EHM The Blue Line

In EHM 07 when was the first time you made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, what was the outcome, and with what team?

I recently got the game two days ago and I made it into the playoffs as the 3rd seeded team with the Vancouver Canucks.

The team defeated the Minnesota Wild in 6 games in round one, defeated the Detroit Red Wings in 5 games in round two, and was able to defeat the Dallas Stars in 5 games in the Western Conference Finals.

Surprisingly I was able to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Philadelphia Flyers. I was able to take a 2 - 0 series lead against the Flyers, but the series went back to Philadelphia where they were able to tie it for a 2 - 2 series. The series went back to Vancouver where the team was able to defeat the Flyers to take a 3 - 2 lead... but the Flyers were able to tie the series once again to force a Game 7. So once again we're back in Vancouver after 3 periods the game is tied a 2 - 2 then all of a sudden Jeff Carter of the Philadelphia Flyers scores the overtime goal shattering my hopes of helping the Canucks win their first ever Stanley Cup..........

First of all, glad to see another Canucks fan on this board. This game seriously makes me Luongo was as good in real life...and we actually have the same playoff success

Back on topic, I've actually had really good luck with the Canucks and managed to make 4 straight Cup Finals appearances to start my tenure as GM and managed to win 3 times. Luongo's been lights out all 4 seasons, coming up 2nd in Vezina voting the first 2 seasons and winning it the 2nd two along with an Olympic gold medal.

In season 1 (06-07), I went into the playoffs as the 6th seed, beat the Sharks in overtime in game 5 of the WCF on a Matt Cooke shorthanded goal, and ended up beating the Rangers in 7 (with Rob Blake, the big deadline acquisition, as captain) to win my first one. Trent Hunter was absolutely amazing in the playoffs that year, scoring 33 points in 21 Playoff games that year and won the Conn Smythe. I went into the playoffs as the 2nd seed the next year (after being forced to trade Blake due to his monster contract), but lost to the Rangers in 5 in the cup finals. In season 3, I went in as the first seed, and beat the Flyers in 6 (Hunter with playoff MVP again).

The offseason after that was rough. Nazzy, both Sedins, Hunter, Linden, Ohlund, and Salo all went to free agency, and Richard Matvichuk had a surprise retirement. Out of my FA's, I was only able to retain Daniel Sedin, Hunter, and Linden, but I managed to pick up Scott Hannan and Rhett Warrener off free agency so my defense wasn't completely shot. I also sold half the farm (2 4-star prospects, a 3-star prospect, rights to a 19 year old 4-star prospect, 2nd and 3rd round picks) to get the 1st round pick from last-place Colorado a couple of days before the draft lottery, and actually won the Lottery, so I was able to draft Tavares first overall. I was initially planning to use this as a re-tooling year, especially a after the Board of Directors wasn't expecting me to make the playoffs for the first time in 4 seasons, but I was pleasantly surprised when the team went 9-4-1 in the first part of the season.

Then, somehow the Pens didn't lock up Malkin (don't know what happened, but I think they blew all their cash on Shanahan or something), so I offersheeted him at around a 4M caphit for 1 season (he didn't want more years) for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, after unloading Warrener's contract. Kyle Quincey was also surprisingly good, playing on my top pairing with Hannan and winning the Calder, which is nice since he was on a 650K cap hit. I somehow ended up winning the first seed and coming up just short for the President's trophy (tiebreaker I think), and after ALMOST blowing a 3-0 series lead in the cup finals to the Presidents Trophy winners Florida Panthers (they came back from down 2-0 and won in 2OT game 4 in Florida ), I captured cup #3 Thank God neither Lu or Hannan got injured, cause I went 0-6-0 in the stretch they were both out in the regular season.

Which brings me to the current season. Started the season really badly, but since then the team's picked it up, 2nd in the West. Tavares has finally found his stride playing with the big boys, and newly-acquired Nik Grossman looks like the new Kyle Quincey, scoring over half-a-point a game and making a case for himself for the Calder. Surprisingly, my farm is really solid at the moment, my lower round prospects are developing really well. My current Lineup is:

Daniel Sedin - "C" Evgeni Malkin - Trent Hunter
Johan Franzen - John Tavares - Anze Kopitar
Nigel Dawes - Blair Betts - Steve Downie
Steve Ott - Brooks Laich - Dan Cleary
Zack Stortini

Nik Grossman - "A" Scott Hannan
Kyle Quincey - "A" Mikko Jokela
Steve Eminger - Andy Sutton
Chris Campoli

Roberto Luongo
Brett Krahn

P.S. Bourdon's almost ready to step into the NHL full time

P.S.S. I know I kinda took advantage of the AI in getting Malkin, but I was kind of balancing out the fact that Morrison, Naslund, Linden, Ohlund, Salo, and the Sedins would have more loyalty in real life not to hold out till Free Agency even though they were being offered significant amounts of money. I also paid fair value for the lottery pick I got IMO

So after four seasons you only have two Canucks on your team?

And Naslund, Morrison, Linden Ohlund, Salo and 1 Sedin were sure shown a ton of loyalty that they were showing to the team. Wow...I should play a game where I trade every single player on the team except 2. I bet I win the cup first year. Huge accomplishment that would be.

Instead I do things like try and make it harder....IE It is 2020 in my game right now (started unemployed) and have built my Ducks from a 67 point team when I took over in 2013 to the Pres Trophy winner. I have made 5 trades in my 7 years, and signed one FA, with one waiver pick up.
I am still waiting to win the Cup (Finals in 2015, 2017, 2019) Pres Trophy 2018.

Building through the draft. I currently have 4 first rounders, 6 3rd rounders on my roster, and 2 7th rounders (who are both in the top 6 forwards and going apedoodles)


Only 1 FA is with me now .... and the traded guys were all sent packing when contracts expired (3 were rentals in the three diffeerent years I went to final)

batdad wrote:And Naslund, Morrison, Linden Ohlund, Salo and 1 Sedin were sure shown a ton of loyalty that they were showing to the team. Wow...I should play a game where I trade every single player on the team except 2. I bet I win the cup first year. Huge accomplishment that would be.

Instead I do things like try and make it harder....IE It is 2020 in my game right now (started unemployed) and have built my Ducks from a 67 point team when I took over in 2013 to the Pres Trophy winner. I have made 5 trades in my 7 years, and signed one FA, with one waiver pick up.
I am still waiting to win the Cup (Finals in 2015, 2017, 2019) Pres Trophy 2018.

Building through the draft. I currently have 4 first rounders, 6 3rd rounders on my roster, and 2 7th rounders (who are both in the top 6 forwards and going apedoodles)


Only 1 FA is with me now .... and the traded guys were all sent packing when contracts expired (3 were rentals in the three diffeerent years I went to final)

If you actually read my post, all of those players walked in free agency, except Linden who retired (after I re-signed him after he went to free agency). I never traded any of them, they all held out on negotiations and were eventually signed by other teams. Who in the right mind would trade 1 Sedin? Kesler also walked.

Should have resigned those loyal guys. You were too cheap.

batdad wrote:Should have resigned those loyal guys. You were too cheap.

False. Naslund and Ohlund both chose other teams despite getting an identical offer from me (what they wanted/requested). Hank was tough cause I was planning on giving him what he wanted, but because I had so many offers out to the other guys who were leaving, the board allowed me to offer a max of like 2.5M per season or something, and he went to the Sabres. I guess Salo is maybe the only one you can fault me for something like this, he wanted a 4 year contract at 3.7M at age 33, I tried to re-sign him for shorter term, cause it made no sense to sign him at THAT CAPHIT for 4 years when I had so many young guys ready to step in (I had no intent of letting him go after 2 years, just sign him to a smaller contract).

I guess a point I'm trying to make here is that in real life, there would be no chance any of these guys even hit the free agent market. They'd see that the front office is filling their payroll to the brim to keep them here, and likely be willing to take a 250K/year paycut to sign with the home team. And I don't know how stuff like this is calculated in the game, but it's terribly unrealistic. In this same game, Jokinen left the Panthers after the season they made the cup finals, Shanahan left the Rangers after the season they won the cup, and Kopitar asked me for a trade in the middle of the second round of the Playoffs because "his agent told him he can get a bigger contract elsewhere". It's kinda tough to use real-life standards of loyalty to judge GM's when the game does nothing to help players keep up their end of the bargain (in the game).

Not false. SHould have offered them more. Kopitar is a different case...loyalty is not part of his game in EHM. Nazzy and Ohlund et al completely different story You gotta pay to keep them. Same with Henrietta. If you had offered enough they would have stayed.

Anyway...beside the point...having only 2 players from original roster 2 years into the game is boring, and silly. If it was fantasy draft fine. But it was not.

I bet in 2 more years your team is completely different again. Just a silly way to play the game in my opinion. No where near real life...to me you try and keep it as close as you can...you have not done so. At least 18 moves in 2 seasons. (And I bet a whole lot more). Never seen a team do that...never will.

batdad wrote:Not false. SHould have offered them more. Kopitar is a different case...loyalty is not part of his game in EHM. Nazzy and Ohlund et al completely different story You gotta pay to keep them. Same with Henrietta. If you had offered enough they would have stayed.

Anyway...beside the point...having only 2 players from original roster 2 years into the game is boring, and silly. If it was fantasy draft fine. But it was not.

I bet in 2 more years your team is completely different again. Just a silly way to play the game in my opinion. No where near real life...to me you try and keep it as close as you can...you have not done so. At least 18 moves in 2 seasons. (And I bet a whole lot more). Never seen a team do that...never will.

There's a balance between staying loyal to your players and compromising the state of your franchise. Having 4 players on your roster at a 5.5M or higher cap hit in a 44M cap league (what the Sedins and Naslund demanded, and what Luongo was signed to) and 2 players at a 4.5M caphit (what Ohlund and Morrison wanted) crosses that line. I couldn't let Hunter walk after he won 2 Conn Smythes in 3 years (and you can't say a 1st rounder for Hunter + 6th rounder is an unrealistic trade, the Canucks would definitely do something like that if in real life a physical winger of his skill level was available at that price). Realistically, I may have been able to keep one more of them if I decided to throw away any chance of getting a cup in the near future and decided to overpay dump some other contracts for cheaper support players.

Also, compare the 06-07 Canucks roster to the 10-11 Canucks roster. Nazzy, Morrison, Ohlund, Linden are all gone, Salo stayed because he was willing to sign short-term contracts at a reasonable price to the franchise. The only same core pieces they've kept are Kesler, the Twins, Burrows, and Luongo, and that's because Burrows and Kesler developed surprisingly well.

Oh man..you don't get it and won't get it. Should have known. Just writing blah blah blah to me now.

You won't be around long. Soon you will start telling us all how easy the game is and how you are bored with it. And ask questions that have answers everywhere on this forum.

Oh god here we go again.

batdad wrote:Oh man..you don't get it and won't get it. Should have known. Just writing blah blah blah to me now.

You won't be around long. Soon you will start telling us all how easy the game is and how you are bored with it. And ask questions that have answers everywhere on this forum.

Gee, how's the weather up there in your ivory tower? And isn't it bad for your eyes to always be looking at people down the tip of your nose? I'm 6'2 so your neck can't be too comfortable either.

I'm done with this. Sure, you win, I just don't get the "true joys" of EHM, and your way of playing is obviously better than mine. Happy? Savor that one for a while, champ, you seem like you need it more than I do.

And you're probably right, I probably won't be around long. My research job starts next week, so I'll be doing that until my classes start up again, and I'll have more important things to do than argue with people on online forums behind screennames about a computer game. Not to discredit in any way the site, it's a really good way for people to have their immediate questions answered, or the helpful people that post here and take time to answer others' questions. But it's truly been a pleasure being able to have a meaningful and absolutely life-changing interaction with you from behind my keyboard.

Regards,

J92

Philou---It is fun. Bait and they bite. It is like fishing. Try it some time.

Oh and BTW--IT is nice up here. Who wants to join me for beer?

batdad wrote:Philou---It is fun. Bait and they bite. It is like fishing. Try it some time.

Sorry but I can't do that to new people on the forum, it's like your signature move, not mine!

Jumbotron92 wrote:

batdad wrote:Oh man..you don't get it and won't get it. Should have known. Just writing blah blah blah to me now.

You won't be around long. Soon you will start telling us all how easy the game is and how you are bored with it. And ask questions that have answers everywhere on this forum.

Gee, how's the weather up there in your ivory tower? And isn't it bad for your eyes to always be looking at people down the tip of your nose? I'm 6'2 so your neck can't be too comfortable either.

I'm done with this. Sure, you win, I just don't get the "true joys" of EHM, and your way of playing is obviously better than mine. Happy? Savor that one for a while, champ, you seem like you need it more than I do.

And you're probably right, I probably won't be around long. My research job starts next week, so I'll be doing that until my classes start up again, and I'll have more important things to do than argue with people on online forums behind screennames about a computer game. Not to discredit in any way the site, it's a really good way for people to have their immediate questions answered, or the helpful people that post here and take time to answer others' questions. But it's truly been a pleasure being able to have a meaningful and absolutely life-changing interaction with you from behind my keyboard.

Regards,

J92

Hey Jumbo, I should have warned you about arguing with Batdad.

He's actually like 6'6 or something and really grumpy. Like a bear that just woke up hungry from hibernating all winter.

His whole point, and what I was alluding to was that you didn't have any (one or two?) Canucks after four years. Batdad had a game going for a long time where he played the Canucks and never made a trade and didn't sign any free agents. He only played with draft picks, and like 15 seasons or so at that. I think he won something like 20 cups in those 15 years (he's that good!)

I know I'm preaching here but he was a mod on this site for a long time and he's seen a thousand "kids" (I use the term loosely) come through TBL, mess around on the forums and ask a hundred questions that have already been answered, and then leave. (Kind of like when you have out of town cousins come and stay with you and they screw everything up and when they finally go back to Arkansas you need to take a week off of work to decompress.)

Don't get mad man. I'll feed the bear and answer your questions, but I will pick on you for not playing the "right way."

P.S. - Download one of the latest rosters, i.e. Manimal 4.1b, and start a season with the Canucks. Try and keep the team together like an NHL GM would, and I'm sure you'll have a blast.

Heh. ANd TImmy...weren't you one of those "kids"?

Heh.

batdad wrote:Heh. ANd TImmy...weren't you one of those "kids"?

Heh.

Yes sir, but I've matured a lot over the years.

Great post, Tim.

Timmy's nailed it, Jumbo. But I give you full props for sticking up to Batdad; that was an interesting exchange!

Most of us here at TBL over the years have realised that limiting trades and building your teams from within make the game experience more satisfying (and more realistic, at the same time). However, there's no such thing as the one and only objectively best way to play this game. It's a game. It's about enjoyment. That's all.

timmy_t wrote:

Jumbotron92 wrote:

batdad wrote:Oh man..you don't get it and won't get it. Should have known. Just writing blah blah blah to me now.

You won't be around long. Soon you will start telling us all how easy the game is and how you are bored with it. And ask questions that have answers everywhere on this forum.

Gee, how's the weather up there in your ivory tower? And isn't it bad for your eyes to always be looking at people down the tip of your nose? I'm 6'2 so your neck can't be too comfortable either.

I'm done with this. Sure, you win, I just don't get the "true joys" of EHM, and your way of playing is obviously better than mine. Happy? Savor that one for a while, champ, you seem like you need it more than I do.

And you're probably right, I probably won't be around long. My research job starts next week, so I'll be doing that until my classes start up again, and I'll have more important things to do than argue with people on online forums behind screennames about a computer game. Not to discredit in any way the site, it's a really good way for people to have their immediate questions answered, or the helpful people that post here and take time to answer others' questions. But it's truly been a pleasure being able to have a meaningful and absolutely life-changing interaction with you from behind my keyboard.

Regards,

J92

Hey Jumbo, I should have warned you about arguing with Batdad.

He's actually like 6'6 or something and really grumpy. Like a bear that just woke up hungry from hibernating all winter.

His whole point, and what I was alluding to was that you didn't have any (one or two?) Canucks after four years. Batdad had a game going for a long time where he played the Canucks and never made a trade and didn't sign any free agents. He only played with draft picks, and like 15 seasons or so at that. I think he won something like 20 cups in those 15 years (he's that good!)

I know I'm preaching here but he was a mod on this site for a long time and he's seen a thousand "kids" (I use the term loosely) come through TBL, mess around on the forums and ask a hundred questions that have already been answered, and then leave. (Kind of like when you have out of town cousins come and stay with you and they screw everything up and when they finally go back to Arkansas you need to take a week off of work to decompress.)

Don't get mad man. I'll feed the bear and answer your questions, but I will pick on you for not playing the "right way."

P.S. - Download one of the latest rosters, i.e. Manimal 4.1b, and start a season with the Canucks. Try and keep the team together like an NHL GM would, and I'm sure you'll have a blast.

Haha yeah, he's quite a handful to deal with. He kinda struck me as a guy who had this need to always exert some sort of dominance over other people, but judging by what people say to/about him, he's obviously amazing at this game, so I'll give him that. And I don't really mean to sound mad: I just kinda progressively sound that way over any forum arguments I have.

I pretty much kept the Canucks roster as it was for the first 3 seasons, minus a few trades (Hunter, Matvichuk, Blake) and prospect swaps. Linden captained my first two cup teams, and it all kinda just fell apart when it took too much money over too many years to sign an aging core. Perhaps I picked up the habit of resorting to what's more practical from the NHL 11/12 sim leagues I play in, those guys love to just blow up rosters and make them completely unrecognizable within half a season. I think it's also an interesting case with the Canucks roster in the game cause a lot of prospects simply won't pan out like they do in real life (Bieksa, Burrows, and to a certain extent Kesler), and the Sedins aren't as good as they are in real life cause there's really no way to program that "6th sense" into the game, although they still produce extremely well in the game.

I guess I'll take some baby steps. I've got a really good long-term core right now with Malkin and Tavares, and actually managed to win a cup this season without making any trades, and just one signing (Vermette). If I manage to perpetuate my success, I'll try it again with an actual NHL roster.

Thanks for taking the time to reply ciryatan too!

Nah...not dominance. Just impatience for sillyness. If you prove not to be silly in the end, we will get along just fine.

What you have to remember is we see these newbie type posts all the time about the mostest excellentest team evah!!111!!1!111. And when you are Phoenix and have traded for Crosby, Malkin, Ovenchicken, Pronger, Green, ...well you get the point...it gets annoying. Back when this game first came out...every day someone was talking about how they had traded for Marleau and Nittymakki (sorry Tasku...I know spelling).....and how great they were at this game. It gets old real real fast.

Ahhh that dear Marleauuuuuuu. That was my first mistake to post that trade here for me even though I wasn't aware of those glitches. At least I didn't try to trade for Crosby etc.....

Most of my trades seem to be for 3rd or 4th line guys or even worse It's pretty neat though when the odd one does well and actually helps the team . Occasionally there's been a better player that has been needed because of injury or retirement and not long ago I got Stafford on waivers being so hard-up for a half decent right winger and he's been pretty good. Sometimes I'll trade a prospect that I can't squeeze into the line-up but mostly I just try to develop my own players and fill gaping holes with cheap free-agents or low-end trades if I have no young-uns that are ready to step in.

batdad wrote:Nah...not dominance. Just impatience for sillyness. If you prove not to be silly in the end, we will get along just fine.

What you have to remember is we see these newbie type posts all the time about the mostest excellentest team evah!!111!!1!111. And when you are Phoenix and have traded for Crosby, Malkin, Ovenchicken, Pronger, Green, ...well you get the point...it gets annoying. Back when this game first came out...every day someone was talking about how they had traded for Marleau and Nittymakki (sorry Tasku...I know spelling).....and how great they were at this game. It gets old real real fast.

Ahhh Marleau ... way back when, using the original DB was always tempted to trade for him and never did. However in 1-2 games I started, he kept coming up for FA and I'd throw gobs of cash at him ... finally got him to sign once and then realized I'd thrown so much cash his way I had no cap space to give him decent wingers

He lasted about a season before I traded him for a top ten 1st rounder and decent center (forget who, think it was Mikko Koivu for some reason)


But back to the orginal topic:

First time in the finals ... not NHL but WHL of my current game.

The setup : I started unemployed and simmed the game to the trade deadline. My intention being to take over one of the bottom feeders in the NHL ... but didn't like the bottom feeders so instead took over the Victoria Royals in the WHL. I'm in my 4th season and through draft, player development and one key trade for a goalie I finished 1st overall ...

On to the playoffs ... I completely dominate the first 3 rounds. In the WHL finals despite Curtis Lazar of the Medicine Hat Tigers treating my goalie like swiss cheese we manage to win the first two game 4-3 in OT on the back of Chandler Stephenson's multi point games. Then the Tampa Bay Lightning sign him to a contract in between games and off to the NHL he goes. Buggers don't send him back down either, even though they're out of the playoffs and he still has junior eligibility. My entire offense is now destroyed as he essentially carried it on his back. We lost the next 4 games 2-1, 3-2, 1-0 and 2-1 ... lost the WHL playoffs, no Memorial Cup visit.

At least my 1st rounder will carry the team this year, was hoping the Lightning would send Chandler back to junior's for one more year so he and my new LW could team up (the LW is somebody's regen for sure, just don't know who). The Lightning however decide he's better off in the AHL. Now I'm in panic mode since the new LW, my top defenceman and my euro goalie (the Chechmanek regen) are all draft eligble at the end of the season and my cupboard is a little bare after they leave.


The Canadian Hockey League provides a whole new challenge to EHM. You draft a kid and 2-3 years later he's draft eligble for the NHL. In the WHL at least, you can't sign the kid the first year you draft him, and you can only have 3 20yr olds on the roster and nobody past the age of 21 can play a single game. You can also only have 2 "young" players in the lineup (ie 16yr olds) So at best you have them for 5 seasons (ages 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20). However, if the kid is a really good prospect there's a good chance he'll get drafted at 18 and if he's really good he's likely to get signed by the NHL club. You're only hope then is that they send him back to Junior's rather than keep him on the roster.

You can also only hold a total of 50 contracted and unsigned players ... meaning you have to plan ahead every year as to which new prospects, older procpects and roster players you hang on to.

Mordrehl wrote:

batdad wrote:Nah...not dominance. Just impatience for sillyness. If you prove not to be silly in the end, we will get along just fine.

What you have to remember is we see these newbie type posts all the time about the mostest excellentest team evah!!111!!1!111. And when you are Phoenix and have traded for Crosby, Malkin, Ovenchicken, Pronger, Green, ...well you get the point...it gets annoying. Back when this game first came out...every day someone was talking about how they had traded for Marleau and Nittymakki (sorry Tasku...I know spelling).....and how great they were at this game. It gets old real real fast.

Ahhh Marleau ... way back when, using the original DB was always tempted to trade for him and never did. However in 1-2 games I started, he kept coming up for FA and I'd throw gobs of cash at him ... finally got him to sign once and then realized I'd thrown so much cash his way I had no cap space to give him decent wingers

He lasted about a season before I traded him for a top ten 1st rounder and decent center (forget who, think it was Mikko Koivu for some reason)


But back to the orginal topic:

First time in the finals ... not NHL but WHL of my current game.

The setup : I started unemployed and simmed the game to the trade deadline. My intention being to take over one of the bottom feeders in the NHL ... but didn't like the bottom feeders so instead took over the Victoria Royals in the WHL. I'm in my 4th season and through draft, player development and one key trade for a goalie I finished 1st overall ...

On to the playoffs ... I completely dominate the first 3 rounds. In the WHL finals despite Curtis Lazar of the Medicine Hat Tigers treating my goalie like swiss cheese we manage to win the first two game 4-3 in OT on the back of Chandler Stephenson's multi point games. Then the Tampa Bay Lightning sign him to a contract in between games and off to the NHL he goes. Buggers don't send him back down either, even though they're out of the playoffs and he still has junior eligibility. My entire offense is now destroyed as he essentially carried it on his back. We lost the next 4 games 2-1, 3-2, 1-0 and 2-1 ... lost the WHL playoffs, no Memorial Cup visit.

At least my 1st rounder will carry the team this year, was hoping the Lightning would send Chandler back to junior's for one more year so he and my new LW could team up (the LW is somebody's regen for sure, just don't know who). The Lightning however decide he's better off in the AHL. Now I'm in panic mode since the new LW, my top defenceman and my euro goalie (the Chechmanek regen) are all draft eligble at the end of the season and my cupboard is a little bare after they leave.


The Canadian Hockey League provides a whole new challenge to EHM. You draft a kid and 2-3 years later he's draft eligble for the NHL. In the WHL at least, you can't sign the kid the first year you draft him, and you can only have 3 20yr olds on the roster and nobody past the age of 21 can play a single game. You can also only have 2 "young" players in the lineup (ie 16yr olds) So at best you have them for 5 seasons (ages 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20). However, if the kid is a really good prospect there's a good chance he'll get drafted at 18 and if he's really good he's likely to get signed by the NHL club. You're only hope then is that they send him back to Junior's rather than keep him on the roster.

You can also only hold a total of 50 contracted and unsigned players ... meaning you have to plan ahead every year as to which new prospects, older procpects and roster players you hang on to.

We've had several TBL Challenges using CHL teams from the OHL and QMJHL. I believe the next challenge will be a WHL team, so be on the lookout for it!

Hmmm I wish I could remember who I went up against in my first (and only) appearance in the Stanley Cup. I remember I had a fantastic first season with the Bruins in EHM 2004, winning the Presidents Trophy and making it to the final of the playoffs. I have feeling it was the Canucks. I think I lost something like 4-1 or 4-2 in the end. Thornton, Samsonov and Raycroft were the stars of my team IIRC. Brad Boyes had a cracking season too. Ah I really wish I'd kept that saved game.

I haven't actually made it back to the NHL Playoffs since. This is partly because I haven't played so much in the NHL since EHM 2004 - and partly because I've never really done that well in the NHL in EHM 2007. I've had far more success in the Canadian Juniors and Euro leagues (UK and Finland to be precise). Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever won any playoff competition anywhere. The best I've done is winning a number of league titles. I guess that's the price of spending more time modding EHM / running TBL than actually playing the game! That's so going to change once I've finished writing my final editing tools!