Challenge 15: Colorado Avalanche (Discussion Thread)

alexob18 · Post by **alexob18** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:19 pm

batdad wrote:Finished camp in exhibition.

NY Islanders--Have brought in S Niedermeyer, D Hinote, M Peca, M Satan, A Ward.

Thats nuts...

Peterman5000 · Post by **Peterman5000** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:46 pm

I may demote O'Reilly.

He refuses to improve, even though his morale is very high and he's getting about 13 minutes of ice time.

I just don't see a better option for the PK and third line right now.....

I am TORN.

Post by **philou21** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:47 pm

batdad wrote:Finished camp in exhibition.

NY Islanders--Have brought in S Niedermeyer, D Hinote, M Peca, M Satan, A Ward.

darn you really see sometimes it isn't realistict at all when Garth Snow is able to do such things!

Post by **joehelmer** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:18 pm

Tucker just score a match winning goal for me.

cstorring · Post by **cstorring** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:19 am

Hey people, looking forward to getting through this challenge, as last time I didn't have the time to get through a full season.

So far consistency and penalty issues are killing me. I've won 8-2, come back to win 6-4, but then get shut out by Price and get outshot 50-20 by the Blues of all people.

Looking for a way of picking it up and staying above .500 now, anyone else having consistency issues with the team?

Post by **Manimal** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:39 am

I am such a slow player. I haven't started regular season yet and now I added a GM for the Checkers as well...

eric1985 · Post by **eric1985** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:44 am

Wow I'm cursed, guess ill start aiming for the cup next year

First I lose Svatos for a month, Then Wolski for 4 months, 3 weeks later Tucker is out for 8 months

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:31 am

Cstorring... welcome to the challenge! I totally hear you on consistency. It's hard to get any momentum going.

Manimal... I thought about adding a GM for the Checkers but I didn't bother yet because I didn't have anyone to send down there. Their roster was full and if I added a GM I could make room but I decided to hold off since I didn't have many extra guys on my Lake Erie roster.

Eric1985... yikes! You've got some injury issues going on there. Are you going too hard on training? Are you playing these guys too much? If you're giving your top 2 lines all the ice time and playing your bottom 2 lines hardly at all, you're going to be more prone to injury.

eric1985 · Post by **eric1985** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:02 am

I more or less take it easy of training, but Tucker and svatos were averagin 17 a game and wolski was getting 19, I think its just bad luck.

ratedrbear · Post by **ratedrbear** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:01 am

Is anyone here failing on the powerplay as badly as i am?!

in 20 games i scored 7 goals on 138 opertunities!

Least i managed to get some 2nd and even 3rd line goal support

Post by **McQwak** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:50 am

I signed Bob Hartley instead of Paul Goldberg. I'll decide what to do with him in future

Now he can stick with my training settings. Eric Desjardins and Peter Lavoilette accepted as ass. coaches, but I had to withdraw my bids due to challenge rules.

I also landed Jake Goertzen and Al Murray as scouts. Scouting team looks really great, what a difference to the Jets challenge

Post by **joehelmer** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:09 pm

I landed Jake Goertzen and Bob McCammon as scouts and Bill Moores as ass. coach, he will most likely not be my future Head Coach I hope I can be lucky in the off-/pre-season to land a good ass. coach who might become my future Head Coach.

kuulapaa · Post by **kuulapaa** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:26 pm

darn it feels good to be playing EHM again! And with new rosters it feels extra-good

I'm intending to take part in Challenge #15, I tried #14 but noticed I prefer realism in Challenges. I also had pretty busy autumn at work.

In pre-season Avs played eight exhibition games and lost six of them. There were some ugly losses like 2-9 to Rangers, 0-5 to Oilers and 3-7 to Wild. But the two wins team got were ugly too, as Avalanche won Panthers 8-3 and Capitals 7-0. So much for the consistency matter.

But as the season start came closer team began to find the way to play the puck. And after two games in regular season Avalanche is 1-0-1, first there was a loss in ot to Stars (2-3) and then a win from the Wild with great defensive play, 3-1. In first game goal scorers were Hensick and Willsie and in Wild game Wolski scored twice and Koci scored an empty net goal in the end. Right now I'm really happy with he way team plays, I've always tried to get my teams to play balanced and defence-first-like hockey. Now it seems I'm getting there and what's the best, with tactics of my own, not any copied super-duper-tactics I was using before (and yeah, I know this team is going to struggle sooner or later and that's when I start thinking those tactics again...

)

I hired two staff members in pre-season. I replaced Paul Goldberg with Andre Savard and Craig Billington with Larry Robinson. I'm not sure if either of them could be Avalanche's possible future Head Coach, but anyway they both improve team's staff.

Post by **McQwak** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:44 pm

kuulapaa wrote:I hired two staff members in pre-season. I replaced Paul Goldberg with Andre Savard and Craig Billington with Larry Robinson. I'm not sure if either of them could be Avalanche's possible future Head Coach, but anyway they both improve team's staff.

I'm sorry, kuulapaa, but you are allowed to fire only one ass. coach. You fired two...

Post by **McQwak** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:46 pm

McQwak wrote:
kuulapaa wrote:I hired two staff members in pre-season. I replaced Paul Goldberg with Andre Savard and Craig Billington with Larry Robinson. I'm not sure if either of them could be Avalanche's possible future Head Coach, but anyway they both improve team's staff.
I'm sorry, kuulapaa, but you are allowed to fire only one ass. coach. You fired two...

Ooops, sorry again. Billington is ass. GM now. He was ass. coach in former Lidas rosters, when I played with them, so I mixed it now.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:47 pm

McQwak wrote: I also landed Jake Goertzen and Al Murray as scouts. Scouting team looks really great, what a difference to the Jets challenge

I signed those two scouts too.

For some reason I'm not finding Hannan all that special. He used to be a guy that I always picked up for my EHM teams but he hasn't been all that special for me so far. Maybe he's been toned down a bit in this DB? It could also be my tactics.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:48 pm

ratedrbear wrote:Is anyone here failing on the powerplay as badly as i am?!

in 20 games i scored 7 goals on 138 opertunities!

Least i managed to get some 2nd and even 3rd line goal support

What are your lines? I'm struggling on the PP, but I'm still at about 15%. A simple change of personnel and/or tactics might help.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:51 pm

kuulapaa wrote:darn it feels good to be playing EHM again! And with new rosters it feels extra-good

Glad to see you back in the challenges, kuulapaa!

This challenge is proving to be especially fun due to how challenging it is to get the best out of this team and the fact that we've got a brand-spanking-new database to play it with.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:12 pm

Just lost Milan Hejduk for three months in the third period against the Blues in mid-December. Luckily, Chris Stewart has been strong playing only fourth line minutes with some second unit PP, so I think he can slot in in his place.

For now.

tksolway · Post by **tksolway** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:43 pm

Managed to finnish the season in 2nd last spot in the League Yay Hall Sweepstakes, well Hall or Com Fowler either's good. Svatos scored 50, Hejduk would have as well, but he got injured. My defense was horrible. Foote has nice ratings till you check out his speed, yuck. The annoying part is I resigned all of them to their inflated contracts because I don't forsee any replacements on the horizon. Except Clark, I haven't offered him a contract, not sure I will before July 1st, he's the most overpaid of the bunch. That being said, I might offer him a one year contract simply because, no one else will be eating up my cap next year either. Mabye I can sluff him away in a trade next year. I can't wait till free agency and trades, I think I will wait on trades until the deadline and hope I can pick up a Number one or two defensemen in trade, if I can sucker a good defensemen to sign for 2 mil I will, otherwise I will sign two depth guys with decent defense attributes up front. Taylor Hall, here I come....

tksolway · Post by **tksolway** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:46 pm

anyone scouted out any dark horses in the draft yet?

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:50 pm

Team management here is pretty tricky. You've got limited ability to trade and very limited UFA signing ability. Plus, we don't have a wealth of prospects to bring in as replacements. You're almost forced to re-sign a lot of these guys you start out with because you've very limited options when it comes to replacing them.

tksolway · Post by **tksolway** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:54 pm

bruins72 wrote:Team management here is pretty tricky. You've got limited ability to trade and very limited UFA signing ability. Plus, we don't have a wealth of prospects to bring in as replacements. You're almost forced to re-sign a lot of these guys you start out with because you've very limited options when it comes to replacing them.

Very True, I may have to resign clark simple because I'm not sure if Foote will up and retire on me here. Like I said, there is no one in the system ready to come up either. We'll see what happens with free agents, I'm still hoping for a decent defensement within 2mil, I'm pretty sure I can get Kalinen from Russian for 1.5

Post by **CatchUp** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:19 pm

Glad to hear a couple of you made the same personnel changes I did. I think hiring Larry Robinson as Asst. GM is a good call. Though he does put O'Reilly higher on the depth chart than Duchene, which seems a little off to me, but maybe he's going by potential. I also think Bob Hartley is the smartest Asst. Coach to grab...he's got great attributes across the board and a nice straightforward offensive style, which is what I'm aiming for long term.

I hate the thought of re-signing some of these players, but like you guys have said, there really aren't any options for the second season.

I didn't get to play much last night, but I should have some time tonight to get a few sets of stats posted...maybe even finish the first season!

kuulapaa · Post by **kuulapaa** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:40 pm

McQwak wrote:
kuulapaa wrote:I hired two staff members in pre-season. I replaced Paul Goldberg with Andre Savard and Craig Billington with Larry Robinson. I'm not sure if either of them could be Avalanche's possible future Head Coach, but anyway they both improve team's staff.
I'm sorry, kuulapaa, but you are allowed to fire only one ass. coach. You fired two...

Whew - you nearly scared me with that! I did check the rules before starting the game, but I've been a little busy trying to get all applications installed in my new (used) Mac I purchased last weekend. Now I'm also a proud owner of two EHM 2007 licenses, one for PC and one for Mac... Well, what one wouldn't do to get playing the game again

And then to the annoying part of challenges: watching while other teams pick up waived players and trade players. In 10th of October Red Wings waived Tomas Holmström and Ducks picked him up immediately. And in the same day Blackhawks put Patrick Sharp on the block. Next day Sharks made a trade with them, a 3rd rounder for him. One freaking third rounder! Ain't no fun! No fun at all!