EHM The Blue Line

Sesyde wrote:Would you consider that optimal strategy in this game even remotely realistic, or would you consider it a game solution not really usable in real life hockey? I know there are some buggy things like all-intense practice etc. but strategies etc?
I don't want the solution, since I like the challenge, but it would be fun to know if the game is realistic or not

Not even remotely realistic, I think.) In fact, it's very simple and just involves many extremes in sliders. This game has a long way to go to catch up to Football Manager regarding simulation and realism. Too bad developers don't have a big team and time like FM crew does.

radiskull wrote:

Sesyde wrote:Would you consider that optimal strategy in this game even remotely realistic, or would you consider it a game solution not really usable in real life hockey? I know there are some buggy things like all-intense practice etc. but strategies etc?
I don't want the solution, since I like the challenge, but it would be fun to know if the game is realistic or not

Not even remotely realistic, I think.) In fact, it's very simple and just involves many extremes in sliders. This game has a long way to go to catch up to Football Manager regarding simulation and realism. Too bad developers don't have a big team and time like FM crew does.

That makes me feel a bit better about my ineptitude. As a side note- if you could potentially send it to Riz? Not sure what he could do with it, but it would probably be good feedback for making the game better to know what the 'super tactics' are (I remember when in CM the super tactics simply had your guys running all over the place and the AI couldn't mark them right).

On topic- season 3 isn't looking strong. As VD pointed out we're just a weak team. I feel great about the 4 centers longer term (Johanssen-Girgensons-Veleno-Zubarev), but the wings are a mis-mash of bodies with one or two things they do well. Radysish isn't really developing, which just plain hurts when you draft to fill that need, and the guy has only 19 points of increase over two seasons. Hopefully being in Worchester will get him there, but I'm not buying the hype my scouts are still selling me.

So the Ducks beat the Lightning for the Stanley Cup in season 2. Our Worcester Sharks won the Calder. Of course, I'm sure it helped that we sent down Fiala (who scored 40 goals in the NHL that season) and Boyko. I also sent down Zubarev once he joined the team. It's always nice to give young guys some playoff experience.

The draft lottery came around. We got the 9th pick. What really bothers me is that the Predators won the lottery. They finished 2 points out of a playoff spot! They barely missed the playoffs. In my limited experience with this version of the game, it really seems like the worst teams rarely win the lottery. That shouldn't happen. Should it?

not unless they are the Edmonton Oilers

Stupid Oilers!

So we had the draft and there didn't seem to be much past the first round. I made do with what I had for choices. Our first round pick came at #9 but we had #3 overall ranked Oliver Wahlstrom fall into our lap. He has pretty good mental attributes and the scouts project him to be like Huberdeau with a bigger from or Max Pacioretty. Works for me. He's a long term project though. I think he's going to need a few years to develop. It's funny, I remember watching this kid during the intermission of a Bruins game when they did their "Mini 1 on 1" competition and he was impressive. I think he was a minor YouTube hit.

Finally made it through season 1, was sitting in 3rd @ the 60 game mark, collapse down the stretch and snuck into 8th. got owned by the Ducks in 5. time for more changes.

Guys, do not plan to tank in 20/21!
This is the nr1 ranked player in the first ranking, yeah....

Yikes! How does that even happen? He looks like a mid-to-late round pick.

So what is the deal with staff retiring right after being hired? I had it happen to me AGAIN! I hired Daryl Sutter as an assistant coach and the same day that he joined the team, he retired. That's just not right.

bruins72 wrote:Yikes! How does that even happen? He looks like a mid-to-late round pick.

So what is the deal with staff retiring right after being hired? I had it happen to me AGAIN! I hired Daryl Sutter as an assistant coach and the same day that he joined the team, he retired. That's just not right.

Yeah, the age when it comes to retirement seems too highly prioritized. Checking staff in my game there is only six guys over the age of 67 and most of them are board members. As soon as guys pass ages 66-67 they are pretty much forced to retire no matter their situation, badly optimized.

30 games in to season 3, and it is going well so far. We are atm parked at 1st in a somewhat halting conference, 2 games more played than the 5 that follow me. The conference seem this season to be very even, with only 7 points from 1st til 9th spot.
Currently we have a record of 17-9-4, during this we are the highest ranked in GF, 100 so far.

The season started really well, but we hit a wall some 10 games in, it took about 10 games to get out of that but I hope that we are over this hump now.

My lineup is working ok I'd say. I am really happy with my bottom 6, they are really pulling their weight and have saved me a couple of times. But my first line is struggling. Domi - Teräväinen - Konecny looked like an ok fit, but I haven't got them clicking yet, sure Domi is the team leader in both goals and points. But after winning the league in that last year it is kinda expected of him to do well there.

Goalies which I went in to the season with great uncertainty, has done so and so. I am atm running with two very young guys. Brent Moran (22y) and Olle Eriksson-Ek (19y), with Moran playing the most games. Moran has 90,7%, 2,01GAA with 2 shootouts, while Eriksson-Ek is struggling a bit more with 87,9%, 3,05GAA. Mind though that Eriksson-Ek has played only 5 games since called up and his figures are destroyed by only having 116 shots against in those games.

Someone that has really impressed so far this season though is Josh Morrissey. I bumped him up to first pairing this season, running with the defensive god Nurse. This has really paid off and he is currently sitting at 7-18-25 in 30 games, this is 2nd highest in the team for points. He also have the best Avg Rating for Dmen in the league, with 7.97.

Priorities now lie in keeping the momentum and at the same time getting my 1st line to produce better.

My board really hates Samuelsson and want me to trade him away. He is having his best season ever and just scored two SH, but got a five the last game.

My board kept telling me that they didn't feel Mirco Muller should be on the team when he was far from my worst defenseman.

My board also hates Müller since the first season, but I havent listened.

Maybe it's gamey, but if you just list the guys the board doesn't like as available, they don't care how many years it takes you to deal them

So...... Can I use a player I just drafted (2018) as my underaged trade? I got 4 hits on Darrell Hopfner for multiple players....

Smylie wrote:So...... Can I use a player I just drafted (2018) as my underaged trade? I got 4 hits on Darrell Hopfner for multiple players....

As long as you have signed him first.

I am a tad overstocked at C, with a really thin pools on the winds and D. Catastrophe impending.

I hate games where your goalies cant even stop a basketball. Two of the shots were from beyond the blue line.

I find it amazing that I am the worst guy (okey second worst sometimes) at special teams every single season.

visualdarkness wrote:I hate games where your goalies cant even stop a basketball. Two of the shots were from beyond the blue line.

Had a similiar game just now.

Moran 13/17 rating 5 (how on earth did he get that?)
Bergvik 2/4 Rating 6 (same there, how on earth?)

Pulled Moran after letting in 3 goals in 7 shots, then Bergvik put those 2/4 numbers in and I pulled him aswell and put Moran back in.

Lost 6-3 and imo that was purely down to goalies being Adam Oates, since the team overall played pretty well. If I only had a good goalie...

Meh, I was going to give it another go, since the challenge got extended but I see now that I've signed Malcolm Subban, although he will only join us next year.

He has nice stats but spent the last several seasons in the KHL because the Bruins refused to trade him to me when he was on their roster, not even their backup mind you...

[quote="m0fownz0r"]Meh, I was going to give it another go, since the challenge got extended but I see now that I've signed Malcolm Subban, although he will only join us next year.

He has nice stats but spent the last several seasons in the KHL because the Bruins refused to trade him to me when he was on their roster, not even their backup mind you...[/quote

Not sure if I'm ready this wrong (just woke up), but you cannot sign or trade for RFA's in the challenge, or sign UFAs.

Asher413 wrote:

m0fownz0r wrote:Meh, I was going to give it another go, since the challenge got extended but I see now that I've signed Malcolm Subban, although he will only join us next year.

He has nice stats but spent the last several seasons in the KHL because the Bruins refused to trade him to me when he was on their roster, not even their backup mind you...[/quote

Not sure if I'm ready this wrong (just woke up), but you cannot sign or trade for RFA's in the challenge, or sign UFAs.

You are right but I only signed him after I finished season 5, which I thought would be the final season of the challenge.

That's why I won't be back for season N 6

Every season in the last two challenges the same problem, no problem and atrocious special teams. Just check my reported stats...

Challenge 38 - Season 2

After last years Stanley Cup win i decided to hold on to the core of my team and try to repeat.
There were three changes in the lineup, as i tried to improve my roster with these prominent trade baits: Zolnierczyk, Regner, Oleksuk and O'Regan.
Came away with RD Adam Larsson who replaced Tennyson on the 3rd Line D.
Vlastimil Kalfirt, the only good defensive/faceoff/checking Center available, played 4th Line Center and 1st PK Center for Oleksuk.
Also got Christian Djoos as 7th D-Man, cause i wasen't pleased with McCabe.
Kevin Fiala took the 3rd Line LW-Position from Goldobin afer 20 games.



Lines:
Nieto - Couture -Wingels
Hertl - Monahan - Nylander
Fiala - Matthews - Hartman
Dano - Kalfirt - Smith
(Konecny, Goldobin and Emmanuelsson got some games due to injurys)

Murray - Johnson
Müller - Ristolainen
Zadorov -Larsson
(Djoos - Bergman)

Stalock - Grosenick

The Draft was nothing special, we got Mattheos at No.30, all others are average at best.
Our Draft Picks 2017:
30 Stelio Mattheos
60 Ross Laporte
90 Nick Hague
120 Luc Petrecki
150 Dustin Becker
160 Dick McHugh
180 Otto Makinen
204 Travis Fitzgerald
210 Bernard Wegmueller

So our season overall went really well (except special teams, terrible again) til Game 60 . Then i was hit with a terrible injury streak, nothing really long, but 8 different players for about 10-25 days each. That produced a 9-9-4 record over the last 22 games (9% PP) which again costs my Sharks the Presidents Trophy and No.1 Seed.
Our last 6 games before the playoffs we went really dry: 1-5 record. No. 4 seed and a 51-24-7 record at the end.
William Nylander had an exceptional season again with 92 points (49/43).Fiala was the other noteable player with 44 pts in 65 games. Most of the others guys were ok, but nothing more. Especially disappointing was the performance from Auston Matthews (82g / 38 pts.). I expected more from a No.1 Pick in season 2.

So we started the playoffs with little hope:

W-Conference Final vs. Ducks 4-3: Like last season we won the series 4-3, despite our struggling special teams. ironically we scored our only pp-goal of this series in game 7.
Sharks PP in the series: 1/28
Ducks PP in the series: 6/19 with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf doing the damage.


W-Conference Semifinal vs. Kings 1-4: Lost 2 games in OT, another one with one goal difference, before i won my first game 3:1 with a Nylander Hattrick. But Game 5 was lost 5:2 with the outstanding line of Gaborik - Kopitar - Toffoli beating me. Also Quick in goal has done a good job.
Again i blame my PP for not producing.
Sharks PP in the series: 2/29
Kings PP in the series: 5/14

Overall Special Teams in the Playoffs: PP: 5.4%, PK: 66,7%......a wonder i reached round 2 with these numbers.

BTW: The Kings went on to win the Cup with a 16-2 record. Quick was MVP and Toffoli, Kopitar, Gaborik were 1,2,3 in Playoff-Scoring.

Trophys:
Art Ross: Nylander was 3rd (behind the two crazy Leafs Kessel and JVR)
Maurice Richard: Nylander 2nd (49)
Calder Trophy: Fiala was 2nd
Lady Byng: Hertl 2nd, Nylander 3rd
Plus / Minus: Hertl won.
Hart Trophy: Nylander was 2nd
William Nylander was voted to the First All-Star Team, and Fiala to the Rookie All Star Team.

So after that poor performance i decided to trade away my Captain Couture and Erik "i can't find my opponent cause he skated by me" Johnson in the Offseason.

Note to myself: Must find a way to improve the Powerplay.