NHL 2K9 / NHL 09

[Gabriel]

I get a lot of sweet pokechecks, but still haven't gotten the hang of laying the stick down. My big issue is usually trying to lay the hammer on some schmuck hanging out in front of net, missing, and leaving him all alone with a now-trembling-in-fear goalie. I give up a few that way in BAP.

In other news, has anyone else started a dynasty, and then just...not gotten around to playing any games? I put one together with Washington, set up the lines, did the scouting work, went to bed for the night...and haven't been back since. And this was about three weeks ago.

I've been playing Dynasty far more than Be A Pro. I've been fiddling with the sliders to get a realistic feel to the games, so that I'm not just dominating with a team that should be struggling (I'm playing as Toronto).

I'm 5-5-2 and currently in 11th spot in the Eastern Conference...which seems like it's pretty good to me.

I love managing a team more than I love playing the games, so I much prefer Dynasty to BAP.

[Cactus Drags]

I've played four or five games in my Avs dynasty, but not played it in a good couple of weeks. I like to use the real-life line combinations, but they just don't work, nevermind the fact I'm having trouble finding sliders that'll give me a decent game but also let me score once in a while, whilst trying to fend off the comeback logic in the third period.

[Clawson]

Running around with Toronto of course right now with a season record of 9-5-3 (somehow 2nd in the conference). This is mainly because Marian Gaborik leads the league in scoring with 24 points with Grabovski close behind with 20.

Kulemin-Grabovski-Gaborik

Tlusty-Stajan-Antropov

Hagman-Steen-Grabner

Poni-Moore-Mayers

Kaberle-Kubina

Carlo-Schenn

Finger-Van Ryn

Edited October 27, 2008 by Clawson

[Gabriel]

The only change I've made so far, was putting Ryan Hollweg on waivers, where New Jersey picked him up.

I like the team I have now, and surprisingly, Jason Blake is producing as a goal scorer, with five I think, so far. I do need a better faceoff guy though, so I'll keep an eye out and see if I can acquire one.

[Clawson]

I packaged Blake, White and my 1st for Gaborik. I wouldn't have done it if he wasn't actually available this year.

I give myself one unrealistic trade a year and that was my Bell for Grabner.

[Toe]

I used Bell to get Mikko Koivu.

[Gabriel]

I packaged Blake, White and my 1st for Gaborik. I wouldn't have done it if he wasn't actually available this year.

I give myself one unrealistic trade a year and that was my Bell for Grabner.

I actually think that Gaborik would be a great addition to the team. All they really need is someone who can jumpstart the goal scoring, and I think he could do it. Even if it's just for the season, if they can get him without losing any major pieces, they should at least give it a try.

[Toe]

I packaged Blake, White and my 1st for Gaborik. I wouldn't have done it if he wasn't actually available this year.

I give myself one unrealistic trade a year and that was my Bell for Grabner.

I actually think that Gaborik would be a great addition to the team. All they really need is someone who can jumpstart the goal scoring, and I think he could do it. Even if it's just for the season, if they can get him without losing any major pieces, they should at least give it a try.

In reality, there is no way Toronto can make the trade for Gaborik. What they need to do is hope and pray that he makes it to free agency, then make a play for him. Then they would have Schenn and their top pick in this years draft, plus a goal scorer like Gaborik to build around. Toronto actually has the defence it would have liked over the last three seasons. Now they just need some quality forwards.

[alldaws1]

The only change I've made so far, was putting Ryan Hollweg on waivers, where New Jersey picked him up.

How dare you, Ryan Hollweg is awesome >_>

I was playing dynasty a lot more than Be A Pro but I was winning every game 5-4 or 6-5, that kind of scoreline so I decided to start again with a better set of sliders. Haven't got round to it yet though. Started my Be A Pro as a left wing sniper for the Hartford Wolf Pack, played six games and we're 1-5-0, my +/- is pretty poor but I have scored 3 goals, two coming in a come-from-behind 3-2 OT win against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers

[Gabriel]

The only change I've made so far, was putting Ryan Hollweg on waivers, where New Jersey picked him up.

How dare you, Ryan Hollweg is awesome >_>

I was playing dynasty a lot more than Be A Pro but I was winning every game 5-4 or 6-5, that kind of scoreline so I decided to start again with a better set of sliders. Haven't got round to it yet though. Started my Be A Pro as a left wing sniper for the Hartford Wolf Pack, played six games and we're 1-5-0, my +/- is pretty poor but I have scored 3 goals, two coming in a come-from-behind 3-2 OT win against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers

I just adjust the sliders during the course of the dynasty. If things get too easy, I make it harder. If the other team isn't shooting enough, I try to fix that, etc..

[Clawson]

Are there more advanced sliders that I'm missing or something?

Nonetheless I find Pro to be pretty good if you refrain from doing the money goals. Games usually end up with 3-6 goals total.

[RoyWill Rumble]

I packaged Blake, White and my 1st for Gaborik. I wouldn't have done it if he wasn't actually available this year.

I give myself one unrealistic trade a year and that was my Bell for Grabner.

I actually think that Gaborik would be a great addition to the team. All they really need is someone who can jumpstart the goal scoring, and I think he could do it. Even if it's just for the season, if they can get him without losing any major pieces, they should at least give it a try.

Lol...

Sorry, but just no. Minny will not be giving up Gaborik for a while, and what is Toronto going to give up in return? Schenn? Pogge? Too valuable. Kaberle? Too valuable. There goes your already average at best defense. A guy like Antropov, or Ponikarovsky along with some picks? No. It's not going to happen. The Leafs just don't have anything to give up, first off.

Plus, on top of that, the Leafs are in a rebuilding phase. If they finish better than 10th or 11th this year, it should be considered a success. The Leafs need depth when it comes to prospect and a future for the team, not Marian Gaborik for one year. If the Leafs somehow magically got Gaborik tomorrow, they're not going to win the Stanley Cup with him. Fuck, they might not even make the playoffs. And by the grace of God, if they somehow won the cup and lost Gaborik the next year, they're in the same place they were before - in need of rebuilding and probably without some prospects due to trading for Gaborik.

What would be the point of nabbing Gaborik for a year, especially NOW when the team is not a playoff team. Honestly, the Leafs need to aim for the bottom five of the league so they can better rebuild. They're rebuilding now, and getting Gaborik would just throw them back into the situation of pre-lockout where they made the playoffs with rental players and were eliminated by the second round.

What if they do get Gaborik? Let's say they do, and they only finish ninth or tenth, out of the playoffs. The media and fans rip them apart and they've probably lost at least a pick or two and maybe some prospects. Or, they make the playoffs and they don't win the Stanley Cup. You've still given up prospects and Gaborik's most likely gone. Rental players are always a risky situation and hardly ever work out. It's especially stupid for a non-playoff team to get a rental player in a rebuilding phase.

I could go on and on, but for the future of the Leafs it would be absolutely terrible to get Gaborik. In a few years, when the team has some prospects built up it'd be great, but with their current line-up it's just way more trouble than it's ever gonna be worth.

[Gabriel]

Minnesota's already shopping him around. It's no secret that they're trying to get rid of him as soon as possible. He won't sign an extension right now, and they don't want to lose him for nothing in return.

Here's a package... Jason Blake, Colaiacovo or White, and a second or third round pick. You're not giving up anything all that valuable to the team, but it's a package that could appeal to a team like the Wild.

Not a playoff team? Expectations might be low, but the Leafs are playing harder than about 85% of the teams in the league, and it wouldn't surprise me if they cracked the top 8 with the team they have now. Adding Gaborik would really help them push it too, because all they're really missing right now is someone who can score big goals for them.

Ron Wilson is encouraging his team to get the puck at the net as much as possible... which is a strategy tailor-made for a guy like Gaborik, who if given the green light, could really tear it up. They've got the cap space for him if he decides to re-sign with them, and if he doesn't, what have they lost? Jason Blake and a second round pick? Big deal.

[Clawson]

Remeber Gab, even the AI GMs wouldn't accept my offer of Blake, White and a 2nd. I had to move to the 1st, so it's unlikely somebody as smart as Riseborough would give him up for that.

By the way, how do you run out your lines?

Edited October 27, 2008 by Clawson

[Gabriel]

Remeber Gab, even the AI GMs wouldn't accept my offer of Blake, White and a 2nd. I had to move to the 1st, so it's unlikely somebody as smart as Riseborough would give him up for that.

By the way, how do you run out your lines?

I like my first line for pressuring for goals. I keep them away from defensive situations though.

My second line, I use for offensive situations when the first line is resting up, and give them a few defensive situations here or there to keep up their ice time.

My third line is strictly out there to cause trouble for the opposition, whether it's to keep them off the scoreboard, or to just keep the puck in their end.

My fourth line I use in all situations, but only when no one else is rested. They get about 5 minutes a game (barring penalties).

Defensive pairs, first pair gets most of the ice time, in all situations.

Second pairing I use mostly for offensive zone chances and when I need a goal.

Third pairing I use mostly for defensive zone stuff, or if the other two pairs are tired.

My lines look like this:

Jason Blake / Mikhail Grabovski \ Nikolai Antropov

Alex Steen / Jiri Tlusty \ Alexei Ponikarovsky

Niklas Hagman / Matt Stajan \ Jamal Mayers

Nikolai Kulemin / Dominic Moore \ John Mitchell

Tomas Kaberle / Luke Schenn

Pavel Kubina / Mike Van Ryn

Jeff Finger / Jonas Frogren

Vesa Toskala

Curtis Joseph

I'm planning on giving CuJo about 8 games this season.

Carlo Colaiacovo was playing in Finger's spot for the beginning of the season, and I'm thinking of just alternating Finger/Colaiacovo/Frogren in and out over the course of the year. I want Schenn to play as much as possible, and I really like the pairing of Kubina and Van Ryn.

Blake started on my second line, but he was producing and Poni has been playing awful, so I switched them around. Grabovski hasn't done much of anything, but nobody behind him has pushed for his spot on the first line, so I'm giving him time to turn it around.

I thought about moving up John Mitchell, but he and Moore have done a great job with the forecheck, and have contributed greatly to getting Kulemin four goals on the season so far, which is awesome, given his limited ice time. I played with the idea of moving Kulemin up to the first line, and putting Antropov at center, but I gave him some time on the line in the third period of a game we were losing, and he just couldn't keep up. He's not ready yet, but he's doing great on the fourth line.

[RoyWill Rumble]

The WAY underachieving Blake, White, and a second rounder for Marian Gaborik? We're talking about the real NHL here, right?

Honestly Gabe, just no. There's no doubt that if the right deal comes along that the Wild will trade Gaborik, but dear God is that not the right deal. That makes their team worse.

And honestly, how good is it for the Leafs to just SQUEAK into the playoffs? I'm sorry, but they are not going to win the Stanley Cup this year, with or without Marian Gaborik. They can play hard all they want, and I commend them for that, but the Leafs NEED TO REBUILD. They need to. A seventh or eighth place finish with a year of having Marian Gaborik on your team is not going to do you any good at all.

Sorry, but the Leafs right now are not a playoff team with or without Marian Gaborik, and if they are they're not a Stanley Cup contender. It's way too big of a risk to go for broke when you have an AVERAGE AT BEST team, especially in John fucking Tavares' draft year.

Edited October 27, 2008 by Diet Sousa

[Cactus Drags]

Why do we talk about real hockey in this thread, and virtual hockey in the NHL thread?

[RoyWill Rumble]

Because this is bizarro EWB, and Gaborik to the Leafs, making them a Stanley Cup contender is just not gonna fly, even in bizarro EWB.

[Cactus Drags]

I'm not sure how unlikely Gaborik to the Leafs is, but I do agree he wouldn't get them to the Cup alone.

I miss the chemistry scores from previous NHL games, I know it probably meant you guys could totally playschool it, but I'm not quite as up on my strategy, and it was good to have a rating that I could work towards with my line pairings. Some kind of indicator for how suitable player roles are would be cool too. I get that the idea is you try stuff on-ice and if it works go with it, if it doesn't, back to the drawing board, but I'm not always sure if stuff fails because it's the wrong strategy or because of the way I'm actually controlling the players.

[Gabriel]

They're not going to get Tavares anyways. I think the highest draft pick they'll get is maybe 6 or 7... and that's if half the team decides they don't want to play Wilson's game anymore.

I seriously think they're going to end up either in the playoffs, or pushing all the way to the final game for a spot.

You don't bank on losing to get yourself a "superstar" draft pick... you play as hard as you can, to finish as well as you can, and you be smart when it comes time to start drafting kids. How many late round picks have gone on to be way better and more important to their teams than First Round picks? Too many to put that much stock in some kid who may be the next Crosby, but could just as easily be the next Daigle.

I won't say that Gaborik or a player like him would make them a Cup contender... but if there's any possibility that he'd be around for more than a year, I'd rather take a chance on him than spend the season hoping the team tanks for some unproven kid.

I'm not saying they need Gaborik, or that they should give up anything important to the team... but they should at least make an offer that doesn't hurt the team. It doesn't hurt to give Riseborough a call and see what it would take to get Gaborik from him. Honestly, I don't think the asking price is nearly as high as you're making it seem. They just really want to avoid having a subpar year, and then losing him to free agency.