EHM The Blue Line

Auld made the ASG? He must be having a heck of a season.

Yeah..

19-6-1 1.53 Avg, .951 s% 9shutouts 9.07 avg rating.

So yeah...he has been awesome

Argh...Jovo out for a month. Argh.

That deserves a big 'DOH!

DAMMIT!

Sept by the Blues, well time to look forward to the draft.

Well after knocking me out of the playoffs, the Sharks got beat by the Flames. Now we've got a Stanley Cup Finals matchup of the Calgary Flames and the Atlanta Thrashers. Has anyone seen the Thrashers make it to the Finals in the first season before? And the scary thing is, they've only made a couple moves worth mentioning. They brought it Jason Smith and Dennis Seidenberg to bolster their defense, giving up only picks and prospects. The also shipped out Holik for picks and a prospect. That's it! It's interesting to see them in the finals because this was a team that was discussed as a possible choice for this challenge. I guess it just goes to show that the more challenging team (the Coyotes) was picked.

Quick thanks for the info on photobucket and flickr.

Thrashers? What?

Well come to think of it. Here are the standings in my game where i have played 61 games.

1. Coyotes 91
2. Flames
3. Capitals 79
4. Thrashers 79
5 Rangers
6. Sabres
7. Stars
8. Flyers
...
26 Bruins 54
27 penguins 52
28 Islanders 52
29 Canucks 50
30 Wild 49

Gotta love the Wild...that North West division must suck. Only the Flemmes in the top 8 and the two bottom teams.

But yeah..Atlanta looks awesome.

heh. just looked at their transactions.

They have picked up through trade in the last week:

1. Maxime Talbot
2. Jassen Cullimore
3. Keith Carney
4. Sean Hill

So they got some old defensemen....


EDIT:

And in my game the Flames won the Stanley Cup in the first season. They took the series against the Thrashers 4-1.

Interesting news: Lada Togliatti got relegated. So Krysanov becomes a free agent...as he had a relegation release clause. I think I will go after him and bring him over. Only 19...but we shall see,.

So Hanzal destroyed the WHL this season. He got playoff MVP, rookie of the Year, Scoring champ, Star player of the year and was second in player of the year.

And now he's off to the Memorial Cup...I'm going to keep my eye on that one to see how he does in it.

After being down 3 games to 0, the Buffalo Sabres cam back to win the cup in 7 over the San Jose Sharks.

And Hanzal helped lead the Red Deer Rebels to the Memorial Cup! I'll have at least one champion on my roster.

LeNeveu is the big champion on my roster. Besides the countless player of the week/month, saver of the week/month, and performer of the month honors he got in the ECHL this season, his team won the Kelly Cup. For season awards he got the ECHL Goaltender of the Year award, Kelly Cup Playoffs MVP, ECHL First Team All-Star honors, and came in third for the Sher-wood MVP trophy. I think I'll be moving him up to the San Antonio Rampage for next season. Depending on what else happens with the other goaltenders, maybe he'll get called up to the big club. Or maybe I should use him as my homegrown for season 2? That means I'd have to take Auld out of my core and there are other guys who I'd probably be better of to take out first. We'll see what happens.

Okay, it's draft time! I'm going to share my picks with everyone. I've got nothing to hide. If anyone wants to copy me, more power to them.

We've got 2 1st round picks (one was from the Ducks), 2 2nd round picks (one was from the Oilers), no 3rd round pick, a 4th (Montreal's pick), a 5th and a 6th round pick. Of course, the extra picks and the missing picks are NOT due to trades because I'm playing NTNB. These are the picks that we all get to start with.

First up is Anaheim's 1st rounder, 12th overall...

Alex Plante - RD

My scouts all say he's likely to end up a mobile top 2 defenseman. All but one say he could be like a more talented Eric Brewer. Sounds good to me! He already skates as good as most of my defensemen on the Phoenix roster and he's got a nice balance of bravery and aggression. Plus, I feel like I'm lucking out. He was ranked #7 overall and I'm getting him at #12. The one thing that worries me is his low anticipation. Also available when I select Plante: Van Riemsdyk and Doyle.

And our own 1st rounder, 28th overall...

Viktor Tikhonov - C/RW

I went a bit off the board with this pick. Drayson Bowman, ranked #15 overall, was still on available but I had gotten very inconsistent reports from my scouts on him. They ranged from 3rd line potential all the way to 1st line potential as a better version of Ryan Smyth. He was too much of a gamble. Also available were Alex Grant (#23) and Jonathan Blum (#25). I didn't want to go with defense for 2 picks in the first round and all (the whole 2 or whatever) quality goaltenders were gone, so I narrowed my focus to forwards. Down at #36 overall was Tikhonov. He's a 19 year old Russian (who's got secondary citizenship in the US, so I don't know how that works for transfers). He's already really good when it comes to physical attributes. My scouts all say he's got 1st line potential as a skilled offensive forward, most comparing him to Pavol Demitra. The player my scouts suggested I take with this pick (I've got my 3 top scouts doing suggestions, no AGM and no coach suggestions) wanted me to take another Russian center, Vitaly Karamnov with this pick. He's ranked #80 overall, so I'll try getting him in the next round instead.

And the 2nd rounder we got from the Oilers, #54 overall...

John Hughes - C

Of course, Karamnov, the man I wanted to take here, was already picked at #45 overall. So I went with Hughes, a good 19 year old center that all of my scouts compare to Daymond Langkow. Of course, this wasn't the suggested player. They thought I should take Petrecki but I just don't like him. He's got really bad skating and anticipation, plus he's going to need a lot of developing. He looks like a real project at the this point. My scouts say Petrecki could be a top 2 defenseman but they compare him to Duvie Westcott but bigger and better. I just don't like it. I almost went wtih Wilson here because I'm worried he won't be around later but everybody always says they get him in the 4th round and I don't want to waste picks, so I'm holding off.

EDIT:

Continued in my next post because I hit the submit button by accident.

Cool picks!

So...it is early in March and the 1st coach got canned. Ken Holland was canned early on, but this is the first coach...his name:

Craig McTavish..future coach of San Antonio of the AHL I hope.

Continued...

Our 2nd round pick, #58 overall...

Daniel Lombardi LW/C

I figured I needed to star to fill out the wings a bit. Petrecki is still available and I'm still not taking that gamble. Lombardi is a good skater and my scouts all thought he could end up like Daniel Sedin but with a smaller frame. I wasn't too keen on many of the other options out there that were ranked. Most of my other choices look to be out of the top 200 or maybe in the later portion of it. My scouts all thought I should take Petr Freiberg, a 6'6" 19 year old Czech RW but I got mixed reports on his potential (like Shane Doan or like Darryl Bootland... there's a bit of a difference), plus he has terrible balance (6). I just didn't want to take the gamble. Although, I'm take a gamble by taking Lombardi and hoping Ryan Wilson is still available when my next pick (4th round ) comes around.

Our 4th round pick from Montreal, #106 overall...

Evgeni Kurbatov LD/RD

Yup... that's the way this draft has gone for me. Ryan Wilson was taken #92 overall. I've got to learn not to wait for a player just because I think he should be available when I make my next pick. The other teams' scouts are sharp, just like mine. So I got Kurbatov. He a good 19 year old Russian defenseman that my scouts say should develop into a good second pairing skilled defensive defenseman. Nope, he doesn't have the shot like Wilson. He's a good skater though and he's got a very nice (17) teamwork rating.

Our 5th round pick, #148

Artem Gordeev C

I wasn't going to wait around and miss out on this kid. I like him. He's an 18 year old Russian power forward that most of my scouts say will end up being like Johan Franzen but one says will be like Dainius Zubrus. Either way, I like the kid. He can skate, he's got stamina, a good mix of mental attributes, and he's already capable in the faceoff circle. My scouts thought I should take one of the junk leftover goaltenders out there. No thanks!

And our final pick, our 6th round pick, #178

Dmitri Potapkin RW/LW

Potapkin is an 18 year Russian who projects as a 3rd line skilled forward, either like Orszagh or Balej. He doesn't have bad skills and he's a good skater. He's worth a shot in the 6th round.



So that wraps up my first draft. It didn't go anything at all like I expected it to. I'm not really very happy with my results. Other teams picked up on guys that I should've been around much later and left the over-rated players on the board. We weren't even out of the 2nd round before they started taking unranked players! My plan going into this draft was to pick up on a lot of the more developed players from Russian and some other Eastern European countries. I figured they'd be more game ready. Unfortunately, those guys got snagged before I knew what happened. The worst of all is that I didn't even get to draft Ryan Wilson. He's an old challenge standby. This draft could really put me behind the 8-ball.

batdad wrote:Cool picks!

So...it is early in March and the 1st coach got canned. Ken Holland was canned early on, but this is the first coach...his name:

Craig McTavish..future coach of San Antonio of the AHL I hope.

McTavish got canned? Wow! The Oilers did pretty well in my game. They finished 4th in the conference. Isn't it funny how random things can be?

I drafted Alex Plante with my first pick, looks to be a solid player, looking forward to watching him develop, I also drafted Mike Neal, Brad Malone, Nikolai Lukyanchikov, Bryan Cameron, Matt Kronk. Particulary happy with Malone and Neal as both are solid two way wingers, and Matt Kronk looks to be a solid two way defenseman aswell.

After the first 20 games in the second season I am hanging in there, I'm 9th at the moment, but my PP is abysmal to say the least! I'll be looking to fix that over the next set of 20.

Dam...I just hit .500 and I've lost Morris for a month with fractured ribs....

Great...Morris just came back...now Vrbata is injured for 3 months with a partially torn ACL

San Antonio didn't make the AHL playoffs, Phoenix Roadrunners went to the conference finals wih Tordjman going 9-5.

As for the draft I drafted the following:
16th - C Zack Torquato
25th - D Alex Grant
46th - D Nathan Martine
48th - G Tyson Sexsmith
107th - G Nicola Ripola
136th - LW/RW Brandon Campos
166th - RW Matt Halischuk

and I just found out that Matt Murley is taking me to arbitration.

I don't know how you got Sexsmith so late. Neither Sexsmith nor Leclerc made it out of the first round in my draft. They got taken # 23 and #24, both taken by the Oilers. I've got the worst luck when it comes to drafts.

My second set of games was a complete train wreck. I couldn't do anything to get a winning streak going. Both of my goalies were horrible too. I'm going to take some time to read up on tactics and adjust mine accordingly. I'm happy about my 1st line, but they're the only ones with a positive +/-.

I've been double shifting some of my better players on the 3rd/4th lines to help if the game isn't going well... but it doesn't always help... i'm in the playoffs...but barely.