Challenge 6: Columbus Blue Jackets Chat Thread

red-dog · Post by **red-dog** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:14 pm

Man I'm widdled right now. I finally got rid of Leclaire, who after two good games started sucking on a galactic scale. Ty Conklin beat him for the nr. 1 spot, and that's with a sub-par performance. The thing that really bugs me is that now that I traded Leclaire for Lalime -who I think is better than the two a-holes I had previously in net combined- Both Nash and Zubrus got injured for a few weeks, which means stripping the team off it's only strength, the offense. Lalime could do very little to stop the Blues in his first game, seeing how I allowed a whopping 70 shots against! My five-on-five and my powerplay stinks beyond belief right now, and my only hope is to get either one of the key crippled back, or to smack some defensive sence into the squad (which by the look of things seems quite impossible).

Right, now I'm gonna go continue feeling miserable and downing this twelve pack of beer. Bring on the Oilers, WERE NOT SCARED OF YA PANSIES!!

19nazzy · Post by **19nazzy** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:55 pm

I completely collapsed in games 21-40.

Did terrible. Fell from 3rd to 14th...

19nazzy · Post by **19nazzy** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:17 am

Not too bad in games 41-60. Same amount of points in my first 20 games, unfortunately my 2nd set is going to hurt me I think.

Good news of note though is that I have 2 players with over 100 points already and 1 with over 50 goals. That's about the only positives

redwingsfan · Post by **redwingsfan** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:08 pm

is there anywhere you can see how everyone is doing. like some kind of standings or something??

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:23 pm

redwingsfan wrote:is there anywhere you can see how everyone is doing. like some kind of standings or something??

It's in the section of the challenge rules that we're all supposed to read. The section about stats recording and GLR display info. GLR is where the results are. Check out the info at the top of the challenge forum.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:07 pm

Okay, so I finally got moving on this challenge. I included the British leagues in the database so I could start August 4th (or whatever it was). I needed the early start because this team needed a lot of work!

First off, the staff was a complete mess. I had to fire most of the scouts because they were terrible. I wouldn't want them scouting an Over-30 Beer League! They were that bad. The trainers weren't as good as they should be for an NHL team either. They both had 19's in physical therapy. They should have a 20. I hired 3 new trainers. I also had a lot of changes to make in the coaching staff. I left Gallant in place until his replacement agreed to sign with us. I fired his assistants almost right away, except for Gord Murphy and Clint Malarchuck. I decided to keep them. Murphy is just okay but Malarchuk is pretty darn good! I brought in Robbie Ftorek as head coach. I've got a young team, so they need discipline, and he's got plenty of that. He's also a very good defensive coach, good with offense, and good with tactics too. For offensive coaches, I brought in John Fritsche (is he Dan's dad?) and Gerhard Schenk. Unfortunately, Schenk only speaks German. I'm hoping that doesn't hurt things because he's a great offensive coach that works amazingly well with youngsters and he's a tactical genius to boot! I brought in Darren Rumble to help out Gord Murphy as a second defense coach. I signed Dale Derkatch as my Asst GM.

I made quite a few trades. Okay, I cleaned house. I replaced my whole defense except for Kloucek and all of my forwards except for 6 wingers. Here are my trades...

Traded Petr Pohl, rights to Maxime Frechette, and rights to David Moravec to the NJ Devils for Paul Martin.

Traded Bryan Berard, Filip Novak, and rights to Peter Hudak to the Flyers for Joni Pitkanan.

Traded Aaron Johnson and Ron Hainsey to Colorado for Jordan Leopold

Traded Ty Conklin and Jesse Dudas to the Flyers for Antero Niittymaki

Traded Rostislav Klesla and Fredrik Norrena to the Bruins for Brad Stuart.

Traded my 2007 6th and 7th round picks to Nashville for Jordin Tootoo

Traded Jason Chimera, Mark Hartigan, Sergei Fedorov, rights to Derek Dorsett, rights to Bobby Nyholm, and my 2007 2nd and 3rd round picks to San Jose for Jonathan Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau.

Traded Jaroslav Balastik, rights to Tomas Popperle and my 2007 5th round pick to the Rangers for Blair Betts and Ryan Hollweg.

Traded Anson Carter and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen to the Capitals for Brian Sutherby.

Traded Jonathan Cheechoo, Manny Malhotra, Joe Motzko, rights to Ben Wright, and rights to Dmitri Kosmachev to the Bruins for Brad Boyes and their 2007 3rd rounder.

Traded Duvie Westcott and rights to Janne Hauhtonen to the Thrashers for Braydon Coburn.

Traded rights to Kirill Starkov to the Blues for their 2007 2nd round pick.

Traded Anders Eriksson and rights to Matt Marquardt to the Flames for their 2007 3rd rounder.

Traded Philippe Dupuis, Adam Foote, and Jamie Pushor to the Capitals for Brian Pothier.

Some of these trades were purely to lower my salary. My big deal with San Jose was a good one for that once I was able to unload Cheechoo (he's got such a low stamina, I don't like that.) I traded away Foote (my Captain) just 3 days before the start of the regular season just to get the team under budget. I also got rid of a lot of spare parts that were just taking up space.

I also signed a bunch of young UFAs to stock my AHL affiliate. I've got Nastiuk and Yeomans tending goal for the Crunch. Coburn got sent down there to join Methot Flood, and Hendrikx on defense. I also brought in Andrew Hotham and Bryan Rodney to round out that defense. Dan Fritsche and Alexandre Picard lead the offense on the farm. I brought in Ryan Garlock, Rane Carnegie, Alex Leavitt, Adam Pineault, David Booth, and a couple of other guys to round out the offense.

My main roster is looking pretty good as I start the regular season. The season preview rankings predicted us to be the 4th best team in the league! I hope we can live up to those expectations. Here is how our lineup is looking right now.

Niittymaki - Leclaire

Nash - Marleau - Zherdev
Modin - Boyes - Vyborny
Svitov - Sutherby - Brule
Hollweg - Betts - Tootoo

Pitkanen - Pothier
Leopold - Stuart
Kloucek - Martin

My "Averaged Club Salary" is sitting at $31,900,000, so I've got so room to make some changes if I need to. Let's hope my season turns out good!

redwingsfan · Post by **redwingsfan** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 12:09 am

bruins72 wrote:
redwingsfan wrote:is there anywhere you can see how everyone is doing. like some kind of standings or something??

It's in the section of the challenge rules that we're all supposed to read. The section about stats recording and GLR display info. GLR is where the results are. Check out the info at the top of the challenge forum.

lol. relax i have read it, but the last time i checked there was no stats for this challenge.

red-dog · Post by **red-dog** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 5:16 am

OK, so I got Lalime for Leclaire. Well, after half a dozen of games, he had like a GAA of plus 5 and a stinking below .85 SA%. So I kicked him and in a desperate search of a new starting goalie, Chicago suddenly threw Boucer on waivers. With nothing to lose I got Boucher and completely changed my tactics to a more defensive style. And what next? Boucher gets his (and my) first shotout of the season against the Flames away. Unbelievable what his arrival and the change in game philosophy has done for the team. I thought Columbus was all attack-attack-attack with that roster, but seems like having the offensive minded team play a defensive game is actually more productive. Means they don't go all out attack, but still possess the ability to score goals even with a more defensive tactic. Now why didn't I think of this earlier?

munky · Post by **munky** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:14 pm

Giving up five (!!!) power play goals to Chicago, and losing 6-4 after being up 3-2 prompted me to pull off this blockbuster:

To Columbus
Steve Begin, 2007 6th and 7th rounders

To Montreal
the rights to Kris Russell

Success to follow.

munky · Post by **munky** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:18 pm

And now I've rid myself of Anson 'the Anchor' Carter.

To Columbus
Scott Hannan, 2007 6th round pick

To San Jose
Anson Carter and Alexandre Picard

Success to follow.

red-dog · Post by **red-dog** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 10:22 pm

Going through my fifth (and hopefully final) starting goalie with Esche, whom I traded for Modin. Now I'm letting in less goals and scoring less, and I like it better that way. My power play and penalty killing have gone bad pretty fast, but who cares, I'm 3rd in the west.

Xzandrate · Post by **Xzandrate** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 9:26 pm

OK, so I finally finished up the Fantasy Draft challenge, now I'm ready to fire up this one. The plan is to run the AHL affiliate this time (generally I only run 1 team) and I'm gonna use the Russian start date, because there is alot of things I want to accomplish.

I'll update more in after I start into training camp.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:34 pm

Pretty good showing for Garth Snow; he made it all the way to December 19 in my game

Post by **joehelmer** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:28 pm

Garth Snow still got his job at Islanders, and I'm on 20th february. They are last in the whole league with 43 points. It must be a bug or something.

Post by **joehelmer** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:17 pm

Roster moves games 41-60

Luke Curtin signed from Fresno Falcons.
Traded Anson Carter to Calgary for Marcus Nilson.
Traded Kris Russel to St. Louis for Eric Brewer and 2nd round pick.

munky · Post by **munky** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:45 pm

I just traded Tomas Kloucek to Anaheim for Bruno St. Jacques. Probably won't affect much.

My boys are losing games left right and centre, I gotta do something to right the ship before I get handed my walking papers.

munky · Post by **munky** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:29 pm

I caught Edmonton sleeping:

To Edmonton:
Justin Pogge
2007 3rd Round Pick

To Columbus:
Rob Schremp

red-dog · Post by **red-dog** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:11 pm

Ended the season in a suicidal crash-and-burn disaster. Stopped caring for the team halfway through the season, and it REALLY showed. Nasty Mirasty's whopping 949 PIM was a nice bonus in the end. I won't take part in season two, as Columbus -for what its worth- is the last team on earth I want to see (or be coaching) right now. I can't find one thing about them that I like, except for maybe Brandon Sugden. The can go crawl under the rock they came from in the first place as far as I'm concerned.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:24 pm

I had a rough second quarter of the season (compared to the first quarter where I was killing). It seemed like I had turned things around for the third quarter but then in the middle of January Brad Boyes goes down with a dislocated shoulder. He's gone for 2 months. I hope I have him back in game shape in time for the playoffs!

Post by **joehelmer** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:24 pm

Did well the last quarter, but in the last games I got four players from the starting line up; Eric Brewer, Rick Nash, Michal Handzus and Michael Peca. I think that's was the explanation to our collapse in the play off, where we just won 2 games out of 6 against Anaheim.

Roster moves games 61-82:
Signed Jeff Campbell from Gwinnett Gladiators
Traded 3rd round pick (CBJ) and 4th round pick (NAS) for Detroit's Valtteri Filppula

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:02 pm

The injury bug has hit! Now I'm at the end of January and I just lost Rick Nash for 2 weeks due to a strained rotator cuff. I hope I don't see anymore injuries any time soon.

Post by **Minstrel** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:22 am

bruins72 wrote:The injury bug has hit! Now I'm at the end of January and I just lost Rick Nash for 2 weeks due to a strained rotator cuff. I hope I don't see anymore injuries any time soon.

Same injury timing happened with me but at Christmas not New Year... lost my second line center and my #2 dman each for 10 days from the same practice both with groin injuries

And as thos of you who've played Challenges with me know already I don't tend to post updates on who's on my team until most people are around half done just so I don't "tip my hand" so to speak

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:39 pm

Minstrel wrote:
bruins72 wrote:The injury bug has hit! Now I'm at the end of January and I just lost Rick Nash for 2 weeks due to a strained rotator cuff. I hope I don't see anymore injuries any time soon.
Same injury timing happened with me but at Christmas not New Year... lost my second line center and my #2 dman each for 10 days from the same practice both with groin injuries And as thos of you who've played Challenges with me know already I don't tend to post updates on who's on my team until most people are around half done just so I don't "tip my hand" so to speak

Those injuries are a killer. I had lost Nitty for 10 days before I lost Nash and Boyes. So far <knock on wood> I haven't had any real injuries on my defense. I've lost guys for a game or two but nothing major. I've noticed one thing though. Because of the injuries and slumps, I've juggled my forward lines far more than I have in the past. I've had Zherdev play on each of the top 3 lines. I've had some of my prospects bouncing back and forth between the AHL and the NHL. I've even had my defensive specialist center (Sutherby) playing an offensive role on the second line. It all seems to be working out okay though. The only problem I'm seeing is that it doesn't look like my prospects (Brule, Picard, Fritsche) don't really seem to be improving.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:05 pm

Well I weathered the injury storm and my guys played their best hockey of the season over the last 22 games and then carried it on into the playoffs. We won the Stanley Cup!

Our second round matchup, the LA Kings, was out toughest battle. We went the full 7 games before moving on to the conference finals. Patrick Marleau was the playoff points leader. He was truly a STUD in the postseason. He averaged over 2 points a game with a 9.15 rating. In 20 games he had 11 goals, 31 assists, and was a +21. Outstanding! I think I want Marleau on every team I play in this game!

During the regular season, Nash was the league leader in goals scored with 60. Modin wasn't far behind with 56. Marleau came one goal shy of the 50 goal mark. What a shame. He did lead the league in assist and points with 49-84=133 totals. Tootoo was 2nd in the league in penalty minutes with 223. Most of those were probably earned in the second half of the season.

We took home a lot of hardware in the NHL Awards Ceremony.

Marleau - Ross, Conn Smyth, Lester B Pearson, and 2nd All-Star Team (should the league's leading scorer be on the 1st team?)
Sutherby - Selke
Ftorek - Adams
Vborny - Byng
Nash - Rocket Richard and 1st Team All-Star

I think Pitkanen was robbed from the Norris. He was even one of the runners-up. He lead all defensemen in points and had good defensive stats too. Oh well!

Post by **joehelmer** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:33 am

Minstrel wrote:
bruins72 wrote:The injury bug has hit! Now I'm at the end of January and I just lost Rick Nash for 2 weeks due to a strained rotator cuff. I hope I don't see anymore injuries any time soon.
Same injury timing happened with me but at Christmas not New Year... lost my second line center and my #2 dman each for 10 days from the same practice both with groin injuries And as thos of you who've played Challenges with me know already I don't tend to post updates on who's on my team until most people are around half done just so I don't "tip my hand" so to speak

My happened just before play off, four players out. Handzus missed all the games against Anaheim.