NHL EHM Managerial Dynasty - Page 3

Karim · 08-08-2004, 07:09 AM

Well after playing around with the off-season I have to concur with Johnny93g - it's seriously screwed up.

- players in their late 30s sign as assistant coaches
- unrestricted free agents don't sign until late August if at all
- several high-profile young European restricted free agents opt for Europe

The worst thing of all was Darryl Sutter signing as General Manager of Edmonton.

These will be tuned in the next patch which should hopefully come out in the next two weeks.

Until then, this dynasty is on hold. I'll resume prior to Yzerman becoming a coach, so hopefully he'll re-sign with Detroit and we can proceed from there.

Karim · 08-11-2004, 08:29 AM

Calgary Flames

2004
Round	Overall	Pos	Name	Draft Team	GP	G/W	A/SO	Pts/GAA	PIM/SV%	AvR
1	22	F	Kris Chucko	Kamloops Blazers	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	38	D	Grant Lewis	Dartmouth Big Green	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	101	F	Niklas Johansson	Farjestads BK	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	112	F	Matthew Myers	Cardiff Devils	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	142	D	Andy Rogers	Calgary Hitmen	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	172	F	Scott McCulloch	Regina Pats	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	232	G	Taylor Dakers	Kootenay Ice	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	234	F	Jens Jacobs	Hammarby IF	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	238	F	Lars Erik Spets	Lillehammer IK	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	262	G	Marco Buhrer	SC Bern	0	0	0	0	0	0

That's better!

Karim · 08-27-2004, 10:58 PM

[Patch 2 has been installed.]

July & August, 2004

I've set my 33 man roster to a light off-season conditioning program. I plan to ramp it up in August. Once interesting thing is that both G Marco Buhrer (Switzerland) and F Matthew Myers (England) are the only players finding the conditioning program difficult. Clearly, coming from inferior leagues, they're having trouble keeping up.

A new feature is on the Player & Search Screen. A new button named - NHL UFA - automatically lists all the unrestricted free agents. Although there are some junior and foreign players listed and I'm getting players already with multi-year contracts listed. I'm not sure how to use this efficiently yet.

Ok. The filter automatically kicks in to North American based players 26 years old and younger. You'll need to adjust the filter to see the older free agents.

I offer contracts to F Seth Leonard (20) and F Josh Bonar (20) - a couple of promising overage juniors. Staggared contracts! Beauty!

The next day sees a flurry of activity in my news reports:

- Philadelphia has offered a contract to Seth Leonard
- New York Rangers, Tampa Bay and Carolina have offered Pat Burns the head coaching job
- Philadelphi, Detroit, Dallas, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado have offered a contract to Paul Kariya (NOTE: Not all of these offers came on the same day but were scattered over the beginning of July. Philly and Vancouver were the only ones to offer a contract on July 7th. I think it's realistic that Kariya wouldn't rush to sign.)
- Tampa has offered a contract to Pavol Demitra

I get a news report about trade offers between teams in the OHL and QMJHL teams. I don't have any connection to any of the players but they have high reputations. I really hope this is an indication that I will be constantly informed of trades rather than having to hunt for them in the transaction screen.

A news report indicates that Leonard's agent says Atlanta is close to signing him.

Colorado is interested in trading for Jagr.

Iginla, Yelle and Nilson are still unhappy thinking the team needs strengthening. This was supposed to be corrected in the patch. Either I can't remedy this by continuing with this saved game or I really am not meeting their expectations. I have 37 players under contract and 20 unsigned draft picks.

I've noticed a cosmetic change on the player profile. There's a button called "Scout Report" intead of having to click on that little circle in the upper left corner. A nice little change.

My player budget is $36 million and I've already at $35.5 so even if I don't get Leonard or Bonar, I think I'm done. On second thought, I make a small offer to a no-name center, Grant Jacobsen (21), who has all the physical tools but minimal finish. Again, minor league depth in hopes I get lucky.

Bonar is delighted to have signed with the Flames. He appears to be an older version of Travis Zajak. He's a 20 year old center with apparent skill but only played one year in the BCHL. Undrafted, I decide to give him a shot in Lowell.

Leonard opts to Philly. What a surprise. I guess that two-way clause didn't impress him much. I offer F Jarret Lukin (20), an overager with Kamloops, a minor-league deal. He was on my draft shortlist so he's another guy to roll the dice on. There are two more similar type players on my shortlist who are still 19. As soon as they turn 20, I'll pounce.

Toronto has offered Craig MacTavish the role of Assistant Coach.

Cool. Contracts with 2-way clauses, show how much the player will be played in the minors on the contract tab of the player profile.

Bobby Smith has been signed as a scout by Vancouver.

Scotty Bowman is convinced by Gretsky to work as a scout for Phoenix.

Philadelphia has offered a contract to former NHLer, Christian Dube. He's 27 and has been played for Bern in Switzerland where he is considered a Star. He has amazing attributes except for an 8 in skating and that is the only reason I haven't offered a contract and is what I expect will limit his productivity in the NHL.

Larry Robinson is signed as a scout for New Jersey.

Tampa Bay gets Pavol Demitra. They were the only ones interested. And the contract is realistic. $4.2/Yr.1, $4.5/Yr. 2, $4.8/Yr. 3 and a whole bunch of individual bonuses. Good to see.

One of my better scouts has announced his retirement.

Wow. Grant Jacobsen has opted to play in Finland rather than sign with us. Clearly the SM-Liga team offered him more playing time and a more prominent role on the team. He's going to make $65k/$70k on a two-year deal which is roughly what he would make in the minors. At least, Lukin has agreed to join the Flames. And thankfully, at last, Nilson, Iginla and Yelle think there's enough organizational depth and are no longer unhappy (39 contracted players and 20 unsigned prospects).

Robbie Schremp (#4 Edm), Andrej Mezaros (#6 Atl), Rostislav Olesz (#3 Cbs), Emil Axelsson (#28 Edm), Kyle Chipchura (#13 Stl), Cam Barker (#11 Wsh), Andrew Ladd (#7 NRY), and Alexander Picard (#16 TB) have been signed by their NHL clubs as 18 year olds. It'll be interesting to see how much playing time they get or whether they're returned to their junior clubs. I hope they're not all throw to the wolves.

Restricted Free Agent, Ilya Kovalchuk, has indicated he's interested in joining Minnesota. It's good to see that he hasn't bolted back to Russia even though three Russian teams are interested. Montreal is the only other team that's interested. So far so good. Atlanta's qualified him but can't come to terms yet but NHL teams aren't scrambling to mortgage the future with a huge offer sheet.

F Bryan Smolinski (31) has signed with Colorado on a $2.9 million/2 year deal. [I had to find this in the transaction screen. Smolinski only has a 'Good' reputation so I suspect this is why.]

Ok. Philadelphia has signed F Christian Dube (27) from Switzerland. His reputation is 'Star' and clearly this has governed his contract which is huge. It's $12.8 million/4 years with huge bonuses too. An irresponsible inflationary contract from a large market team.

F Tony Amonte (33) has been signed by Dallas. [Again, I didn't get a news report. Amonte's reputation is 'Very Good' so it seems news reports are reserved for 'Superb' and 'Star' reps.] A two year deal worth $4.8 million.

F Bill Guerin (33) has re-signed with Dallas. He's taken a massive pay-cut. Year 1: $2.9 million. Year 2: $2.7 million. No other team was interested so maybe he started getting ansy. We have to be careful about our expectations here. He didn't have a good season in the game, with only 26 goals and 58 points, well back from the league leaders.

I make an offer to G Kelly Guard (21) who played this past season with Kelowna. Impressive stats and very good attributes for his age. A lot of NHL teams are interested but I'm the first to offer a contract. He wants $850k/yr which is quite a bit. Again, I want a two-way clause with no guarantee of playing time with the big club. If other teams promise more, fine.

D Jon Klemm (34) has been signed by St. Louis on a $1.2 million/1 year deal.

Kelly Guard rejects our offer (and five other NHL offers) in favour of Edmonton. He said he was particularly looking forward to working with Kevin Lowe and Lorne Molleken. It'll be nice to light him.

Pat Burns has signed with Tampa Bay as Head Coach on a huge deal - $8.4 million/4 years (with a two-way clause?).

St. Louis trades G Cody Rudkowski (21) to Columbus for F Manny Malhotra (24). Rudkowski looks like nothing so either Columbus got schooled or Malhotra's stock has dropped incredibly.

Atlanta has re-signed G Kari Lehtonen (20). If they can re-sign Kovalchuk, they'll be a team to watch with Heatley back.

I offer a minor-league deal to F Chris Hodgson (20), another player on my draft list who went undrafted.

Vancouver have won the bidding for Paul Kariya. The contract is $15.9 million/3 years with huge signing bonuses that could see him make $6.72 million in year one, $7.07 million in year two and $7.57 million in year three. It's not the $7-$10 million base salary that some might be expecting but I can live with this. He's coming off of only 31 goals and 70 points. It seems the contract is based on a combination of reputation and performance which is very good to see.

The first disappointment sees Steve Yzerman sign as an assistant coach with San Jose. This is certainly not game breaking to me but it previously caused some people to be upset.

John Tortorella is the new coach of the Edmonton Oilers - it's a three-year deal at $1.7 million/year. Wow.

Toronto has traded the rights to G Todd Ford (20) to Atlanta for D Chris Tamer (33).

Dallas are the big spenders this off-season. They've signed Keith Primeau to a $6.4 million/2 year deal.

Former Flame Assistant Coach, Rich Preston, has been hired as the Head Coach of the New York Islanders at $1.5 million/year for 4 years.

Chris Hodgson has accepted our deal.

Colorado has signed D Richard Matvichuk (31) on a $5.5 million/3 year deal. New Jersey has signed D Bryan Marchment (35) on a $975k/1 year deal. I wasn't informed about these deals and had to find them in the transactions screen.

Pittsburgh trades the rights to D Pauli Levokari (26) for G Jonas Holmqvist (22).

Ottawa has signed Kevin Lowe as GM. [I thought stealing staff from other NHL clubs was supposed to have been fixed in the patch. To my knowledge, he wasn't out of a contract.]

Edmonton has signed D Sean O'Donnell (32) on a $2.9 million/2 year deal.

Dallas has signed D Dan McGillis (32) on a $4.1 million/2 year deal.

St. Louis has signed F Grant Marshall (31) on a $4.1 million/3 year deal.

The NHL clubs are doing a good job of snapping up promising undrafted players; I'm not the only one doing this so it's good to see.

Montreal has signed F Matthew Barnaby (31) on a $4.9 million/3 year deal.

The New York Rangers have signed Rick Tocchet as their Head Coach on a $6.4 million/4 year deal.

Scott Gomez has re-signed with New Jersey for $14.4 million/4 years.

Jaroslav Svoboda has re-signed with Carolina for $8.2/4 years.

Ruslan Fedotenko re-signed with Tampa Bay for $700k/1 year. He's coming off of an awful season.

Shawn Horcoff re-signs with Edmonton for $875k/1 year.

Darryl Sutter is the new General Manager of Edmonton. [I've noticed that none of the General Managers have contracts listed in the profile, as compared to Head Coaches. It only says "Free Agent" which means it seems you can poach GMs from other team. Unfortunate, but doesn't really affect me.]

Montreal trades the rights to G Joni Puurula (22) to Columbus for G Marc Denis (27).

Boston signs F Alexei Zhamnov (33) to a $1.6 million/1 year deal. He only had 6 goals and 28 points in 82 games with Philadelphia the previous season.

Ottawa signs Peter Laviolette as a Head Coach.

Philadelphia signs F Mike Modano (34) for a $6.8 million/2 year deal.

Anaheim has proposed an exhibition game in Calgary. I accept. That makes seven exhibition games. I have a lot of youngsters and I want to take a look at most of them in a game situation.

I see that Carolina is interested in one of my unsigned prospects. This is the first time I've seen this happen. I immediately offer D Toni Lydman (26) and the unsigned prospect to Carolina for F Marcus Krahnberg (24), a player I've been looking at for a while. My trade proposal becomes a news item, for what it's worth. It's rejected. According to their team needs, Carolina isn't looking for a defenceman.

Eric Belanger re-signs with Los Angeles for $6.6 million/4 years.

The World Cup of Hockey is about to start. Jordan Leopold has made the US squad while Jarome Iginla makes Team Canada. Joel Lundqvist is on the Swedish squad but not in the starting lineup. I wasn't informed about this but had to look at the Swedish team to find this out.

Ilya Kovalchuk re-signs with Atlanta for $19.3 million/4 years. I wasn't informed of this either. I found out about by looking at Team Russia's roster.

Colorado sign Donald Brasher for $2.1 million/2 years.

Markus Nilson has been called up to Team Sweden. Toni Lydman, Mikka Kiprusoff, Jarkko Ruutu and Ville Nieminen have been called up to Team Finland.

These players have been called up for exhibition games but the games are not being simulated.

Los Angeles signs Mark Recchi for $3.3 million/1 year.

It's the start of the World Cup (August 31st). I've noticed that many free agents have signed of which I didn't have a news report. These are mainly restricted free agents but for names such as Thornton and Chara, I should be receiving a news report. Also, Brodeur and Niedermayer re-signed with New Jersey but I wasn't told. Maybe it was on the transactions list but even with the NHL filter on, the list is so dense that I could have easily missed it.

Of the players still available, here's a list of prominent names:

Mario Lemieux (38) (Not on Team Canada!)
Dave Andreychuk (signed as GM for the Regina Pats - no big deal, he's 41)
Brett Hull (40)
Ed Belfour (39)
Luc Robitaille (38)
Chris Chelios (42)
Ron Francis (41)
Al MacInnis (41)
Sean Burke (37)
Steve Rucchin (33)
Scott Young (36)

Regardless, the patch has cured a lot of the free agent problems that were evident before. I'm satisfied.

sachmo71 · 08-27-2004, 11:54 PM

I'm glad the patch cleared up a lot of your issues. Not sure about the effect of continuing the game...Riz told us on the first patch (and beta I believe, also) that to see the max effect of the changes made, a new game should be started. I guess that might have to do with a number of the hidden ratings that a player has, and maybe these are generated when the game starts? Anyway, I'm sure you'll see how things go. I'll be reading.

Karim · 08-28-2004, 03:51 AM

Thanks sach. I wasn't about to start over with the amount of hours I've already put into this career.

Karim · 08-28-2004, 03:56 AM

August 30th
------------
Canada beats the US, 6-1 in Game 1 of the World Cup. Lindros is first star with a hattrick. Iginla didn't even make the starting lineup.

Slovakia beats Russia, 3-2. Gaborik is first star with two goals.

Montreal offers an exhibition game at the Bell Centre. I accept. That's 8 exhibition games which should be enough to evaluate my goaltenders and young players.

I have two many left sided defencemen. I get a coaches report on both Toni Lydman and Denis Gauthier. They all feel Gauthier should be put on the block so I comply. Suddenly, 12 NHL teams are interested. I also make an inquiry about Markus Krahnberg of Carolina. (I didn't even know until now this feature was available.)

Sweden beats Germany, 1-0. Tommy Salo is first star with the shutout. Nilson didn't make the starting lineup.

Carolina doesn't have an interest in trading Krahnberg. This is realistic. He's a good prospect they just signed from Europe and they'll want to see what he can do at the NHL level. It would take a substantial offer to get them to budge.

Czech Republic beats Finland, 3-1. Jagr is first star with a goal. None of the Flames are in the lineup. It might have something to do with my grueling off-season training regimen I've had them going through.

Canada beats Slovakia, 5-3. Heatley is first star with a goal and an assist. I've ruined Iginla, and any other Flame, of making an impact in the World Cup with off-season training.

USA beats Russia, 5-4 on an OT goal by Tkachuk, who was first star. Leopold got in the game but only had a 6 rating.

Andy Moog has signed as an Assistant Coach with the Oilers.

I've noticed that no team is interested in Gauthier any longer. Man that was quick.

Sweden beat Finland, 5-4. Naslund was first star with a goal and two assists. Nieminen had an 8 rating.

Czech Republic beat Germany, 6-1. Hejduk was first star with a goal and assist.

Claude Lemieux has joined Los Angeles as an Assistant Coach. And he looks to be a damn good one too, much better than Yzerman.

USA beats Slovakia, 2-1. Erik Cole is first star with a goal and an 8 rating. Leopold is totally gassed.

Canada beats Russia, 6-2. Heatley is first star with a natural hattrick in the third period. Iginla gets a goal and an 8 rating.

Sweden beats the Czech Rublic, 7-3. Naslund is first star with 3 points.

Finland beats Germany, 2-1. Jere Lehtonen was first star. Nieminen posts another 8 rating.

Minnesota is offering F Richard Park (28) for D Denis Gauthier (28) and a 6th Round Pick in 2007. I reject the trade.

World Cup Quarterfinal
Sweden beats Germany, 4-2. Kim Jonsson is first star with a point and a 9 rating.

Canada beats Russia, 6-4. Dany Heatley was first star with another hattrick. Iginla had an assist and a 7 rating.

Czech Republic beats Finland, 3-2. Patrick Elias was first star with two goals. Nieminen had an assist and an 8 rating. Looks like he gets up for big games.

USA beats Slovakia, 6-3. Adam Deadmarsh is first star with four points and a 10 rating. Leopold only plays four minutes for a 6 rating.

Exhibition Game 1: vs. Anaheim
I'm going to play these games out. While I was waiting for the patch, I was playing a LLaMa career, playing out games in full and found it to be easier to assess player performance. I'll do this for the exhibition season and maybe early in the year but there's no way I'll be doing that for the entire season.

I think it's finally time to show my entire roster. Following Quicksand's layout:

2004-2005 Calgary Flames

Postion	Name	Ht	Wt	Age	Nation	Contract	Top Attributes
G	Marco Buhrer	5'10"	178	24	Swi	475,000	Teamwork, Flair, Agility
G	Martin Gerber	6'0"	194	30	Swi	550,000	Teamwork, Glove, Stickhandling
G	Miikka Kiprusoff	6'0"	189	27	Fin	975,000	Positioning, Glove, Rebound Control
G	Brent Krahn	6'4"	200	22	Can	140,000	Determination, Glove, Anticipation
G	Curtis McElhinney	6'3"	211	21	Can	130,000	Determination, Glove, Blocker

LD	Brennan Evans	6'3"	198	21	Can	130,000	Stamina, Strength, Teamwork
LD	Jonas Frogen	6'2"	198	24	Swe	220,000	Work Rate, Strength, Stamina
LD	Denis Gauthier	6'2"	224	28	Can	1,300,000	Aggression, Checking, Strength
LD	Jordan Leopold	6'0"	202	24	USA	900,000	Checking, Passing, Stickhandling
LD	Toni Lydman	6'2"	194	26	Fin	1,700,000	Checking, Stamina, Work Rate
LD	Robyn Regehr	6'3"	233	24	Can	1,200,000	Strength, Checking, Positioning
LD	Sheldon Souray	6'4"	222	28	Can	1,600,000	Slapshot, Wristshot, Positioning
RD	Andrew Ference	5'10"	198	25	Can	550,000	Acceleration, Speed, Stamina
RD/RW	Steve Montador	6'0"	209	24	Can	425,000	Hitting, Checking, Positioning
RD	Rhett Warrener	6'1"	213	28	Can	1,800,000	Checking, Pokecheck, Work Rate

LW	Josh Bonar	6'2"	189	20	Can	250,000	Flair, Off The Puck, Passing
LW/RW	Martin Gelinas	5'11"	194	34	Can	2,400,000	Teamwork, Influence, Balance
LW/RW	Mike Gellard	6'0"	191	25	Can	120,000	Off The Puck, Checking, Influence
LW/C	Michael Lambert	6'2"	196	20	Can	90,000	Determination, Acceleration, Stamina
LW	Liam MacEachern	6'0"	194	26	Can	80,000	Agility, Acceleartion, Influence
LW	Ville Nieminen	6'0"	198	27	Fin	650,000	Stickhandling, Checking, Pokecheck
LW/C	Steve Reinprecht	6'0"	194	28	Can	1,500,000	Wristshot, Speed, Acceleration
LW/RW	Chris Simon	6'4"	235	32	Can	1,500,000	Aggression, Bravery, Strength
LW/C/RW	Lars Erik Spets	5'11"	209	19	Nor	170,000	Determination, Stamina, Work Rate

C	Chris Hodgson	6'1"	222	20	Can	250,000	Stamina, Acceleration, Balance
C/LW	Matthew Lombardi	5'11"	198	22	Can	500,000	Speed, Off The Puck, Work Rate
C/RW	Jarret Lukin	5'11"	183	20	Can	250,000	Stamina, Flair, Influence
C/RW	Joel Lundqvist	6'1"	194	22	Swe	300,000	Stamina, Deflections, Faceoffs
C	Matthew Myers	6'1"	202	19	Gbr	130,000	Deflections, Stamina, Bravery
C/LW	Brad Richards	6'1"	196	24	Can	1,800,000	Speed, Acceleration, Stamina
C/LW	Stephane Yelle	6'1"	194	30	Can	1,600,000	Faceoffs, Pokecheck, Checking

RW/C	Mark Bell	6'3"	202	24	Can	1,200,000	Stamina, Strength, Hitting
RW/LW	Chris Clark	6'0"	198	28	USA	775,000	Aggression, Hitting, Strength
RW/C	Jarome Iginla	6'1	209	27	Can	7,500,000	Slapshot, Wristshot, Stickhandling
RW	Chuck Kobasew	6'0"	194	22	Can	1,200,000	Stamina, Speed, Acceleration
RW/RD/LD	Darren Lynch	5'11"	222	21	Can	90,000	Stamina, Slapshot, Wristshot
RW/LW	Markus Nilson	6'2"	194	26	Swe	1,000,000	Teamwork, Work Rate, Speed
RW	Jed Ortmeyer	6'1"	174	26	USA	825,000	Teamwork, Determination, Work Rate
RW/LW	Jarkko Ruutu	6'2"	207	29	Fin	775,000	Aggression, Strength, Agility
RW	Dan Tudin	6'0"	194	26	Can	80,000	Checking, Work Rate, Stamina

I'm going to give Marco Buhrer the start against Anaheim and go with kids throughout the lineup. News on the tactics screen. Players instructions travel with the player instead of by position. It's only within "units" however. So if you move a player from the first to second line, his instructions travel. However you'll have to set the specialty teams separately which makes sense. This change is so HUGE and can't be understated.

The lines:
Lombardi - Lundqvist - Kobasew
Bonar - Lambert - Spets
Nieminen - Myers - Ortmeyer
Clark - Hodgson - Lukin

Frogen - Montador
Lydman - Gauthier
Evans - Ference

Buhrer
Kiprusoff

Cool. The new option for customized rink graphics work. A nice little immersive touch to see Saddledome ice.

Anaheim starts in goal Michael Vuorio, a 20 year old they drafted this year. Although they have more regulars in than me, they're trying youngsters out too. Again, another thumbs up.

First Period
This is seriously awesome. Myers has a 19 in deflections and sure enough, our first couple of great chances come off of a point shot deflections by Myers. We score first with Ortmeyer on a heavy forecheck stripping the puck and feeding Nieminen in the left circle who pops it in while Myers was causing havoc in front. That line had sustained pressure in Anaheim's zone. Chris Hodgson then drops the gloves with Jason Krog, obviously trying to make an impression. Lukin is being man-handled and looks out of place. He gives up the puck numerious times although for some reason finishes the first period with a 7 rating. Lundqvist, on the other hand, looks great but gets a 6 rating. It takes Anaheim nine minutes before they get their first shot of goal off of a Lukin giveaway. A "beautiful glove save" is made by Buhrer. Buhrer's glove is working tonight as he stops Josh Gratton on a breakaway just after our second line generated a chance but forgot to backcheck. Frogren played great on the PK, using his strength against Fedorov. He doesn't seem to be intimidated in any way and used his strength unlike Lydman, who got knocked off the puck a few times.

Second Period
Ference to Spets and a long feed pass to Bonar on a breakaway and score. Myers shows his bravery blocking an Ozolinsh point shot. Buhrer impresses by another fast glove after giving up a rebound to Josh Gratton but Gratton gets his revenge by setting up Niedermayer for a backhand goal. Our second line was on the ice at the time and clearly they're not defensively aware. Frogren is impressing on defence and Lundqvist is 58% in the faceoff circle, generating chances off of the draw. It's Lydman that's still puzzling to me and I'm wondering if it's Lydman that should be on the block as I had initially thought last season. Lukin has a 7 rating after 9 shifts but no stats to speak of. The commentary suggested he was giving the puck away but he has a zero under giveaways.

Third Period
Buhrer robs Niedermayer with the glove after a Montador giveaway. Our second line create a chance and Spets has an open net but can't finish. Lombardi spots Kobasew on a breakaway but Chuckie can't finish either. Lambert works a give-and-go with Spets but again no finish. Later, a point shot from Montador sees Myers deflect it in from right in front of the net. Nice to see the Brit score. He certainly doesn't mind getting into the high traffic areas. Our goalie's in a grove with another highlight reel glove hand save off of Niedermayer to end the game. The final is 3-1 Calgary. Nieminen is first star, Buhrer is second star and Niedermayer is third star. Buhrer, Evans, Frogren, Myers, Bonar and Spets all end up with 8 ratings while Lambert and Lundqvist end up with 7. All that's been resolved is that Lukin is being demoted.

Johnny93g · 08-28-2004, 11:48 AM

Its great to see the off-season fixed so its playable....Ya, it still worries me that Yzerman is now an assistant coach....NOT with the Wings.....Did he officially retire?

Karim · 08-28-2004, 03:19 PM

He didn't officially retire... at least, I wasn't made aware of it through a news report.

Karim · 08-29-2004, 02:00 AM

September 10th, 2004
--------------------------------
I've demoted F Chris Hodgson (20) and F Jarret Lukin (20) to Las Vegas of the ECHL. I also send D Brennan Evans (21) to Lowell of the AHL. He played well in the first exhibition game but there's no way he's going to crack the left side of our defence.

Mario Tremblay has been appointed as the Head Coach of Carolina.

Exhibition Game 2: vs. Colorado
I throw the young goaltenders to the wolves against Colorado. The top four of the defence stays the same but Regehr and Warrener are in. Tired forwards come in for replacements. New lines look like this:

Simon - Lundqvist - Kobasew
Bonar - Lambert - Spets
Gelinas - Reinprecht - Bell
Nieminen - Yelle - Ruutu

Frogen - Montador
Lydman - Gauthier
Regehr - Ference
Warener

Krahn
McElhinney

Although Sakic and Tanguay, both not on Team Canada, are in Colorado's lineup, the rest of the corps are a bunch of no-names, especially on defence and in goal.

Period 1
Krahn stops Sakic early on a giveaway by Montador. On a harmless looking play, Tanguary blows a wristshot by Krahn to make it 1-0. Kobasew sets up Simon at the top of the circle from well out after a rebound from a shot by Lundqvist to tie it up. Both goalies look shaky. Josh Bonar crushes Marek Svatos, feeds the puck to Lambert who then sends Spets in on a breakaway but again, Spets can't finish. That line seems to have a lot of chemistry and I'm thinking they should spend the year together in Lowell. Bonar continues to show a physical game I didn't know he had, muscling Bob Boughner off the puck to set up Lydman, but nothing comes of it. Simon gets his second of the game from Montador and Frogren on after a scramble in front of the Colorado goal. We outshoot Colorado 14-6 in the first.

Period 2
Nieminen strips the puck on the forecheck and feeds Ruutu who scores on a bad angle shot to make it 3-1. Lydman blocks a slapshot which opens my eyes. Sakic strips Frogren but Krahn saves the subsequent wristshot. He seems to have settled down a bit. Frogren, although lots of chances on the powerplay, is clearly a defensive defenceman. A fairly quiet second period see us leading Colorado 3-1 and outshooting them 21-14.

Period 3
Simon gets the puck on the forecheck and feeds Kobasew who rifles it into the top corner from the faceoff dot. That's what I like to see but clearly this young Colorado goalie, a fifth round pick, is out of his league. Another heavy forecheck sees Gelinas strip a Colorado defenceman of the puck, feed Bell and a 5-1 lead. Krahn robs Svatos on the powerplay with a "brilliant glove save" and has robbed Sakic all night. Simon dangles Hinote, feeds Kobasew whose shot is stopped but Simon puts the rebound the the five hole on the backhand for his hattrick. A 6-1 win on the basis of an overmatched goaltender for Colorado doesn't really tell us much. First star goes to Simon with a hattrick and four points and a 10 rating. Kobasew gets second star with three points and a 9 rating. Third star goes to Jarkko Ruutu with a goal and an 8 rating. What can I assess from this game? The line of Bonar-Lambert-Spets was really quiet against a weak Colorado lineup so I think their time with the big club is done. Krahn still looks like a 1st round draft pick but I don't want to rely on him. Frogren, despite two points tonight, I don't want manning the powerplay. And I'm still not sold on Lydman. Gauthier, despite limited upside and the coaches reports, still is more consistent. I'll have to make a decision before the waiver draft.

World Cup Semi-Finals
Czech Republic beat Sweden, 7-3. Petr Sykora was first star with a goal and three assists for a 10 rating.

Canada beat USA, 4-3 on a late goal by Shane Doan. Rob Blake was first star with two points and a 9 rating. What’s really shocking is I see that D Patrick Wellar (20) is on Team Canada. He’s an undrafted player who played for the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL, where he won four major year end awards. I was thinking about signing him but he wanted over $1 million. Dallas picked him up. His attributes are good but nowhere near what I would consider to be a regular in the NHL, let alone on Team Canada.

I send F Matthew Myers (19) to Las Vegas of the ECHL. Not good for his moral development but hopefully great for his hockey development. F Josh Bonar (20), F Michael Lamber (20), and F Lars Erik Spets (19) are demoted to Lowell of the AHL. I’m hoping their chemistry continues with lots of playing time.

Exhibition Game 3: @ Vancouver
I insert almost all of the regulars into the lineup. Gerber gets the start. My main goal is to see Lydman or Gauthier distinguish themselves and maybe spot some chemistry between a couple players.

Period 1
A couple of early warning signs - Nilson, Gauthier and Souray all get muscled off the pucks by eager young Canucks. Kobasew sends Lundqvist in on a breakaway but he's stoned by Auld. Lundqvist seems to be a complete player, responsible defensively but lacks finish. Kobasew does it again, but Lundqvist can't deke Auld on the second breakaway of the game. Lunqvist finishes a strong first period with a huge bodycheck on the bigger Bryan Allen. He tries to set up Kobasew but the pass is intercepted. Otherwise, it's a quiet first period.

Period 2
Naslund turns Warener inside out and goes in on a breakaway but Gerber stands his ground. On a powerplay, Lombardi sets up Kobasew for a slapshot from the point that finds the mark for a 1-0 lead. Lydman clears a sure goal after the a Vancouver point shot hits the post on a powerplay after Gauthier took a penalty. However, our defence is generally playing lousy. Supposedly reliable guys are not getting it done against a no-name Vancouver squad. Clearly, it's an exhibition game and they're not in game shape. I hope.

Period 3
Lydman shows a little physical game by outmuscling a guy in the corner to clear the puck. Richards strips Sopel on the forecheck and blows a wrister by Auld to make it 2-0. Evgeny Gladskikh scores for Vancouver to make it 2-1; he's been all over the ice tonight. The last three minutes sees us keep Vancouver hemmed in their own zone and we hold on for a 2-1 win. Kobasew is first star with a goal and 8 rating. Gerber is second star with a 9 rating, which doesn't make my decision any easier. Gladskikh is third star. Both Gauthier and Lydman finish with an 8 rating. I think Frogren more than makes up for Gauthier. Lydman seems to do ok as a fifth defenceman, where he doesn't need to carry the load. Montador might be the odd-man out. I'll have to see who I'll need to protect for the waiver draft.

I have 22 players eligible for the waiver draft. If Buhrer is our backup goalie, it's likely I'd lose Gerber if unprotected. Montador on defence and one of Clark/Ortmeyer/Nieminen will be left exposed in the forward ranks. In terms of asset management, it would be better to trade Gerber for at least a draft pick. I set Gerber's status to available.

World Cup Final
Canada beats the Czech Republic, 3-2, in a shootout. In four attempts, both teams had scored twice. Jagr missed on the Czech's fifth shot while Lecavalier scored for Canada. Iginla scored Canada's second goal and was second star of the game. Apparently, the final was held at the Pengrowth Saddledome - if only that were true.

Exhibition Game 4: vs. Vancouver
I'm going to give the start to 21 year old Curtis McElhinney now that he's no longer tired to see what he can do. Krahn will be his backup and afterwards both will be reassigned. Iginla's back from the World Cup so we'll see how he and Richards and him get back together. I've decided to put Nilson on the first line to maybe jump start him offensively unlike last season. Reinprecht and Bell are also together to hopefully create some chemistry although Bell and Richards worked well last year.

Period 1
Vancouver has its 'A' lineup in. Bell clearly plays better on right wing than center. He hits Jovanovski, strips the buck and fires a backhand but the post denies him. McElhinney makes a highlight reel glove save off of Kris Beech. Richards and Iginla set up Ruutu who is subsequently robbed by Cloutier. Henrik Sedin trips Simon on a breakaway but only a two minute penalty is the result. An even period.

Period 2
Simon gets his revenge by scoring on the subsequent powerplay, set up from Reinprecht. A brilliant glove save by McElhinney off of Jovanovski right from the faceoff. Cloutier does the same off of Richards. Morrison is then robbed by our goalie again. It's a shooting gallery but the goalies are coming to play. Simon then gets kicked out of the game for a knee-on-knee hit on Kyle Wanvig. We do a good job killing off the five minutes only to see Bertuzzi score right as the penalty was over off of a rebound. 1-1 after two.

Period 3
Yuck. As Lydman was trying to exit the zone, Daniel Sedin lifts his stick, strips the puck and roofs it over McElhinney. 2-1 Vancouver. Lundqvist does the same thing moments later, sets up Iginla for a slapshot but he rings it off the post. Two plays in a row that lead to scoring chances for Vancouver resulted from Lydman being stripped of the puck. Late in the third Souray gets an injury that's reported as serious. His profile says head injury so that doesn't sound good. I move Regehr into Souray's slot and he promptly crushes Bertuzzi with a bodycheck. Arvedsson scores in the empty net but with 12 seconds left, Lundqvist scores on the man advantage on a tip from a Regehr point shot. 3-2 Vancouver is the final. We were outshot 31-20 but were 2/5 on the powerplay. McElhinney had an 8 rating and really impressed. He gets the spot in the AHL; Krahn goes to the ECHL. Souray's injury is just a facial laceration and he'll only be out for a few days.

I see that Ottawa and some other teams have returned some of their 18 year olds back to junior. I'm glad to see this as a lot of youngsters have been signed and I'm hoping they are all not thrown to the wolves. G Marc-Andre Fleury (19) has been sent back to Cape Breton by Pittsburgh.

Simon gets suspended for 3 games for his kneeing incident.

Exhibtion Game 5: @ Montreal
Buhrer gets the start. I'm going to try something that worked in my LLaMa career. Everyone is tactically set to Shoot, Carry the Puck, Join the Rush and Simple Passes, Play Defensive, Skate, Crash the Net and Hit, Hit, Hit. Everyone is defaulted to shoot first and ask questions later. Everyone has the green light to go but not to try risky passes. We'll see what happens.

Period 1
Nilson strips Hainsey and feeds Reinprecht in the slot but only a highlight reel save by Marc Denis keeps the game scoreless. It was a very physical period with few chances.

Period 2
[The coach keeps playing Iginla at center for some reason. At least that's what the tactical view shows.] Lombardi feeds Kobasew who slaps it hard and Lundqvist tips it home. Just the way I drew it up. Yelle feeds Iginla for a breakaway and Jarome puts it top shelf for his first of the pre-season and a 2-0 lead. Denis robs Lundqvist who was fed from Lombardi off the forecheck. Buhrer can't control the rebound and Zednik pounces with a powerplay goal to bring it to 2-1. Kobasew is on his game and is generating chances but is stopped by Denis. Scott Barney ties it up on another powerplay goal; a screened shot that finds the mark.

Period 3
An early powerplay sees Denis continue to stone Kobasew. Regehr rings one off the post, Gelinas picks up the rebound but is muscled off the puck by Dykhuis. Buhrer gives up a couple rebounds and only his quick glove hand saves him. Hossa dangles Leopold and a quick wristshot finds the mark making it three unanswered goals by Montreal. A powerplay sees Iginla deflect a Leopold point shot to tie the game. And it finishes in a 3-3 tie.

JeffNights · 08-29-2004, 02:11 AM

Does Nobody drop the gloves in your Universe or what?

Karim · 08-29-2004, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffNights

Does Nobody drop the gloves in your Universe or what?

I think there's only be three fights so far in the pre-season games. The rookie Hodgson I mentioned earlier who has since been demoted and Chris Clark a couple times. Pretty inconsequential though.

Karim · 08-29-2004, 06:32 AM

September 21st, 2004
--------------------------------
Most of those 18 year olds that were signed have been sent back to their junior clubs. Good.

Montreal trades D Patrice Brisebois (33) to Carolina for the rights to D Ilkka Kallioinen (22).

One of my recent draft picks, D Grant Lewis (19), who plays for Dartmouth, is unhappy. He wants to move to a stronger team. I don't want to sign him until he turns 20 in January, after which I'll be able to assign him to the AHL. Meanwhile, 11 NHL teams have taken an interest in him.

Lundqvist will be out for a few days with a thigh contusion suffered in practice.

Exhibition Game 6: @ Edmonton
Buhrer starts in Rexall place. Kiprusoff will start the remaining games. I'm not playing these out. We win 3-2. [The bad news is that the coach made an unwanted substitution. I had dressed 7 defencemen. He dressed 8 and took Clark out. I don't like this at all.]

Atlanta and Dallas are still interested in Gauthier. There isn't anything from either roster that I could realistically get that would interest me. I don't have a second round pick in this year's draft so I offer Gauthier to Atlanta for their second pick. As soon as I do, Dallas comes in with an offer of Stu Barnes straight up for Gauthier. This is a very good offer except for the fact that Barnes is five years older, makes $1.5 million more than Denis and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. He would provide depth at center where we are weak and he's the exact type of player we're looking for. He looks better than Gelinas whose skills seem to be on the decline. I accept even though it'll put be $1 million over our salary cap. Atlanta rejected our trade anyway. As soon as I confirm the trade, Barnes wants immediate assurances as to his future. I tell him he's a core player. Nieminen, Ortmeyer and Clark are going to be struggling to see the ice.

Each of my coaches suggest that G Marco Buhrer (24) isn't good enough to play for the Calgary Flames. They don't like Nieminen, Frogren, Lundqvist or Ortmeyer either. They feel I'm overrating Stu Barnes.

Our defensive prospect, D Tim Ramholt (19), has won Defensive Player of the Month in the QMJHL with 15 points in 7 games and an average rating of 8.57.

Exhbition Game 7: vs. Edmonton
Kipper starts. I also need to get Barnes playing time since he wasn't seeing action in Dallas. We lose 6-4. Again, the coach switched things on me, dressing eight defencemen when I only wanted six. The news got worse. Steve Reinprecht will be out for two months with a dislocated shoulder. Good thing I made the trade for Barnes.

The Waiver Draft is about to take place. Only Nieminen is unprotected.

Chicago selects D Shawn Heins (30) from Atlanta.
Columbus selects G Ray Emery (22) from Ottawa.
Edmonton selects D Eric Cairns (30) from NY Islanders.
Toronto selects G Scott Clemmensen (27) from New Jersey.
Pittsburgh selects F Jan Hlavac (28) from NY Rangers.
Washington selects D Radek Martinek (28) from NY Islanders.
Phoenix selects F Dan Lacouture (27) from NY Rangers.
Pittsburgh selects F Ville Nieminen (27) from Calgary.
Calgary selects D Nolan Pratt (29) from Pittsburgh. D Steve Montador (24) is unprotected. I have more depth on the right side of the defence now.

I demote Montador to Lowell. I place G Martin Gerber (30) on waivers. I sent G Curtis McElhinney (21) from Lowell to Las Vegas because there's a stockpile of goalies in Lowell from both Calgary and Carolina. I also demote D Jonas Frogren (24) to Lowell. I really didn't want to but we simply have too much depth on the left side of the defence and he can be demoted without being placed on waivers. With Reinprecht's long term injury, I need Lundqvist on the roster.

Good old F Clarke Wilm (27) has signed on with Buffalo.

Since it's now October, I send all my scouts to watch my unsigned prospects and the 200 ISS ranked players for the NHL Entry Draft.

Exhibition Game 8: vs. Minnesota
Kipper starts. Andrew Ference is a healthy scratch. A defensive struggle that ends in a 1-1 tie. Barnes and Pratt both end up with 8 ratings. Souray suffered a cut hand and will be out a few days. Regardless what my coaches have said, Lundqvist has earned a spot with his play in the pre-season.
Ortmeyer suffers a thigh contusion in practice and will be out a week.

Columbus has claimed G Martin Gerber (30) from waivers.

Anaheim has offered their second round picks in 2005, 2006 and a third in 2007 for F Chuck Kobasew (22). No. It's interesting that they would approach even though I have listed him as untouchable.

klayman · 08-29-2004, 11:36 AM

Are you keeping Dion at Red Deer this year?

Karim · 08-29-2004, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klayman

Are you keeping Dion at Red Deer this year?

That was my intention but I really don't know if it's the best move. He's still 19 and although I've brought one 19 year old in (Spets), I really don't like playing guys under 20. Even then, I was planning on him playing at least one full year in the AHL before having a shot at the big club. I don't like to rush my prospects at all.

However, both him and Grant Lewis (a potentially very good offensive defenceman from Dartmouth) are unsure about their futures. I'd like to be able to tell them something but I can't.

I just have too many left defencemen. Regehr is one of them but I'm playing him on the right side. Tim Ramholt, a second rounder, is another left defensive prospect who is close.

JeffNights · 08-29-2004, 05:10 PM

Karim another question

i played the free ehm alot.
when you sim out the games is it like giving you the play by play text.

also, i for one as reader of this dynasty would like the fight recaps too. and get a heavy

Johnny93g · 08-29-2004, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffNights

Karim another question

i played the free ehm alot.
when you sim out the games is it like giving you the play by play text.

also, i for one as reader of this dynasty would like the fight recaps too. and get a heavy

Ya exactly....the play by play text is similar with more detail...and you can view more stats when simming the games

Karim · 08-29-2004, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffNights

Karim another question

i played the free ehm alot.
when you sim out the games is it like giving you the play by play text.

also, i for one as reader of this dynasty would like the fight recaps too. and get a heavy

Just like Johnny said, the play by play commentary flashes on the screen. It's up to you to make sense of it in terms of deciding who's doing well or poorly on the ice.

Well, Chris Simon had a heavyweight tilt against Jason Weimer in our last exhibition game against Minnesota. The only problem is that I've yet to see any find to determine who won the fight. I know Fights Won and Lost are kept as stats but I don't see any way to determine the winner of the fight you just watched or simmed.

Simon is my heavyweight for now. I'd prefer team toughness. Everyone has the green light to drop the gloves however, and like last season, I suspect we'll once again lead the league in penalty minutes.

sachmo71 · 08-29-2004, 07:55 PM

One of the best fights I've seen was Bill Guerin against Jarome Iginla.

Karim · 08-30-2004, 03:54 AM

October 8th, 2004
------------------
I forgot to mention a couple trades that happened before the waiver draft.

Edmonton trades F Ethan Moreau (29) to Washington for the rights to F Andrew Joudrey (20).

Chicago trades F Travis Moen (22) to St. Louis for the rights to D Robin Jonsson (20).

Top 10 ISS Pre-liminary Rankings for the 2005 NHL Entry Draft:

1. C Sidney Crosby - Rimouski
2. LW Mika Halava - Assat Jrs.
3. C Daniel Ryder - Belleville
4. LD Carl Gunnarsson - Lulea
5. LD Matt Lashoff - Kitchener
6. RW Jussi Peltomaa - Assat Jrs.
7. C/LW Andrew Cogliano - St. Michaels
8. RW/LW Gilbert Brule - Vancouver
9. LD/RD Andrei Zubarev - Salavat Yulajev
10. C Sean O'Connor - Erie

[I'm constantly being informed of trades, trade proposals and trade rejections in the CHL and I don't know why. The players have no connection to my organization, nor do they have a high reputation. Instead, I wish I would be informed of NHL trades, even minor ones, than having to hunt them down in the transactions list.]

Game 1: vs. Dallas
Reinprecht is out for two months with a shoulder separation. Ortmeyer is day-to-day. Simon is suspended for three games. Here are my opening day lines:

Gelinas - Richards - Iginla
Nilson - Barnes - Bell
Lombardi - Lundqvist - Kobasew
Ruutu - Yelle - Clark

Leopold - Regehr
Souray - Warener
Lydman - Pratt

Kiprusoff
Buhrer

I'll be playing this one out in full because it's unfortunate that the patch has worsened the coach's intereference of the lineup. I'll try not to be too verbose and only include relevant highlights as opposed to every scoring chance.

For sachmo, here's Dallas' starting lineup:

Guerin - Primeau - Amonte
V. Bure - Arnott - Morrow
Tomica - Turgeon - Grosek
Downey - Ott - Sloan

Therien - Staios
Gauthier - Boucher
McGillis - Patrick Wellar

Passmore
Turco

Bell strips Gauthier and feeds Richards in the slot for our first good scoring chance but Passmore is up to the task even though he gives up a rebound. Gauthier takes a penalty to give us a two-man advantage for one minute but cannot muster any more than a few shots on goal. Guerin gets injured and is out of the game. With the fourth lines on, Blake Sloan scores on the backhand to give Dallas a 1-0 lead. The fourth line dominates on its next shift again, and only a brilliant glove save prevents it from being 2-0. Iginla is robbed by a post on a powerplay. Lombardi strips Staios and feed Kobasew whose wrister from the right faceoff circle finds the net to tie the game. On the next shift, Kobasew feed Gelinas in the slot who roofs it to make it 2-1. Two goals in 1:09. Bell scores on a backhand off of a rebound from a shot by Nilson to make it 3-1. Three goals in 1:35. Gauthier looks nervous as he's stripped of the puck again, this time by Yelle who gets a shot on goal. Primeau counters quickly by stripping Pratt of the puck and back-handing it stick side past Kiprusoff to make it 3-2. Four goals in 3:24. Morrow feed Arnott on a breakaway and the game is tied 3-3. Chris Clark and Aaron Downey drop the gloves to start the third. With our sixth powerplay opportunity, Kobasew feeds Lombardi in the slot who buries it to give us a 4-3 lead. Barnes takes a penalty mid-way through the third but we're able to kill it off. Arnott has a monstrous shift and is all over our zone before finally burying the puck to tie the game 4-4. Late in the third we get another two-man advantage. Kobasew is robbed by Passmore but we can't muster a goal. Amonte and Iginla trade chances in overtime but the game ends up tied 4-4. We outshot Dallas 30-19 but were only 1/8 on the powerplay and were outhit 28-16. Kobasew has a goal, two assists and a 10 rating but is shut out of the three stars. Arnot is first star. Yelle is -3. Kiprusoff gets a 5 rating. I decide it's too early in the season to warn him. Attendance for opening night is only 11,537. WTF?

James Dolan has informed that Glen Sather's job is safe in New York. San Jose loses its opener 9-1 to Columbus and the board informs Doug Wilson that he better start producing some results. A couple days later before San Jose plays again, Wilson is fired.

Game 2: @ Colorado
The goalie fatigue issue has been fixed so Kipper gets a chance to redeem himself. Although Ortmeyer is now healthy, I don't make any lineup changes.

A long outlet pass to spring Kobasew who beats Aebischer low on the stick side to pack it 1-0. Pratt takes a penalty for charging Forsberg. Forsberg then sets up Selanne for a goal on the powerplay. I'm informed that that's Forsberg 700th point for Colorado. [The coach is occasionally playing Iginla at center and moving Kobasew on his right wing. Fine. I'm not necessarily upset with that but I'd like to know in advance if the coach making his own decisions on the play is a feature.] Iginla is stopped on a breakaway - nothing new there if you've watched Iginla on breakaways before. On the other hand, Smolinski buries it on his own breakaway to make it 2-1. Lundqvist and Lombardi set up Iginla in the slot and if it wasn't for an amazing acrobatic save by Aebischer it would be tied. Lydman is crunched by Chris Gratton in our own zone which leads to a turnover and Nikolishin buries it. 3-1. That's Nikolishin's 100 NHL goal. Selanne scores again on the powerplay. Kiprusoff is at a 4 rating. Lundqvist high sticks Nikolishin in the slot and a penalty shot is awarded. 5-1. A line of Ruutu-Iginla-Clark produces a goal by Ruutu to make it 5-2 Colorado. I pull Kiprusoff at the end of the first. Buhrer comes in and makes some nice saves but then Lydman, as the last man back, coughs up the puck to Hejduk. 6-2. I bench Lydman. Clark drops the gloves with Boughner and falls down so it would seem Boughner won that fight. We get a four minute powerplay. Richards is stopped on a breakaway and that's it. Nilson and Barnes set up Iginla for a backhand goal to make it 6-3. Lydman has a 7 rating but Pratt has a 5 so Pratt is now the one who is benched for the third. Nilson sets up Barnes who buries it top shelf to bring us to within two. Buhrer robs both Forsberg and Tanguay with his quick glove which is easily his best asset. Forsberg later scores to make it 7-4 Colorado. Richards gets another breakaway and he tries to pass it off to Iginla but of course, it doesn't work. Tanguay's move works though, and it's 8-4. Clark gets a breakaway pass from Yelle in the dying seconds but nothing. An 8-4 Colorado victory. We were outshot only 34-28 but gave up three powerplay goals and were outhit 35-12. Yelle, Lydman and Pratt were a combined -9. Pratt gets a 5 rating and Kiprusoff gets a 4 rating. Both get warnings from me. Pratt thinks I was unfair, feels he was brought in under false pretenses and is now unhappy. Kiprusoff accepts his warning.

The Globe and Mail praises Sidney Crosby. In other news, Glen Sather has been fired. Chuck Kobasew wins NHL Offensive Player of the Week. Ed Jovanovski wins NHL Defensive Player of the Week. His attributes look like Bobby Orr - a total of eleven physical or technical categories in which he's rated 20.

One of my prospects, F Thomas Bellemare (20) of Chicoutimi, is coming under fire by the local press for his sub-par performances. He's nothing more than a fourth line goon.

Karim · 08-30-2004, 06:04 AM

(duplicate post)

Karim · 08-30-2004, 04:24 PM

October 14, 2004
-------------------
Game 3: @ Minnesota
Buhrer gets the start and Ference is in for Pratt. Ortmeyer is in for Clark. Some tactical changes after that debacle in Colorado.

The kid line creates our first great chance but Fernandez is equal to the task. Bouchard is through with a breakaway but is stopped by Buhrer but then Bouchard gets the rebound and feeds Zyuzin on the point who's slapshot hits the post - Daigle is there with an open net but Lundqvist crushes him with a hit to prevent a goal. Lombardi, Lundqvist and Kobasew connect together on a Lombardi powerplay goal to make it 1-0. A devastating blow as Kobasew goes down injured late in the first. It appears to be a shoulder injury. With our fourth line on the ice, Pascal Dupuis scores early in the second to tie the game on what appeared to be a harmless looking play. Bordeleau scores on the powerplay to take the lead, 2-1. Ortmeyer answers 21 seconds later from Yelle and Richards. Regeher and Weimer have at it and it appears Regehr loses that heavyweight tilt. Ortmeyer is denied his second of the game by the post. We do nothing on a two man advantage for over a minute. Dupuis ties up Regehr, feeds Zyuzin on the point for a slapshot and it's 3-2 Minnesota. Bordeleau seals it with an empty net goal. 4-2 Minnesota. Iginla and Gelinas had 6 ratings. It's clear that the Gelinas-Richards-Iginla line has no chemistry. Kobasew will be out for four months with a separated shoulder. I place Kobasew on injured reserve (which didn't happen automatically like other injuries from some strange reason) and call up Steve Montador from the minors.

I'm tired of playing these games out in full; it's no where near the quality of CM's in-game design. I'll be simming from here on out.

A story from the Toronto Star claims St. Michael's center, Andrew Cogliano, has a bright future. St. Mike's GM, Dan Auchenberg, replied that he still has a lot to learn.

Nolan Pratt indicates that he feels he made the wrong decision in joining the Flames.

Game 4: vs. Buffalo
Kiprusoff starts. No change on defence. Simon is back in and takes the spot vacated by Kobasew's injury. Simon plays on the first line and Gelinas is demoted to the fourth line. I also remove the defensive mentality I've used so far.

We win 5-3 in front of only 9,450 people. Something is seriously wrong. This has already begun to affect my finances; this is a gate driven league after all.

We scored three unanswered goals before giving up three straight to Buffalo. Iginla scored the winner on his second of the game with 1:29 left. The fifth goal was an empty netter from Nilson.

NY Islanders trade D Anders Eriksson (29) to Columbus for the rights to F Jeremy Colliton (19).

Game 5: vs. Vancouver
Kipper starts. I decide to insert Pratt back into the lineup. Clark is in for Ortmeyer.

We lose 5-3 in front of 10,425. Kiprusoff had another 4 rating and Pratt another 5. I place Pratt on waivers and warn Kiprusoff.

The attendance bug, something I never had with 1.0.1, was supposed to have been fixed with this patch. I'm wondering if this a residual effect from a saved career. Of course I didn't mention that on the SI boards because they'll say of course that's the problem. I wonder if I should start a new career. I think a leason learned is to wait for SI's second patch before starting a serious career or even buying the game. I experienced the same thing with the first version of CM4 - let the masses of users who buy immediately do the bug finding, wait for the second or third patch, and then buy the game. Anything else is a recipe for frustration.

Karim · 08-31-2004, 08:40 AM

October 18th, 2004
-------------------
Kiprusoff accepts his warning without comment.

Minnesota have appointed Mario Lemieux as an Assistant Coach.

My sixth round pick, F Scott McCulloch (18), who I took a flyer on after an injury plague season, gets praise from the Regina Leader Post, saying the youngster has a promising future.

Minnesota's Sebastien Bordeleau wins Offensive Player of the Week. LA's Mattias Norstrom wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Sidney Crosby gets more media praise. A report indicates that it's just a matter of time before a big team comes in and grabs him - clearly a report remnant of the CM game. A big team cannot come in and grab him. His GM says he thinks Crosby will succeed at the highest levels.

Former Phoenix coach, Bob Francis, is appointed General Manager of San Jose. Doug Wilson takes over the reigns in New York.

Columbus claims Nolan Pratt off of waivers.

Game 6: vs. Nashville
Buhrer starts. Ference in for Pratt.

A 2-2 tie in front 9,429. We outshoot Nashville 30-16. Lundqvist scores his first of the year. Clark is the only player with a 6 rating. Vancouver is also having attendance problems. This is clearly a bug.

Game 7: @ Vancouver
Buhrer starts. Ortmeyer in for clark. Back to a defensive mentality.

We win 6-2. 11,342 at GM Place. Stats are fairly even but Andrew Ference has a goal and three assists. Ference, Richards, Iginla and Bell all get 10 ratings. Arguably this is the best game we played since I've been in control. The Board is pleased. Gelinas looks like he's done, with another 6 rating. Age catches up with everyone. Warner suffers a broken wrist and will be out for three weeks.

Game 8: vs. Minnesota
Kipper starts. Montador is in for Warener. Thinking like a GM, Gelinas and his big contract remain in.

A 4-1 win at home in front of 9,388. The Board is pleased. Leopold has a three point night and a 10 rating. Gelinas will be out for a few days with a cut hand.

I get a news report that Boston is offereing F Andy Hilbert (23) to the New York Rangers in exchange for F Jaromir Jagr (32) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2006. It's strange I would get a report about a trade proposal; I suppose I can imagine it to be a trade rumour. Somehow I don't think Hilbert alone is enough to get this deal done.

Tampa Bay trades the rights to D Jonas Jakobsen (20) to the New York Rangers for F Pavel Bure (33) and an 8th Round Pick in 2005. I wasn't informed of this trade.

Peter Forsberg wins Offensive Player of the Week. Mike Dunham wins Defensive Player of the week.

Game 9: vs. St. Louis
Kiprusoff starts. Chris Clark in for Martin Gelinas, who has started the season poorly.

We lose 2-0 in front of 9,642. Game stats are similar for both teams so it would seem it was just one of those nights. Richards suffers a twisted knee and will be out 10 days. Our injuries are really starting to mount up. I now have only 20 healthy bodies on the 23 man roster. I refuse to bring anyone else up however. No one on the farm would step into the lineup and if they can't do that, I'd much rather have them playing in Lowell.

A media pundit suggests that my defensive prospect, Tim Ramholt, continues to get better every game and is turning into a quality player. Cape Breton's GM says he still has a lot to learn and now Ramholt is unhappy, saying he'd appreciate a little encouragement from his GM. Several NHL and European teams are interested in his services.

Mark Parrish (NYI) wins Offensive Player of the Month.
Rob Blake (Col) wins Defensive Player of the Month.
Josh Gorges (SJ) wins Rookie of the Month.

Game 10: vs. Columbus
Kipper starts as it seems he's finally coming around. With Richards and Reinprecht both out, Lombardi becomes our number one center. Without Lombardi and Kobasew on his wings, I demote Lundqvist to the fourth line and give more playing time to Yelle.

We win 3-2 in front of 9,544. Bell scores two goals and is first star. Lombardi does nothing on the top line but our defense is really solid so far this year. Not only are they posting consistent 7s and 8s, we're getting offensive production from them too, especially Andrew Ference. Lydman is looking more comfortable as a #5. It seems he just isn't cut out to handle heavy minutes.

The Board informs me that they are delighted with my performance and our finances are extremely secure. After 10 games we are .500, sitting in 9th place, 2 points out of a playoff spot.

I set Martin Gelinas as available due to financial reasons. I'd like to unload his salary and get something for him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

Karim · 08-31-2004, 02:04 PM

I just found out that the attendance bug will gradually correct itself as the game proceeds. It may take a few seasons but it will balance out. I'm glad to hear that it isn't a permanent problem.

With that out of the way, my only remaining concern is a June 30th, game processing crash that I've read about. Some people are having problems with it; SI has duplicated the crash once and hopefully a fix will be available before I get to that point.

klayman · 08-31-2004, 05:13 PM

Just think of the low attendence figures as backlash from the fans for the lockout, even though it didn't happen. Fans can be picky

Karim · 09-01-2004, 11:46 AM

Sounds good. I'm trying not to look at the attendance figures.

Karim · 09-01-2004, 11:51 AM

November 2nd, 2004
--------------------
Carolina has placed D Bret Hedican (34) on waivers. Immediately several teams are interested and I'm sure he'll get picked up. Carolina had made him available due to financial reasons but apparently there have been no takers. He's making $3.8 million/year and has two years left in his contract.

Pittsburgh trades F Tom Kostopoulos (25) to Carolina for the rights to Ilya Krikunov (20) and a 9th Round Pick in 2005. Krikunov was a player on my draft board last season.

Richard Zednik (Mon) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Pavel Kubina (Tam) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 11: @ Montreal
The start of a six game road trip. Kipper starts. No change to the lineup.

We win 4-2. Gelinas has two goals and an assist for a 9 rating and first star. Simon and Ortmeyer get 6 ratings.

I offer the rights to five players to Anaheim for the rights to F Fredrik Naslund (18). Not surprisingly it is rejected. I try to get F Travis Zajac's rights from Ottawa for the same players but no luck there either.

Edmonton Oilers have claimed Bret Hedican off of waivers.

[BTW, the best skin I've found is Minstrel's Brushed Metal skin. Much, much better than the ugly blue skin the game comes with.]

Game 12: @ Ottawa
Kipper, at 90%, starts again. No lineup changes.

We lose 5-1 and are outshot 35-19. Iginla and Regehr are a -3. Simon, who was only at 86% going into the game, suffers a twisted knee and will be out a few days. I have no choice now but to call up F Darren Lynch (21).

Nashville place F Sergei Zholtok (31) on waivers.

I also have to recall D Jonas Frogren (24) from Lowell because it is clear that Regehr, currently at 72%, won't be ready for tomorrow's game.

Washington trades D Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre (27) to Los Angeles for D Denis Grebeshkov (21) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005.

Ottawa trades D Brian Pothier (27) to Nashville for the rights to F Paul Brown (20).

Game 13: @ Toronto
Kipper starts. Frogren is in for Regehr. Lynch is in for Simon.

We win 2-1 on an OT goal by Ruutu. Iginla missed a penalty shot in the first. Kipper gets a 9 rating. Lynch had 6:00 of icetime and finished with a 7 rating. Frogren had 14:28 of icetime, was +1, had two shots on goal and finished with a 7 rating.

Brad Richards is now back from his knee injury. I send Lynch back down.

Chicago Blackhawks have claimed Sergei Zholtok off of waivers.

Game 14: @ NY Islanders
Buhrer starts. Leopold is out (75%) and Regehr is back (86%). I decide to leave Lombardi on the first line with Richards and Iginla.

We win 7-5. New York took a 5-2 lead half way through the second after which we scored five unanswered goals. We outshot New York, 47-19. Buhrer let in all five goals on only nine shots and ended up with a 1 rating. Kiprusoff was put in after New York's fifth goal. Ouch. Iginla had two goals and two assist, and Souray had a goal and two assists, each for a 10 rating. The Board is pleased with the victory. I fine Buhrer one week's wages and he feels the fine was unfair. A '1' rating?

Olli Jokinen (Fla) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Daniel Tjarnqvist (Atl) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 15: @ Boston
Back-to-back games so Buhrer gets a chance to redeem himself. I thrown him in despite very low morale and being unhappy. No change to the lineup as both Leopold and Simon are not yet in condition to play.

We win 6-1 and score two powerplay goals. Iginla scores two and Buhrer gets an 8 rating. Frogren doesn't look out of place either with an 8. Lydman is +4 and has played incredibly well since I decided to cut back on his icetime (or since Gauthier was traded?). The Board is pleased with the win.

The media wants to know whether we're legitimate challengers for the Cup. I don't want to deny wanting the Cup because I fear that may make my team accept losing. I don't feel we're legitimate contenders however. If I decline to make a comment, the team may be wondering if I don't think they have what it takes. I therefore say that I expect the team to challenge for the Cup. This response delights the fans who apparently have the utmost respect for me and hope I remain at the helm for a long time. The Board is also pleased with my confidence and feel the Stanley Cup is a realistic possibility this season. Shit. Now the expectations have increased. My reputation is 'Very Good' and sits at 31st. My General Manager Points are at 72,107 and I only trail Brian Burke who is at 73,344. I have no idea how those points are calculated. My media comment doesn't seem to have any visible or noticeable affect on my roster as far as I can tell.

Karim · 09-03-2004, 01:27 AM

November 11th, 2004
-------------------------------
My scouts report on a Swedish forward by the name of Bjorn Melin, who they feel is a good prospect who could step in immediately. He's a 23 year old right winger who looks to be in the same mold as Kobasew, just not as good. I offer the rights to five players to NY Islanders for his rights. New York wants to negotiate and will be willing to exchange his rights for the rights to G Taylor Dakers (18), my 8th Round Pick from last year. I decline.

Fomer Flame, Tim Hunter, has been promoted to San Jose's Assistant GM.

Game 16: @ Edmonton
Kipper starts. Leopold and Souray are out. Leopold is at 90% but I have the luxury of eight defencemen at the moment, all playing well. No changes up front.

A 1-1 tie. 0/6 on the powerplay. Kipper and Conklin each got an 8 rating. An even game all around.

Carolina trades F Eric Staal (19) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 to the New York Rangers for F Jaromir Jagr (32). Wow. Since taking over the Rangers, Doug Wilson have unloaded massive salaries in Bure and Jagr. Both Carolina and the Rangers are out of the playoffs by a few points.

Game 17: vs. Minnesota
Kipper starts. Leopold in for Montador.

We win 3-2. Iginla gets a hattrick, including the winner with 12 seconds left in the third.

I offer a minor league contract to F Riley Armstrong (20), an undrafted WHL player who just turned 20.

With Reinprecht coming back from injury in a few days, I need to decide which defenceman to send down. Frogren can clear waivers while Montador can't. Both have played extremely well. My coaches have changed their opinions on Frogren, thinking he's now a useful member. My physios are high on Frogren, saying he'll rarely succumb to injury. I'm afraid I'd lose Montador on waivers though, so Frogren gets the short end of the stick.

I approach to sign an American scout with 20s in judging ability and potential. My scouts are almost done taking a look at the 200 ranked players for the entry draft so I start scattering them around the globe.

Sergei Fedorov (Ana) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Marc Denis (Mon) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 18: vs. Chicago
Kipper starts. Simon at 88% in for Ortmeyer.

We lose 4-2. Iginla scores two powerplay goals. Daze scores two for Chicago, and the newly acquired Zholtok also scores two. Ovechkin gets two assists.

Game 19: vs. Toronto
Buhrer starts. I take Simon out and put Ortmeyer back in.

We win 1-0. Buhrer gets the shutout and Iginla scores the only goal. We outshoot Toronto 30-19.

Riley Armstrong has snubbed the Flames, preferring to stay in Junior. Off the shortlist we go.

Game 20: vs. Montreal
Kipper starts. Montador in for Souray (78%). Simon's back in for Ortmeyer.

We lose 2-1. Iginla scores the only goal on a powerplay.

John Leclair (Phi) wins Offensive Player of the Year.
David Aebischer (Col) wins Defensive Player of the Year.

I inquire about Darcy Tucker and Toronto wants Steve Montador along with the rights to D Grant Lewis (19). I'm unwilling to give up Lewis. I try various proposals but no luck. I inquire about Tucker again and Toronto is no longer interested.

One of my scouts suggests that UFA Steve Rucchin is still a very good player. He wants a three year contract. I offer him two years at just under $2 million total.

Game 21: @ St. Louis
Kipper starts. Souray is still out. No lineup changes.

We win 4-2. I make F Jed Ortmeyer (26) available.

Karim · 09-04-2004, 05:29 AM

November 26th, 2004
---------------------
Game 22: @ Columbus
Buhrer starts. Reinprecht is in, Clark is out.

A 2-2 tie. Buhrer against Gerber and they both post 8s. It was a completely even game, both teams getting 31 shots on goal.

Iginla is unhappy and wants to extend his contract. He wants $31 million/4 years. I offer him a base salary of $27 million/4 years but skim off of the signing bonus and performance clauses.

F Steve Rucchin (33) has agreed to join the Flames.

Game 23: vs. Vancouver
Kipper starts. Leopold is out, Montador is in. Simon is out, Clark is in.

We lose 2-1. Another even game. It's good to see we're hangin in with every team.

With Rucchin in the fold, I send Lundqvist to Lowell of the AHL. At 22, he's a fringe NHLer. He's a physical, determined player but not exceptional in any area. We have too much center depth right now and he's probably better served playing first or second line minutes in the minors.

New Jersey trades the rights to F James Massen (22) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 to Columbus for D Jaroslav Spacek (30) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005.

Game 24: vs. Dallas
Kipper starts. Rucchin is thrown into the fire on line 2, PP2, and the PK. Barnes is demoted to fourth-line center for Clark and Ruutu.

We win 3-0 outshooting Dallas 27-16 including a powerplay goal. One thing that stands out is our 27 giveaways, compared to Dallas' 8. This has been a consistent problem and I wonder if it's a result of giving every defenceman the green light to rush the puck and join the rush.

Our defensive prospect, Dion Phaneuf, has won WHL Defensive Player of the Month.

Pavol Demitra (Tam) wins Offensive Player of the Month.
Roman Malek (Phi) wins Defensive Player of the Month.
Ray Emery (Cbs) wins Rookie of the Month.

Iginla signs, saying his love for the team was the main reason for signing. Each year, if he hits all his bonuses, it would amount to $9.5 million/year. His base salary stays the same each year, at $7.5 million.

Ilya Kovalchuk (Atl) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Andrei Zyuzin (Min) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 25: vs. Edmonton
Kipper starts. Simon is in for Clark. He plays on the first line so Reinprecht is demoted to line two. Ever since he came back, Iginla hasn't done much.

I watched this one out in full. We lose 5-4. Iginla rang one off the post in the dying seconds with the goalie out. Our best players played poorly.

F Matthew Lombardi (22) has requested a trade. He is unhappy with his current contract. I deny his request to be shopped around. His profile says he wants to be traded and is thinking about moving to another team. The news report says he was unhappy with his contract but he refuses to renegotiate. Clearly this is a product of me saying he is a core player but only being paid $550,000. He's on the last year of his contract so I could qualify him and retain his rights. The Board is willing to pay up to $4 million for him. I decide to make him available. I don't need a whiny selfish player on this team.

A few days later, Lombardi is now willing to renegotiate. I try to acquire F Sergei Samsonov (26) from Boston offering Lydman, Lombardi and Ortmeyer. In various proposals I also throw in rights to other players and draft picks but no matter what I try, nothing works. I offer a new contract to Lombardi and remove Gelinas from the available list.

Game 26: vs. New Jersey
Buhrer starts. No change to the lineup. Switched to a more attacking mentality.

We lose 2-0. The shots on goal were 18-15 for New Jersey. Must have been a fun game to watch.

Phoenix trades D Cale Hulse (31) to Ottawa for the rights to D Christoph Schubert (22).

Game 27: vs. Nashville
Kipper starts. Montador in for Leopold. The one game experiment in attacking mentality is gone and we're back to defence first.

We win 2-1 outshooting Nashville 26-16. Nashville had former Flame, Jamie McLellan (33) in goal who they picked up on waivers from the Rangers. Simon scores a powerplay goal for the winner.

The Calgary Sun has reported that Martin Gelinas' poor finishing lately has cost us valuable points. I decide to defend Gelinas. His very low morale has become good.

Adam Deadmarsh (LA) wins Offensive Player of the Month.
Brad Brown (Buf) wins Defensive Player of the Month.

Buffalo trades F Mike Grier (29) and a 9th Round Pick in 2006 to Colorado for the rights to G Peter Budaj (22).

Karim · 09-04-2004, 03:23 PM

Standings

	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PCT	GF	GA	PTS
Los Angeles	28	19	8	0	1	0.696	99	61	39
Vancouver	27	17	8	1	1	0.667	99	79	36
Chicago	28	13	12	1	2	0.518	89	92	29
Anaheim	27	14	8	4	1	0.611	75	58	33
Colorado	27	14	9	4	0	0.593	90	79	32
Calgary	27	13	10	4	0	0.556	77	70	30
Minnesota	25	13	10	2	0	0.560	65	58	28
Phoenix	28	10	12	6	0	0.464	75	84	26
San Jose	27	10	11	5	1	0.481	63	88	26
Dallas	27	10	12	5	0	0.463	65	72	25
St. Louis	26	9	10	5	2	0.481	70	75	25
Columbus	29	11	16	2	0	0.414	84	95	24
Detroit	26	7	13	4	2	0.385	87	102	20
Edmonton	27	6	17	3	1	0.296	48	77	16
Nashville	25	5	16	4	0	0.280	68	92	14

	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PCT	GF	GA	PTS
New Jersey	26	17	7	1	1	0.692	96	65	36
Montreal	28	15	8	3	2	0.625	81	71	35
Washington	28	15	10	3	0	0.589	73	59	33
Philadelphia	25	14	8	3	0	0.620	83	64	31
Florida	28	14	11	2	1	0.554	79	80	31
NY Islanders	27	14	11	2	0	0.556	84	78	30
Atlanta	29	13	12	2	2	0.517	82	86	30
Boston	27	13	11	2	1	0.537	84	89	29
Tampa Bay	24	12	7	5	0	0.604	69	52	29
Buffalo	28	12	13	3	0	0.482	71	83	27
NY Rangers	27	12	13	1	1	0.481	67	72	26
Ottawa	27	11	13	1	2	0.463	64	70	25
Toronto	28	10	13	3	2	0.446	74	77	25
Carolina	27	11	14	2	0	0.444	65	75	24
Pittsburgh	25	6	13	5	1	0.360	56	79	18

Karim · 09-04-2004, 04:00 PM

Roster

	GP	G	A	PTS	+	PIM	HT	GA	TA	AvR
Jarome Iginla	27	14	10	24	7	6	34	13	25	7.48
Mark Bell	27	11	7	18	-2	14	23	31	24	7.52
Brad Richards	23	7	10	17	5	8	6	9	18	7.61
Chris Simon	16	4	10	14	5	25	13	16	5	7.69
Sheldon Souray	23	2	12	14	4	18	42	47	14	7.78
Andrew Ference	24	2	10	12	9	4	26	43	20	7.42
Martin Gelinas	26	6	6	12	4	10	8	11	4	6.85
Matthew Lombardi	27	3	8	11	-4	6	17	12	16	7.15
Markus Nilson	27	4	6	10	5	14	16	22	29	7.11
Stu Barnes	27	5	4	9	-3	32	14	12	21	7.37
Jordan Leopold	22	0	9	9	-8	2	34	26	18	7.41
Stephane Yelle	27	4	4	8	-1	16	22	4	26	7.19
Toni Lydman	27	0	8	8	5	2	9	36	14	7.30
Jarkko Ruutu	27	3	5	8	4	59	9	16	17	7.26
Chuck Kobasew	3	2	3	5	0	2	1	1	2	8.67
Robyn Regehr	26	3	2	5	-6	34	57	43	12	7.50
Joel Lundqvist	23	1	4	5	0	15	12	7	14	7.00
Rhett Warrener	19	1	3	4	8	0	38	34	15	7.42
Chris Clark	19	1	1	2	-5	33	10	10	6	6.84
Steve Rucchin	4	1	1	2	0	0	1	3	3	7.00
Jed Ortmeyer	14	2	0	2	-4	4	8	11	5	6.57
Steve Montador	13	1	0	1	1	6	20	20	7	7.69
Steve Reinprecht	6	0	0	0	-3	6	3	3	5	6.67
Jonas Frogren	5	0	0	0	1	2	5	5	2	7.40
Darren Lynch	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	7.00

	GP	W	L	T		MIN	GA	GAA	SV%	AvR
Marco Buhrer	9	3	2	2		499	19	2.28	0.902	6.89
Miika Kiprusoff	20	10	8	2		1136	48	2.54	0.893	7.05

Karim · 09-04-2004, 04:08 PM

Goals For Average
1 - New Jersey (3.69)
13 - Calgary (2.85)
30 - Edmonton (1.78)

Shots On Goal Average
1 - Vancouver (31.67)
8 - Calgary (27.81)
30 - San Jose (22.33)

Goals Allowed Average
1 - Washington (2.11)
9 - Calgary (2.59)
30 - Detroit (3.92)

Shots On Goal Against Average
1 - New Jersey (21.92)
3 - Calgary (23.89)
30 - Detroit (32.00)

Penalty Minutes Average (Much lower than v. 1.0.1)
1 - Anaheim (12.44)
4 - Calgary (11.85)
30 - Vancouver (5.48)

Power Play Percentage
1 - Vancouver (27.35%)
14 - Calgary (13.68%)
30 - Dallas (9.28%)

Penalty Killing Percentage
1 - NY Rangers (93.75%)
8 - Calgary (87.62%)
30 - Detroit (78.10%)

Karim · 09-04-2004, 04:13 PM

Dany Heatley (Atl) leads the league with 21 goals and 40 points in 29 games. He also leads the league with an average rating of 8.00.

Rob Blake (Col) leads all defencemen with 9 goals and 28 points in 27 games.

Roman Cechmanek (LA) leads all goalies with 18 wins. Roman Malek (Phi) leads all goalies with a 1.73 GAA. J.S. Giguere (Ana) leads all goalies with a .930 SV%.

Anthony Stewart (Fla) leads all rookies with 12 goals and 24 points in 28 games.

Karim · 09-05-2004, 04:58 AM

December 9th, 2004
--------------------
I place Tudin, McEachern and Gellard on waivers. There's a reason these three guys, all over 25, were playing in Canadian universities. They suck. Ok. The exceptions are Cory Cross and Steve Rucchin but otherwise, there aren't too many who come out of the CIS. Anyway, as soon as they clear waivers (and they will), I'm going to release them.

Game 28: vs. Carolina
Buhrer starts. Both Regehr (75%) and Leopold (80%) haven't recovered. Regehr is more valuable so he sits; I can't afford an injury to him. I put Lombardi up on the first line, Simon on the second and Reinprecht is demoted to the third.

We win 3-1. Reinprecht scored, Iginla got one on the powerplay and Nilson got an empty netter. Everyone played great except Lombardi with a 6 rating.

Now that Boston is back in the hunt, Sergei Samsonov is no longer available and is happy to remain with the Bruins. Pittsburgh is interested in Lombardi and I dispatch my scouts to look at Brooks Orpik, about the only player I'd be interested in. Meanwhile, I try and negotiate a contract with Lombardi. Maybe he'll regain his form once a new contract is in place.

Edmonton trades D Marc-Andre Bergeron (24) to Atlanta for F Derek MacKenzie (23).

Game 29: @ Dallas
Kipper starts. No change to the lineup which means Regehr is still out at 85%.

A 1-0 win. Bell scores the winner 2:57 into the third period. Dallas outshot us 25-15 and we were 0/4 on the powerplay. Miika stole one for us.

Game 30: @ Anaheim
Kipper starts. Regehr misses his third consecutive game due to conditioning even though I have him set to skip practice. Simon comes out for Clark. The back-to-back game has a lot of players playing at less than 100%.

We lose 2-1 and were outshot 37-23. I'm not sure why all of a sudden we seem to be consistently outshot.

Toronto trades D Drake Berehowsky (32) and a 7th Round Pick in 2005 to Detroit for F Jason Williams (24) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005. Good trade by Toronto.

Former Flame, Shean Donovan, has been placed on waivers by the NY Rangers. He's missed most of the year with a torn ACL, getting in on only three games.

Game 31: @ Los Angeles
Buhrer starts against one of the top teams in the NHL. Regehr in for Ference. I want to see more of Montador; the coach reports are favourable and his attributes have increased in defensive areas. I reduce the burden on Leopold, shifting them to Regehr and Souray. Simon in for Clark.

A 2-2 tie. LA scores a powerplay goal with only four minutes left to tie it up. Palffy was shut out. I had Regehr to key on him. Montador and Buhrer had 8 ratings as did Lombardi who had a goal.

Lombardi has signed a $5.1 million/4 year deal. In any particular year, he could make up to $600,000 more in bonuses but they're high enough thresholds to satisfy me. His morale is Superb and he is very happy with his new contract.

Robert Lang (Det) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Miika Kiprusoff (Cgy) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 32: @ San Jose
Buhrer starts. Regehr has to come out so Ference is back in. Simon and Rucchin are out so Clark and Ortmeyer are in. Lines are all shuffled around to compensate.

We lose 4-2 and were outshot 38-22.

Former Flame GM, Darryl Sutter, now working for Edmonton, has claimed Shean Donovan off of waivers.

Washington trades F Boyd Gordon (21) to Los Angeles for the rights to D Didier Bochatay (21) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006.

Colorado, Atlanta, NY Islanders, Vancouver and Nashville all make pitches for F Sergei Samsonov (26) who has once again requested to be shopped around. Boston is looking for a top two defenceman, top four defenceman, a number one goalie, a solid center and a solid right wing. In general, they're looking to add veteran presence. I think the best offers are from the Islanders who are offering C Justin Papineau (24) - at least his attributes look good. Nashville is also offering a pretty good deal in C Denis Arkhipov (25) and the rights to a marginal forward prospect. I chime in with the only bid involving two legitimate NHLers - D Toni Lydman (27) and C/LW Stu Barnes (33). I'd gladly throw in a combination of draft picks and/or rights to prospects but I don't want to go overboard and turn it into an unrealistic offer; I'm trying to keep in mind Riz's suggestions. We'll see how this turns out.

It turns out that Boston has rejected everyone's trades. I'm also interested in Pittsburgh's, D Brooks Orpik (24). I'd like to get tougher on the right side of the defence.

The bidding for Samsonov has continued. Dallas is offering F Steve Ott (22). Minnesota is offering D Nick Schultz (22) and F Eric Chouinard (24). Detroit is offering the rights to a ninth round forward prospect along with a 2nd, 3rd and 4th Round Pick in successive years starting with this year. Columbus is offering F Alexander Svitov (22). Minnesota's offer is solid. I offer D Toni Lydman (27), F Jed Ortmeyer (26) and a forward prospect. I don't think this is as good an offer as Minnesota's.

Boston rejects everyone's offer.

Washington trades F Brian Willsie (26) to Nashville for F Tomas Plekanec (22).

Game 33: vs. Edmonton
Kipper starts. Regehr is only at 85% so he sits. Simon and Rucchin are still not quite ready either so it's the same lineup as last game.

We win 6-1. Iginla gets a hattrick with each goal coming on the powerplay. Richards gets a hattrick and four points. Reinprecht gets four assists. Iginla triggers a $250,000 bonus for scoring 10 powerplay goals but he'll be out a few days with knee pain.

More bidders for Samsonov. Pittsburgh offers F Ben Eaves (22) and a third, fifth and seventh round draft pick in successive years. Ottawa offers F Jason Spezza (21). Phoenix offers F Mike Comrie (24). Edmonton offers D Eric Brewer (24). I'm clearly out of the running although I might be willing to part with Leopold if I still have another opportunity. Surprisingly to me, Boston has rejected all of these trades. I offer D Toni Lydman (27) and F Chris Clark (28) which is rejected just before the Christmas roster freeze.

Game 34: vs. Colorado
Kipper starts. Regehr is finally back so Ference comes out. We're going to have to play this one without Iginla. The last game against the Avalanche we got killed 8-4.

We lose 3-2. We were outshot 34-26 and the winning goal by Selanne came in the second period on the powerplay.

Brad Richards (Cgy) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Niklas Lidstrom (Det) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

I make pending unrestricted free agents F Stu Barnes (33) and F Martin Gelinas (34) available. I've noticed Buhrer is no longer unhappy which is always a good thing.

Game 35: @ Minnesota
Kipper starts. Iginla will miss his second straight game. No lineup changes.

We lose 3-1 giving up a powerplay goal, shorthanded goal and empty net goal. We were outshot 31-18. (First problem with the coach. Iginla was inserted into the lineup at 85% despite the fact that he was nursing an injury. This apparently will be fixed once and for all in patch three.)

The World Junior Championships are underway. Two of my prospects, F Niklas Johansson (19) - 4th Round 2004, and F Jens Jacobs (19) - 8th Round 2004, form two third of Sweden's top line, along with F Fredrik Naslund (19) - Anaheim's 3rd Round Pick in 2004 who I was also trying to get. World Junior play is no guarantee of anything but it's a good start. My first round pick, F Kris Chucko (18) had four assists in his first game for Canada against Austria.

Game 36: @ Colorado
Kipper starts. Everyone's ready except for Leopold (85%).

We lose 4-3 in OT. We're a good team but nowhere the quality that's required to beat the top teams consistently. Lombardi scored with 3:59 left to force OT but Sakic salted it away for Colorado with his third goal of the game. Ference will be out for a month with a sprained ACL; I recall Jonas Frogren.

Game 37: vs. Minnesota
Buhrer starts. Leopold is back in.

We lose our fourth in a row, 4-3. Our best players didn't show up and Buhrer had a 5 rating. I don't chastize him as I don't want to disrupt him any more. I need to shake things up and quell this losing streak.

F Glenn Murray (33) of Boston has suffered a torn MCL and will be out for 7 months.

Calgary Flames trade the rights to D Pierre Jonsson (20) to Carolina for a 4th Round Pick in 2005. This resulted as a result of trying to unload Ortmeyer. They negotiated and wanted this prospect instead.

Marco Sturm (SJ) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Josh Georges (SJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

My Swedish prospect, Jacobs, has been on the scoresheet in every game Sweden has played thus far at the World Junior Championships.

Game 38: vs. Edmonton
Buhrer starts. No lineup changes.

We lose 4-2, our fifth straight. This is the kind of run that can end up costing us a playoff spot. I decide to bag skate everyone for a few practices in a row.

Jason Weimer (Min) wins Offensive Player of the Month.
Scott Niedermayer (NJ) wins Defensive Player of the Month.
Cam Barker (Wsh) wins Rookie of the Month.

Game 39: @ Edmonton
Kipper starts. I haven't been able to pull off a trade so I shake things up by sitting Leopold and putting in Frogren. This means Regehr and Warrener find themselves on the powerplay. Well, New Jersey won a Cup without a powerplay. We need this game badly.

We win 5-2 and outshoot the Oil 35-19. Iginla gets a pair and Richards gets three points. Frogren gets a 7 rating while every other defenceman posts an 8.

In my attempt at unloading Ortmeyer for a draft pick, I'm getting counter-offers for some of my prospects that I'm happy to unload. Calgary Flames trade the rights to F Tomi Maki (21) to Boston for a 5th Round Pick in 2005.

Game 40: @ Chicago
Kipper starts. Regehr is out for Leopold, and Reinprecht is out for Clark - strictly conditioning moves.

We win 5-3. We scored two powerplay goals but gave up one. Simon had two goals and an assist. Lydman had two assists. Leopold had an assist but was a -2 with 2 giveaways. His plus/minus this season is -14.

In the World Junior Championships, Switzerland, Belarus and Slovakia advance to the playoffs while Russia, Sweden and Czech Republic, along with Austria, have to fight off relegation. Ouch.

Game 41: @ Philadelphia
Buhrer starts. Regehr in for Leopold and Reinprecht in for Simon.

We lose 3-2. Buhrer got a 6 rating and seems to have been the difference - in a negative way.

Carolina seems to be willing to unload F Jeff O'Neill (28). Los Angeles is offering a prospect, a 1st Round Pick in 2005 and a 1st Round Pick in 2006. I had offered three prospects, a 2nd in 2006 and a 4th in 2007. San Jose is offering a 1st in 2005 and a prospect. Carolina accepts every trade!!! Shit. LA was the first to offer so they got O'Neill.

Carolina trades F Jeff O'Neill (28) to Los Angeles for the rights to D Richard Petiot (22), a 1st Round Pick in 2005 and a 1st Round Pick in 2006.

The Czech Republic and Austria have been relegated from the World Junior Championships.

WJC Semi-Finals
Canada 1 - Switzerland 0. Flames first round pick, Kris Chucko, scored the only goal and was first star of the game.
Finland 4 - USA 1.

Markus Naslund (Van) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Evgeny Nabakov (SJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Columbus claims D Todd Simpson (31) from waivers.

Game 42: @ Pittsburgh
Kipper starts. Leopold in for Regehr. Simon back in for Clark.

A 3-2 loss. A bad loss against one of the worst teams in the league. Everyone was rated 7 or 8; it's unclear exactly what went wrong.

WJC Finals
Canada 5 - Finland 0. My first round pick, Chucko, had a goal, two assists, was rated 10, and first star. 8-) He led the tournament in scoring with 12 points. The leading goal scorer had five goals - Jacobs from Sweden - another Flame draft pick.

Game 43: @ NY Rangers
Kipper starts. Regehr in for Leopold. I place Ortmeyer on waivers.

We win 3-2. We give up two powerplay goals but score one of our own. A new line of Gelinas-Yelle-Nilson really clicks. I decided to put Simon on the fourth line and use him as a powerplay specialist. Seems to have worked.

klayman · 09-05-2004, 10:59 AM

Gah. Sutter is ruining my Oilers!

Johnny93g · 09-05-2004, 11:41 AM

Rangers fired Sather in my game and started to rebuild....1st move, picking up Kipper for David Hale...LOL....

Curious, whats your salary situation....I saw you wanted Samsonov, and O'neal....can you even afford these guys with the huge contract Iginla has now....

A point on the fatigue.....I have been playing Brian Leetch 25-30 minutes every game......It seems his regular starting fatigue is 80-85.....I never sit him, never bench him, and he has played amazing....maybe Regher is that kind of player whose play wont suffer because of fatigue....cuz he seems to be fatigued alot....

Karim · 09-05-2004, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

Curious, whats your salary situation....I saw you wanted Samsonov, and O'neal....can you even afford these guys with the huge contract Iginla has now....

O'Neill's salary was only $1.8 or something. Samsonov was $4 million and would have put me about $2 million over the budget. Maybe the Board would have stopped the deal. Right now I'm about $1 million over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

A point on the fatigue.....I have been playing Brian Leetch 25-30 minutes every game......It seems his regular starting fatigue is 80-85.....I never sit him, never bench him, and he has played amazing....maybe Regher is that kind of player whose play wont suffer because of fatigue....cuz he seems to be fatigued alot....

Thanks for this, I'm going to give it a try. I try and not play guys who aren't 90%. After the game, I immediately check their conditioning and anyone who's dropped below 90% gets set to no practice so that I can make sure their ready for the next game. If they hit 90% before the next game, I put them back into their regular practice schedule.

Karim · 09-06-2004, 10:58 AM

January 10th, 2005
-------------------
Phoenix trades D Mike Wilson (29) to Florida for F Vaclav Nedorost (22).

San Jose trades F Tomas Plihal (22) to Phoenix for D Radoslav Suchy (28). So little for Suchy? I looked at him earlier.

Philadelphia trades G Antero Niittymaki (24) to Nashville for the rights to F Daniel Widing (22), a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006. Nashville got ripped off here.

NY Rangers trade F Bobby Holik (34) and a 6th Round Pick in 2005 to Florida for D Filip Novak (22). Doug Wilson's dismantling of the crazy contracts in New York is complete - Holik, Jagr and Bure all gone. I wonder if this was dictated by the Board.

Toronto trades D David Turon (21) to Columbus for D Aaron Johnson (21), a 3rd Round Pick in 2005, and a 3rd Round Pick in 2006. Another good trade for Toronto.

Game 44: @ Washington
Buhrer starts. Clark in for Yelle.

A 2-2 tie. An even match all the way around, however, Montador suffered a rotator cuff strain and will be out for three weeks. I no longer will be looking to trade a defenceman as my depth is all swallowed up. I really don't want to bring up Brennan Evans from the farm.

Nashville trades F Steve Sullivan (30) to Chicago for the rights to D Mike Green (19) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005. Chicago won today, Nashville definitely wins tomorrow.

I'm definitely being left in the dust in terms of being able to land an impact player. Boston no longer is giving up on Samsonov. I just missed out on Jeff O'Neill. What I really need is a right-sided offensive defenceman such as a Derek Morris. I drafted one last year but I don't think throwing a 19 year old into the fire is the answer.

I have no choice but to recall D Brennan Evans (22) to Calgary as it's clear Regehr won't be ready for tomorrow's game.

Toronto trades D Aaron Johnson (21) to Phoenix for F Mike Johnson (30).

F Jed Ortmeyer (26) clears waivers. I dispatch him to Lowell. I couldn't even trade him for a late round pick.

Game 45: vs. Florida
Buhrer starts. Evans and Leopold in for Regehr and Montador.

We lose 2-1. We had 27 giveaways compared to Florida's 7, although the ratings were fine across the board. Evans was a -1 and had 6 giveaways but got an 8 rating. Go figure.

Florida have placed RD Kristian Kudroc (23) on waivers. I make a claim. I intend to place him immediately on waivers and send him to Lowell. I need healthy defencemen right now.

Phoenix trades F Mike Comrie (24) to Montreal for F Marcel Hossa (23).

Toronto trades G Maxime Ouellette (23) to Columbus for a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, a 3rd Round Pick in 2007, and the rights to F Greg Mauldin (22). Another good trade by Toronto. They're really stockpiling draft picks that should pay dividends down the road.

Alexander Mogilny (Tor) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
J.S. Aubin (Pit) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Edmonton trades G Glenn Fisher (21) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 originally from New Jersey to Buffalo for G Ryan Miller (24) and a 9th Round Pick in 2005. Miller might be the goalie to finally fit the void between the pipes for the Oil.

Game 46: vs. Los Angeles
Kipper starts. Regehr still not available. Yelle in for Clark.

A very good 4-0 victory against a team loading up for the Stanley Cup. The Board is pleased. A balanced performance throughout the lineup.

Toronto trades F Alexei Ponikarovsky (24), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006 to Edmonton for F Ryan Smyth (28). Yuck.

Game 47: @ Detroit
Kipper starts. Regehr in, Evans out. Clark in, Rucchin out.

A 3-2 win on an overtime goal by Lombardi. We outshot Detroit 30-22. A good win.

Chicago claimed Kudroc from waivers. Ference will be back in two weeks. I think I'll manage until then.

Anaheim trades the rights to F Fredrik Naslund (18) to Phoenix for D Bryan Helmer (32). Helmer is a fringe NHLer - a stay at home defenceman.

Game 48: @ St. Louis
Buhrer starts in the back-to-back game. No change to the lineup. I've shifted around my defence pairings a big, and given Richards, Iginla and Lombardi an Attacking focus. Bell is set to Normal, while everyone else is still Defensive. I've also changed the powerplay mentality from Normal to Attacking.

A 4-4 tie. We score a powerplay goal but give up two. We outshoot St. Louis 39-26 so my conservative mentality was what was leading us to being outshot on a consistent basis. Buhrer got a 6 rating. 52 minutes in penalties. Tkachuk suffered a broken leg and will be out for five months. Lydman suffered a dislocated shoulder and will be out two months. Rough game.

Regehr suffered an injury in practice and will be out a few days. I'm now down to five defencemen. I recall Lynch from Lowell, who can play both the wing and defence.

I've been doing my usual comprehensive draft preparation. Last year there were two older Europeans that looked like superstars, my scouts raved about them, and they received media reports. I was reluctant to draft them because of their age and now they're a year older but still look like sure things. G Bjorn Bjurling (25) from Sweden and LW Ivo Ruthemann (28) from Germany have superstar attributes, especially Ruthemann who has several 20s. I dispatch my scouts again to take a look at them. I can guarantee that if I really want these guys, they'll be available in the 8th and 9th round because it's clear the AI GMs don't want to waste a draft pick on older Europeans.

Game 49: vs. Phoenix
Kipper starts. Evans and Lynch on defense - yuck. Rucchin in for Clark. I put Rucchin on the fourth line with Barnes and Ruutu. I set defensive instructions to Overload to minimize how much time Evans and Lynch see the ice.

A 2-2 tie. We outshoot Phoenix 33-18 but give up a shorthanded goal. The other goal was when Evans and Lynch were on the ice. Kiprusoff had a 6 rating as did Evans. Lynch was 8 but his primary position is right wing. He could become a useful, versatile depth player eventually. Gelinas suffered a groin injury and will be out for three weeks. I think I'm training these guys too hard.

My second round pick, D Grant Lewis, just turned 20 so I offer him a contract. He's been wanting to leave Dartmouth since the season started. He's delighted to have signed with us but can't join the team until June.

Nik Antropov (Tor) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Evgeny Nabakov (SJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Columbus trades F David Vyborny (29) to Colorado for D Tomas Slovak (22) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005.

Phoenix trades F Shane Doan (28) to Vancouver for D Lukas Krajicek (22), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, a 2nd Round Pick 2006, and a 2nd Round Pick in 2007. I like my draft picks too much to offer something like that. Still, I'm really being shutout of the trades.

Game 50: vs. Tampa Bay
Buhrer starts. Regehr is in even though he's still injured - I don't trust Evans. I put him on the third unit with Frogren and remove him from special teams. Clark in for Gelinas.

We lose 5-4, giving up two powerplay goals. Buhrer got a 6 rating. Lynch got a goal and an 8 rating. Evans was inserted for some reason.

Edmonton trades the rights to F Craig Voakes (19) - their 1st Round Pick (#24) from last year - to Buffalo for the rights to F Jukka-Pekka Koistenen (22), a 5th Round Pick in 2005, and a 5th Round Pick in 2006. Holy tailspin, Batman. klayman is right. The Oilers are being completely gutted and destroyed. I think teams are hoping to lose for a chance at Crosby.

Game 51: vs. Detroit
Kipper starts. Regehr is back. Otherwise, no changes.

We win 1-0 on a goal by Souray in the first. A fairly non-descript game, with the shots being 22-18 in our favour.

Lynch is now out for ten days after straining a neck in practice. This is unreal.

Calgary Flames trade the rights to D Tim Ramholt (20), the rights to F David Moss (23), the rights to F Brian McConnell (21), and the rights to F David Van Der Gulik (21) to the New York Rangers for D Karel Rachunek (25). Ramholt is the key to the deal. He's tearing up the QMJHL but I think his stamina prevents him from ever becoming a top four defenceman in the NHL. Plus, he's another left-sided defenceman and I have Phaneuf waiting in the wings. The other three forwards are never going to play in the NHL. Rachunek appears to be immediately in my top four. He's definitely an improvement on both Ference and Montador, and he's better than Frogren. With Lydman out until the playoffs, I really needed another defenceman. I tried getting Derek Morris from Phoenix or Dan Boyle from Tampa but you've got to give up a great deal to get someone with a "Superb" reputation. Rachunek has a "Very Good" reputation, but I wouldn't be surprised to see someone snag Morris out of Phoenix because they're out of the playoff hunt.

Game 52: @ Vancouver
Kipper starts. My lines are:

Reinprecht - Richards - Iginla
Simon - Lombardi - Bell
Barnes - Yelle - Nilson
Clark - Rucchin - Ruutu

Regehr - Warener
Souray - Rachunek
Leopold - Frogren

We lose 4-2. We give up two powerplay goals and were outshot 37-25 against one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Yelle was the only one with a 6 rating. I'm also thinking Rucchin shouldn't be on the penalty kill because of his low stamina.

Eastern All-Stars

G Martin Brodeur (NJ)
G Patrick Lalime (Ott)
G Roberto Luongo (Fla)

D Jay Bouwmeester (Fla)
D Sergei Gonchar (Bos)
D David Hale (NJ)
D Scott Niedermayer (NJ)
D Pavel Kubina (TB)
D Roman Hamrlik (Phi)

F Patrik Elias (NJ)
F Dany Heatley (Atl)
F Pavol Demitra (TB)
F Scott Gomez (NJ)
F Olli Jokinen (Fla)
F Vincent Lecavalier (TB)
F Eric Lindros (NYR)
F Alexei Yashin (NYI)
F Marian Hossa (Ott)
F Jaromir Jagr (Car)
F Martin St. Louis (TB)

Western All-Stars

G J.S. Giguere (Ana)
G Evgeny Nabakov (SJ)
G Marty Turko (Dal)

D Rob Blake (Col)
D Niklas Lidstrom (Det)
D Mathias Ohlund (Van)
D Zdeno Chara (Ana)
D Ed Jovanovski (Van)
D Derek Morris (Pho)

F Adam Deadmarsh (LA)
F Paul Kariya (Van)
F Markus Naslund (Van)
F Alexander Ovechkin (Chi)
F Zigmund Palffy (LA)
F Sergei Fedorov (Ana)
F Brendan Morrison (Van)
F Brad Richards (Cgy)
F Joe Sakic (Col)
F Todd Bertuzzi (Van)
F Jarome Iginla (Cgy)
F Alexei Kovalev (LA)

Richards' reputation jumped from Very Good to Superb when he was named to the All-Star team.

Chicago trades F Eric Daze (29) to Dallas for F Steve Ott (22) and F Loui Eriksson (19). Man, a lot of big names have been traded. It seems as soon as a team is out of the playoff hunt, they're willing to unload. This isn't baseball.

Chris Clark will be out for three weeks after suffering fractured ribs in practice. I tweeked my practices down but I guess I'm still working them too hard. I'm changed them up so that I start with everything medium. If I move a particular regime to Intensive, I have to move another to Light. Hopefully this will reduce the injuries from now on and improve stamina.

Ales Hemsky (Edm) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Lubomir Vishnovsky (LA) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Chuck Kobasew has finally returned to full-strength.

Game 53: vs. Chicago
Kipper starts. Warener out, Montador in. Clark out, Kobasew in. Kobasew is too good to play on the third or fourth line so I demote Simon to the fourth line, move Lombardi to left wing and Bell to center. I think Bell is a better winger but we'll see.

We win 3-1, outshooting Chicago, 32-17. Kiprusoff is first star with an 8 rating. The Lombardi-Bell-Kobasew line combined for 9 shots on goal and each got a 7 rating.

Nashville trades F Brandon Segal (21) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 originally from Chicago to Boston for F Yan Stastny (22).

With the addition of Rachunek, I'm $2.5 million over my player budget but my finances are still labelled as secure.

Calgary Flames trade F Jed Ortmeyer (26) to Buffalo for F Jason Pominville (22), a 4th Round Pick in 2006, and a 4th Round Pick in 2007. Earlier in the year I couldn't get rid of the guy for a single low round draft pick so when Buffalo offered me all that, I naturally accepted.

Game 54: vs. San Jose
Buhrer starts. Warener in for Montador. No change up front.

We win 3-0 and outshoot San Jose 38-19. Kobasew gets a goal and an assist, a 9 rating and 1st star. Souray and Iginla get two assists each. The Board is pleased.

Vancouver trades F Sergei Varlamov (26) to St. Louis for D Matt Walker (24).

Vancouver trades F Robert Hennigar (21) to Ottawa for D Johan Bjork (20).

Maybe the reason Regehr is constantly fatigued is because of a previous injury. My physios are concerned about his long-term fitness, saying that a previous hamstring injury could come back to haunt him. His fatigue after games isn't because of the amount of playing time but because he constantly has been getting banged up with minor injuries - the type that don't receive the INJ flag but the ones that show up in the player status and knock the conditioning to around 60%.

Dany Heatley (Atl) wins Offensive Player of the Month.
Dwayne Roloson (Min) wins Defensive Player of the Month.
Alex Auld (Van) wins Rookie of the Month. Kobasew would have walked away with the Calder if it wasn't for his injury.

Karim · 09-06-2004, 10:07 PM

February 1st, 2005
------------------
Game 55: vs. Los Angeles
Kipper starts. Ference in for Regehr. No changes up front other than putting Reinprecht on the powerplay. This means the only action Simon is seeing is on the fourth line.

We lose 3-0, giving up a short handed goal and powerplay goal. Reinprecht got a 6 rating.

Pittsburgh trades F Landon Wilson (29) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005 to Detroit for F Par Backer (22) and the rights to F Mikael Johansson (19).

Edmonton's Jason Smith will be out for 7 months after suffering a torn ACL. What a bad time to be an Oiler fan.

Mark Bell suffered a hip flexor and will be out for three weeks. This was after I reduced the training schedule. Just bad luck with injuries this year.

Edmonton is offering to trade me F Mike York (27) for F Lars-Erik Spets (19), who is doing extremely well in Lowell. York has very similar attributes to Lombardi but carries a $2.2 million dollar price tag. I'm not about to make the first Oilers-Flames trade in history.

Toronto trades F Matt Stajan (21) to New Jersey for D Colin White (27).

Dan Lacouture (Pho) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Felix Potvin (Bos) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Toronto trades F Martin St. Pierre (21) to Anaheim for D Clay Plume (21).

The West All-Stars beat the East All-Stars, 5-3. Joe Sakic was MVP with two goals and an assist.

NY Islanders have traded F Justin Mapletoft (24) to Columbus for the rights to D Marc Methot (19).

Buffalo trades D Dennis Wideman (21) and a 1st Round Pick in 2005 to San Jose for G Evgeny Nabokov (29).

Nashville trades D Kimmo Timonen (29) to Colorado for G Tyler Weiman (20) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 originally from Phoenix.

San Jose trades F Curtis Brown (28) to Buffalo for D Denis Ezhov (19).

Game 56: vs. Atlanta
Kipper starts. Gelinas is back in after recovery from injury.

We win 3-2 with the first, second and third lines all scoring. Only 4 minutes in penalties in this game. Our fourth line was all for both Atlanta goals.

Toronto trades D Garnet Exelby (23), D John Doherty (20), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, and a 3rd Round Pick in 2006 to Boston for D Sergei Gonchar (30). I had looked at Gonchar earlier but his $4 million price tag scared me away.

Olli Jokinen (Fla) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Manny Legace (Det) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Minnesota trades the rights to F Mikko Koivu (21), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006 to Dallas for F Valeri Bure (30).

Game 57: @ Edmonton
Kipper starts. No change to the lineup.

We lose 3-1, going 0/6 on the powerplay. No one gets a 6 rating though. Ryan Miller stole this one; he's first star with a 9 rating.

Calgary Flames trade the rights to F Niklas Johansson (19), a 1st Round Pick in 2005, a 2nd Round Pick in 2006, and a 3rd Round Pick in 2007 to Carolina for F Erik Cole (26). I finally beat somebody to the punch. We now have a legitimate 1st line left winger to play alongside Richards and Iginla. Awesome. The best part is that Cole is only making $550,000 and still has another year left on his contract. For some reason though, Cole's reputation dropped from Superb to Very Good once the deal was finalized and he joined our roster.

sachmo71 · 09-07-2004, 08:47 AM

I always wanted to see Daze in a Stars uni!

samifan24 · 09-07-2004, 12:36 PM

Hey Karim, keep up the great posts! I've been reading and your dynasty makes me want to go out and finally get the game. It sounds like you're having a ton of fun playing and I know I'm having fun reading, so keep up the good work!

Karim · 09-07-2004, 01:48 PM

Daze's doing fine sachmo, but Dallas isn't. Read on.

Thanks samifan. I'm definitely having too much fun with this game.

Karim · 09-07-2004, 01:51 PM

February 15th, 2005
--------------------
I currently have 15 forwards, 9 defencemen and 2 goalies on my roster. Lydman is on IR so they doesn't count toward the 23 man limit. I have to reduce the roster by two and having a hard time deciding who to place on waivers. It's come down to Ference or Montador on defence and I'm faced with the classical dilemma. Ference has better attributes but Montador has better stats.

Ference
31GP 2G 11A 13Pts +5 4PIM 21Sh 50GA 25TA 33HT 15SB 7.39AvR

Montador
31GP 2G 1A 3Pts +5 20PIM 16Sh 37GA 15TA 48HT 6SB 7.55AvR

Ference's points came from the powerplay but those 50 giveaways are cause for concern although Montador isn't much better. Ference is an offensive type while Montador is stay at home. I come to the conclusion that Ference offers more; if someone goes down, at least Ference can work the powerplay. Plus his 17 in skating, stamina and agility are hard to ignore. It may be moot anyway once Lydman comes off of IR.

Up front, it's between Clark, Ruutu and Rucchin. I haven't given Clark a fair shot, my coaches like him and he's a hard worker. I place Clark on injured reserve for another seven days to evaluate. Meanwhile, I demote Montador and fully expect to lose him.

D Jordan Leopold (24) is unhappy and would like to extend his contract. He offers a completely reasonable four year deal. I offer him what he wants.

Game 58: @ Detroit
Buhrer starts. No lineup changes. Cole isn't ready coming off a game in Carolina. Rucchin replaces Barnes on the PK as I need to evaluate what he brings to the table.

We lose 5-1 giving up two powerplay goals. Nilson scores a short handed goal. Whitney missed a penalty shot. We were outshot 37-17. Rachunek will be out for three weeks with a pulled groin. I have been fined $26,000 over my comments about the standard of refereeing - I missed where I actually said anything. This go from bad to worse.

Montreal have claimed D Mathieu Schneider (35) from waivers.

New York Rangers trade D Darius Kasparaitus (32) to Detroit for the rights to D John Lind (22), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006.

Game 59: @ Columbus
Kipper starts. Ference in for Rachunek.

We win 3-1. Kobasew scores a powerplay goal. Iginla had his first 6 rating of the year. Rucchin also had a 6 and has not impressed at all since joining the team.

Ottawa trades F Karl Gagne (20) to Chicago for F Mikhail Yakubov (23).

NY Islanders trade the rights to D Oscar Berglund (19) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 to Carolina for D Cory Cross (29).

Nashville have claimed D Steve Montador (25) from waivers.

Dallas trades D Chris Therien (33) to Ottawa for the rights to F Jakub Sindel (19). Man. I can't believe both Sindel and Fredrik Naslund's rights have been traded this season. Both are players I wanted to draft last year. Sindel is going to be a star for sure.

Game 60: @ Vancouver
Kipper starts. I recall Lynch from Lowell because Warener isn't ready. Cole in, Rucchin out.

We lose 7-3. Kiprusoff gets a 3 rating. I decide to warn him; he accepts it without comment. Iginla gets another 6. Cole wasn't put in the lineup and Warener was playing as a forward on the first line. Yuck. Nice to see a third patch on the way. Leopold will be out for two months with a dislocated shoulder. Our defencemen have been dropping like flies this year.

Ruutu will be out 10 days after suffering a neck strain in practice.

Sami Kapanen (Phi) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Ryan Miller (Edm) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Washington trades G Maxime Daigneault (21) to Pittsburgh for D Dick Tarnstrom (30).

Jordan Leopold has resigned for $7 million/5 years.

I make F Steve Rucchin (33) available. I've been trying to unload him but like Ortmeyer, no one wants him.

A couple weeks ago, I re-examined my training, both in terms of intensity and coaching. Buhrer's attributes have shot up to rival Kiprusoff's.

Game 61: vs. Colorado
Kipper starts. Cole is in (hopefully). Rucchin in for Ruutu.

We win 4-1 but give up a powerplay goal. Cole gets a hattrick in his debut! Sweet. Iginla and Richards naturally also get three points. We outshoot Colorado 32-13. Lynch gets an assist, an 8 rating, and continues to not look out of place despite not the greatest attributes.

Nashville trades F Scott Walker (31) to Detroit for the rights to D George Bradley (20), a 3rd Round Pick in 2005, a 3rd Round Pick in 2006, and a 2nd Round Pick in 2007.

Boston trades F Per-Johan Axelsson (29) to Washington for D Jakub Cutta (23) and D Artem Ternavsky (21).

Game 62: vs. Columbus
Buhrer starts. No change to the lineup. I have no healthy bodies to insert even if I wanted to make changes.

We win 2-1. Nash scores to spoil the shutout with only 4 seconds left. We outshoot Columbus 34-14 but go 0/7 on the PP.

Edmonton Oilers have claimed D Dave Karpa (33) off of waivers.
St. Louis Blues have claimed F Bates Battaglia (29) off of waivers.

Game 63: @ Los Angeles
Kipper starts. Clark in for Rucchin.

We lose 2-0 giving up a powerplay goal, and an empty net goal. Kiprusoff got a 9 rating though.

Dany Heatley (Atl) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Tomas Vokoun (Nsh) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 64: @ Anaheim
Kipper starts. Every game now is big as we come down the stretch. Bell in for Clark.

We lose 4-2. We score a powerplay goal but give one up, along witha shorthanded goal.

Vincent Lecavalier (Tam) wins Offensive Player of the Month.
David Aebischer (Col) wins Defensive Player of the Month.
Andrej Mezaros (Atl) wins Rookie of the Month.

Game 65: @ Phoenix
Buhrer starts. Clark in for Lombardi, who got banged up last game.

We lose 3-0 against a team on our tail, outshot 37-21.

We're currently in 6th place with 65 points, Phoenix in 7th with 64 points, Minnesota in 8th with 63 points, Detroit in 9th with 60 points and Edmonton in 10th with 58 points. Anaheim's in 5th with 80 points so clearly we're not catching them. It's going to be a struggle to make the playoffs. Not having Leopold, Lydman and Rachunek is hurting us.

Game 66: vs. Anaheim
Kipper starts. I activate Lydman from IR who is at 90% because Souray is only at 70%, while Ference is only at 74%. I place Rucchin on waivers. I decide to go with 5 defencemen but I suspect the coach will make changes.

We lose 3-2, our fourth loss in a row. Bringing Lydman back early has cost me as he reaggravated his injury and will be lost for another two months.

Game 67: @ Nashville
Kipper starts. I have to recall Evans from Lowell. Lombardi and Gelinas in for Ruutu and Clark.

We lose 4-3, our fifth loss in a row. Legwand scores the winner with 3:52 left. Kipper gets a 6 rating. All our scoring is done by the top line. Our fourth line was a combined -9.

Adam Deadmarsh (LA) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Evgeny Nabokov (Buf) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Pittsburgh has claimed F Steve Rucchin (33) from waivers.

I need to shake things up big time but a trade isn't the answer. I decide to place F Stu Barnes (34) on waivers; if someone claims his $2.8 million salary fine. If not, he'll be an unrestricted free agent in a few months anyway. I recall F Joel Lundqvist (22) from Lowell. He can do just a good job on the fourth line as these bums, if not better.

Philadelphia trades D Randy Jones (22) to Ottawa for D Mike Lundin (20).

Game 68: @ Chicago
Kipper starts. Chicago is the worst team in the Western Conference so we had better win. Souray in for Evans. Ruutu and Clark in for Simon and Gelinas.

We lose 2-1. We outshot Chicago 32-22. We killed off eight powerplays against. Jocelyn Thibault stood on his head. Ruutu was the only player with a 6 rating. We have falled to 8th place, only 4 points ahead of Detroit.

Vancouver trades the rights to F Marc-Andre Bernier (20) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 to Dallas for D Scott Ferguson (32) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005.

Dallas trades D Sergei Zubov (34) to Atlanta for the rights to F Patrick Dwyer (21).

Edmonton trades G Ty Conklin (28) to Detroit for F Chris Thorburn (23).

Washington trades D Jason Doig (28) to New Jersey for D Marek Chvatal (21).

Nasvhille trades D Brad Bombadir (32) to Buffalo for F Milan Bartovic (23).

Chicago have claimed F Stu Barnes (34) off of waivers.

Dallas trades F Jason Arnott (30) to Washington for the rights to F Liam Reddox (19) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005.

gi · 09-07-2004, 02:03 PM

Ouch...This would not be the time to start singing Tom Petty's Free Falling...

Karim · 09-08-2004, 08:08 AM

We're free falling indeed. Those five games losing streaks will do that to you. We're hurt, slumping and outside of our top line, no one is doing anything. I have a bad feeling we'll be #9 when all is said and done.

sachmo71 · 09-08-2004, 08:19 AM

Whoa, and Dallas is going to a total youth movement. I'll miss Zubov.

Johnny93g · 09-08-2004, 12:01 PM

MAKE A TRADE DAMNIT.....YOU MUST STOP THE SLIDE....

theres got to be a 2nd or third liner out there with your name on it.....If you stand pat, i guareentee TSN will call you one of the trade deadline losers...

Karim · 09-08-2004, 05:09 PM

March 9th, 2005
----------------
Game 69: @ Minnesota
Buhrer starts. Kipper has been slumping. No lineup changes. I decide to Overload my top defence and forward lines.

We win 4-2. We score and give up a powerplay goal and were outshot 34-18. Souray's a little banged up - potential groin injury that's reduced his conditioning to 68%. This means he won't be ready for the game tomorrow. I'm using him as my #1 defenceman.

The trade deadline sees a lot of action. We are indeed trade deadline losers as I couldn't get anything done. Part of it was my unwillingness to go on "real life" reputation; I wanted to get my scouts' opinions on the player. My focus has been on the amateur draft so I really didn't have as good a feel for the players in the league.

Deadline day:

Montreal trades D Tim Gleason (22) to Dallas for F Tony Amonte (34).

Montreal trades F Scott Barney (22) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 to Edmonton for F Petr Nedved (33).

St. Louis trades the rights to F Jonathan Lehun (21) to Pittsburgh for F Steve McKenna (31).

Washington trades the rights to F Lukas Kaspar (19) to Dallas for D Steve Staios (31).

Washington trades F Brian Sutherby (23) to Phoenix for D Matt Spiller (22).

San Jose trades D Kyle McLaren (27) to Buffalo for F Derek Roy (21).

Toronto trades F Kyle Wellwood (21) to New Jersey for G Gerry Festa (21).

Tampa trades D Matt Smaby (20) and D Art Femenella (22) to Los Angeles for the rights to G Vasili Koshechkin (21).

NY Rangers trade G Mike Dunham (32) to Detroit for the rights to D Miroslav Blatak (22) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2007.

Vancouver trades D Doug Krantz (21) to Detroit for the rights to F Ryan Oulahen (19) and the rights to F Tomas Kollar (22).

Tampa trades D Scott Perry (20) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005 to Edmonton for D Ryan Caldwell (23).

Nasvhille trades D Marek Zidlicky (28) to the NY Islanders for F Mattias Weinhandl (24).

NY Rangers trade D Joel Bouchard (31) and a 7th Round Pick in 2005 to Minnesota for the rights to D Jean-Michel Bolduc (20).

San Jose trades F Scott Thornton (33) to Colorado for the rights to D Taylor Christie (22).

NY Rangers trade D Ales Pisa (28) to Boston for F Martin Samuelsson (23) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005.

St. Louis trades F Keenan Hopson (21) to Boston for the rights to G Matti Kaltiainen (22).

Toronto trades F Nathan Robinson (23) to Ottawa for the rights to G Brian Elliot (19) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005.

Game 70: vs. Vancouver
Buhrer starts. Evans has to come in for Souray. Gelinas comes in for Ruutu. I use Overload again to minimize the use of my third defence pairing and my fourth line.

A 2-2 tie, outshooting Vancouver 29-25. We give up another powerplay goal. They took a 2-0 lead so we fought back to salvage a point. Frogren played over 30 minutes and was second star of the game with an 8 rating.

Gelinas will be out for a week after suffering a neck strain in practice.

Reinprecht will be out for 10 days after suffering bruised ribs in practice. I adjust the practice schedule yet again.

Richard Zednik (Mon) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
J.S. Aubin (Pit) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 71: vs. Colorado
Kipper starts. Rachunek is back and in for Evans. Souray still out (79%). Simon and Ruutu in for Reinprecht and Gelinas. Richards is only at 80% but he has to go.

A 1-1 tie; better than a loss. Cole scored a powerplay goal but will be out for two weeks with a damaged elbow. This is an injury-riddled season that I want to forget.

Game 72: vs. Ottawa
Buhrer starts. Souray is back but Iginla is out (74%). This causes all sorts of mess with the lines.

We lose 2-1. Regehr is out for a week with a shoulder contusion. This is unbelievable.

Currently injured and unavailable:
F Erik Cole
F Martin Gelinas
F Steve Reinprecht
D Toni Lydman
D Robyn Regehr
D Jordan Leopold

Add to this anyone who drops below 80% conditioning and it's a struggle to fill the lineup.

I offer a contract to 23 year old prospect F Eric Nystrom. He doesn't seem to have as good attributes as he has in real life but my scouts have suggested he good add depth to the roster.

My 1st Round Pick, F Kris Chucko (18), continues to get media praise. His WHL GM says he's developing into a top class player.

Game 73: vs. St. Louis
Kipper starts. Regehr (74%) out, Gelinas in. Lynch's ability to play defence and forward is really an asset.

We lose 1-0 on a powerplay goal with 7:54 left in the game. Too many giveaways by our defencemen has been a consistent theme this season. Souray is gassed all the way to 65% with only 21 minutes of ice time. He needs rest but I don't have the luxury of giving him any.

Warener is now out for a week after suffering a shoulder contusion in practice. This is becoming laughable.

Markus Naslund (Van) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Paul Martin (NJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week. ---> overrated in this game, IMO

Game 74: vs. Detroit
Detroit is in 9th, we're in 8th. Kipper starts. I have no choice but to play Regehr and Warener injured, at 90% condition. Souray, while healthy, is only at 79%.

We win 3-2. Huge. We get a shorthanded goal from Nilson and a powerplay goal from Iginla. Regehr suffers a shoulder contusion and will be out for a week.

Game 75: @ Dallas
Kipper starts. Souray is off of special teams; he can't handle the workload on 15 stamina I guess. Reinprecht is back; Gelinas is out.

We win 2-1 on the road. Huge. Dallas was only 5 points behind us. The kids - Lombardi & Kobasew - score a powerplay goal each. Evans was inserted into the lineup instead of Lynch. I demote Evans as a result as he's unreliable and will never be a regular.

gi · 09-09-2004, 08:11 AM

Going down to the wire. Now get the team healthy and you should at least make 8th seed. Nice clutch game wins!!!

Karim · 09-09-2004, 11:59 AM

March 21st, 2005
-----------------
Game 76: @ San Jose
Buhrer starts in this back-to-back situation. Warener plays injured again (90%). I change around my tactics to a more of an attacking focus. I move Iginla to center and Kobasew to the top line on right wing. Richards plays the left side. Lombardi centers the second line with Bell on right and Reinprecht on left. Bell seems to play better on the wing but I don't want Kobasew on the third line. I've changed everyone to have a bias of shooting but only Richards and Iginla have the option to try risky passes. Only Warener and Rachunek have the option of joining the rush because they're the only ones with good 'Off the Puck' attributes. I still use a power pressing/checking/hitting game but ease up on the hitting to 'Normal' for the penalty kill. Offensive system is mixed for every line.

We lose 2-1 to the worst team in the Western Conference even though we outshoot them 28-16. Iginla scores the only goal on the powerplay but we give up a shorthanded goal. We are only 1/8 on the powerplay. The only problem with Iginla and Lombardi at center is that neither of them are good at faceoffs. Nilson, Gelinas and Simon got '6' ratings.

Borrowing Johnny93g's layout:

* Nikos Dimatrakos
** Curtis Joseph
*** Rob Davison

Game 77: vs. Phoenix
Kiprusoff starts. This is a very big game. Phoenix is two points ahead of us in 7th place. We currently have the same number of wins. Warener is back to full strength so he'll be getting more ice time. I'm not giving up yet on the line combinations so I don't make any changes there.

We lose 4-2, outshooting Phoenix 30-23. We go 0/5 on the powerplay. Kiprusoff was the only player with a 6 rating. For the second game in a row, Bell is a -2; he's not clicking with Reinprecht. More changes are clearly needed. Lundqvist suffered a rotator cuff strain and will be out for three weeks. And the hits just keep on coming.

* Ladislav Nagy
** Ivan Novolseltsev
*** Daymond Langkow

F Eric Nystrom (22) has agreed to terms and will join us next season. His technical attributes are good, his physical attributes are average, but his mental attributes aren't great. I suspect he'll be filling a similar role to Lynch as forward depth in Lowell.

Dallas is only 5 points behind us with a game in hand but Minnesota did us a favour by beating them 5-3.

Jeff Friesen (NJ) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Scott Clemmensen (Tor) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 78: vs. San Jose
Buhrer starts as I'm starting to wonder if goaltending is a problem. With Lundqvist out, Ruutu is now in. This forces Yelle to the fourth line and Reinprecht as the third line center. Simon moves up to flank Lombardi. Richards is only at 83%.

We lose 3-2, outshooting San Jose 30-19. We give up a powerplay goal while going 0/5 with the man advantage. Buhrer and Lynch get a '6' rating. What a surprise - no one got injured in tonight's game.

* Alyn McCauley
** Patrick Marleau
*** Martin Gelinas

Game 79: vs. Anaheim
I don't know who to start in goal because both have played awful lately but I defer to the veteran in Kiprusoff. Regehr and Cole are finally back. I really hope they can provide a spark to the lineup. This enables me to finally sit Lynch. Ruutu comes out on the forward ranks. Iginla goes back to the wing. That experiment didn't work.

We win 4-0. Finally a win. Everyone showed up to play tonight and the scoring was balanced. Kiprusoff got a $50,000 bonus for collecting his fifth shutout of the season.

* Miika Kiprusoff
** Jarome Iginla
*** Mark Bell

Game 80: @ Nashville
Kiprusoff starts. No change to the lineup. We need to keep this going. For whatever reason, of the player's who aren't injured, everyone is now at 100%. That's the first time in a long time.

A 3-1 win on the road. Cole got two goal, one on the powerplay, and Reinprecht got an empty netter. Lombardi and Bell had a '6' rating. Regehr has a potential groin injury that see's his conditioning drop to 50%. Clearly, in EHM, someone has made him injury prone.

* Erik Cole
** Miika Kiprusoff
*** Jarome Iginla

Our fate now rests in our own hands as we have a six point lead on Dallas. We need one more point to get into the playoffs. Dallas needs to win their remaining three games and hope we lose our remaining two.

Game 81: @ Phoenix
Buher starts in this back-to-back game. Regehr is out, Lynch is in.

We win 6-4. It takes until Game 81 for us to clinch a playoff spot but we're in. Phoenix scores 4 in the first. We score 3 in the second, and 3 in the third. We give up two powerplay goals but score one of our own. Clark and Buhrer get '6' ratings. Clark will also be out for a few days with anterior knee pain.

* Erik Cole (1g, 2a, '9')
** Chuck Kobasew (2g, 1a, '9')
*** Jarome Iginla (2g, '8')

D Dion Phaneuf (19) is the WHL Player of the Month.

Markus Naslund (Van) is Offensive Player of the Month.
Nick Boynton (Bos) is Defensive Player of the Month.
Hugh Jessiman (NYR) is Rookie of the Month.

Dany Heatley (Atl) wins Offensive Player of the Week.
Brian Rafalski (NJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week.

Game 82: @ Colorado
Kipper starts. Regehr is back so Lynch is out. Ruutu in for Clark.

We lose 3-1 although it seems we outplayed Colorado. Aebischer was the difference. No one on our team got a '6' rating.

* David Aebischer
** Peter Forsberg
*** Alex Tanguay

Karim · 09-09-2004, 12:00 PM

Final Standings:

	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PCT	GF	GA	PTS
Anaheim	82	47	22	9	4	0.652	228	178	107
Colorado	82	47	24	11	0	0.640	249	215	105
St. Louis	82	36	31	12	3	0.530	216	215	87
Vancouver	82	47	25	8	2	0.634	282	219	104
Los Angeles	82	46	27	8	1	0.616	250	186	101
Phoenix	82	34	34	10	4	0.500	214	224	82
Calgary	82	34	37	10	1	0.482	206	202	79
Minnesota	82	34	37	10	1	0.482	191	205	79
Dallas	82	29	37	14	2	0.451	184	200	74
Detroit	82	28	40	10	4	0.427	237	255	70
Columbus	82	30	43	8	1	0.421	196	216	69
Edmonton	82	28	41	10	3	0.421	161	208	69
Nashville	82	28	44	8	2	0.402	201	247	66
Chicago	82	27	46	5	4	0.384	200	273	63
San Jose	82	25	44	12	1	0.384	167	258	63

	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PCT	GF	GA	PTS
New Jersey	82	59	16	5	2	0.762	311	180	125
Washington	82	44	27	10	1	0.604	220	192	99
Montreal	82	37	28	10	7	0.555	211	212	91
Atlanta	82	43	31	5	3	0.573	259	229	94
Florida	82	38	31	12	1	0.543	232	205	89
Toronto	82	38	31	11	2	0.543	243	224	89
Tampa Bay	82	36	29	14	3	0.543	241	221	89
Buffalo	82	41	36	5	0	0.530	207	213	87
NY Islanders	82	37	33	10	2	0.524	206	203	86
Ottawa	82	36	32	11	3	0.524	204	190	86
Boston	82	37	34	7	4	0.518	241	244	85
Philadelphia	82	34	34	11	3	0.500	232	226	82
NY Rangers	82	36	39	6	1	0.482	214	235	79
Carolina	82	28	44	10	0	0.402	194	253	66
Pittsburgh	82	23	44	13	2	0.378	178	247	62

08-08-2004, 07:09 AM	#101
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	Well after playing around with the off-season I have to concur with Johnny93g - it's seriously screwed up. - players in their late 30s sign as assistant coaches - unrestricted free agents don't sign until late August if at all - several high-profile young European restricted free agents opt for Europe The worst thing of all was Darryl Sutter signing as General Manager of Edmonton. These will be tuned in the next patch which should hopefully come out in the next two weeks. Until then, this dynasty is on hold. I'll resume prior to Yzerman becoming a coach, so hopefully he'll re-sign with Detroit and we can proceed from there. Last edited by Karim : 08-08-2004 at 07:10 AM.

08-27-2004, 10:58 PM	#103
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	[Patch 2 has been installed.] July & August, 2004 I've set my 33 man roster to a light off-season conditioning program. I plan to ramp it up in August. Once interesting thing is that both G Marco Buhrer (Switzerland) and F Matthew Myers (England) are the only players finding the conditioning program difficult. Clearly, coming from inferior leagues, they're having trouble keeping up. A new feature is on the Player & Search Screen. A new button named - NHL UFA - automatically lists all the unrestricted free agents. Although there are some junior and foreign players listed and I'm getting players already with multi-year contracts listed. I'm not sure how to use this efficiently yet. Ok. The filter automatically kicks in to North American based players 26 years old and younger. You'll need to adjust the filter to see the older free agents. I offer contracts to F Seth Leonard (20) and F Josh Bonar (20) - a couple of promising overage juniors. Staggared contracts! Beauty! The next day sees a flurry of activity in my news reports: - Philadelphia has offered a contract to Seth Leonard - New York Rangers, Tampa Bay and Carolina have offered Pat Burns the head coaching job - Philadelphi, Detroit, Dallas, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado have offered a contract to Paul Kariya (NOTE: Not all of these offers came on the same day but were scattered over the beginning of July. Philly and Vancouver were the only ones to offer a contract on July 7th. I think it's realistic that Kariya wouldn't rush to sign.) - Tampa has offered a contract to Pavol Demitra I get a news report about trade offers between teams in the OHL and QMJHL teams. I don't have any connection to any of the players but they have high reputations. I really hope this is an indication that I will be constantly informed of trades rather than having to hunt for them in the transaction screen. A news report indicates that Leonard's agent says Atlanta is close to signing him. Colorado is interested in trading for Jagr. Iginla, Yelle and Nilson are still unhappy thinking the team needs strengthening. This was supposed to be corrected in the patch. Either I can't remedy this by continuing with this saved game or I really am not meeting their expectations. I have 37 players under contract and 20 unsigned draft picks. I've noticed a cosmetic change on the player profile. There's a button called "Scout Report" intead of having to click on that little circle in the upper left corner. A nice little change. My player budget is $36 million and I've already at $35.5 so even if I don't get Leonard or Bonar, I think I'm done. On second thought, I make a small offer to a no-name center, Grant Jacobsen (21), who has all the physical tools but minimal finish. Again, minor league depth in hopes I get lucky. Bonar is delighted to have signed with the Flames. He appears to be an older version of Travis Zajak. He's a 20 year old center with apparent skill but only played one year in the BCHL. Undrafted, I decide to give him a shot in Lowell. Leonard opts to Philly. What a surprise. I guess that two-way clause didn't impress him much. I offer F Jarret Lukin (20), an overager with Kamloops, a minor-league deal. He was on my draft shortlist so he's another guy to roll the dice on. There are two more similar type players on my shortlist who are still 19. As soon as they turn 20, I'll pounce. Toronto has offered Craig MacTavish the role of Assistant Coach. Cool. Contracts with 2-way clauses, show how much the player will be played in the minors on the contract tab of the player profile. Bobby Smith has been signed as a scout by Vancouver. Scotty Bowman is convinced by Gretsky to work as a scout for Phoenix. Philadelphia has offered a contract to former NHLer, Christian Dube. He's 27 and has been played for Bern in Switzerland where he is considered a Star. He has amazing attributes except for an 8 in skating and that is the only reason I haven't offered a contract and is what I expect will limit his productivity in the NHL. Larry Robinson is signed as a scout for New Jersey. Tampa Bay gets Pavol Demitra. They were the only ones interested. And the contract is realistic. $4.2/Yr.1, $4.5/Yr. 2, $4.8/Yr. 3 and a whole bunch of individual bonuses. Good to see. One of my better scouts has announced his retirement. Wow. Grant Jacobsen has opted to play in Finland rather than sign with us. Clearly the SM-Liga team offered him more playing time and a more prominent role on the team. He's going to make $65k/$70k on a two-year deal which is roughly what he would make in the minors. At least, Lukin has agreed to join the Flames. And thankfully, at last, Nilson, Iginla and Yelle think there's enough organizational depth and are no longer unhappy (39 contracted players and 20 unsigned prospects). Robbie Schremp (#4 Edm), Andrej Mezaros (#6 Atl), Rostislav Olesz (#3 Cbs), Emil Axelsson (#28 Edm), Kyle Chipchura (#13 Stl), Cam Barker (#11 Wsh), Andrew Ladd (#7 NRY), and Alexander Picard (#16 TB) have been signed by their NHL clubs as 18 year olds. It'll be interesting to see how much playing time they get or whether they're returned to their junior clubs. I hope they're not all throw to the wolves. Restricted Free Agent, Ilya Kovalchuk, has indicated he's interested in joining Minnesota. It's good to see that he hasn't bolted back to Russia even though three Russian teams are interested. Montreal is the only other team that's interested. So far so good. Atlanta's qualified him but can't come to terms yet but NHL teams aren't scrambling to mortgage the future with a huge offer sheet. F Bryan Smolinski (31) has signed with Colorado on a $2.9 million/2 year deal. [I had to find this in the transaction screen. Smolinski only has a 'Good' reputation so I suspect this is why.] Ok. Philadelphia has signed F Christian Dube (27) from Switzerland. His reputation is 'Star' and clearly this has governed his contract which is huge. It's $12.8 million/4 years with huge bonuses too. An irresponsible inflationary contract from a large market team. F Tony Amonte (33) has been signed by Dallas. [Again, I didn't get a news report. Amonte's reputation is 'Very Good' so it seems news reports are reserved for 'Superb' and 'Star' reps.] A two year deal worth $4.8 million. F Bill Guerin (33) has re-signed with Dallas. He's taken a massive pay-cut. Year 1: $2.9 million. Year 2: $2.7 million. No other team was interested so maybe he started getting ansy. We have to be careful about our expectations here. He didn't have a good season in the game, with only 26 goals and 58 points, well back from the league leaders. I make an offer to G Kelly Guard (21) who played this past season with Kelowna. Impressive stats and very good attributes for his age. A lot of NHL teams are interested but I'm the first to offer a contract. He wants $850k/yr which is quite a bit. Again, I want a two-way clause with no guarantee of playing time with the big club. If other teams promise more, fine. D Jon Klemm (34) has been signed by St. Louis on a $1.2 million/1 year deal. Kelly Guard rejects our offer (and five other NHL offers) in favour of Edmonton. He said he was particularly looking forward to working with Kevin Lowe and Lorne Molleken. It'll be nice to light him. Pat Burns has signed with Tampa Bay as Head Coach on a huge deal - $8.4 million/4 years (with a two-way clause?). St. Louis trades G Cody Rudkowski (21) to Columbus for F Manny Malhotra (24). Rudkowski looks like nothing so either Columbus got schooled or Malhotra's stock has dropped incredibly. Atlanta has re-signed G Kari Lehtonen (20). If they can re-sign Kovalchuk, they'll be a team to watch with Heatley back. I offer a minor-league deal to F Chris Hodgson (20), another player on my draft list who went undrafted. Vancouver have won the bidding for Paul Kariya. The contract is $15.9 million/3 years with huge signing bonuses that could see him make $6.72 million in year one, $7.07 million in year two and $7.57 million in year three. It's not the $7-$10 million base salary that some might be expecting but I can live with this. He's coming off of only 31 goals and 70 points. It seems the contract is based on a combination of reputation and performance which is very good to see. The first disappointment sees Steve Yzerman sign as an assistant coach with San Jose. This is certainly not game breaking to me but it previously caused some people to be upset. John Tortorella is the new coach of the Edmonton Oilers - it's a three-year deal at $1.7 million/year. Wow. Toronto has traded the rights to G Todd Ford (20) to Atlanta for D Chris Tamer (33). Dallas are the big spenders this off-season. They've signed Keith Primeau to a $6.4 million/2 year deal. Former Flame Assistant Coach, Rich Preston, has been hired as the Head Coach of the New York Islanders at $1.5 million/year for 4 years. Chris Hodgson has accepted our deal. Colorado has signed D Richard Matvichuk (31) on a $5.5 million/3 year deal. New Jersey has signed D Bryan Marchment (35) on a $975k/1 year deal. I wasn't informed about these deals and had to find them in the transactions screen. Pittsburgh trades the rights to D Pauli Levokari (26) for G Jonas Holmqvist (22). Ottawa has signed Kevin Lowe as GM. [I thought stealing staff from other NHL clubs was supposed to have been fixed in the patch. To my knowledge, he wasn't out of a contract.] Edmonton has signed D Sean O'Donnell (32) on a $2.9 million/2 year deal. Dallas has signed D Dan McGillis (32) on a $4.1 million/2 year deal. St. Louis has signed F Grant Marshall (31) on a $4.1 million/3 year deal. The NHL clubs are doing a good job of snapping up promising undrafted players; I'm not the only one doing this so it's good to see. Montreal has signed F Matthew Barnaby (31) on a $4.9 million/3 year deal. The New York Rangers have signed Rick Tocchet as their Head Coach on a $6.4 million/4 year deal. Scott Gomez has re-signed with New Jersey for $14.4 million/4 years. Jaroslav Svoboda has re-signed with Carolina for $8.2/4 years. Ruslan Fedotenko re-signed with Tampa Bay for $700k/1 year. He's coming off of an awful season. Shawn Horcoff re-signs with Edmonton for $875k/1 year. Darryl Sutter is the new General Manager of Edmonton. [I've noticed that none of the General Managers have contracts listed in the profile, as compared to Head Coaches. It only says "Free Agent" which means it seems you can poach GMs from other team. Unfortunate, but doesn't really affect me.] Montreal trades the rights to G Joni Puurula (22) to Columbus for G Marc Denis (27). Boston signs F Alexei Zhamnov (33) to a $1.6 million/1 year deal. He only had 6 goals and 28 points in 82 games with Philadelphia the previous season. Ottawa signs Peter Laviolette as a Head Coach. Philadelphia signs F Mike Modano (34) for a $6.8 million/2 year deal. Anaheim has proposed an exhibition game in Calgary. I accept. That makes seven exhibition games. I have a lot of youngsters and I want to take a look at most of them in a game situation. I see that Carolina is interested in one of my unsigned prospects. This is the first time I've seen this happen. I immediately offer D Toni Lydman (26) and the unsigned prospect to Carolina for F Marcus Krahnberg (24), a player I've been looking at for a while. My trade proposal becomes a news item, for what it's worth. It's rejected. According to their team needs, Carolina isn't looking for a defenceman. Eric Belanger re-signs with Los Angeles for $6.6 million/4 years. The World Cup of Hockey is about to start. Jordan Leopold has made the US squad while Jarome Iginla makes Team Canada. Joel Lundqvist is on the Swedish squad but not in the starting lineup. I wasn't informed about this but had to look at the Swedish team to find this out. Ilya Kovalchuk re-signs with Atlanta for $19.3 million/4 years. I wasn't informed of this either. I found out about by looking at Team Russia's roster. Colorado sign Donald Brasher for $2.1 million/2 years. Markus Nilson has been called up to Team Sweden. Toni Lydman, Mikka Kiprusoff, Jarkko Ruutu and Ville Nieminen have been called up to Team Finland. These players have been called up for exhibition games but the games are not being simulated. Los Angeles signs Mark Recchi for $3.3 million/1 year. It's the start of the World Cup (August 31st). I've noticed that many free agents have signed of which I didn't have a news report. These are mainly restricted free agents but for names such as Thornton and Chara, I should be receiving a news report. Also, Brodeur and Niedermayer re-signed with New Jersey but I wasn't told. Maybe it was on the transactions list but even with the NHL filter on, the list is so dense that I could have easily missed it. Of the players still available, here's a list of prominent names: Mario Lemieux (38) (Not on Team Canada!) Dave Andreychuk (signed as GM for the Regina Pats - no big deal, he's 41) Brett Hull (40) Ed Belfour (39) Luc Robitaille (38) Chris Chelios (42) Ron Francis (41) Al MacInnis (41) Sean Burke (37) Steve Rucchin (33) Scott Young (36) Regardless, the patch has cured a lot of the free agent problems that were evident before. I'm satisfied. Last edited by Karim : 08-27-2004 at 11:35 PM.

08-28-2004, 11:48 AM	#107
Johnny93g College Starter Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Toronto	Its great to see the off-season fixed so its playable....Ya, it still worries me that Yzerman is now an assistant coach....NOT with the Wings.....Did he officially retire? __________________ FOOL- Toronto Marlboros FOOL Classic Champions 2073, 2078, 2079, 2114, 2116, 2117, 2129, 2152, 2155, 2169, 2192 46 35 FOOL H- New York Giants World Champions 1914, 1928 BBCF: Notre Dame TML

08-29-2004, 02:00 AM	#109
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	September 10th, 2004 -------------------------------- I've demoted F Chris Hodgson (20) and F Jarret Lukin (20) to Las Vegas of the ECHL. I also send D Brennan Evans (21) to Lowell of the AHL. He played well in the first exhibition game but there's no way he's going to crack the left side of our defence. Mario Tremblay has been appointed as the Head Coach of Carolina. Exhibition Game 2: vs. Colorado I throw the young goaltenders to the wolves against Colorado. The top four of the defence stays the same but Regehr and Warrener are in. Tired forwards come in for replacements. New lines look like this: Simon - Lundqvist - Kobasew Bonar - Lambert - Spets Gelinas - Reinprecht - Bell Nieminen - Yelle - Ruutu Frogen - Montador Lydman - Gauthier Regehr - Ference Warener Krahn McElhinney Although Sakic and Tanguay, both not on Team Canada, are in Colorado's lineup, the rest of the corps are a bunch of no-names, especially on defence and in goal. Period 1 Krahn stops Sakic early on a giveaway by Montador. On a harmless looking play, Tanguary blows a wristshot by Krahn to make it 1-0. Kobasew sets up Simon at the top of the circle from well out after a rebound from a shot by Lundqvist to tie it up. Both goalies look shaky. Josh Bonar crushes Marek Svatos, feeds the puck to Lambert who then sends Spets in on a breakaway but again, Spets can't finish. That line seems to have a lot of chemistry and I'm thinking they should spend the year together in Lowell. Bonar continues to show a physical game I didn't know he had, muscling Bob Boughner off the puck to set up Lydman, but nothing comes of it. Simon gets his second of the game from Montador and Frogren on after a scramble in front of the Colorado goal. We outshoot Colorado 14-6 in the first. Period 2 Nieminen strips the puck on the forecheck and feeds Ruutu who scores on a bad angle shot to make it 3-1. Lydman blocks a slapshot which opens my eyes. Sakic strips Frogren but Krahn saves the subsequent wristshot. He seems to have settled down a bit. Frogren, although lots of chances on the powerplay, is clearly a defensive defenceman. A fairly quiet second period see us leading Colorado 3-1 and outshooting them 21-14. Period 3 Simon gets the puck on the forecheck and feeds Kobasew who rifles it into the top corner from the faceoff dot. That's what I like to see but clearly this young Colorado goalie, a fifth round pick, is out of his league. Another heavy forecheck sees Gelinas strip a Colorado defenceman of the puck, feed Bell and a 5-1 lead. Krahn robs Svatos on the powerplay with a "brilliant glove save" and has robbed Sakic all night. Simon dangles Hinote, feeds Kobasew whose shot is stopped but Simon puts the rebound the the five hole on the backhand for his hattrick. A 6-1 win on the basis of an overmatched goaltender for Colorado doesn't really tell us much. First star goes to Simon with a hattrick and four points and a 10 rating. Kobasew gets second star with three points and a 9 rating. Third star goes to Jarkko Ruutu with a goal and an 8 rating. What can I assess from this game? The line of Bonar-Lambert-Spets was really quiet against a weak Colorado lineup so I think their time with the big club is done. Krahn still looks like a 1st round draft pick but I don't want to rely on him. Frogren, despite two points tonight, I don't want manning the powerplay. And I'm still not sold on Lydman. Gauthier, despite limited upside and the coaches reports, still is more consistent. I'll have to make a decision before the waiver draft. World Cup Semi-Finals Czech Republic beat Sweden, 7-3. Petr Sykora was first star with a goal and three assists for a 10 rating. Canada beat USA, 4-3 on a late goal by Shane Doan. Rob Blake was first star with two points and a 9 rating. What’s really shocking is I see that D Patrick Wellar (20) is on Team Canada. He’s an undrafted player who played for the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL, where he won four major year end awards. I was thinking about signing him but he wanted over $1 million. Dallas picked him up. His attributes are good but nowhere near what I would consider to be a regular in the NHL, let alone on Team Canada. I send F Matthew Myers (19) to Las Vegas of the ECHL. Not good for his moral development but hopefully great for his hockey development. F Josh Bonar (20), F Michael Lamber (20), and F Lars Erik Spets (19) are demoted to Lowell of the AHL. I’m hoping their chemistry continues with lots of playing time. Exhibition Game 3: @ Vancouver I insert almost all of the regulars into the lineup. Gerber gets the start. My main goal is to see Lydman or Gauthier distinguish themselves and maybe spot some chemistry between a couple players. Period 1 A couple of early warning signs - Nilson, Gauthier and Souray all get muscled off the pucks by eager young Canucks. Kobasew sends Lundqvist in on a breakaway but he's stoned by Auld. Lundqvist seems to be a complete player, responsible defensively but lacks finish. Kobasew does it again, but Lundqvist can't deke Auld on the second breakaway of the game. Lunqvist finishes a strong first period with a huge bodycheck on the bigger Bryan Allen. He tries to set up Kobasew but the pass is intercepted. Otherwise, it's a quiet first period. Period 2 Naslund turns Warener inside out and goes in on a breakaway but Gerber stands his ground. On a powerplay, Lombardi sets up Kobasew for a slapshot from the point that finds the mark for a 1-0 lead. Lydman clears a sure goal after the a Vancouver point shot hits the post on a powerplay after Gauthier took a penalty. However, our defence is generally playing lousy. Supposedly reliable guys are not getting it done against a no-name Vancouver squad. Clearly, it's an exhibition game and they're not in game shape. I hope. Period 3 Lydman shows a little physical game by outmuscling a guy in the corner to clear the puck. Richards strips Sopel on the forecheck and blows a wrister by Auld to make it 2-0. Evgeny Gladskikh scores for Vancouver to make it 2-1; he's been all over the ice tonight. The last three minutes sees us keep Vancouver hemmed in their own zone and we hold on for a 2-1 win. Kobasew is first star with a goal and 8 rating. Gerber is second star with a 9 rating, which doesn't make my decision any easier. Gladskikh is third star. Both Gauthier and Lydman finish with an 8 rating. I think Frogren more than makes up for Gauthier. Lydman seems to do ok as a fifth defenceman, where he doesn't need to carry the load. Montador might be the odd-man out. I'll have to see who I'll need to protect for the waiver draft. I have 22 players eligible for the waiver draft. If Buhrer is our backup goalie, it's likely I'd lose Gerber if unprotected. Montador on defence and one of Clark/Ortmeyer/Nieminen will be left exposed in the forward ranks. In terms of asset management, it would be better to trade Gerber for at least a draft pick. I set Gerber's status to available. World Cup Final Canada beats the Czech Republic, 3-2, in a shootout. In four attempts, both teams had scored twice. Jagr missed on the Czech's fifth shot while Lecavalier scored for Canada. Iginla scored Canada's second goal and was second star of the game. Apparently, the final was held at the Pengrowth Saddledome - if only that were true. Exhibition Game 4: vs. Vancouver I'm going to give the start to 21 year old Curtis McElhinney now that he's no longer tired to see what he can do. Krahn will be his backup and afterwards both will be reassigned. Iginla's back from the World Cup so we'll see how he and Richards and him get back together. I've decided to put Nilson on the first line to maybe jump start him offensively unlike last season. Reinprecht and Bell are also together to hopefully create some chemistry although Bell and Richards worked well last year. Period 1 Vancouver has its 'A' lineup in. Bell clearly plays better on right wing than center. He hits Jovanovski, strips the buck and fires a backhand but the post denies him. McElhinney makes a highlight reel glove save off of Kris Beech. Richards and Iginla set up Ruutu who is subsequently robbed by Cloutier. Henrik Sedin trips Simon on a breakaway but only a two minute penalty is the result. An even period. Period 2 Simon gets his revenge by scoring on the subsequent powerplay, set up from Reinprecht. A brilliant glove save by McElhinney off of Jovanovski right from the faceoff. Cloutier does the same off of Richards. Morrison is then robbed by our goalie again. It's a shooting gallery but the goalies are coming to play. Simon then gets kicked out of the game for a knee-on-knee hit on Kyle Wanvig. We do a good job killing off the five minutes only to see Bertuzzi score right as the penalty was over off of a rebound. 1-1 after two. Period 3 Yuck. As Lydman was trying to exit the zone, Daniel Sedin lifts his stick, strips the puck and roofs it over McElhinney. 2-1 Vancouver. Lundqvist does the same thing moments later, sets up Iginla for a slapshot but he rings it off the post. Two plays in a row that lead to scoring chances for Vancouver resulted from Lydman being stripped of the puck. Late in the third Souray gets an injury that's reported as serious. His profile says head injury so that doesn't sound good. I move Regehr into Souray's slot and he promptly crushes Bertuzzi with a bodycheck. Arvedsson scores in the empty net but with 12 seconds left, Lundqvist scores on the man advantage on a tip from a Regehr point shot. 3-2 Vancouver is the final. We were outshot 31-20 but were 2/5 on the powerplay. McElhinney had an 8 rating and really impressed. He gets the spot in the AHL; Krahn goes to the ECHL. Souray's injury is just a facial laceration and he'll only be out for a few days. I see that Ottawa and some other teams have returned some of their 18 year olds back to junior. I'm glad to see this as a lot of youngsters have been signed and I'm hoping they are all not thrown to the wolves. G Marc-Andre Fleury (19) has been sent back to Cape Breton by Pittsburgh. Simon gets suspended for 3 games for his kneeing incident. Exhibtion Game 5: @ Montreal Buhrer gets the start. I'm going to try something that worked in my LLaMa career. Everyone is tactically set to Shoot, Carry the Puck, Join the Rush and Simple Passes, Play Defensive, Skate, Crash the Net and Hit, Hit, Hit. Everyone is defaulted to shoot first and ask questions later. Everyone has the green light to go but not to try risky passes. We'll see what happens. Period 1 Nilson strips Hainsey and feeds Reinprecht in the slot but only a highlight reel save by Marc Denis keeps the game scoreless. It was a very physical period with few chances. Period 2 [The coach keeps playing Iginla at center for some reason. At least that's what the tactical view shows.] Lombardi feeds Kobasew who slaps it hard and Lundqvist tips it home. Just the way I drew it up. Yelle feeds Iginla for a breakaway and Jarome puts it top shelf for his first of the pre-season and a 2-0 lead. Denis robs Lundqvist who was fed from Lombardi off the forecheck. Buhrer can't control the rebound and Zednik pounces with a powerplay goal to bring it to 2-1. Kobasew is on his game and is generating chances but is stopped by Denis. Scott Barney ties it up on another powerplay goal; a screened shot that finds the mark. Period 3 An early powerplay sees Denis continue to stone Kobasew. Regehr rings one off the post, Gelinas picks up the rebound but is muscled off the puck by Dykhuis. Buhrer gives up a couple rebounds and only his quick glove hand saves him. Hossa dangles Leopold and a quick wristshot finds the mark making it three unanswered goals by Montreal. A powerplay sees Iginla deflect a Leopold point shot to tie the game. And it finishes in a 3-3 tie. Last edited by Karim : 08-29-2004 at 02:04 AM.

08-29-2004, 06:32 AM	#112
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	September 21st, 2004 -------------------------------- Most of those 18 year olds that were signed have been sent back to their junior clubs. Good. Montreal trades D Patrice Brisebois (33) to Carolina for the rights to D Ilkka Kallioinen (22). One of my recent draft picks, D Grant Lewis (19), who plays for Dartmouth, is unhappy. He wants to move to a stronger team. I don't want to sign him until he turns 20 in January, after which I'll be able to assign him to the AHL. Meanwhile, 11 NHL teams have taken an interest in him. Lundqvist will be out for a few days with a thigh contusion suffered in practice. Exhibition Game 6: @ Edmonton Buhrer starts in Rexall place. Kiprusoff will start the remaining games. I'm not playing these out. We win 3-2. [The bad news is that the coach made an unwanted substitution. I had dressed 7 defencemen. He dressed 8 and took Clark out. I don't like this at all.] Atlanta and Dallas are still interested in Gauthier. There isn't anything from either roster that I could realistically get that would interest me. I don't have a second round pick in this year's draft so I offer Gauthier to Atlanta for their second pick. As soon as I do, Dallas comes in with an offer of Stu Barnes straight up for Gauthier. This is a very good offer except for the fact that Barnes is five years older, makes $1.5 million more than Denis and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. He would provide depth at center where we are weak and he's the exact type of player we're looking for. He looks better than Gelinas whose skills seem to be on the decline. I accept even though it'll put be $1 million over our salary cap. Atlanta rejected our trade anyway. As soon as I confirm the trade, Barnes wants immediate assurances as to his future. I tell him he's a core player. Nieminen, Ortmeyer and Clark are going to be struggling to see the ice. Each of my coaches suggest that G Marco Buhrer (24) isn't good enough to play for the Calgary Flames. They don't like Nieminen, Frogren, Lundqvist or Ortmeyer either. They feel I'm overrating Stu Barnes. Our defensive prospect, D Tim Ramholt (19), has won Defensive Player of the Month in the QMJHL with 15 points in 7 games and an average rating of 8.57. Exhbition Game 7: vs. Edmonton Kipper starts. I also need to get Barnes playing time since he wasn't seeing action in Dallas. We lose 6-4. Again, the coach switched things on me, dressing eight defencemen when I only wanted six. The news got worse. Steve Reinprecht will be out for two months with a dislocated shoulder. Good thing I made the trade for Barnes. The Waiver Draft is about to take place. Only Nieminen is unprotected. Chicago selects D Shawn Heins (30) from Atlanta. Columbus selects G Ray Emery (22) from Ottawa. Edmonton selects D Eric Cairns (30) from NY Islanders. Toronto selects G Scott Clemmensen (27) from New Jersey. Pittsburgh selects F Jan Hlavac (28) from NY Rangers. Washington selects D Radek Martinek (28) from NY Islanders. Phoenix selects F Dan Lacouture (27) from NY Rangers. Pittsburgh selects F Ville Nieminen (27) from Calgary. Calgary selects D Nolan Pratt (29) from Pittsburgh. D Steve Montador (24) is unprotected. I have more depth on the right side of the defence now. I demote Montador to Lowell. I place G Martin Gerber (30) on waivers. I sent G Curtis McElhinney (21) from Lowell to Las Vegas because there's a stockpile of goalies in Lowell from both Calgary and Carolina. I also demote D Jonas Frogren (24) to Lowell. I really didn't want to but we simply have too much depth on the left side of the defence and he can be demoted without being placed on waivers. With Reinprecht's long term injury, I need Lundqvist on the roster. Good old F Clarke Wilm (27) has signed on with Buffalo. Since it's now October, I send all my scouts to watch my unsigned prospects and the 200 ISS ranked players for the NHL Entry Draft. Exhibition Game 8: vs. Minnesota Kipper starts. Andrew Ference is a healthy scratch. A defensive struggle that ends in a 1-1 tie. Barnes and Pratt both end up with 8 ratings. Souray suffered a cut hand and will be out a few days. Regardless what my coaches have said, Lundqvist has earned a spot with his play in the pre-season. Ortmeyer suffers a thigh contusion in practice and will be out a week. Columbus has claimed G Martin Gerber (30) from waivers. Anaheim has offered their second round picks in 2005, 2006 and a third in 2007 for F Chuck Kobasew (22). No. It's interesting that they would approach even though I have listed him as untouchable. Last edited by Karim : 08-29-2004 at 06:33 AM.

08-27-2004, 11:54 PM	#104
sachmo71 The boy who cried Trout Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: TX	I'm glad the patch cleared up a lot of your issues. Not sure about the effect of continuing the game...Riz told us on the first patch (and beta I believe, also) that to see the max effect of the changes made, a new game should be started. I guess that might have to do with a number of the hidden ratings that a player has, and maybe these are generated when the game starts? Anyway, I'm sure you'll see how things go. I'll be reading.

08-28-2004, 03:51 AM	#105
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	Thanks sach. I wasn't about to start over with the amount of hours I've already put into this career.

08-28-2004, 03:19 PM	#108
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	He didn't officially retire... at least, I wasn't made aware of it through a news report.

08-29-2004, 02:11 AM	#110
JeffNights College Prospect Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Michigan	Does Nobody drop the gloves in your Universe or what?

08-29-2004, 11:36 AM	#113
klayman College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Edmonton	Are you keeping Dion at Red Deer this year?

08-29-2004, 05:10 PM	#115
JeffNights College Prospect Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Michigan	Karim another question i played the free ehm alot. when you sim out the games is it like giving you the play by play text. also, i for one as reader of this dynasty would like the fight recaps too. and get a heavy

08-29-2004, 07:55 PM	#118
sachmo71 The boy who cried Trout Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: TX	One of the best fights I've seen was Bill Guerin against Jarome Iginla.

08-30-2004, 03:54 AM	#119
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	October 8th, 2004 ------------------ I forgot to mention a couple trades that happened before the waiver draft. Edmonton trades F Ethan Moreau (29) to Washington for the rights to F Andrew Joudrey (20). Chicago trades F Travis Moen (22) to St. Louis for the rights to D Robin Jonsson (20). Top 10 ISS Pre-liminary Rankings for the 2005 NHL Entry Draft: 1. C Sidney Crosby - Rimouski 2. LW Mika Halava - Assat Jrs. 3. C Daniel Ryder - Belleville 4. LD Carl Gunnarsson - Lulea 5. LD Matt Lashoff - Kitchener 6. RW Jussi Peltomaa - Assat Jrs. 7. C/LW Andrew Cogliano - St. Michaels 8. RW/LW Gilbert Brule - Vancouver 9. LD/RD Andrei Zubarev - Salavat Yulajev 10. C Sean O'Connor - Erie [I'm constantly being informed of trades, trade proposals and trade rejections in the CHL and I don't know why. The players have no connection to my organization, nor do they have a high reputation. Instead, I wish I would be informed of NHL trades, even minor ones, than having to hunt them down in the transactions list.] Game 1: vs. Dallas Reinprecht is out for two months with a shoulder separation. Ortmeyer is day-to-day. Simon is suspended for three games. Here are my opening day lines: Gelinas - Richards - Iginla Nilson - Barnes - Bell Lombardi - Lundqvist - Kobasew Ruutu - Yelle - Clark Leopold - Regehr Souray - Warener Lydman - Pratt Kiprusoff Buhrer I'll be playing this one out in full because it's unfortunate that the patch has worsened the coach's intereference of the lineup. I'll try not to be too verbose and only include relevant highlights as opposed to every scoring chance. For sachmo, here's Dallas' starting lineup: Guerin - Primeau - Amonte V. Bure - Arnott - Morrow Tomica - Turgeon - Grosek Downey - Ott - Sloan Therien - Staios Gauthier - Boucher McGillis - Patrick Wellar Passmore Turco Bell strips Gauthier and feeds Richards in the slot for our first good scoring chance but Passmore is up to the task even though he gives up a rebound. Gauthier takes a penalty to give us a two-man advantage for one minute but cannot muster any more than a few shots on goal. Guerin gets injured and is out of the game. With the fourth lines on, Blake Sloan scores on the backhand to give Dallas a 1-0 lead. The fourth line dominates on its next shift again, and only a brilliant glove save prevents it from being 2-0. Iginla is robbed by a post on a powerplay. Lombardi strips Staios and feed Kobasew whose wrister from the right faceoff circle finds the net to tie the game. On the next shift, Kobasew feed Gelinas in the slot who roofs it to make it 2-1. Two goals in 1:09. Bell scores on a backhand off of a rebound from a shot by Nilson to make it 3-1. Three goals in 1:35. Gauthier looks nervous as he's stripped of the puck again, this time by Yelle who gets a shot on goal. Primeau counters quickly by stripping Pratt of the puck and back-handing it stick side past Kiprusoff to make it 3-2. Four goals in 3:24. Morrow feed Arnott on a breakaway and the game is tied 3-3. Chris Clark and Aaron Downey drop the gloves to start the third. With our sixth powerplay opportunity, Kobasew feeds Lombardi in the slot who buries it to give us a 4-3 lead. Barnes takes a penalty mid-way through the third but we're able to kill it off. Arnott has a monstrous shift and is all over our zone before finally burying the puck to tie the game 4-4. Late in the third we get another two-man advantage. Kobasew is robbed by Passmore but we can't muster a goal. Amonte and Iginla trade chances in overtime but the game ends up tied 4-4. We outshot Dallas 30-19 but were only 1/8 on the powerplay and were outhit 28-16. Kobasew has a goal, two assists and a 10 rating but is shut out of the three stars. Arnot is first star. Yelle is -3. Kiprusoff gets a 5 rating. I decide it's too early in the season to warn him. Attendance for opening night is only 11,537. WTF? James Dolan has informed that Glen Sather's job is safe in New York. San Jose loses its opener 9-1 to Columbus and the board informs Doug Wilson that he better start producing some results. A couple days later before San Jose plays again, Wilson is fired. Game 2: @ Colorado The goalie fatigue issue has been fixed so Kipper gets a chance to redeem himself. Although Ortmeyer is now healthy, I don't make any lineup changes. A long outlet pass to spring Kobasew who beats Aebischer low on the stick side to pack it 1-0. Pratt takes a penalty for charging Forsberg. Forsberg then sets up Selanne for a goal on the powerplay. I'm informed that that's Forsberg 700th point for Colorado. [The coach is occasionally playing Iginla at center and moving Kobasew on his right wing. Fine. I'm not necessarily upset with that but I'd like to know in advance if the coach making his own decisions on the play is a feature.] Iginla is stopped on a breakaway - nothing new there if you've watched Iginla on breakaways before. On the other hand, Smolinski buries it on his own breakaway to make it 2-1. Lundqvist and Lombardi set up Iginla in the slot and if it wasn't for an amazing acrobatic save by Aebischer it would be tied. Lydman is crunched by Chris Gratton in our own zone which leads to a turnover and Nikolishin buries it. 3-1. That's Nikolishin's 100 NHL goal. Selanne scores again on the powerplay. Kiprusoff is at a 4 rating. Lundqvist high sticks Nikolishin in the slot and a penalty shot is awarded. 5-1. A line of Ruutu-Iginla-Clark produces a goal by Ruutu to make it 5-2 Colorado. I pull Kiprusoff at the end of the first. Buhrer comes in and makes some nice saves but then Lydman, as the last man back, coughs up the puck to Hejduk. 6-2. I bench Lydman. Clark drops the gloves with Boughner and falls down so it would seem Boughner won that fight. We get a four minute powerplay. Richards is stopped on a breakaway and that's it. Nilson and Barnes set up Iginla for a backhand goal to make it 6-3. Lydman has a 7 rating but Pratt has a 5 so Pratt is now the one who is benched for the third. Nilson sets up Barnes who buries it top shelf to bring us to within two. Buhrer robs both Forsberg and Tanguay with his quick glove which is easily his best asset. Forsberg later scores to make it 7-4 Colorado. Richards gets another breakaway and he tries to pass it off to Iginla but of course, it doesn't work. Tanguay's move works though, and it's 8-4. Clark gets a breakaway pass from Yelle in the dying seconds but nothing. An 8-4 Colorado victory. We were outshot only 34-28 but gave up three powerplay goals and were outhit 35-12. Yelle, Lydman and Pratt were a combined -9. Pratt gets a 5 rating and Kiprusoff gets a 4 rating. Both get warnings from me. Pratt thinks I was unfair, feels he was brought in under false pretenses and is now unhappy. Kiprusoff accepts his warning. The Globe and Mail praises Sidney Crosby. In other news, Glen Sather has been fired. Chuck Kobasew wins NHL Offensive Player of the Week. Ed Jovanovski wins NHL Defensive Player of the Week. His attributes look like Bobby Orr - a total of eleven physical or technical categories in which he's rated 20. One of my prospects, F Thomas Bellemare (20) of Chicoutimi, is coming under fire by the local press for his sub-par performances. He's nothing more than a fourth line goon.

08-30-2004, 06:04 AM	#120
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	(duplicate post) Last edited by Karim : 08-30-2004 at 04:25 PM.

08-30-2004, 04:24 PM	#121
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	October 14, 2004 ------------------- Game 3: @ Minnesota Buhrer gets the start and Ference is in for Pratt. Ortmeyer is in for Clark. Some tactical changes after that debacle in Colorado. The kid line creates our first great chance but Fernandez is equal to the task. Bouchard is through with a breakaway but is stopped by Buhrer but then Bouchard gets the rebound and feeds Zyuzin on the point who's slapshot hits the post - Daigle is there with an open net but Lundqvist crushes him with a hit to prevent a goal. Lombardi, Lundqvist and Kobasew connect together on a Lombardi powerplay goal to make it 1-0. A devastating blow as Kobasew goes down injured late in the first. It appears to be a shoulder injury. With our fourth line on the ice, Pascal Dupuis scores early in the second to tie the game on what appeared to be a harmless looking play. Bordeleau scores on the powerplay to take the lead, 2-1. Ortmeyer answers 21 seconds later from Yelle and Richards. Regeher and Weimer have at it and it appears Regehr loses that heavyweight tilt. Ortmeyer is denied his second of the game by the post. We do nothing on a two man advantage for over a minute. Dupuis ties up Regehr, feeds Zyuzin on the point for a slapshot and it's 3-2 Minnesota. Bordeleau seals it with an empty net goal. 4-2 Minnesota. Iginla and Gelinas had 6 ratings. It's clear that the Gelinas-Richards-Iginla line has no chemistry. Kobasew will be out for four months with a separated shoulder. I place Kobasew on injured reserve (which didn't happen automatically like other injuries from some strange reason) and call up Steve Montador from the minors. I'm tired of playing these games out in full; it's no where near the quality of CM's in-game design. I'll be simming from here on out. A story from the Toronto Star claims St. Michael's center, Andrew Cogliano, has a bright future. St. Mike's GM, Dan Auchenberg, replied that he still has a lot to learn. Nolan Pratt indicates that he feels he made the wrong decision in joining the Flames. Game 4: vs. Buffalo Kiprusoff starts. No change on defence. Simon is back in and takes the spot vacated by Kobasew's injury. Simon plays on the first line and Gelinas is demoted to the fourth line. I also remove the defensive mentality I've used so far. We win 5-3 in front of only 9,450 people. Something is seriously wrong. This has already begun to affect my finances; this is a gate driven league after all. We scored three unanswered goals before giving up three straight to Buffalo. Iginla scored the winner on his second of the game with 1:29 left. The fifth goal was an empty netter from Nilson. NY Islanders trade D Anders Eriksson (29) to Columbus for the rights to F Jeremy Colliton (19). Game 5: vs. Vancouver Kipper starts. I decide to insert Pratt back into the lineup. Clark is in for Ortmeyer. We lose 5-3 in front of 10,425. Kiprusoff had another 4 rating and Pratt another 5. I place Pratt on waivers and warn Kiprusoff. The attendance bug, something I never had with 1.0.1, was supposed to have been fixed with this patch. I'm wondering if this a residual effect from a saved career. Of course I didn't mention that on the SI boards because they'll say of course that's the problem. I wonder if I should start a new career. I think a leason learned is to wait for SI's second patch before starting a serious career or even buying the game. I experienced the same thing with the first version of CM4 - let the masses of users who buy immediately do the bug finding, wait for the second or third patch, and then buy the game. Anything else is a recipe for frustration. Last edited by Karim : 08-30-2004 at 04:26 PM.

08-31-2004, 08:40 AM	#122
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	October 18th, 2004 ------------------- Kiprusoff accepts his warning without comment. Minnesota have appointed Mario Lemieux as an Assistant Coach. My sixth round pick, F Scott McCulloch (18), who I took a flyer on after an injury plague season, gets praise from the Regina Leader Post, saying the youngster has a promising future. Minnesota's Sebastien Bordeleau wins Offensive Player of the Week. LA's Mattias Norstrom wins Defensive Player of the Week. Sidney Crosby gets more media praise. A report indicates that it's just a matter of time before a big team comes in and grabs him - clearly a report remnant of the CM game. A big team cannot come in and grab him. His GM says he thinks Crosby will succeed at the highest levels. Former Phoenix coach, Bob Francis, is appointed General Manager of San Jose. Doug Wilson takes over the reigns in New York. Columbus claims Nolan Pratt off of waivers. Game 6: vs. Nashville Buhrer starts. Ference in for Pratt. A 2-2 tie in front 9,429. We outshoot Nashville 30-16. Lundqvist scores his first of the year. Clark is the only player with a 6 rating. Vancouver is also having attendance problems. This is clearly a bug. Game 7: @ Vancouver Buhrer starts. Ortmeyer in for clark. Back to a defensive mentality. We win 6-2. 11,342 at GM Place. Stats are fairly even but Andrew Ference has a goal and three assists. Ference, Richards, Iginla and Bell all get 10 ratings. Arguably this is the best game we played since I've been in control. The Board is pleased. Gelinas looks like he's done, with another 6 rating. Age catches up with everyone. Warner suffers a broken wrist and will be out for three weeks. Game 8: vs. Minnesota Kipper starts. Montador is in for Warener. Thinking like a GM, Gelinas and his big contract remain in. A 4-1 win at home in front of 9,388. The Board is pleased. Leopold has a three point night and a 10 rating. Gelinas will be out for a few days with a cut hand. I get a news report that Boston is offereing F Andy Hilbert (23) to the New York Rangers in exchange for F Jaromir Jagr (32) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2006. It's strange I would get a report about a trade proposal; I suppose I can imagine it to be a trade rumour. Somehow I don't think Hilbert alone is enough to get this deal done. Tampa Bay trades the rights to D Jonas Jakobsen (20) to the New York Rangers for F Pavel Bure (33) and an 8th Round Pick in 2005. I wasn't informed of this trade. Peter Forsberg wins Offensive Player of the Week. Mike Dunham wins Defensive Player of the week. Game 9: vs. St. Louis Kiprusoff starts. Chris Clark in for Martin Gelinas, who has started the season poorly. We lose 2-0 in front of 9,642. Game stats are similar for both teams so it would seem it was just one of those nights. Richards suffers a twisted knee and will be out 10 days. Our injuries are really starting to mount up. I now have only 20 healthy bodies on the 23 man roster. I refuse to bring anyone else up however. No one on the farm would step into the lineup and if they can't do that, I'd much rather have them playing in Lowell. A media pundit suggests that my defensive prospect, Tim Ramholt, continues to get better every game and is turning into a quality player. Cape Breton's GM says he still has a lot to learn and now Ramholt is unhappy, saying he'd appreciate a little encouragement from his GM. Several NHL and European teams are interested in his services. Mark Parrish (NYI) wins Offensive Player of the Month. Rob Blake (Col) wins Defensive Player of the Month. Josh Gorges (SJ) wins Rookie of the Month. Game 10: vs. Columbus Kipper starts as it seems he's finally coming around. With Richards and Reinprecht both out, Lombardi becomes our number one center. Without Lombardi and Kobasew on his wings, I demote Lundqvist to the fourth line and give more playing time to Yelle. We win 3-2 in front of 9,544. Bell scores two goals and is first star. Lombardi does nothing on the top line but our defense is really solid so far this year. Not only are they posting consistent 7s and 8s, we're getting offensive production from them too, especially Andrew Ference. Lydman is looking more comfortable as a #5. It seems he just isn't cut out to handle heavy minutes. The Board informs me that they are delighted with my performance and our finances are extremely secure. After 10 games we are .500, sitting in 9th place, 2 points out of a playoff spot. I set Martin Gelinas as available due to financial reasons. I'd like to unload his salary and get something for him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

08-31-2004, 02:04 PM	#123
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	I just found out that the attendance bug will gradually correct itself as the game proceeds. It may take a few seasons but it will balance out. I'm glad to hear that it isn't a permanent problem. With that out of the way, my only remaining concern is a June 30th, game processing crash that I've read about. Some people are having problems with it; SI has duplicated the crash once and hopefully a fix will be available before I get to that point.

08-31-2004, 05:13 PM	#124
klayman College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Edmonton	Just think of the low attendence figures as backlash from the fans for the lockout, even though it didn't happen. Fans can be picky

09-01-2004, 11:46 AM	#125
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	Sounds good. I'm trying not to look at the attendance figures.

09-01-2004, 11:51 AM	#126
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	November 2nd, 2004 -------------------- Carolina has placed D Bret Hedican (34) on waivers. Immediately several teams are interested and I'm sure he'll get picked up. Carolina had made him available due to financial reasons but apparently there have been no takers. He's making $3.8 million/year and has two years left in his contract. Pittsburgh trades F Tom Kostopoulos (25) to Carolina for the rights to Ilya Krikunov (20) and a 9th Round Pick in 2005. Krikunov was a player on my draft board last season. Richard Zednik (Mon) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Pavel Kubina (Tam) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Game 11: @ Montreal The start of a six game road trip. Kipper starts. No change to the lineup. We win 4-2. Gelinas has two goals and an assist for a 9 rating and first star. Simon and Ortmeyer get 6 ratings. I offer the rights to five players to Anaheim for the rights to F Fredrik Naslund (18). Not surprisingly it is rejected. I try to get F Travis Zajac's rights from Ottawa for the same players but no luck there either. Edmonton Oilers have claimed Bret Hedican off of waivers. [BTW, the best skin I've found is Minstrel's Brushed Metal skin. Much, much better than the ugly blue skin the game comes with.] Game 12: @ Ottawa Kipper, at 90%, starts again. No lineup changes. We lose 5-1 and are outshot 35-19. Iginla and Regehr are a -3. Simon, who was only at 86% going into the game, suffers a twisted knee and will be out a few days. I have no choice now but to call up F Darren Lynch (21). Nashville place F Sergei Zholtok (31) on waivers. I also have to recall D Jonas Frogren (24) from Lowell because it is clear that Regehr, currently at 72%, won't be ready for tomorrow's game. Washington trades D Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre (27) to Los Angeles for D Denis Grebeshkov (21) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005. Ottawa trades D Brian Pothier (27) to Nashville for the rights to F Paul Brown (20). Game 13: @ Toronto Kipper starts. Frogren is in for Regehr. Lynch is in for Simon. We win 2-1 on an OT goal by Ruutu. Iginla missed a penalty shot in the first. Kipper gets a 9 rating. Lynch had 6:00 of icetime and finished with a 7 rating. Frogren had 14:28 of icetime, was +1, had two shots on goal and finished with a 7 rating. Brad Richards is now back from his knee injury. I send Lynch back down. Chicago Blackhawks have claimed Sergei Zholtok off of waivers. Game 14: @ NY Islanders Buhrer starts. Leopold is out (75%) and Regehr is back (86%). I decide to leave Lombardi on the first line with Richards and Iginla. We win 7-5. New York took a 5-2 lead half way through the second after which we scored five unanswered goals. We outshot New York, 47-19. Buhrer let in all five goals on only nine shots and ended up with a 1 rating. Kiprusoff was put in after New York's fifth goal. Ouch. Iginla had two goals and two assist, and Souray had a goal and two assists, each for a 10 rating. The Board is pleased with the victory. I fine Buhrer one week's wages and he feels the fine was unfair. A '1' rating? Olli Jokinen (Fla) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Daniel Tjarnqvist (Atl) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Game 15: @ Boston Back-to-back games so Buhrer gets a chance to redeem himself. I thrown him in despite very low morale and being unhappy. No change to the lineup as both Leopold and Simon are not yet in condition to play. We win 6-1 and score two powerplay goals. Iginla scores two and Buhrer gets an 8 rating. Frogren doesn't look out of place either with an 8. Lydman is +4 and has played incredibly well since I decided to cut back on his icetime (or since Gauthier was traded?). The Board is pleased with the win. The media wants to know whether we're legitimate challengers for the Cup. I don't want to deny wanting the Cup because I fear that may make my team accept losing. I don't feel we're legitimate contenders however. If I decline to make a comment, the team may be wondering if I don't think they have what it takes. I therefore say that I expect the team to challenge for the Cup. This response delights the fans who apparently have the utmost respect for me and hope I remain at the helm for a long time. The Board is also pleased with my confidence and feel the Stanley Cup is a realistic possibility this season. Shit. Now the expectations have increased. My reputation is 'Very Good' and sits at 31st. My General Manager Points are at 72,107 and I only trail Brian Burke who is at 73,344. I have no idea how those points are calculated. My media comment doesn't seem to have any visible or noticeable affect on my roster as far as I can tell.

09-03-2004, 01:27 AM	#127
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	November 11th, 2004 ------------------------------- My scouts report on a Swedish forward by the name of Bjorn Melin, who they feel is a good prospect who could step in immediately. He's a 23 year old right winger who looks to be in the same mold as Kobasew, just not as good. I offer the rights to five players to NY Islanders for his rights. New York wants to negotiate and will be willing to exchange his rights for the rights to G Taylor Dakers (18), my 8th Round Pick from last year. I decline. Fomer Flame, Tim Hunter, has been promoted to San Jose's Assistant GM. Game 16: @ Edmonton Kipper starts. Leopold and Souray are out. Leopold is at 90% but I have the luxury of eight defencemen at the moment, all playing well. No changes up front. A 1-1 tie. 0/6 on the powerplay. Kipper and Conklin each got an 8 rating. An even game all around. Carolina trades F Eric Staal (19) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 to the New York Rangers for F Jaromir Jagr (32). Wow. Since taking over the Rangers, Doug Wilson have unloaded massive salaries in Bure and Jagr. Both Carolina and the Rangers are out of the playoffs by a few points. Game 17: vs. Minnesota Kipper starts. Leopold in for Montador. We win 3-2. Iginla gets a hattrick, including the winner with 12 seconds left in the third. I offer a minor league contract to F Riley Armstrong (20), an undrafted WHL player who just turned 20. With Reinprecht coming back from injury in a few days, I need to decide which defenceman to send down. Frogren can clear waivers while Montador can't. Both have played extremely well. My coaches have changed their opinions on Frogren, thinking he's now a useful member. My physios are high on Frogren, saying he'll rarely succumb to injury. I'm afraid I'd lose Montador on waivers though, so Frogren gets the short end of the stick. I approach to sign an American scout with 20s in judging ability and potential. My scouts are almost done taking a look at the 200 ranked players for the entry draft so I start scattering them around the globe. Sergei Fedorov (Ana) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Marc Denis (Mon) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Game 18: vs. Chicago Kipper starts. Simon at 88% in for Ortmeyer. We lose 4-2. Iginla scores two powerplay goals. Daze scores two for Chicago, and the newly acquired Zholtok also scores two. Ovechkin gets two assists. Game 19: vs. Toronto Buhrer starts. I take Simon out and put Ortmeyer back in. We win 1-0. Buhrer gets the shutout and Iginla scores the only goal. We outshoot Toronto 30-19. Riley Armstrong has snubbed the Flames, preferring to stay in Junior. Off the shortlist we go. Game 20: vs. Montreal Kipper starts. Montador in for Souray (78%). Simon's back in for Ortmeyer. We lose 2-1. Iginla scores the only goal on a powerplay. John Leclair (Phi) wins Offensive Player of the Year. David Aebischer (Col) wins Defensive Player of the Year. I inquire about Darcy Tucker and Toronto wants Steve Montador along with the rights to D Grant Lewis (19). I'm unwilling to give up Lewis. I try various proposals but no luck. I inquire about Tucker again and Toronto is no longer interested. One of my scouts suggests that UFA Steve Rucchin is still a very good player. He wants a three year contract. I offer him two years at just under $2 million total. Game 21: @ St. Louis Kipper starts. Souray is still out. No lineup changes. We win 4-2. I make F Jed Ortmeyer (26) available.

09-04-2004, 05:29 AM	#128
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	November 26th, 2004 --------------------- Game 22: @ Columbus Buhrer starts. Reinprecht is in, Clark is out. A 2-2 tie. Buhrer against Gerber and they both post 8s. It was a completely even game, both teams getting 31 shots on goal. Iginla is unhappy and wants to extend his contract. He wants $31 million/4 years. I offer him a base salary of $27 million/4 years but skim off of the signing bonus and performance clauses. F Steve Rucchin (33) has agreed to join the Flames. Game 23: vs. Vancouver Kipper starts. Leopold is out, Montador is in. Simon is out, Clark is in. We lose 2-1. Another even game. It's good to see we're hangin in with every team. With Rucchin in the fold, I send Lundqvist to Lowell of the AHL. At 22, he's a fringe NHLer. He's a physical, determined player but not exceptional in any area. We have too much center depth right now and he's probably better served playing first or second line minutes in the minors. New Jersey trades the rights to F James Massen (22) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 to Columbus for D Jaroslav Spacek (30) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005. Game 24: vs. Dallas Kipper starts. Rucchin is thrown into the fire on line 2, PP2, and the PK. Barnes is demoted to fourth-line center for Clark and Ruutu. We win 3-0 outshooting Dallas 27-16 including a powerplay goal. One thing that stands out is our 27 giveaways, compared to Dallas' 8. This has been a consistent problem and I wonder if it's a result of giving every defenceman the green light to rush the puck and join the rush. Our defensive prospect, Dion Phaneuf, has won WHL Defensive Player of the Month. Pavol Demitra (Tam) wins Offensive Player of the Month. Roman Malek (Phi) wins Defensive Player of the Month. Ray Emery (Cbs) wins Rookie of the Month. Iginla signs, saying his love for the team was the main reason for signing. Each year, if he hits all his bonuses, it would amount to $9.5 million/year. His base salary stays the same each year, at $7.5 million. Ilya Kovalchuk (Atl) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Andrei Zyuzin (Min) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Game 25: vs. Edmonton Kipper starts. Simon is in for Clark. He plays on the first line so Reinprecht is demoted to line two. Ever since he came back, Iginla hasn't done much. I watched this one out in full. We lose 5-4. Iginla rang one off the post in the dying seconds with the goalie out. Our best players played poorly. F Matthew Lombardi (22) has requested a trade. He is unhappy with his current contract. I deny his request to be shopped around. His profile says he wants to be traded and is thinking about moving to another team. The news report says he was unhappy with his contract but he refuses to renegotiate. Clearly this is a product of me saying he is a core player but only being paid $550,000. He's on the last year of his contract so I could qualify him and retain his rights. The Board is willing to pay up to $4 million for him. I decide to make him available. I don't need a whiny selfish player on this team. A few days later, Lombardi is now willing to renegotiate. I try to acquire F Sergei Samsonov (26) from Boston offering Lydman, Lombardi and Ortmeyer. In various proposals I also throw in rights to other players and draft picks but no matter what I try, nothing works. I offer a new contract to Lombardi and remove Gelinas from the available list. Game 26: vs. New Jersey Buhrer starts. No change to the lineup. Switched to a more attacking mentality. We lose 2-0. The shots on goal were 18-15 for New Jersey. Must have been a fun game to watch. Phoenix trades D Cale Hulse (31) to Ottawa for the rights to D Christoph Schubert (22). Game 27: vs. Nashville Kipper starts. Montador in for Leopold. The one game experiment in attacking mentality is gone and we're back to defence first. We win 2-1 outshooting Nashville 26-16. Nashville had former Flame, Jamie McLellan (33) in goal who they picked up on waivers from the Rangers. Simon scores a powerplay goal for the winner. The Calgary Sun has reported that Martin Gelinas' poor finishing lately has cost us valuable points. I decide to defend Gelinas. His very low morale has become good. Adam Deadmarsh (LA) wins Offensive Player of the Month. Brad Brown (Buf) wins Defensive Player of the Month. Buffalo trades F Mike Grier (29) and a 9th Round Pick in 2006 to Colorado for the rights to G Peter Budaj (22).

09-04-2004, 04:08 PM	#131
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	Goals For Average 1 - New Jersey (3.69) 13 - Calgary (2.85) 30 - Edmonton (1.78) Shots On Goal Average 1 - Vancouver (31.67) 8 - Calgary (27.81) 30 - San Jose (22.33) Goals Allowed Average 1 - Washington (2.11) 9 - Calgary (2.59) 30 - Detroit (3.92) Shots On Goal Against Average 1 - New Jersey (21.92) 3 - Calgary (23.89) 30 - Detroit (32.00) Penalty Minutes Average (Much lower than v. 1.0.1) 1 - Anaheim (12.44) 4 - Calgary (11.85) 30 - Vancouver (5.48) Power Play Percentage 1 - Vancouver (27.35%) 14 - Calgary (13.68%) 30 - Dallas (9.28%) Penalty Killing Percentage 1 - NY Rangers (93.75%) 8 - Calgary (87.62%) 30 - Detroit (78.10%)

09-04-2004, 04:13 PM	#132
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	Dany Heatley (Atl) leads the league with 21 goals and 40 points in 29 games. He also leads the league with an average rating of 8.00. Rob Blake (Col) leads all defencemen with 9 goals and 28 points in 27 games. Roman Cechmanek (LA) leads all goalies with 18 wins. Roman Malek (Phi) leads all goalies with a 1.73 GAA. J.S. Giguere (Ana) leads all goalies with a .930 SV%. Anthony Stewart (Fla) leads all rookies with 12 goals and 24 points in 28 games.

09-05-2004, 04:58 AM	#133
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	December 9th, 2004 -------------------- I place Tudin, McEachern and Gellard on waivers. There's a reason these three guys, all over 25, were playing in Canadian universities. They suck. Ok. The exceptions are Cory Cross and Steve Rucchin but otherwise, there aren't too many who come out of the CIS. Anyway, as soon as they clear waivers (and they will), I'm going to release them. Game 28: vs. Carolina Buhrer starts. Both Regehr (75%) and Leopold (80%) haven't recovered. Regehr is more valuable so he sits; I can't afford an injury to him. I put Lombardi up on the first line, Simon on the second and Reinprecht is demoted to the third. We win 3-1. Reinprecht scored, Iginla got one on the powerplay and Nilson got an empty netter. Everyone played great except Lombardi with a 6 rating. Now that Boston is back in the hunt, Sergei Samsonov is no longer available and is happy to remain with the Bruins. Pittsburgh is interested in Lombardi and I dispatch my scouts to look at Brooks Orpik, about the only player I'd be interested in. Meanwhile, I try and negotiate a contract with Lombardi. Maybe he'll regain his form once a new contract is in place. Edmonton trades D Marc-Andre Bergeron (24) to Atlanta for F Derek MacKenzie (23). Game 29: @ Dallas Kipper starts. No change to the lineup which means Regehr is still out at 85%. A 1-0 win. Bell scores the winner 2:57 into the third period. Dallas outshot us 25-15 and we were 0/4 on the powerplay. Miika stole one for us. Game 30: @ Anaheim Kipper starts. Regehr misses his third consecutive game due to conditioning even though I have him set to skip practice. Simon comes out for Clark. The back-to-back game has a lot of players playing at less than 100%. We lose 2-1 and were outshot 37-23. I'm not sure why all of a sudden we seem to be consistently outshot. Toronto trades D Drake Berehowsky (32) and a 7th Round Pick in 2005 to Detroit for F Jason Williams (24) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005. Good trade by Toronto. Former Flame, Shean Donovan, has been placed on waivers by the NY Rangers. He's missed most of the year with a torn ACL, getting in on only three games. Game 31: @ Los Angeles Buhrer starts against one of the top teams in the NHL. Regehr in for Ference. I want to see more of Montador; the coach reports are favourable and his attributes have increased in defensive areas. I reduce the burden on Leopold, shifting them to Regehr and Souray. Simon in for Clark. A 2-2 tie. LA scores a powerplay goal with only four minutes left to tie it up. Palffy was shut out. I had Regehr to key on him. Montador and Buhrer had 8 ratings as did Lombardi who had a goal. Lombardi has signed a $5.1 million/4 year deal. In any particular year, he could make up to $600,000 more in bonuses but they're high enough thresholds to satisfy me. His morale is Superb and he is very happy with his new contract. Robert Lang (Det) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Miika Kiprusoff (Cgy) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Game 32: @ San Jose Buhrer starts. Regehr has to come out so Ference is back in. Simon and Rucchin are out so Clark and Ortmeyer are in. Lines are all shuffled around to compensate. We lose 4-2 and were outshot 38-22. Former Flame GM, Darryl Sutter, now working for Edmonton, has claimed Shean Donovan off of waivers. Washington trades F Boyd Gordon (21) to Los Angeles for the rights to D Didier Bochatay (21) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006. Colorado, Atlanta, NY Islanders, Vancouver and Nashville all make pitches for F Sergei Samsonov (26) who has once again requested to be shopped around. Boston is looking for a top two defenceman, top four defenceman, a number one goalie, a solid center and a solid right wing. In general, they're looking to add veteran presence. I think the best offers are from the Islanders who are offering C Justin Papineau (24) - at least his attributes look good. Nashville is also offering a pretty good deal in C Denis Arkhipov (25) and the rights to a marginal forward prospect. I chime in with the only bid involving two legitimate NHLers - D Toni Lydman (27) and C/LW Stu Barnes (33). I'd gladly throw in a combination of draft picks and/or rights to prospects but I don't want to go overboard and turn it into an unrealistic offer; I'm trying to keep in mind Riz's suggestions. We'll see how this turns out. It turns out that Boston has rejected everyone's trades. I'm also interested in Pittsburgh's, D Brooks Orpik (24). I'd like to get tougher on the right side of the defence. The bidding for Samsonov has continued. Dallas is offering F Steve Ott (22). Minnesota is offering D Nick Schultz (22) and F Eric Chouinard (24). Detroit is offering the rights to a ninth round forward prospect along with a 2nd, 3rd and 4th Round Pick in successive years starting with this year. Columbus is offering F Alexander Svitov (22). Minnesota's offer is solid. I offer D Toni Lydman (27), F Jed Ortmeyer (26) and a forward prospect. I don't think this is as good an offer as Minnesota's. Boston rejects everyone's offer. Washington trades F Brian Willsie (26) to Nashville for F Tomas Plekanec (22). Game 33: vs. Edmonton Kipper starts. Regehr is only at 85% so he sits. Simon and Rucchin are still not quite ready either so it's the same lineup as last game. We win 6-1. Iginla gets a hattrick with each goal coming on the powerplay. Richards gets a hattrick and four points. Reinprecht gets four assists. Iginla triggers a $250,000 bonus for scoring 10 powerplay goals but he'll be out a few days with knee pain. More bidders for Samsonov. Pittsburgh offers F Ben Eaves (22) and a third, fifth and seventh round draft pick in successive years. Ottawa offers F Jason Spezza (21). Phoenix offers F Mike Comrie (24). Edmonton offers D Eric Brewer (24). I'm clearly out of the running although I might be willing to part with Leopold if I still have another opportunity. Surprisingly to me, Boston has rejected all of these trades. I offer D Toni Lydman (27) and F Chris Clark (28) which is rejected just before the Christmas roster freeze. Game 34: vs. Colorado Kipper starts. Regehr is finally back so Ference comes out. We're going to have to play this one without Iginla. The last game against the Avalanche we got killed 8-4. We lose 3-2. We were outshot 34-26 and the winning goal by Selanne came in the second period on the powerplay. Brad Richards (Cgy) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Niklas Lidstrom (Det) wins Defensive Player of the Week. I make pending unrestricted free agents F Stu Barnes (33) and F Martin Gelinas (34) available. I've noticed Buhrer is no longer unhappy which is always a good thing. Game 35: @ Minnesota Kipper starts. Iginla will miss his second straight game. No lineup changes. We lose 3-1 giving up a powerplay goal, shorthanded goal and empty net goal. We were outshot 31-18. (First problem with the coach. Iginla was inserted into the lineup at 85% despite the fact that he was nursing an injury. This apparently will be fixed once and for all in patch three.) The World Junior Championships are underway. Two of my prospects, F Niklas Johansson (19) - 4th Round 2004, and F Jens Jacobs (19) - 8th Round 2004, form two third of Sweden's top line, along with F Fredrik Naslund (19) - Anaheim's 3rd Round Pick in 2004 who I was also trying to get. World Junior play is no guarantee of anything but it's a good start. My first round pick, F Kris Chucko (18) had four assists in his first game for Canada against Austria. Game 36: @ Colorado Kipper starts. Everyone's ready except for Leopold (85%). We lose 4-3 in OT. We're a good team but nowhere the quality that's required to beat the top teams consistently. Lombardi scored with 3:59 left to force OT but Sakic salted it away for Colorado with his third goal of the game. Ference will be out for a month with a sprained ACL; I recall Jonas Frogren. Game 37: vs. Minnesota Buhrer starts. Leopold is back in. We lose our fourth in a row, 4-3. Our best players didn't show up and Buhrer had a 5 rating. I don't chastize him as I don't want to disrupt him any more. I need to shake things up and quell this losing streak. F Glenn Murray (33) of Boston has suffered a torn MCL and will be out for 7 months. Calgary Flames trade the rights to D Pierre Jonsson (20) to Carolina for a 4th Round Pick in 2005. This resulted as a result of trying to unload Ortmeyer. They negotiated and wanted this prospect instead. Marco Sturm (SJ) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Josh Georges (SJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week. My Swedish prospect, Jacobs, has been on the scoresheet in every game Sweden has played thus far at the World Junior Championships. Game 38: vs. Edmonton Buhrer starts. No lineup changes. We lose 4-2, our fifth straight. This is the kind of run that can end up costing us a playoff spot. I decide to bag skate everyone for a few practices in a row. Jason Weimer (Min) wins Offensive Player of the Month. Scott Niedermayer (NJ) wins Defensive Player of the Month. Cam Barker (Wsh) wins Rookie of the Month. Game 39: @ Edmonton Kipper starts. I haven't been able to pull off a trade so I shake things up by sitting Leopold and putting in Frogren. This means Regehr and Warrener find themselves on the powerplay. Well, New Jersey won a Cup without a powerplay. We need this game badly. We win 5-2 and outshoot the Oil 35-19. Iginla gets a pair and Richards gets three points. Frogren gets a 7 rating while every other defenceman posts an 8. In my attempt at unloading Ortmeyer for a draft pick, I'm getting counter-offers for some of my prospects that I'm happy to unload. Calgary Flames trade the rights to F Tomi Maki (21) to Boston for a 5th Round Pick in 2005. Game 40: @ Chicago Kipper starts. Regehr is out for Leopold, and Reinprecht is out for Clark - strictly conditioning moves. We win 5-3. We scored two powerplay goals but gave up one. Simon had two goals and an assist. Lydman had two assists. Leopold had an assist but was a -2 with 2 giveaways. His plus/minus this season is -14. In the World Junior Championships, Switzerland, Belarus and Slovakia advance to the playoffs while Russia, Sweden and Czech Republic, along with Austria, have to fight off relegation. Ouch. Game 41: @ Philadelphia Buhrer starts. Regehr in for Leopold and Reinprecht in for Simon. We lose 3-2. Buhrer got a 6 rating and seems to have been the difference - in a negative way. Carolina seems to be willing to unload F Jeff O'Neill (28). Los Angeles is offering a prospect, a 1st Round Pick in 2005 and a 1st Round Pick in 2006. I had offered three prospects, a 2nd in 2006 and a 4th in 2007. San Jose is offering a 1st in 2005 and a prospect. Carolina accepts every trade!!! Shit. LA was the first to offer so they got O'Neill. Carolina trades F Jeff O'Neill (28) to Los Angeles for the rights to D Richard Petiot (22), a 1st Round Pick in 2005 and a 1st Round Pick in 2006. The Czech Republic and Austria have been relegated from the World Junior Championships. WJC Semi-Finals Canada 1 - Switzerland 0. Flames first round pick, Kris Chucko, scored the only goal and was first star of the game. Finland 4 - USA 1. Markus Naslund (Van) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Evgeny Nabakov (SJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Columbus claims D Todd Simpson (31) from waivers. Game 42: @ Pittsburgh Kipper starts. Leopold in for Regehr. Simon back in for Clark. A 3-2 loss. A bad loss against one of the worst teams in the league. Everyone was rated 7 or 8; it's unclear exactly what went wrong. WJC Finals Canada 5 - Finland 0. My first round pick, Chucko, had a goal, two assists, was rated 10, and first star. 8-) He led the tournament in scoring with 12 points. The leading goal scorer had five goals - Jacobs from Sweden - another Flame draft pick. Game 43: @ NY Rangers Kipper starts. Regehr in for Leopold. I place Ortmeyer on waivers. We win 3-2. We give up two powerplay goals but score one of our own. A new line of Gelinas-Yelle-Nilson really clicks. I decided to put Simon on the fourth line and use him as a powerplay specialist. Seems to have worked. Last edited by Karim : 09-05-2004 at 05:17 AM.

09-05-2004, 10:59 AM	#134
klayman College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Edmonton	Gah. Sutter is ruining my Oilers!

09-05-2004, 11:41 AM	#135
Johnny93g College Starter Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Toronto	Rangers fired Sather in my game and started to rebuild....1st move, picking up Kipper for David Hale...LOL.... Curious, whats your salary situation....I saw you wanted Samsonov, and O'neal....can you even afford these guys with the huge contract Iginla has now.... A point on the fatigue.....I have been playing Brian Leetch 25-30 minutes every game......It seems his regular starting fatigue is 80-85.....I never sit him, never bench him, and he has played amazing....maybe Regher is that kind of player whose play wont suffer because of fatigue....cuz he seems to be fatigued alot.... __________________ FOOL- Toronto Marlboros FOOL Classic Champions 2073, 2078, 2079, 2114, 2116, 2117, 2129, 2152, 2155, 2169, 2192 46 35 FOOL H- New York Giants World Champions 1914, 1928 BBCF: Notre Dame TML

09-06-2004, 10:58 AM	#137
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	January 10th, 2005 ------------------- Phoenix trades D Mike Wilson (29) to Florida for F Vaclav Nedorost (22). San Jose trades F Tomas Plihal (22) to Phoenix for D Radoslav Suchy (28). So little for Suchy? I looked at him earlier. Philadelphia trades G Antero Niittymaki (24) to Nashville for the rights to F Daniel Widing (22), a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006. Nashville got ripped off here. NY Rangers trade F Bobby Holik (34) and a 6th Round Pick in 2005 to Florida for D Filip Novak (22). Doug Wilson's dismantling of the crazy contracts in New York is complete - Holik, Jagr and Bure all gone. I wonder if this was dictated by the Board. Toronto trades D David Turon (21) to Columbus for D Aaron Johnson (21), a 3rd Round Pick in 2005, and a 3rd Round Pick in 2006. Another good trade for Toronto. Game 44: @ Washington Buhrer starts. Clark in for Yelle. A 2-2 tie. An even match all the way around, however, Montador suffered a rotator cuff strain and will be out for three weeks. I no longer will be looking to trade a defenceman as my depth is all swallowed up. I really don't want to bring up Brennan Evans from the farm. Nashville trades F Steve Sullivan (30) to Chicago for the rights to D Mike Green (19) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005. Chicago won today, Nashville definitely wins tomorrow. I'm definitely being left in the dust in terms of being able to land an impact player. Boston no longer is giving up on Samsonov. I just missed out on Jeff O'Neill. What I really need is a right-sided offensive defenceman such as a Derek Morris. I drafted one last year but I don't think throwing a 19 year old into the fire is the answer. I have no choice but to recall D Brennan Evans (22) to Calgary as it's clear Regehr won't be ready for tomorrow's game. Toronto trades D Aaron Johnson (21) to Phoenix for F Mike Johnson (30). F Jed Ortmeyer (26) clears waivers. I dispatch him to Lowell. I couldn't even trade him for a late round pick. Game 45: vs. Florida Buhrer starts. Evans and Leopold in for Regehr and Montador. We lose 2-1. We had 27 giveaways compared to Florida's 7, although the ratings were fine across the board. Evans was a -1 and had 6 giveaways but got an 8 rating. Go figure. Florida have placed RD Kristian Kudroc (23) on waivers. I make a claim. I intend to place him immediately on waivers and send him to Lowell. I need healthy defencemen right now. Phoenix trades F Mike Comrie (24) to Montreal for F Marcel Hossa (23). Toronto trades G Maxime Ouellette (23) to Columbus for a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, a 3rd Round Pick in 2007, and the rights to F Greg Mauldin (22). Another good trade by Toronto. They're really stockpiling draft picks that should pay dividends down the road. Alexander Mogilny (Tor) wins Offensive Player of the Week. J.S. Aubin (Pit) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Edmonton trades G Glenn Fisher (21) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 originally from New Jersey to Buffalo for G Ryan Miller (24) and a 9th Round Pick in 2005. Miller might be the goalie to finally fit the void between the pipes for the Oil. Game 46: vs. Los Angeles Kipper starts. Regehr still not available. Yelle in for Clark. A very good 4-0 victory against a team loading up for the Stanley Cup. The Board is pleased. A balanced performance throughout the lineup. Toronto trades F Alexei Ponikarovsky (24), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006 to Edmonton for F Ryan Smyth (28). Yuck. Game 47: @ Detroit Kipper starts. Regehr in, Evans out. Clark in, Rucchin out. A 3-2 win on an overtime goal by Lombardi. We outshot Detroit 30-22. A good win. Chicago claimed Kudroc from waivers. Ference will be back in two weeks. I think I'll manage until then. Anaheim trades the rights to F Fredrik Naslund (18) to Phoenix for D Bryan Helmer (32). Helmer is a fringe NHLer - a stay at home defenceman. Game 48: @ St. Louis Buhrer starts in the back-to-back game. No change to the lineup. I've shifted around my defence pairings a big, and given Richards, Iginla and Lombardi an Attacking focus. Bell is set to Normal, while everyone else is still Defensive. I've also changed the powerplay mentality from Normal to Attacking. A 4-4 tie. We score a powerplay goal but give up two. We outshoot St. Louis 39-26 so my conservative mentality was what was leading us to being outshot on a consistent basis. Buhrer got a 6 rating. 52 minutes in penalties. Tkachuk suffered a broken leg and will be out for five months. Lydman suffered a dislocated shoulder and will be out two months. Rough game. Regehr suffered an injury in practice and will be out a few days. I'm now down to five defencemen. I recall Lynch from Lowell, who can play both the wing and defence. I've been doing my usual comprehensive draft preparation. Last year there were two older Europeans that looked like superstars, my scouts raved about them, and they received media reports. I was reluctant to draft them because of their age and now they're a year older but still look like sure things. G Bjorn Bjurling (25) from Sweden and LW Ivo Ruthemann (28) from Germany have superstar attributes, especially Ruthemann who has several 20s. I dispatch my scouts again to take a look at them. I can guarantee that if I really want these guys, they'll be available in the 8th and 9th round because it's clear the AI GMs don't want to waste a draft pick on older Europeans. Game 49: vs. Phoenix Kipper starts. Evans and Lynch on defense - yuck. Rucchin in for Clark. I put Rucchin on the fourth line with Barnes and Ruutu. I set defensive instructions to Overload to minimize how much time Evans and Lynch see the ice. A 2-2 tie. We outshoot Phoenix 33-18 but give up a shorthanded goal. The other goal was when Evans and Lynch were on the ice. Kiprusoff had a 6 rating as did Evans. Lynch was 8 but his primary position is right wing. He could become a useful, versatile depth player eventually. Gelinas suffered a groin injury and will be out for three weeks. I think I'm training these guys too hard. My second round pick, D Grant Lewis, just turned 20 so I offer him a contract. He's been wanting to leave Dartmouth since the season started. He's delighted to have signed with us but can't join the team until June. Nik Antropov (Tor) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Evgeny Nabakov (SJ) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Columbus trades F David Vyborny (29) to Colorado for D Tomas Slovak (22) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005. Phoenix trades F Shane Doan (28) to Vancouver for D Lukas Krajicek (22), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, a 2nd Round Pick 2006, and a 2nd Round Pick in 2007. I like my draft picks too much to offer something like that. Still, I'm really being shutout of the trades. Game 50: vs. Tampa Bay Buhrer starts. Regehr is in even though he's still injured - I don't trust Evans. I put him on the third unit with Frogren and remove him from special teams. Clark in for Gelinas. We lose 5-4, giving up two powerplay goals. Buhrer got a 6 rating. Lynch got a goal and an 8 rating. Evans was inserted for some reason. Edmonton trades the rights to F Craig Voakes (19) - their 1st Round Pick (#24) from last year - to Buffalo for the rights to F Jukka-Pekka Koistenen (22), a 5th Round Pick in 2005, and a 5th Round Pick in 2006. Holy tailspin, Batman. klayman is right. The Oilers are being completely gutted and destroyed. I think teams are hoping to lose for a chance at Crosby. Game 51: vs. Detroit Kipper starts. Regehr is back. Otherwise, no changes. We win 1-0 on a goal by Souray in the first. A fairly non-descript game, with the shots being 22-18 in our favour. Lynch is now out for ten days after straining a neck in practice. This is unreal. Calgary Flames trade the rights to D Tim Ramholt (20), the rights to F David Moss (23), the rights to F Brian McConnell (21), and the rights to F David Van Der Gulik (21) to the New York Rangers for D Karel Rachunek (25). Ramholt is the key to the deal. He's tearing up the QMJHL but I think his stamina prevents him from ever becoming a top four defenceman in the NHL. Plus, he's another left-sided defenceman and I have Phaneuf waiting in the wings. The other three forwards are never going to play in the NHL. Rachunek appears to be immediately in my top four. He's definitely an improvement on both Ference and Montador, and he's better than Frogren. With Lydman out until the playoffs, I really needed another defenceman. I tried getting Derek Morris from Phoenix or Dan Boyle from Tampa but you've got to give up a great deal to get someone with a "Superb" reputation. Rachunek has a "Very Good" reputation, but I wouldn't be surprised to see someone snag Morris out of Phoenix because they're out of the playoff hunt. Game 52: @ Vancouver Kipper starts. My lines are: Reinprecht - Richards - Iginla Simon - Lombardi - Bell Barnes - Yelle - Nilson Clark - Rucchin - Ruutu Regehr - Warener Souray - Rachunek Leopold - Frogren We lose 4-2. We give up two powerplay goals and were outshot 37-25 against one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Yelle was the only one with a 6 rating. I'm also thinking Rucchin shouldn't be on the penalty kill because of his low stamina. Eastern All-Stars G Martin Brodeur (NJ) G Patrick Lalime (Ott) G Roberto Luongo (Fla) D Jay Bouwmeester (Fla) D Sergei Gonchar (Bos) D David Hale (NJ) D Scott Niedermayer (NJ) D Pavel Kubina (TB) D Roman Hamrlik (Phi) F Patrik Elias (NJ) F Dany Heatley (Atl) F Pavol Demitra (TB) F Scott Gomez (NJ) F Olli Jokinen (Fla) F Vincent Lecavalier (TB) F Eric Lindros (NYR) F Alexei Yashin (NYI) F Marian Hossa (Ott) F Jaromir Jagr (Car) F Martin St. Louis (TB) Western All-Stars G J.S. Giguere (Ana) G Evgeny Nabakov (SJ) G Marty Turko (Dal) D Rob Blake (Col) D Niklas Lidstrom (Det) D Mathias Ohlund (Van) D Zdeno Chara (Ana) D Ed Jovanovski (Van) D Derek Morris (Pho) F Adam Deadmarsh (LA) F Paul Kariya (Van) F Markus Naslund (Van) F Alexander Ovechkin (Chi) F Zigmund Palffy (LA) F Sergei Fedorov (Ana) F Brendan Morrison (Van) F Brad Richards (Cgy) F Joe Sakic (Col) F Todd Bertuzzi (Van) F Jarome Iginla (Cgy) F Alexei Kovalev (LA) Richards' reputation jumped from Very Good to Superb when he was named to the All-Star team. Chicago trades F Eric Daze (29) to Dallas for F Steve Ott (22) and F Loui Eriksson (19). Man, a lot of big names have been traded. It seems as soon as a team is out of the playoff hunt, they're willing to unload. This isn't baseball. Chris Clark will be out for three weeks after suffering fractured ribs in practice. I tweeked my practices down but I guess I'm still working them too hard. I'm changed them up so that I start with everything medium. If I move a particular regime to Intensive, I have to move another to Light. Hopefully this will reduce the injuries from now on and improve stamina. Ales Hemsky (Edm) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Lubomir Vishnovsky (LA) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Chuck Kobasew has finally returned to full-strength. Game 53: vs. Chicago Kipper starts. Warener out, Montador in. Clark out, Kobasew in. Kobasew is too good to play on the third or fourth line so I demote Simon to the fourth line, move Lombardi to left wing and Bell to center. I think Bell is a better winger but we'll see. We win 3-1, outshooting Chicago, 32-17. Kiprusoff is first star with an 8 rating. The Lombardi-Bell-Kobasew line combined for 9 shots on goal and each got a 7 rating. Nashville trades F Brandon Segal (21) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 originally from Chicago to Boston for F Yan Stastny (22). With the addition of Rachunek, I'm $2.5 million over my player budget but my finances are still labelled as secure. Calgary Flames trade F Jed Ortmeyer (26) to Buffalo for F Jason Pominville (22), a 4th Round Pick in 2006, and a 4th Round Pick in 2007. Earlier in the year I couldn't get rid of the guy for a single low round draft pick so when Buffalo offered me all that, I naturally accepted. Game 54: vs. San Jose Buhrer starts. Warener in for Montador. No change up front. We win 3-0 and outshoot San Jose 38-19. Kobasew gets a goal and an assist, a 9 rating and 1st star. Souray and Iginla get two assists each. The Board is pleased. Vancouver trades F Sergei Varlamov (26) to St. Louis for D Matt Walker (24). Vancouver trades F Robert Hennigar (21) to Ottawa for D Johan Bjork (20). Maybe the reason Regehr is constantly fatigued is because of a previous injury. My physios are concerned about his long-term fitness, saying that a previous hamstring injury could come back to haunt him. His fatigue after games isn't because of the amount of playing time but because he constantly has been getting banged up with minor injuries - the type that don't receive the INJ flag but the ones that show up in the player status and knock the conditioning to around 60%. Dany Heatley (Atl) wins Offensive Player of the Month. Dwayne Roloson (Min) wins Defensive Player of the Month. Alex Auld (Van) wins Rookie of the Month. Kobasew would have walked away with the Calder if it wasn't for his injury. Last edited by Karim : 09-06-2004 at 10:59 AM.

09-06-2004, 10:07 PM	#138
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	February 1st, 2005 ------------------ Game 55: vs. Los Angeles Kipper starts. Ference in for Regehr. No changes up front other than putting Reinprecht on the powerplay. This means the only action Simon is seeing is on the fourth line. We lose 3-0, giving up a short handed goal and powerplay goal. Reinprecht got a 6 rating. Pittsburgh trades F Landon Wilson (29) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005 to Detroit for F Par Backer (22) and the rights to F Mikael Johansson (19). Edmonton's Jason Smith will be out for 7 months after suffering a torn ACL. What a bad time to be an Oiler fan. Mark Bell suffered a hip flexor and will be out for three weeks. This was after I reduced the training schedule. Just bad luck with injuries this year. Edmonton is offering to trade me F Mike York (27) for F Lars-Erik Spets (19), who is doing extremely well in Lowell. York has very similar attributes to Lombardi but carries a $2.2 million dollar price tag. I'm not about to make the first Oilers-Flames trade in history. Toronto trades F Matt Stajan (21) to New Jersey for D Colin White (27). Dan Lacouture (Pho) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Felix Potvin (Bos) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Toronto trades F Martin St. Pierre (21) to Anaheim for D Clay Plume (21). The West All-Stars beat the East All-Stars, 5-3. Joe Sakic was MVP with two goals and an assist. NY Islanders have traded F Justin Mapletoft (24) to Columbus for the rights to D Marc Methot (19). Buffalo trades D Dennis Wideman (21) and a 1st Round Pick in 2005 to San Jose for G Evgeny Nabokov (29). Nashville trades D Kimmo Timonen (29) to Colorado for G Tyler Weiman (20) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 originally from Phoenix. San Jose trades F Curtis Brown (28) to Buffalo for D Denis Ezhov (19). Game 56: vs. Atlanta Kipper starts. Gelinas is back in after recovery from injury. We win 3-2 with the first, second and third lines all scoring. Only 4 minutes in penalties in this game. Our fourth line was all for both Atlanta goals. Toronto trades D Garnet Exelby (23), D John Doherty (20), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005, and a 3rd Round Pick in 2006 to Boston for D Sergei Gonchar (30). I had looked at Gonchar earlier but his $4 million price tag scared me away. Olli Jokinen (Fla) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Manny Legace (Det) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Minnesota trades the rights to F Mikko Koivu (21), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006 to Dallas for F Valeri Bure (30). Game 57: @ Edmonton Kipper starts. No change to the lineup. We lose 3-1, going 0/6 on the powerplay. No one gets a 6 rating though. Ryan Miller stole this one; he's first star with a 9 rating. Calgary Flames trade the rights to F Niklas Johansson (19), a 1st Round Pick in 2005, a 2nd Round Pick in 2006, and a 3rd Round Pick in 2007 to Carolina for F Erik Cole (26). I finally beat somebody to the punch. We now have a legitimate 1st line left winger to play alongside Richards and Iginla. Awesome. The best part is that Cole is only making $550,000 and still has another year left on his contract. For some reason though, Cole's reputation dropped from Superb to Very Good once the deal was finalized and he joined our roster. Last edited by Karim : 09-08-2004 at 05:10 PM.

09-07-2004, 08:47 AM	#139
sachmo71 The boy who cried Trout Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: TX	I always wanted to see Daze in a Stars uni!

09-07-2004, 12:36 PM	#140
samifan24 Pro Starter Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: NC	Hey Karim, keep up the great posts! I've been reading and your dynasty makes me want to go out and finally get the game. It sounds like you're having a ton of fun playing and I know I'm having fun reading, so keep up the good work! __________________ "You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball...and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." -Jim Bouton

09-07-2004, 01:48 PM	#141
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	Daze's doing fine sachmo, but Dallas isn't. Read on. Thanks samifan. I'm definitely having too much fun with this game.

09-07-2004, 01:51 PM	#142
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	February 15th, 2005 -------------------- I currently have 15 forwards, 9 defencemen and 2 goalies on my roster. Lydman is on IR so they doesn't count toward the 23 man limit. I have to reduce the roster by two and having a hard time deciding who to place on waivers. It's come down to Ference or Montador on defence and I'm faced with the classical dilemma. Ference has better attributes but Montador has better stats. Ference 31GP 2G 11A 13Pts +5 4PIM 21Sh 50GA 25TA 33HT 15SB 7.39AvR Montador 31GP 2G 1A 3Pts +5 20PIM 16Sh 37GA 15TA 48HT 6SB 7.55AvR Ference's points came from the powerplay but those 50 giveaways are cause for concern although Montador isn't much better. Ference is an offensive type while Montador is stay at home. I come to the conclusion that Ference offers more; if someone goes down, at least Ference can work the powerplay. Plus his 17 in skating, stamina and agility are hard to ignore. It may be moot anyway once Lydman comes off of IR. Up front, it's between Clark, Ruutu and Rucchin. I haven't given Clark a fair shot, my coaches like him and he's a hard worker. I place Clark on injured reserve for another seven days to evaluate. Meanwhile, I demote Montador and fully expect to lose him. D Jordan Leopold (24) is unhappy and would like to extend his contract. He offers a completely reasonable four year deal. I offer him what he wants. Game 58: @ Detroit Buhrer starts. No lineup changes. Cole isn't ready coming off a game in Carolina. Rucchin replaces Barnes on the PK as I need to evaluate what he brings to the table. We lose 5-1 giving up two powerplay goals. Nilson scores a short handed goal. Whitney missed a penalty shot. We were outshot 37-17. Rachunek will be out for three weeks with a pulled groin. I have been fined $26,000 over my comments about the standard of refereeing - I missed where I actually said anything. This go from bad to worse. Montreal have claimed D Mathieu Schneider (35) from waivers. New York Rangers trade D Darius Kasparaitus (32) to Detroit for the rights to D John Lind (22), a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 and a 2nd Round Pick in 2006. Game 59: @ Columbus Kipper starts. Ference in for Rachunek. We win 3-1. Kobasew scores a powerplay goal. Iginla had his first 6 rating of the year. Rucchin also had a 6 and has not impressed at all since joining the team. Ottawa trades F Karl Gagne (20) to Chicago for F Mikhail Yakubov (23). NY Islanders trade the rights to D Oscar Berglund (19) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005 to Carolina for D Cory Cross (29). Nashville have claimed D Steve Montador (25) from waivers. Dallas trades D Chris Therien (33) to Ottawa for the rights to F Jakub Sindel (19). Man. I can't believe both Sindel and Fredrik Naslund's rights have been traded this season. Both are players I wanted to draft last year. Sindel is going to be a star for sure. Game 60: @ Vancouver Kipper starts. I recall Lynch from Lowell because Warener isn't ready. Cole in, Rucchin out. We lose 7-3. Kiprusoff gets a 3 rating. I decide to warn him; he accepts it without comment. Iginla gets another 6. Cole wasn't put in the lineup and Warener was playing as a forward on the first line. Yuck. Nice to see a third patch on the way. Leopold will be out for two months with a dislocated shoulder. Our defencemen have been dropping like flies this year. Ruutu will be out 10 days after suffering a neck strain in practice. Sami Kapanen (Phi) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Ryan Miller (Edm) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Washington trades G Maxime Daigneault (21) to Pittsburgh for D Dick Tarnstrom (30). Jordan Leopold has resigned for $7 million/5 years. I make F Steve Rucchin (33) available. I've been trying to unload him but like Ortmeyer, no one wants him. A couple weeks ago, I re-examined my training, both in terms of intensity and coaching. Buhrer's attributes have shot up to rival Kiprusoff's. Game 61: vs. Colorado Kipper starts. Cole is in (hopefully). Rucchin in for Ruutu. We win 4-1 but give up a powerplay goal. Cole gets a hattrick in his debut! Sweet. Iginla and Richards naturally also get three points. We outshoot Colorado 32-13. Lynch gets an assist, an 8 rating, and continues to not look out of place despite not the greatest attributes. Nashville trades F Scott Walker (31) to Detroit for the rights to D George Bradley (20), a 3rd Round Pick in 2005, a 3rd Round Pick in 2006, and a 2nd Round Pick in 2007. Boston trades F Per-Johan Axelsson (29) to Washington for D Jakub Cutta (23) and D Artem Ternavsky (21). Game 62: vs. Columbus Buhrer starts. No change to the lineup. I have no healthy bodies to insert even if I wanted to make changes. We win 2-1. Nash scores to spoil the shutout with only 4 seconds left. We outshoot Columbus 34-14 but go 0/7 on the PP. Edmonton Oilers have claimed D Dave Karpa (33) off of waivers. St. Louis Blues have claimed F Bates Battaglia (29) off of waivers. Game 63: @ Los Angeles Kipper starts. Clark in for Rucchin. We lose 2-0 giving up a powerplay goal, and an empty net goal. Kiprusoff got a 9 rating though. Dany Heatley (Atl) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Tomas Vokoun (Nsh) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Game 64: @ Anaheim Kipper starts. Every game now is big as we come down the stretch. Bell in for Clark. We lose 4-2. We score a powerplay goal but give one up, along witha shorthanded goal. Vincent Lecavalier (Tam) wins Offensive Player of the Month. David Aebischer (Col) wins Defensive Player of the Month. Andrej Mezaros (Atl) wins Rookie of the Month. Game 65: @ Phoenix Buhrer starts. Clark in for Lombardi, who got banged up last game. We lose 3-0 against a team on our tail, outshot 37-21. We're currently in 6th place with 65 points, Phoenix in 7th with 64 points, Minnesota in 8th with 63 points, Detroit in 9th with 60 points and Edmonton in 10th with 58 points. Anaheim's in 5th with 80 points so clearly we're not catching them. It's going to be a struggle to make the playoffs. Not having Leopold, Lydman and Rachunek is hurting us. Game 66: vs. Anaheim Kipper starts. I activate Lydman from IR who is at 90% because Souray is only at 70%, while Ference is only at 74%. I place Rucchin on waivers. I decide to go with 5 defencemen but I suspect the coach will make changes. We lose 3-2, our fourth loss in a row. Bringing Lydman back early has cost me as he reaggravated his injury and will be lost for another two months. Game 67: @ Nashville Kipper starts. I have to recall Evans from Lowell. Lombardi and Gelinas in for Ruutu and Clark. We lose 4-3, our fifth loss in a row. Legwand scores the winner with 3:52 left. Kipper gets a 6 rating. All our scoring is done by the top line. Our fourth line was a combined -9. Adam Deadmarsh (LA) wins Offensive Player of the Week. Evgeny Nabokov (Buf) wins Defensive Player of the Week. Pittsburgh has claimed F Steve Rucchin (33) from waivers. I need to shake things up big time but a trade isn't the answer. I decide to place F Stu Barnes (34) on waivers; if someone claims his $2.8 million salary fine. If not, he'll be an unrestricted free agent in a few months anyway. I recall F Joel Lundqvist (22) from Lowell. He can do just a good job on the fourth line as these bums, if not better. Philadelphia trades D Randy Jones (22) to Ottawa for D Mike Lundin (20). Game 68: @ Chicago Kipper starts. Chicago is the worst team in the Western Conference so we had better win. Souray in for Evans. Ruutu and Clark in for Simon and Gelinas. We lose 2-1. We outshot Chicago 32-22. We killed off eight powerplays against. Jocelyn Thibault stood on his head. Ruutu was the only player with a 6 rating. We have falled to 8th place, only 4 points ahead of Detroit. Vancouver trades the rights to F Marc-Andre Bernier (20) and a 3rd Round Pick in 2005 to Dallas for D Scott Ferguson (32) and a 4th Round Pick in 2005. Dallas trades D Sergei Zubov (34) to Atlanta for the rights to F Patrick Dwyer (21). Edmonton trades G Ty Conklin (28) to Detroit for F Chris Thorburn (23). Washington trades D Jason Doig (28) to New Jersey for D Marek Chvatal (21). Nasvhille trades D Brad Bombadir (32) to Buffalo for F Milan Bartovic (23). Chicago have claimed F Stu Barnes (34) off of waivers. Dallas trades F Jason Arnott (30) to Washington for the rights to F Liam Reddox (19) and a 2nd Round Pick in 2005. Last edited by Karim : 09-08-2004 at 05:10 PM.

09-07-2004, 02:03 PM	#143
gi College Prospect Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Berkley, MI	Ouch...This would not be the time to start singing Tom Petty's Free Falling...

09-08-2004, 08:08 AM	#144
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	We're free falling indeed. Those five games losing streaks will do that to you. We're hurt, slumping and outside of our top line, no one is doing anything. I have a bad feeling we'll be #9 when all is said and done.