I really don’t like this type players but our 1st liner RW is soon going retired so what the heck. 1,5 million Russian prospect RW/C but if he wants to be star he need great players in the same line. He is not that kind player who can boost line playing by self. So this season he will play in my checking line and I hopefully next season or after two seasons he has spot to play 1st or 2nd line.

Line-up & Roster

Vanek– Koivu (A)– Antropov
Bergenheim – Millhouse– Setoguchi (A)
Veilleux– Kharalamov - Dorsett
Yakupov– Jacobsson– Kangas

Hannan (C) – Meszaros
Stårlman– Byfuglien
Chaloupka – Hjalmarsson

Hiller
(Perrin)

Current roster

Roster is narrow and in the farm there is only few guys who might be all right back up players if we face really bad injury cries. There is about three million what I could still use before salary cup comes against so let see if I recruit 1-2 veteran players when season is started.