Toe

I'm excited for TFC next season. They've broken the playoff drought, and now return for Year Two of the Atomic Ant Era. Adding Will Johnson will definitely help - too often the team was without Bradley due to national team commitments. I am curious if they play Johnson over Cheyrou or not. Toronto still needs a keeper though.

For that, I simmed the first season, with the exception of a handful of games scattered throughout the season.

I find that the CPU can score very easily. They seem to try and force passes through the slot for most of the game. Once you figure out how to stop it, it becomes a bit easier to beat them. I don't find scoring too difficult, and most of the goals I give up now come from turnovers.

I didn't see a topic for this so.... I used to buy the EA NHL games on the day of release every year - until I played last years game on the PS4. Something about it just wasn't appealing - especially in the menus when trying to play my favourite mode, Be A GM. I heard this year's version is better, so I picked it up a few days ago. And it is better - the menus are more responsive and less of a pain in the ass to navigate. The actual game play is pretty fun too. Very smooth. I feel like I can score in a ton of different ways. Sniping it off the rush, deking around the goaltender, one timers, point shots. It's not a frustrating experience like last year - it's just fun. The real reason for starting this thread is...I want to talk about my GM mode as the Leafs. I attempted to tank hard - the Jets took Bernier for a first, and I was able to unload a ton of guys and wound up with 4 first round picks and 4 second round picks, plus a bunch more later on. The team was pretty thin beyond, especially in goal with only Reimer and Garrett Sparks. I thought I had orchestrated the perfect tank job. The hockey gods laughed at this thought. Instead, despite not having a player score more then 21 goals or more then 60 points on the roster, the 2015/16 Toronto Maple Leafs would go on to win the division and only fall out of the playoff in the second round. The teams who had traded their picks away to the Leafs also finished strong - so despite having four picks in the first round, the earliest pick I had was 15th overall. I was not pleased. When it was time for the draft, I knew that I needed to add an impact player. Edmonton was 1st overall (again?!), but willing to deal. I was able to package two picks in the first round plus a prospect to get the top pick - and with that, drafted Auston Matthews. My remaining picks were late in the first round, so I packaged them to move up to tenth, where I picked up Jake Bean. The other big move came in free agency. I was unsure about committing to Reimer as my top goaltender, so I looked to see if anything was available on the block. Low and behold, the Ducks were willing to move 22 year old John Gibson - a goaltender with the potential to become elite. I sent them Kasperi Kapanen and a 2nd round pick in 2018, and then signed Anders Lindback to have a solid back up. Going into year two, I've made some significant changes to the team, and some of the players have really grown. Already, Auston Matthews is 87 overall with the potential to be a franchise player. Gibson jumped from 86 overall at the time of the trade, to 89 overall in the preseason. Morgan Reilly and Jake Gardiner are both far and away the best defenders on the team, while Dion and Scott Harrington (from the Kessel deal) are a very good second pairing. And Nazem Kadri is 89 overall and should have a fantastic season paired with JVR.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the Leafs don't sign Matt Belesky. Someone is going to give him $5 million a year.

Is it just me, or did the Avalanche not get very much for O'Rielly? As for the Leafs - I don't watch enough junior hockey to know the prospects very well so I can't really say anything about the pick. Trading down twice with the 24th pick was interesting though.

Sweden's third goal was ace too. Great game overall. I might try to catch some of the U.S. game at 7:30.

No?

I've had just zero interest in the playoffs this year. If Ovechkin and the Caps were still in, I might still try to catch some of the games. But without Ovie and without the Leafs, I just don't care this year. I think this season, more then any other, has really sapped a lot of my enthusiasm for hockey.

I didn't think Babcock would come to Toronto. Great coach. This team is still probably going to suck next year, but Babcock will have them playing the right way.

Right now, my Texas Rangers lead the AL West by 3 games. Beltre, Hamilton and Fielder all have batting averages over .300 and my pitchers are all over performing.

From what I heard, the Rangers will only be on the hook for $15 of the remaining $85 million. Even as his numbers have dropped, Hamilton has still hit really well in Arlington. Not much risk if your the Rangers.

I think the Oilers made a good move bringing in Chiralli to be President and GM. Pretty much ANYONE would have been an improvement though.

I only power swing when I see my pitch early in the count. I only contact swing when I'm at 2 strikes, since I find it's easier to foul off pitches that way.

It would be crazy if McDavid pulled a Lindros. Edmonton is literally the last team I wanted to win the lottery. At least Buffalo tried to tank this year - the Oilers didn't try. They just sucked.

The referee threw out Subban before knowing whether Stone was hurt or not. I think the call was right, and I think missing that game is enough punishment for PK. Ottawa has to move on from it - if they go looking for retribution, they will lose game 2.

Even when the Jays beat the Rays, I just never really enjoy the games. Something about the Rays. I don't really know what it is.

I'm the opposite. I love the simplicity with Dickey. Knuckleball every time.

I hate watching the Jays against the Rays. Tampa has to be the Jays' bogey team.

The Jays and Orioles are having a pretty fun shoot out. It's 8-7 Jays going into the 6th.

Knuckle curve, slurve.

I usually play the first 5 or so games. After that, I'll play one then sim one or two. Really depends on the match ups - I hate playing against pitchers with extremely slow deliveries.

I wasn't paying too much attention and accidentally started a pitcher with 30 stamina. He was barely able to throw 25 pitches before gassing out.

I just had a game where I drew 5 legit (not intentional) walks. Pretty happy about that. Matt Dominguez's box score line for the game was 1-3 with 2 BB and 1 SAC RBI. Fuckin' awesome.

I hit an absolute monster home run with Edwin today. Sadly, the Ed-wing is still not in the game.