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Critch · 03-16-2023, 05:14 PM

2030/31 Regular Season

Lines:
Forwards
1st Line - LW Lucas Karmiris (4.5), C Jordan Gavin (5.0), RW Vasili Podkolzin (3.5) - same as usual, but with Karmiris and Gavin 24 years old and reaching their peak
2nd Line - LW Anton Nilsson (3.5), C Oskar Vuollet (3.5), RW Emil Hemming (3.5) - Vuollet and Hemming return, Nilsson is our latest star rookie, he was picker 8th overall in 2026 and joins after a few years in the Swedish league and then last year mainly in the AHL. He seems to have got good all of a sudden, 5.0 for potential. He's another Swede, so this line is all Scandinavian.
3rd Line - LW Urho Mattila (3.5), C Dylan Holloway (3.0), RW Brandon Svoboda (2.5) - Mattila is more defensive than Nilsson so he goes into the newly toughened up third line, set to backcheck. Svoboda also adds to the new tough third line.
4th Line - LW Cole Eiserman (3.0), C Kaden Pitre (3.0), RW Benjamin Coupal (3.0) - Moved away from the lightweight youngsters who weren't good enough for top 6 that I used to park in the 4th line, went for more power.

Defense
1st Pair - LD Weston Knox (3.0) RD Henry Mews (4.0) - Mews is on a different role this year, a passing defenseman instead of one breaking in for goals. It's an experiment.
2nd Pair - LD Jackson Gillespie (2.5) RD Tomas Lavoie (3.0) - Gillespie was a pre-season waiver pickup signed for potential, but soon made a starters job his own. Lavoie has been around for years, he's our highest paid defenseman despite barely being mentioned.
3rd Pair - LD Yan Kuznetzov (2.5) RD Conor Walton (2.5) - started off with Thomas Harley but he was as rubbish as his rating looked and not the diamond in the rough that his championship ring collection would have you believe.

Goaltenders
Sebastian Cossa (5.0) and Evan Maillet (3.0) - we would have been ok with either as starter

How the changes worked out
For this season we'd made a buttload of changes to the team and while some of the changes didn't really work out, the total result was somewhere between fandabbydozy and splendiferous.

The new top goalie Sebastian Cossa was a success, he led the league in wins, didn't have a recurrence of his injuries all year, and had a respectable save percentage (.915) and goals against average (2.65), but the back up Evan Maillet had a better save percentage (.921) and GAA (2.33) in his 17 games. So that counts as a raging success.

The new defensemen were more mixed, Yan Kuznetzov came in from the Russian league and did well but the other FA Thomas Harley lost his starting place and will probably be 7th man in the playoffs. He's won 4 of the last 5 Stanley Cups despite being a bit awful, so maybe he's just a lucky omen rather than a good player. The defense was a mixed bunch, Henry Mews and a bunch of interchangeable bit parts, but Anchorage finished the season with third lowest Goals Allowed in the NHL so they must have been doing something right.

The one part that didn't work out was improving team harmony. Last year I dumped any player who had "controversy" in this description, dumped coaches who were bad at discipline and/or man management, and made sure there was money left over for Morale boosting events every month. Didn't make any difference, still ended the season with Harmony of "Open Hostility" and cliques. The cliques have grown so big there are now more players in cliques than not. Is it still a clique if everybody is in it? From reading the boards, harmony is still a work in progress so hopefully it'll be patched. Currently it seems like a nice twist, but if it's something you cant avoid it's just a pain. It seems like as well as "controversy", the scouts report mentioning that a player doesnt seem to stick with a team is also a hint that they'll be a problem. I'd be ok if the hints let you know that they were a risk but when it gets to the point that they will definitely cause problems at some point it seems like it's too definite.

Luckily it didn't seem to have much effect on results, if any.

How the results went
In the first three games we had an 8-1 win and a 10-1 win,so it looked good. Ok, the other game was a 2-3 defeat but that was against a top team, so still an acceptable start. 16-4-1 took it from acceptable to very good, and we spent all season challenging for a top 3 place in the division with the LA Kings and Edmonton. By the midway point we were comfortably 14 points clear of 9th in the conference, so barring a terrible second half of the season a playoff place was safe.

There was no collapse, even with all the cliques and hostility. This was really the best Anchorage season ever, our previous high points total was 94, we beat that in game 69. Nice.

We clinched the Pacific division with a handful of games to spare, ended the season safely in 1st with a record of 51-24-7 for 109 points, five ahead of LA Kings and 9 ahead of Edmonton in the Pacific. We also ended with the highest points total in the Western Conference, 2 ahead of the suddenly good Atlanta Thrashers. Atlanta's 7 seasons since the expansion have ended 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 1st. A strange turnaround. We had the best in the Western Conference, but New York Islanders (122 points) and Columbus Blue Jackets (110 points) both ended with more in the East.

So it's off to the playoffs, and this time as a top seed, not just scraping in as a Wild Card. It'll be 2nd Wild Card Seattle Kraken in the first round, they finished 5th in the Pacific division.

03-16-2023, 05:14 PM	#40
Critch lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Herndon, VA	2030/31 Regular Season Lines: Forwards 1st Line - LW Lucas Karmiris (4.5), C Jordan Gavin (5.0), RW Vasili Podkolzin (3.5) - same as usual, but with Karmiris and Gavin 24 years old and reaching their peak 2nd Line - LW Anton Nilsson (3.5), C Oskar Vuollet (3.5), RW Emil Hemming (3.5) - Vuollet and Hemming return, Nilsson is our latest star rookie, he was picker 8th overall in 2026 and joins after a few years in the Swedish league and then last year mainly in the AHL. He seems to have got good all of a sudden, 5.0 for potential. He's another Swede, so this line is all Scandinavian. 3rd Line - LW Urho Mattila (3.5), C Dylan Holloway (3.0), RW Brandon Svoboda (2.5) - Mattila is more defensive than Nilsson so he goes into the newly toughened up third line, set to backcheck. Svoboda also adds to the new tough third line. 4th Line - LW Cole Eiserman (3.0), C Kaden Pitre (3.0), RW Benjamin Coupal (3.0) - Moved away from the lightweight youngsters who weren't good enough for top 6 that I used to park in the 4th line, went for more power. Defense 1st Pair - LD Weston Knox (3.0) RD Henry Mews (4.0) - Mews is on a different role this year, a passing defenseman instead of one breaking in for goals. It's an experiment. 2nd Pair - LD Jackson Gillespie (2.5) RD Tomas Lavoie (3.0) - Gillespie was a pre-season waiver pickup signed for potential, but soon made a starters job his own. Lavoie has been around for years, he's our highest paid defenseman despite barely being mentioned. 3rd Pair - LD Yan Kuznetzov (2.5) RD Conor Walton (2.5) - started off with Thomas Harley but he was as rubbish as his rating looked and not the diamond in the rough that his championship ring collection would have you believe. Goaltenders Sebastian Cossa (5.0) and Evan Maillet (3.0) - we would have been ok with either as starter How the changes worked out For this season we'd made a buttload of changes to the team and while some of the changes didn't really work out, the total result was somewhere between fandabbydozy and splendiferous. The new top goalie Sebastian Cossa was a success, he led the league in wins, didn't have a recurrence of his injuries all year, and had a respectable save percentage (.915) and goals against average (2.65), but the back up Evan Maillet had a better save percentage (.921) and GAA (2.33) in his 17 games. So that counts as a raging success. The new defensemen were more mixed, Yan Kuznetzov came in from the Russian league and did well but the other FA Thomas Harley lost his starting place and will probably be 7th man in the playoffs. He's won 4 of the last 5 Stanley Cups despite being a bit awful, so maybe he's just a lucky omen rather than a good player. The defense was a mixed bunch, Henry Mews and a bunch of interchangeable bit parts, but Anchorage finished the season with third lowest Goals Allowed in the NHL so they must have been doing something right. The one part that didn't work out was improving team harmony. Last year I dumped any player who had "controversy" in this description, dumped coaches who were bad at discipline and/or man management, and made sure there was money left over for Morale boosting events every month. Didn't make any difference, still ended the season with Harmony of "Open Hostility" and cliques. The cliques have grown so big there are now more players in cliques than not. Is it still a clique if everybody is in it? From reading the boards, harmony is still a work in progress so hopefully it'll be patched. Currently it seems like a nice twist, but if it's something you cant avoid it's just a pain. It seems like as well as "controversy", the scouts report mentioning that a player doesnt seem to stick with a team is also a hint that they'll be a problem. I'd be ok if the hints let you know that they were a risk but when it gets to the point that they will definitely cause problems at some point it seems like it's too definite. Luckily it didn't seem to have much effect on results, if any. How the results went In the first three games we had an 8-1 win and a 10-1 win,so it looked good. Ok, the other game was a 2-3 defeat but that was against a top team, so still an acceptable start. 16-4-1 took it from acceptable to very good, and we spent all season challenging for a top 3 place in the division with the LA Kings and Edmonton. By the midway point we were comfortably 14 points clear of 9th in the conference, so barring a terrible second half of the season a playoff place was safe. There was no collapse, even with all the cliques and hostility. This was really the best Anchorage season ever, our previous high points total was 94, we beat that in game 69. Nice. We clinched the Pacific division with a handful of games to spare, ended the season safely in 1st with a record of 51-24-7 for 109 points, five ahead of LA Kings and 9 ahead of Edmonton in the Pacific. We also ended with the highest points total in the Western Conference, 2 ahead of the suddenly good Atlanta Thrashers. Atlanta's 7 seasons since the expansion have ended 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 1st. A strange turnaround. We had the best in the Western Conference, but New York Islanders (122 points) and Columbus Blue Jackets (110 points) both ended with more in the East. So it's off to the playoffs, and this time as a top seed, not just scraping in as a Wild Card. It'll be 2nd Wild Card Seattle Kraken in the first round, they finished 5th in the Pacific division.