AROUND THE LEAGUE

since the chat room thing can kind of be a pain logging in and have to go to archives to see previous messages i thought id start a thread where we can just talk about whatever as if we were in a chat. Id like guys to be active in the forums anyway, chatting giving input etc so lets see how it gos.

I will be continually working on the forums as i get free time so dont panic if you see something that looks retarded doesn't mean it will last. Like the wallpaper for instance im on the fence about it i think it looked clean cut with the plain background but was a little dull to this one...

* Warning. It's probably hard to read but i don't expect any of you to read this.

For the first time ever, NJ i feel has become the ultimate playoff time. Well...at least in real life. Here's a quick summary. (Was Bored, and with the excitement of a nothing trade deadline looming needed to get out of the real life stuff for a moment and think hockey like i used to). Figured i should do a blog eventually though it just a summary of my team.

New Jersey:

J.Carter 88 - J.Staal 87 - J.Williams 86
J.Franzen 86 - D.Brassard 85 - N.Horton 85
M.Stajan 83 - B.Gordon...

New Math
So after a slew of trades I’m hoping to right the good ship Sabers. Out of the gate, my team as usual had no trouble scoring. Also per normal, they couldn’t stop a beach ball on defense. My GF-GA total was dreadful despite having a 90 and 3 85 rated D on the back side. I knew I didn’t want yet another season of having a “good” team that didn’t make the playoffs and didn’t suck enough to get a great pick. Hard choices would have to be made.
I knew what I wanted to do with this team. I wanted a legit top two D to play with Piet and I zeroed in on Neal as a piece I could move...

It's been awhile since I've written about my teams.  I've put lots of work into these teams and will start out with tampa bay.  First, a move that may be undervalued is STOLL for ribero.  Tampa lost Joe Thornton in the offseason and that hurt them a lot.  However, as most know, ribero is a beast in the sim and is a solid numer 2 fill in when it comes to simming in this game.  That move alone took weight off my shoulders on how to fix the hole that thornton left.  Hes no thornton but ribero is a cheaper...

When Evil first announced that he was going to let us coach our teams, I was ecstatic. After all, the only reason my teams sucked before was because they weren’t playing fearthemaskedman brand hockey right? I turned on my xbox this week and feverishly set up my team, I was going to dominate this year. A trap team? With Pavel (I win the selke every year) Datsyuk on it? Ownage!

I set my strategy up and hit sim,…….I won ten games straight,……….then I lost 19 in a row. I kid you not. I finished with a 30-30ish record at about 10th. Or exactly where I was last year (with real nhl teams,..not...

Hurricanes retool-Sabers sharpen their swords.
For Buffalo this past season was one I’d like to forget. Despite doing well two seasons ago and going deep into the playoffs with no GM. The chemistry that was present when I took the team over, Datsyuk setting up neal and gus, was about the only thing that seemed to click for the sabers. I made great strides to improve this team via trade and in FA I got thrown quite a bone by getting rid of toxic players and replacing them with better ones.
The main thing for the sabers going forward is the boosts I purchased. Tatar is the real deal in...

With free agent frenzy behind us, the Colorado Avalanche are still mourning the loss of long time member M.Green. Green was the heart and soul of the blue line, he put up great numbers every season, was rarely injured and helped wiercioch have the best season he has ever had last season helping colorado get to the conference finals. Green is someone that is very hard to replace and even though Colorado picked up Vet D man Zidlicky in the off season he is far past his prime and wont make up for the loss.

In addition Colorado sent top 6 forward Moulson to the Calgary flames in exchange...

Chicago Blackhawks have made 2 moves since not gaining any ground in the last month of games. Sitting 12th in the west just doesn't sit well with GM Evilmonkey whose team just won the cup 2 seasons ago.

Going to Buffalo was long time member T.Enstrom and prospect G.Nesmisz, coming to Chicago is j.Garrisson and V.Trocheck.

Enstrom was a solid member of this chicago team but his production has dropped significantly of the past few seasons, a player that once used to finish in the top 10 on a regular basis now hardly noticeable a change is sometime what is needed to get that...

Ducks/Devils: The ducks can't seem to keep the puck out of their own net, but with that D can you blame them?

The Devils are a team sitting in last barely clinging to a wild card, but boy oh boy would I hate to meet those guys in the playoffs. Chara, Franzen, Jokinen. Their team poise probably hovers around 85.

Arz/Wash: The yotes possess probably the most potent offense in the league lead by M. Freaking Hanzal. I think the obvious question is can he keep this up?

Wash:This team is totally loaded top to bottom. Mark of a good team? look in the plus minus leaders...

The Colorado Avalanche would like to welcome newcomers R.Polak and J.Liles. Polak will solidify the pk and bring a nice gritty presence as a 6th dman. Liles will be a nice 7th dman to have on hand that can add a bit of offence if needed.

The Otawa Senators would also like to welcome newcomers J.Hillen who will fit in as the 7th dman, and also T.Prucell who will fit in nicely on the 2nd/3rd line. Purcell was a nice pick up and should fit in perfect with the design i have for that team.

The LAK have traded their Captain Joe Thornton to the Carolina Hurricans. Carolina has been looking for the impact player for awhile now and with the way the Kings have played out of the gate a change has need.

Coming back to the Kings is Vet forward Brad Richards, who will probably take over the 2nd line Center dutys giving Jordan Staal a chance to prove himself as the number 1 center between St louis and D.Sedin. Richards will probably fit in between Frolik and Niederietter. Also coming to LA in the deal was Kuznetsov a very promising young forward that will fit in somewhere on the...

So the new ratings have thrown everyone for a loop.

Being very generalized, it seems like basically everyone got a one to two point upgrade in points. I say this jokingly, but it seems true,...81 is the new 79.
Everything i'm looking at seems like 81 is the lowest a "nhl" player seems to be at. I haven't seen a lot of 80 rated players and i'm sure there are 79's who will light it up on lower lines but in a broad scope that's my initial assessment.

Now what I am interested in for this season is the new POT rating.

Seems like it's a lot like the...

So I received NHL 15 as a birthday gift, as I have for the last,...5 years now?

It's for 360. Remember nhl 07 for PC? No skill stick,...a cut and paste job? 

You betcha.

It's literally nhl 14 with a "new" announce crew. Who BTW is bob awful. I mean seriously, it's like Doc is a robot. Every time you take a slap shot "HAMMER SHOT!" I had to play on mute.

The only thing I found interesting was it seems in simming they've done their homework, which is very interesting to me. 

The guys you expect to score, will do so. Finally...

We should start to see overalls trickle in pretty soon. Where do you think your team will be?

Here's where I think carolina will fall ratings wise

Kopi LW 83-Zajac C 86-R. Smith 83

I think Kopi goes up a point. He didn't do much in the real nhl but he is currently the starting LW for phx. If EA follows that whole "lets put guys were they actually play" he's probably good for a point.

Zajac I think gets a point, he may stay the same. He's on no one's list of the best Centers in hockey but he doesn't suck either.

Smith gets a two point...

Science teaches us that unless you adapt, you will die.

Carolina brought home the cup in season two. It was a time of great hope here in Raleigh. We’re in season six now and hope seems in short supply. The year after we won the cup, we made the playoffs by one point. Something had to change and rebuilding on the fly is never fun.

I set out to make our team stand out. We don’t have superstars on our third line here in Carolina so we are going with what we can afford. To that end, I tried to construct a team with a truly awesome D. After some regular season success with our...

 
So we will begin season six pretty soon and i've come a long way in six season. I had my cup run in season two, but season 3 and season 4 saw me barely make the playoffs and then figure out the only way to improve was to try something new. 

Season 5 I went with a super D and found some regular season success. However after getting curb stomped by Pittsburgh, I discovered that A good D is only good if you can score, and my team couldn't.

A lucky trade gave me a legit top line forward in...

With Season 5 coming to an end, the theme of these playoffs has been the underdog, and not just with the teams but players themselves. I'm not saying star players arn't showing up as well but usually the vets step up in the playoffs, this season not the case.

lets 1st look at the final 4 teams

my Chicago team was a 7th-8th place team that finished middle of the pack cause i beefed up at the deadline picking up 2 players ill lose in NhL 15 was hoping to get at least to the 2nd round.

Stl - made the playoffs in the final week of the season winning a pivatol game against...

So I have never done one of these Forum posts before in my life (also sorry for using the same title as you Krauzer haha it's just that it worked to well to pass up)and noticed everybody else doing a little something about their respective teams, So I thought to myself why don't I do one all while being bored out of my mind at work and having a conversation with myself on the Forum Chat earlier...So here it goes haha guaranteed wont be as good of a read as everybody else's but going to post something to help pass time...

I'm going to start off with talking about Minnesota the "Mystery...

Here we are, Season 5, and this is the first season I've posed a threat. Season 1 was great, but let's be honest, I wasn't a threat. Just a fluke run.

I'm gonna follow in Tommy's model of his blog, except with my lines instead of trades.


So, for those that have known me a while, I was usually a Defence first kinda GM. Always tried to have a solid D, and if my offence or goaltending suffered, then no big deal.

Well, that changed when I acquired Ovechkin and Crosby. Tommy had tried the combo to no avail, and it didn't work for him, but I was determined to...

I just wanted to take some to reflect on this years San Jose Sharks team.  The Sharks have clearly been the 2nd focus of GM Tommyboy, however that doesn't mean he hasnt put the time and effort into this Shark team.  

This season has been rough for the Sharks.  Jimmy Howard was not protected in the draft and the Sharks quickly went from a contender to a bottom feeder in a hurry until they landed their goalie.  They started by Trading their backup Dipietro and LW David booth and picked up a potential future star in HOLTBY83 along with tough guy ben eager.  Holtby had a decent year with...

The scene is 2007, we're playing our first couple seasons in simming, when the cover athlete is announced (this was before he was chosen by fan vote). Eric Staal was announced as the cover man, so I immediately traded Brad Richards (a 91 at the time!) for Staal, and I immediately went out and got Rod Brindamour as well (who was an 84 if I recall)

I told everyone that would listen that both of their ratings would sky rocket. Most guys were like "no way,..that doesn't make sense" They were right, it didn't make sense, but this is EA we're talking about.

NhL 08 dropped...

So we are now off to our 5th season of the WTP New Era. Since day 1 the East has been the stronger conference. Over the last 2 seasons the Eastern teams dominate and Minnisota wins the cup. This season has started out much different. Not only is the Western starting off stronger but the teams leading the way arn't the usual suspects.

1st place

  17pts

After a few mind boggling blunders GM Krauzer has appointed himself a GM to take over Phill and focus his efforts souly on his flames....

I'm not normally one to fondly recall teams that have trounced my beloved wings. I'll make an exception for the 07 ducks. The Stanley cup that year was really the west finals. Detroit was favored as I recall and we made a series of it but ultimately the outcome was never in doubt. Their D that year was unreal, pronger and neids with giggy in the pipes.

As I look at the tire fire formally know as the cup champion canes I find myself really wanting that. I'm halfway there with weber now I just need a Scotty clone.

To that end gents I'm offering anyone but staal and weber to...

Back in the Old WTP days, most of us had two teams, we just pretended we had one. For the most part, those that had several teams knew, except Krauzer who's still pissed about it.   

Back then I noticed a trend, you had one team that feasted and another that had famine. One team you took very few risks on, the other, was damn the torpedo's full steam ahead.

guess which one dallas is?

I looked back at my lines from season one with Dallas.

Ladd-Zetterberg-Franzen

The sharks are your SIM LEAGUE version of the Philadelphia Flyers in the real NHL.  If I dont like something, I change it.  Quickly.  Vouken I thought could hold up, and after the first sim I was proven wrong.  The second sim apparently I was right all along, however, Vouken I learned quickly everyone is terrified of.  

GONE: Captain Corey PERRY91 ovr upgraded to 92 in offseason, Vlasic87, Vouken85

Notes:  Captain Perry was the odd man out.  He had the most trade value on the team, and was a great player to have.  San Jose will be sad to see mr Perry leave and wish him nothing...

San Jose San Jose San Jose.....

Maybe I should have stuck with Ryan Miller who holds the season record for most shut outs. However, Millers NHL play had me questioning this decision and made me take a risk. I know a lot of people laughed and I guess rightfully so when I traded him away and had nabokov and ramo as my goalies. The thing i went with is, if anyone plays the game, whenever I play NYI nabokov stands on his head everytime. He's like Dipietro. For a 81 rated guy he sure does play like an 85 or better. Welp, that sure failed last year. However, going into the edit player...

It was before my time, but the oft quoted six million dollar man t.v. show (with inflation is that 600 million dollar man?) began with "we have the technology we can rebuild him".

The tag line was bigger, faster, stronger.

My plan was to make the hurricanes just that.

After winning it all in season two, I super under preformed in season 3. I made the playoffs by ROW (not a fun place to be) and even though I beat probably the most dominate regular season team in WTP history, I still proved no match for Washington in the East finals.

I had...

As previously stated by Fear, you usually have one team you gamble with a lot. Pittsburgh to me is not the team I like to gamble with, however, I trade more with that team then I ever do with SJ.

It has been hard to find a player to play with OVECHKIN. I had crosby, datsyuk, backes, I think couture did alright but he was a rental. This year Pittsburgh has acquired Captain Serious pants Mr TOEWS. I feel that Toews is the guy that can tell ovechkin to stop peing his pants everytime he gets the puck and that passing is ok to do. I put upgrades into TOEWS hoping he can be the mystery...

Wanna know a secret? I'm not an advanced stat guy,.......that crap is for baseball. Things like Corsi and Puck possession make me shake my head, of course if you have the puck more you're going to win more that's not in dispute people.

Where I am an advanced stat guy, is here,.....Yesterday I beat a team that put up probably the best Goals for/against in the entire history of this league. It was total domination, and yet from the moment I drew ottawa I knew i'd in all likely hood beat them.

I'm not one to brag so I kept that to myself (and because they still could of won,...

So last season I had a pretty good run, and that's obviously putting it mildly.

I captured a half dozen awards and won my first championship in this league in probably 4 years. What's my secret?

I've been saying it for years and it seems sometimes like my constant preaching on the subject are falling on deaf ears. So allow me once again to pontificate.

For those of you who's teams are loaded with 84+ players and you're still in last, team chemistry is and has been for many years the only way to win in this league.

I posted a blog that explained at...

 
The Boston Bruins have traded defenceman Morgan Reilly to the Chicago Blackhawks today for right winger Nikita Kucherov. This swap of blue chip prospects is the latest move in Bostons attempt to overhaul their roster.

 
The Boston Bruins have acquired veteran center Vernon Fiddler and stalwart defensman Fedor Tyutin. Tyutin was brought in to steady the Bruins defensive corps after Victor...

 

We made our first significant move today trading Nazem Kadri and Victor Hedman to the New Jersey Devils for Phil Kessel and

WELL ITS THAT TIME IN THE SEASON AGAIN WHERE WE REVIEW THE FREE AGENT DRAFT AND SEE WHO WON,LOST AND STAYED THE SAME.


LAK - OUT
J.FAULK 83
J.BEAGLE 76

LAK - IN
A.GOLIGOSKI 83
B.CONNELLY 78
S.SOURAY 80


WINNERS – FAULK IS A DECENT DMAN BUT GOLIGOSKI WILL ADD MUCH MORE OFFENSE TO A TEAM THAT STRUGGLED TO SCORE LAST SEASON, I INCLUDED CONNELLY CAUSE HE WAS AQUIRED IN THE DRAFT WHEN LAK TRADED DOWN HE WILL ALSO BE MUCH MORE HELP THEN BEAGLE, THEN TO ADD SOME DEFENSIVE DEPTH IN SOURAY WILL ALSO ADD TO THE OFFENSE.

TBL...

Boston sucks. It is my fault. I left the team pretty much alone in season 1. I thought the players were decent and maybe it was just bad sim luck. Season 2 proved I was wrong. I wasnt as active as I wanted to be. This will change.



Boston will be open for business. Team Identity will be my focus this season.

I have on simple goal in season 3....an 8th seed playoff birth.




Edmonton

I just really like my team. I have no real desire to make trades. I will plug holes and if a trade makes sense.....I will do it. But it REALLY...

I know most of you are vet gm's and you know this stuff already but I figured this would be a helpful refresher. 

Chemistry, as it is in life, is extremely important in sim hockey. 

A team with good chemistry, can and often does, beat teams with sometimes far inferior players. Alternatively a team with every good player ever, won't push past 10th overall in their conference. Why? Certain player types work best with other player types. 

Here are the player types for forwards: (again i'm writing this, knowing you probably know, but whatever)

Playmaker (ply)...

Busy day yesterday, lets go over the ins and outs.

going out
D.Backes - aquired him early in the season in a 3 way deal but with only 6pts in 18 games he just wasn't fitting in.

E.Kane - aquired in the same deal with backes was leading my team in pts 12 in 18 games but considering what i was getting in return he was expendable

P.Martin - My top dman yet hes was only mustering up 4pts in 11 games played

Coming In

J.Staal - like backes wasn't fitting in good on Tampa 9pts in 18 games im hoping he will pick it up now that hes had a change

Well after the smoke had cleared from season one neither of my teams was anywhere to be found.

Carolina bowed out after losing three (!) of it's top four D men to injury before being swept in the first round by Toronto.

Dallas couldn't hold on to a game 7 3 goal lead going into the third and lost to the upstart Flames.

Obviously I had some changes to make.

For the stars my aim was simple. Increase the D even at the expense of offense. I grabbed Macdonald in FA, losing a second line LW in the process. I replaced the whole with Smyth and hoped for the best....

THIS WAS OUR 1ST FREE AGENCY WITH THE FREE AGENT DRAFT FORMAT, IT HAD THE POTENTIAL TO DO WELL BUT I WAS STILL NOT SURE HOW WELL BALANCED IT WOULD BE.

WELL NOW THAT IT IS COMPLETE I THINK IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS AND FROM WHAT I HEAR FROM MOST OF YOU, YOU FELT THE SAME WAY. SO LETS BREAK DOWN THE WINNERS AND LOSERS.


LAK - OUT
S.WEISS 84
C.KOBASEW 78
B.GERVAIS 79

LAK - IN
CHARA 94
V.NICHUSHKIN 77
J.CORVO 77

WINNERS BIG TIME...CHARA ALONE MADEE THIS A WIN BUT NICHISHKIN WAS A NICE ADDED...

Ducks: This teams offense seems to come squarely from the back end. Chara is putting up better numbers than a lot of teams number one pivot.

Boston: one of the best trades so far was Boston getting Lucic. That pavelski-lucic-steen line has been lethal. This is without steen getting his upgrade we all know is coming too. Unfortunately the scoring depth is nill after that.

Buffalo: This team is finally coming back down to earth, but they remain a dangerous team. Just scoring depth for days....They've got 7-8 players with more than 20 points
.
Calgary:look out folks,...

The florida panthers are an interesting topic. I've had the theory before which some have agreed some have not about whether an NHL team that is horrible in the NHL can even make the playoffs. I say this because in our last league I was LA KINGS. I had an amazing team yet they'd always seem to make the playoffs around 8th place like the kings when they won the cup.

This brings me to this florida team. When I took control of this team, it had crosby, duschane amongst others. It didn't really have any Defence besides giordano and gonchar. That has been upgraded to Bieksa and bufuglien...

Dallas, Dallas, Dallas...........

Where to begin.

My original WTP team was Colorado and as these things go, I did very well for a while with a top line of Marleau-Staal-Cheechoo (that was a long time ago obviously)

When it came time to revamp and do a new league I was dallas and when i was done trading I probably had not a single player I started with. Just how it goes in these leagues. I've only won one championship in WTP and it was a very very long time ago. But i played as the stars for a solid 3 or four years. So, when it came time to pick a western team,...

Most of you have seen the movie so you know what i'm talking about. In assembling the "miracle on ice" team, Herb Brooks famously said; "I'm not looking for the best players, i'm looking for the right players".

History of course proves Coach Brooks correct with bells on, a group of college kids went on to beat the best hockey team in the world, not because of skill, but rather team work. Specifically the Americans that year played as a unit, the Soviets did not. The Rest is history.

Cool story Grandpa, but what's your point?

If you've played...

Back in the Old WTP day, i used to blog about what was going on in the league. I might pick that back up again now that i'm not running things.

For now here's my thoughts on Carolina.

When I first saw my team I was a little disheartened. The way the team was set up, is not how i play the game at all. I'm all about cheap on the D and goalies spend on the forwards. Turns out the CPU drafted the opposite way.

After a flurry of trades, i'm content to see how they do,.....for now at least. I'm the resident trade whore of this league and I'll probably make 100 more moves...