EHM The Blue Line

I finally got Ovechkin to go do what he does best and that is score points. I have played many games that I have either Crosby, Ovechkin, or Staal at the start and they just don't ever seem to be that great.

When I say that, they just don't get over 100 points or even come close.

But that isn't the thing right now, because he is scoring more than enough for me. In the first season that I had him, he played in 77 games and had 133 points. Right now, he has played in 42 games and he has 77 points. Much better then where he was at this point last season.

All in all, I think I found the best solution in getting him to play and I am very happy about that.

Have any of you had good things happen when having Ovechkin, Crosby, or Staal on your team? I am curious to know if you people have been able to finally get them scoring or what.

I always try to get a strong playmaking centre to pair with Alex. For the past few seasons I've been letting him play alongside Spezza and Ryan, and he hasn't had a season with less than 100 points so far. Last season (2009-10) was his best, though: 77g 74a 151p!

Out of those guys, I've had Ovechkin before. I had him once when I was playing at the Capitals for a couple seasons and he did really well. I just had to trade for a good center. I also had him in the second season of the Columbus Blue Jackets challenge. He did VERY well with a certain Sharks center (who's name shall not be spoken... M******) as his center. Anyhow... if you have Ovechkin on your top line with a good center and any winger that isn't going to drag them down, you're going to get some scoring!

I just finished my 2nd season with Ovechkin on my team and he ended up with 158 points in 78 games.

The weird thing about him having that many points is that I have a few other players on my team that have produced big for me as well. I am not sure if it is just that they all work together that well, but it is weird. The reason I even say weird is because I have 3 to 4 of my players fighting for the top spot at the end of the season.

Mark Recchi had 109 points in 78 games the first season and then he had 124 points in 80 games this season.

Bill Guerin had 121 points in 82 games during the first season and then had 104 points in 78 games this season.

Brendan Morrison had 110 points in 82 games last season and then had 92 points in 71 games this season.

Sergei Fedorov had 114 points in 82 games last season and then got 117 points in 81 games this season.

Jeff Carter had 101 points in 80 games last season and then had 119 points in 82 games this season.

It's good to have players who can produce like that and Fedorov, Ovechkin, and Recchi are all on a line together.

Then Carter, Guerin, and Morrison are on another line together.

You will definitely find that some guys just work well together. You can have a guy that might not look as skilled do great on a line but then you plug in a superstar and it just doesn't perform as well. I've seen this happen many times in the past.

I also notice that if you take the older players who are probably pushing 40 and give them the right tools. They turn it around and play like they did when they were 25 all over again.

Which in turn can cause them to stick around on the team for many more years. I did that with Chelios and he stayed on the team till he was 52.

Someday I would love to see a screenshot of that (Chelios)

But since this is an Ovechkin thread let's try and keep it on topic. Kay?

In fact, I think I will change the name of the thread to be a little more online with what this is.,, How to make players perform better for longer...team chemistry.

JVanderpool wrote:I also notice that if you take the older players who are probably pushing 40 and give them the right tools. They turn it around and play like they did when they were 25 all over again.

Which in turn can cause them to stick around on the team for many more years. I did that with Chelios and he stayed on the team till he was 52.

Stayed on the team in what capacity? A coach? Or are you saying he played for you in the NHL until he was 52?

He played on the team until he was 52 and to tell you the truth, I have no idea why it lasted that long.

I took a screen shot of that, but it isn't on this laptop. I'll be able to head over to the house tomorrow and I'll post it from there.

As for the thread name change, that was fine. Then it opens up the discussion for every player.

Wow! That's impressive. I'll be very interested to see the 'shot.

bruins72 wrote:You will definitely find that some guys just work well together. You can have a guy that might not look as skilled do great on a line but then you plug in a superstar and it just doesn't perform as well. I've seen this happen many times in the past.

That's true, many times I've seen that 3rd liner can do very effective job on the first line. I've paired Jeff O'Neill and Alexei Ponikarovski with Mats Sundin, man, they are burning the league. Old Mats has already over 80 pts after 50 games or so. O'Neil and Poni were scouted has 3rd liners by my scouts..

i managed to line
1st Ovechkin-Sundin-Shanahan
2nd Semin-Zubrus-Clark

on paper the first is great and the 2nd is good.
now i just hope ovechkin has cehmistry with Mats and Bren

Yay, first post...

Well, in my Red Wings fantasy-drafted career, I had my best first line yet in 2010-2011. Ovechkin - Thornton - Iginla. They were the top three scorers in the league.

And here are the standings for the West...

Not so great of a season . We had too many goals allowed (323 ). Goaltending wasn't the problem, J.S Giguère had a pretty good season. I had bad defensemen, I think. Not too many people would be too happy with a 40-year-old Jaroslav Modrý anchoring their blue line .

Welcome Oobla. Heck of a fantasy draft! Pleae, go introduce yourself in the New ARrivals thread!

Thanks for the welcome!

I was surprised at how good of a draft I had . I had first pick overall, and I took Ovechkin (Crosby was the other guy I was thinking about, he is doing pretty good, about 90 points a year, but Ovechkin is putting up 120 a year). I wasn't expecting to get anyone nearly as good as him in the second round, but for some unknown reason, Iginla showed up. He was about the 6th-7th ranked player, but he fell to pick number 31 . I got Thornton in the free agents. Last year, I also added Ľubomír Višňovský from free agents to improve my defense.

Going to Arrivals now .

Good job on the draft and I always like to pick Ovechkin over Crosby. Hell, I would pick Staal over Crosby as well. It isn't that Crosby won't do well on your team, but it seems like he needs that little part of the season to warm himself up and start scoring.

Both Ovechkin and Staal don't need that time to boost themselves into the season like Crosby does and plus, it's much easier to sign Ovechkin for longer contracts in my opinion.

Also, you were very lucky to get Iginla during your draft. Although, I have had a touch of luck myself here and there.

There have been times when I start a new game and do the draft. I'll pick Ovechkin and then go towards grabbing a nice goaltender. Most of the time I go with Niittymaki on account of his attributes, but every now and again people won't draft Luongo.

That's when I'll get Luongo and Niittymaki on my team and let me tell you, that is the perfect goaltending tandem right there.

As for having older defensemen on your team, that isn't such a bad thing sometimes. Just depends on whether they are good enough to help you out or not. I know that I tend to grab Chelios here and there. He does ok, but if you can get him playing with the right person on the line, he does awesome.

By the way folks, I'll try to get that picture as soon as possible.

For those that want to see that picture, I am trying out a new defensemen to see if I can get him to stick around for awhile and that would be Brian Leetch.

My goalie is J.S Giguère, who I picked in the third round. I'm happy with him, considering I picked him in the third round, after the two best wingers in the game (whenever I get those positional rankings, Ovechkin always is the best LW and Iginla is the best RW). Giguère has a 2.77 GAA and a .912 SV%. I also drafted Brent Allison fourth overall in the 2010 draft. Notice the 99 determination and 97 work rate . 1.83 GAA at Oshawa so far .

Brent Allison looks like he might actually end up being a very good goaltender. I am not use to looking at stats in the regard of it being from 1 to 100. I like to set it up so that I can look at it from 1 to 20.

That seems to work better in my brain.

Well, I just signed Allison for three years at $900,000 a year. He will be playing on my AHL team, the Grand Rapids Griffins, for a few years. I also got a screenshot of him with the standard attribute ranges .

Oobla wrote:Well, I just signed Allison for three years at $900,000 a year. He will be playing on my AHL team, the Grand Rapids Griffins, for a few years. I also got a screenshot of him with the standard attribute ranges .

Sean Burke's regen, perhaps?

Systemfel wrote:

Oobla wrote:Well, I just signed Allison for three years at $900,000 a year. He will be playing on my AHL team, the Grand Rapids Griffins, for a few years. I also got a screenshot of him with the standard attribute ranges .

Sean Burke's regen, perhaps?

Now that you say that, it does look like it. According to ESPN, Burke is 6'4" and weighs 209, about the same size as Allison. Also Canadian, although that's not saying much, there have been quite a few Canadian goalies .

Reading attributes in that way is much better for me personally. It does seem to be that he might be another Burke, but there are plenty of goaltenders out there that are that big and from Canada.

But then again, you never know in this game.

JVanderpool wrote:Reading attributes in that way is much better for me personally. It does seem to be that he might be another Burke, but there are plenty of goaltenders out there that are that big and from Canada.

There aren't a lot of good 6'4 Canadian goalies who retire early enough for regen to be 20 in 2012, though.

Good point!

JVP---I really want to see your 52 year old Chelios shot in the NHL...I just want to see his numbers..is it in your gallery? Hmmm... no gallery. Oh well, hopefully you will post it, or put it in your gallery, cause that would be a real cool screen shot.