Online Hockey Sim - MetroHO

[Travis]

Hey bbor, I see we managed to hook up in the same league this season. I'm running the Hunters in the level 3 division. Looks like you're coming off a pretty nice playoff run. Good luck this season!

[bbor]

Originally Posted by Travis

Hey bbor, I see we managed to hook up in the same league this season. I'm running the Hunters in the level 3 division. Looks like you're coming off a pretty nice playoff run. Good luck this season!

Good luck...i know i need it...my team is hurting this season for soem reason

[Travis]

Originally Posted by bbor

Good luck...i know i need it...my team is hurting this season for soem reason

Out of curiosity, what are you using for coaching tactics? My team played nothing but trap last season but I got a lucky first round pick (90 OA Two-Way forward who's on my second line this season). Started out brutal on trap but have had a lot more success going to run and gun this season (small sample sizes so far, but seemed to make a big difference).

I've pretty much got to go for it all this season as I'll be in salary hell the next couple years with a couple of those rookie 3 year @ a million per's expiring.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Travis

I'm running the Hunters in the level 3 division.

I didn't realize that you have two teams. What level are the Knights playing? I hope they're level 5 because our two teams are always right near each other and I'm in a level 5 league right now.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by samifan24

I didn't realize that you have two teams. What level are the Knights playing? I hope they're level 5 because our two teams are always right near each other and I'm in a level 5 league right now.

Heh, 3 teams actually Knights and Hunters are level 5 and 3 respectively and I've got the Lynx in level 2 (I really need a new goalie for that squad next offseason). Knights took the dominance trophy this seasonn (just earned a spot in round two of the playoffs for that season).

Right now the Hunters are probably my strongest roster, but it's a small window. Got lines right now of:

92/94/90 - 92/85 - 93
90/86/83 - 87/80 - 90
80/75/80 - 79/79
77/75/73

That's running with about $8.7 million in cap room right now (the 94 on my top line is on the last year of his 3 years @ a million per deal so he'll eat up most of the difference once he's resigned). I'm debating whether I should add another playmaker, sniper or offensive defenseman with the left overs to really make a run this season or to reup with my RFA's and lock them up early. Got two RFA's from last season (86 and an 82) I could sign to one year deals and fit them in on the third line if I do some shuffling but I'm giving the current lineup about 1/3 of the season to see where I seem to be the weakest at. Sad part is that they're only 8-10 so far, really gotta get this line up rolling.

[bbor]

I have a lev 3 and lev 5 team......the bbors (lev 3) and the shot blockers (Lev 5)

[Travis]

Holy crap was that a serious whooping, nicely done bbor.

[bbor]

Looks like my team is out of their slump

[Travis]

Well I got swept today, so here's hoping you pull off the comeback and avenge me in the finals Bbor!

[bbor]

Going to play my game now....pray fro me

[bbor]

Woohoo...1-0 in OT....it took 41 shots but i finally sneaked one past the goalie.

[Travis]

Holy crap, no goals until the 64th minute of the game, that's crazy.

What style are you playing Bbor? And did you get a balanced head coach or did you go offensive/defensive for that hiring?

[bbor]

no coach...no system....heh.i'll get a coach after this season.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by bbor

no coach...no system....heh.i'll get a coach after this season.

I'll be curious to hear your results once you add coaches in. I went with a balanced coach (and the "normal" approach) for two teams while I went with an offensive coach and the run and gun system for my other team.

I had started the balance coach teams out on trap but switched both to the normal approach this season and saw improved play but that may have more to do with getting a ratings bump for my goalies for both teams this season. The run and gun team is my most successful team, but was also my only div 5 team, so not sure how much of that is the coaching staff or just a carry over of the roster quality.

[bbor]

Let me know when you are good to go in another league...i will join the same one.With coaches this time

[Travis]

Sounds good, I'm guessing we should be free to join leagues come Monday. Are you going to need any time to fill out your roster? I'm pretty sure I'll be good with all the mins/position.

[bbor]

I need to sign a few...should'nt take long.If i draft well i will be doen real fast.

[Travis]

Anybody else still playing? If possible I'd still like to get into leagues with FOFCers. I've got a level 2, 3 and 5 team on the go. The level 3 league is a couple days away from wrapping up their playoffs, got a week left in the level 2 league (plus playoffs) and just 5 days into the level 5 league.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Travis

Anybody else still playing?

I'm still playing as "The Whale" and I just joined an "all levels" league which starts day 1 tomorrow. The last league I played in was a level 5 and something like 60% of the teams were ranked 30 or higher.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by samifan24

I'm still playing as "The Whale" and I just joined an "all levels" league which starts day 1 tomorrow. The last league I played in was a level 5 and something like 60% of the teams were ranked 30 or higher.

Heh, you should see the league I'm in now. Started and run by Adam (who, shockingly has the #1 ranked team, heh), it's a 15 team level 5 league. Still only the top 8 make the playoffs and you can play anywhere from 2-5 games per day (schedule is a lot wackier than the 10 team leagues to still get 72 games played after 19 days).

Power rankings in the league:
1, 7, 9, 14, 17, 19, 24*, 32, 35, 39, 50, 56, 60, 62, 112

I'm ranked 24th right now but started the season in the 40s. Made a deal to pick up a couple of higher ranked older players in exchange for a younger high 80's forward and a high 80's D in the last year of his contract. Had a good start to the season so figured I'd pull the trigger and see how much damage I can do against these guys. I haven't followed a lot in the forums, but gm666 is in this league, so I'd definitely like to finish ahead of him and not lose to him in the playoffs if possible. I recognize a couple of other GM names from previous leagues (tmai, kehmesis) but nobody I've talked at all with.

[bbor]

Sami...my Shotblockers team is in that league with you....as i was previously in the Lev 5 league with you.My team got demoted to lev 4 now though

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by bbor

Sami...my Shotblockers team is in that league with you....as i was previously in the Lev 5 league with you.My team got demoted to lev 4 now though

I'm not sure how the game determines levels but I think it needs to be tweaked a bit. My team dominated before the levels were created and only went around .500 in a level 5 league. My guess is that we would be a good but not great team in a level 4 league. We'll see what happens in this new "all levels" league. I've never played with 15 teams before.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by samifan24

I'm not sure how the game determines levels but I think it needs to be tweaked a bit. My team dominated before the levels were created and only went around .500 in a level 5 league. My guess is that we would be a good but not great team in a level 4 league. We'll see what happens in this new "all levels" league. I've never played with 15 teams before.

The initial rankings were done based on the power rankings of teams on a certain day. So some teams who didn't have rosters filled out or were incomplete ended up lower than they should have been. That's why he's put in the promotion system he has (top 2 gain a level, bottom 2 go down a notch) to try and work teams through the system so they end up about where they should be.

Not a perfect idea, but not horrible and with him still allowing multi level leagues to be made those that choose not to worry about the tier structure don't have to.

[RendeR]

I still have 3 level 3 teams, we all made the playoffs in the last season I entered (3 different leagues) now I'm fighting to get an upgrade in personnel and stay under the cap. not nearly as easy as I'd hoped it would be.

So yes, I'm still playing, but I'm taking my time right now working on the rosters of each team.

[Travis]

Hey bbor, let me know when you're ready to go with another league. I've got a compliant roster ready. Still hoping to make a few moves, but I'm ready to join a league whenever you're good to go.

Anybody else with any level 3 teams getting close to ready for a new season that would like to link up? I don't mind waiting a few days if people are closing out seasons.

[RendeR]

I'll have a team ready in a day or two.

[bbor]

Originally Posted by Travis

Hey bbor, let me know when you're ready to go with another league. I've got a compliant roster ready. Still hoping to make a few moves, but I'm ready to join a league whenever you're good to go.

Anybody else with any level 3 teams getting close to ready for a new season that would like to link up? I don't mind waiting a few days if people are closing out seasons.

I should be good to go after the update tonight...i'll let you know for sure tommorrow.

[Travis]

My roster is technically good to go, but I'm trying to get a bit inventive on fitting a few guys in, so I can use at least one if not two days.

That said, whenever you're ready Render we can get rolling (assuming bbor is good to go at that point).

Either of you looking for a goalie? I've got a 27 year old, 93 rating, 2 years left at $2.7 million per that I'll be trying to move once we join a league. Figured I'd check here first. He had a 2.72 GAA and a .918 save % as my starter last season.

And just as a disclaimer, there's nothing wrong with him (never been injured actually and was part of my initial team signup), I've just gotten really lucky with how quickly one of my backups has progressed. I can keep the older guy around as insurance, but I'd prefer to try and use that cap space towards improving the rest of my lineup.

[RendeR]

Buffalo Bengals will be at least 2 more days. Had to find another scrub defenseman and I'm still dickering around with my all star goalie. I'd love to have yours as he's a point better than mine and a LOT cheaper, but I have nothing to offer in return.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by RendeR

Buffalo Bengals will be at least 2 more days. Had to find another scrub defenseman and I'm still dickering around with my all star goalie. I'd love to have yours as he's a point better than mine and a LOT cheaper, but I have nothing to offer in return.

Depending on how things work out with yours I'll likely be looking for picks for mine. Not sure if that's of interest to you or not but figured I'd clarify that a bit. Now if I could just figure out a non cheating way to trade him to one of my other teams instead (got a nice big cap number on a 94 rated goalie with my Knights team of around 6.5 starting next season unless I get a really lucky draft pick).

[Travis]

How are you boys looking?

If either of you are looking for roster filler or second line type guys, let me know. I may have gotten a bit.....ambitious in my offseason moves and have a few 80-85 guys that might need to be moved in addition to my goalie

[bbor]

i'm good to go!

[RendeR]

I just dropped my Bengals and Titanics into public league #4, we're ready to roll!!

[Travis]

Joined!

[Travis]

Approaching the mid way point of the season and right now all 4 FOFC teams are in playoff spots, 3 of them currently with home ice advantage. Not a bad first half.

Right now you guys each have a few games to play today, but if your top teams each win out today's games there'd only be a 3 game gap from 1st to 4th then a pretty serious drop off. Should be an interesting second half.

[samifan24]

Do you guys typically set lines based on the "type" of player? For example, I use all of my playmakers as centers and most of my two-way players on the same line. Lately I've been splitting up my three best players and only keeping two of them together on my top line to try and balance scoring between the top two or three lines. How do you guys handle things?

[Travis]

I haven't done a terrible amount of experimenting, but this is what I've done so far.

Coaching: Go with your coaches rating (ie: 50/50 coach use normal, 65/35 go offensive, 35/65 go trap). I tried going trap with a 50/50 coach and it worked pretty well for defensive stats but I've had much better team success with setting my team to normal.

Lines: I've revamped my teams to mainly have 3 specific forward types (Playmaker/Sniper/Two-way for two teams and on my third I have power forwards instead of Two-way). I use Playmakers at center, snipers on RW and then my other player type on LW (it's my understanding that in shorthanded situations it's your RW that sits off). That said, I've also left all my players at 0/0 for individual offensive/defensive bonuses. I also quick sim all my games rather than play them out which supposedly means I'm giving up a home ice bonus for playing games out, but any time I've actually played games out I seem to lose and I hope that always quick simming gives me more consistent results to base my decisions off of.

Seems like having a couple 90+ defensemen is huge as well as having a 93+ goalie. Forwards seem to be able to do more at a lower rating than D do but I tend to try and make sure that my third pairing D and 3/4 forward lines are still 73 (if not 75)+ guys to avoid them getting just beat on.

The team I have in with you guys is a bit of an anomoly as I have an abnormally high amount of rental players on that team. So for this season I've got the luxury of a very deep lineup but that'll be gone after some new contracts get handed out in the offseason so my strategy will be put to the test a bit more for that squad.

For my level 1 team it's worked pretty well though. We just started our playoffs in the 15 team league (all but two teams ranked in the top 50) and while I suspect some sand bagging, my 20th ranked team ended up going 55-17. I'm guessing I'll lose out in the second round of the playoffs (should match up with Adam's team at that point) but I was very pleasantly surprised at how well that team did in a league that competitive.

[bbor]

great advice...thx Travis

[Travis]

Just a couple days to go before playoffs, looks like all 3 FOFC teams should make the playoffs including a potential Render vs Render opening round, heh. Either of you guys looking to make any deals prior to the playoffs starting?

I had a bit of a crash and burn with my level 5 team. First time I'd ever played in a 15 team league or a best of 7 playoff style. Made it through the first round, went 2-1 at home in the second round, but 0-3 on the road to get eliminated in the semi's. Kind of disappointing after playing so well all season only to see my team absolutely die on the road.

[Travis]

Wow, speaking of, I really don't want to run into bbor in the playoffs, your road record is insane.

[bbor]

Originally Posted by Travis

Wow, speaking of, I really don't want to run into bbor in the playoffs, your road record is insane.

Weird...i;ve never had a good road team before.....

[samifan24]

I've made the finals for the first time ever in our "all levels" 15 team league. We lost two of three today to start off the finals, including a 8-0 loss in which we outshot the opposition 41-38! I'm hoping that we can win all three home games tomorrow but if not I just hope we take two of three and push it to a seventh game.

[Travis]

Good luck sami, worst case you've at least locked up a finalist trophy which is nice, but here's hoping you can at least push that series to 7.

[samifan24]

Finalist trophy? I didn't know they gave those out...how are they different from a dominance trophy? Are dominance trophies only given to the top two teams in the regular season standings?

[Travis]

Team wise you get a Dominance Trophy if you finish first after the regular season. The team that wins the playoffs gets a Metro Cup and the team that loses the finals gets a Finalist Trophy. No series is played for 3rd so no bronze place award for the playoffs.

The top two teams (after the regular season) are both promoted a level (in a level specific league, if you're in an "open" league I don't believe that applies) and if you finish at the bottom (I think bottom 2 in a 10 team league and bottom 4 in a 15 team league) you lose a rank. Not 100% on how the 15 team league works for losing a rank at the end of a season but I think that's close.

[samifan24]

Cool, thanks, Travis, I didn't know that.

Do most of you guys have more than one team? I only have one because I thought multiples could get you banned. Is that not the case or have the rules changed?

[Travis]

From what I've read on the forums, multiples are allowed, but it's frowned upon to play in the same league with multiple teams and really not a good idea to trade among your teams.

Essentially though, they just don't want players throwing games to themselves or having more than one team to then trade between and uber stack one of them. I've been rolling with three since I started and haven't had any issues. I can't remember if any of my teams have played in common leagues though. If they did it was in the first couple seasons but I never made any trades between them.

[RendeR]

I have three and have had 2 of them in leagues together before. I never trade between them and I auto-sim all my games so it doesn't really effect anything.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by RendeR

I have three and have had 2 of them in leagues together before. I never trade between them and I auto-sim all my games so it doesn't really effect anything.

Exactly, and I'm glad Adam hasn't taken the hard line with enforcing a one team per user rule. Once an example of cheating crops up he seems to act pretty swiftly (but fairly as he'll contact the teams to give them a chance to defend themselves) and bans them, but so long as you don't try to take advantage of the system he lets you roll.

[samifan24]

How close are you guys to being done with your season? Mine just ended yesterday and my team lost in the finals. I'd like to join a league with fellow FOFCers if possible.