Blackhawks Challenge-3rd season and beyond discussion thread

Post by **batdad** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:23 pm

La punition a numero soixante douze B72, ???? minutes pour tres sloppy.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:28 pm

Ummm... I got sloppy out of that. I don't speak French though.

Post by **batdad** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:52 pm

The penalty to number 72, B72 ???? minutes for being sloppy.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:53 pm

Ah! I get it now! Sorry, you lost me with the whole French bit.

Post by **batdad** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:08 pm

darn Canada, learning so many silly languages. yes Shadd that was a razz of you.

thunderbug · Post by **thunderbug** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 11:23 pm

hey I understood it, and I'm not from the great white north. I took 4 years of french though.

Post by **Shadd666** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:16 am

French is not a silly language

It's just that you're not good at it

[/off-topic]

Post by **batdad** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:35 pm

Je suis tres bon a Francais, tete de la butt

Post by **Shadd666** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 12:15 am

Well, you're not bad for a foreign guy

But there's still some mistakes here and there

But heh, i guess French is a really painfull language to learn for strangers

Back on topic, Hossa rocks! 9 games with him so far, 9 goals and 7 assists, including 1 tying goal and 3 winning goals! Talk about a clutch player!

Post by **batdad** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:30 pm

Ugh. I think that I have made a bit of a mistake. My prospects in the minors are either too young to call up, or too old to play. Hmm...issues.

I did just make a deal that will help me a ton though. Dealt Troy Brouwer to the Sabres for the rights to Paul Gaustad. Gaustad has been in Europe, mainly due to Buffalo's problems with the cap. I have now signed him to a 3 year deal (rest of the challenge time) beginning in 2010-11. $500K per year. Wahoo.

thunderbug · Post by **thunderbug** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:41 pm

ugh, I just had a 5 minute curse at my game. Vrbata just went down for 3 months. Though it does solve a problem for me, but then creates another one. I was having a little controversy at rw for the second line, and Dumont now has it by default. This means that Vrbata can't make his games though. (I've already taken the screenie and saved it.) BTW, I'm 10 games in and my 2nd line is working at a ppg pace which is awesome.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:18 pm

I've had an interesting start to my 4th season. I used O'Marra as my homegrown and so far he's out-performing everyone else. Kovalchuk is right there. At the 20 game mark, Kovalchuk lead the team in both goals and points. O'Marra just took over the points lead at the 23 game mark. The scary thing is, most of his time has been spent on the 2nd line. I tried moving O'Marra up to the first line and Stastny down to the second but when I did that, Ladd's production really suffered. Kovalchuk has kept up his scoring pace no matter who is centering him. Then Bluden comes back from his injury and takes his place on the 2nd line with Ladd and O'Marra, first game back together and they provide all the scoring in a 6-2 win. Ladd with 2G 2A, Blunden 2G 2A, and O'Marra 2G 1A. I'm loving it!

Post by **Shadd666** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:18 am

Malkin doesn't want to score for me in season 3. With 16 games into the season, he has just 3 goals. Oh, and 15 assists, sure

Price is a real monster. First time i play with him in EHM, and already love him! Still little mistakes here and there, but wow! That kid really rocks! He just outplayed Niittymäki in there confrontation, while Nit' won the last 2 Vézina and won the Cup last year (and a bunch of other trophies). Hossa is close to 2 points per game, and doesn't even seem to force to do so! Blunden is having an average sophomore season so far (3G 5A in 16 games), but with the return of Arkhipov and the addition of Malkin at last year's dead line, i think those guys need more time to gel. Sure, some would put Malkin on the first line and Handzus on the second. But how could you decently put someone who had two consecutive seasons at 106 points on your second line? Selke winner Chris Dingman is on his way to grab a second consecutive one, being my n°1 penalty killer and having an average rating over 8 from the 3rd line! After his first two brilliant seasons in Chicago, he grabbed an A on his jersey. Other than that, my PK sucks, even with Dingman, Yelle and Pandolfo on it... Go figure...

Post by **batdad** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:21 pm

I have a deal on the table. Horcoff, making $4.6 mill for a superstar EHMer who is making only $750K this season, and is due $1.7 mill for the remainder of the challenge time. The Loafs, being stupid are accepting no problem.

It is a huge dilemna for me. I love my HHH lines...they have been so effective...yet this guy, whose name starts with....NOPE not saying it...is bad karma for me. I have made so much fun of people having him before, yet I have never had him, and I so want him on my squad.

He went unsigned til trade deadline after his first season, and I almost brought him in instead of Hossa two seasons ago when Havlat got hurt.

This ***** player is soooooo interesting, so hard to say no. So want to get him. Yet Horc has been awesome. And I think Richards is ready to be #1 finally. Ugh..what to do.

Plus if I get him I can keep everyone else happy on my blue line and in net. I may even get to try out Grabovsky or McArdle on the big team.

Soooo tempting.

Post by **CatchUp** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:54 am

Could it be Marleau? You'll never hear the end of it from me if it is.

I have a query: The Pens haven't signed Malkin yet and are refusing to trade him to me. I want to try an offer sheet but doing will cost me 2 firsts, a second and a third. Is there an exception to the draft picks rule for offer sheets or do I have to suck it up?

thunderbug · Post by **thunderbug** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:38 am

You have to suck it up. I take it you don't trade your useless prospects for for picks. Thats what I do. By useless I don't necessarily useless, just the ones that will not make it in your system for whatever reason. For example you will notice that I have Price as my backup. I got him for what I consider peanuts from Florida. I traded my player that was the first round pick from the year before and a 4th from the current year at the time. He was a low first round defenseman, I wasn't too fond of. In return I swung Florida's 1st and Carey Price. The 1st round pick ended up being the 6th in draft and got Doughty I think thats how you spell his name. Originally I inquired about Price and thats what they offered. This then allowed me to swing my pick in that draft in a deal to pry the unsigned RFA Toivonen from Boston. So I moved up 24 spots in the draft and got 2 solid future goaltenders for a 4th rounder, a 3rd, and my 1st round pick from the previous year that I wasn't too fond of but appeared to be the best pick I had at the time.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:08 pm

I was going to trade with Pittsburgh for Malkin's rights. I had a deal all worked out but then decided against it when I thought about how much it would cost to sign Malkin and where I was sitting with my budget at the time. I would've loved to have had him though.

Has batdad had M***** before? I thought he had used him once. What about Ryan? Has he used him before?

corinthian · Post by **corinthian** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:37 pm

I've tried to acquire Malkin a couple of seasons ago but now he's making U$ 6,750,000.00.
A guy that i really like is Gaborik (he's a NT). Was anyone was able to lure him from Wild?

Post by **CatchUp** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:45 pm

Just to make sure I'm clear...I'm asking whether there is an exception to the Challenge rules (requires that I have a 1st and 2nd rd. pick and that I don't deal picks from future years) for offer sheets.

I understand that there is no way to get around paying the price for signing Malkin...just wondered if there was a provision for offer sheets in the Challenge rules. For instance, can I trade assets to re-acquire all those lost picks? Doubtful, but I need to ask...Malkin WILL be on my team, one way or another.

Post by **batdad** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:45 pm

No rules exception for offer sheets. Sorry bud.

And...

Marleau--No I have never had him. Sundin, Forsberg, Drury, Connolly yes. Marleau/Thornton no.
Ryan--Never had him in a challenge. I think I picked him up with the Blue Jax team that I kept playing with after challenge ended, but cannot recall.

And yeah, tis marleau...I actually stopped playing right at the point where Toronto accepted the trade for Horc...I am so tempted, yet so not sure if I want to. But darn the deal could help long term, even with short term pain.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:09 pm

M****** for cheap money? That's even worse than plain old M******!

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:07 pm

Uggggh!

I'm just not doing that well this season. My individual player stats just aren't cutting the mustard. I've got one player in the top 10 in scoring, Ryan O'Marra, a rookie. Kovalchuk isn't in the top 10! He's like 16th. I really think this is due to my defense being so young. The funny thing is, we're still winning. In 40 games, we've only straight up lost 2 games. We've had 9 OTLs though.

Marsac · Post by **Marsac** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:05 am

OK so I'm hooked on EHM again with the start of the new hockey season.

I started three different Red Wings games and played a few seasons before I remebered to check TBL. I see seasons one and two of the Blackhaws challenge have already been completed so I'll go ahead and join the challenge starting with season three if that's OK (no improvment bonus points I guess but who needs them, right?).

Regardless of if I'm in the challenge or not I've already played two seasons according to the new challenge rules (love them BTW!). I've set up a blog and written a few lines about my first two seasons now, and will write more as I move forward.

I'm just about to start training camp for season three and I expect these will be my lines at the start of the season (training camp has a tendency to never turn out the way I think though):

Niittymäki
Kukkonen:Aucoin
Zetterberg:Handzus:Ruutu

Osgood
Beauchemin:Seabrook
Blake:Sharp:Holmström

Fischer:Keith or Barker:Morrisonn
Arkhipov:Kontiola:Bochenski

Boogard:Roenick:Bilodeau

Post by **CatchUp** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 1:07 am

batdad wrote:No rules exception for offer sheets. Sorry bud.

Yikes. I've got an issue then.

I offered Malkin slightly less than what he was asking - about 4.2 per on a 4 year deal. I had never done an offer sheet in the game before and I figured I would be able to withdraw it.

Long story short - I have no save game in which I haven't offered Malkin a contract. If he accepts - I will lose those draft picks and therefore probably be DQ'd from the Challenge.

Post by **batdad** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:44 am

Nah.. I think you get to confirm it. Not 100% but I think so, and then you can get out of it.

also, Marsac: The Mods will have to discuss you joining the challenge. Without having you post your stats and your roster core for seasons 1 and 2 we have no way of knowing about whether rules have been followed, and we do not know your roster in the recording thread (unless you posted it today) for season 3.

Anyway, we will chat about it and let you know in this thread ASAP