Season 3 has really taken off. I finally started making some real moves, so many I kind of got carried away. I started small and worked my up, succeeding in acquiring five 1st round picks from the some of the worst teams. What it took was multi-player trades involving the picks. This meant that I had to trade for players that made more money then the ones that I was trading, thus getting around the salary cap issue. I didn't really keep any of the guys. I just shuffled them around. It took some time but it will pay off. I also opted to get rid of some of my big name players that were up for huge raises, making it a little easier to give Zetterberg, my best player, the raise that he will need. I have plenty of cap room but I have to keep the spending down since I have a small market team. Most of my rooks who I drafted last year should be ready to play next year and if so, I have waaaay too much talent. Poor me. I also decided to use an actual enforcer (Eager). Tootoo and Weber fight but Eager can really throw em. Also Tootoo and Weber are some of my best players so I don't like to have them off the ice for any long stretch of time. He doesn't score a lot of goals but I can afford that. Fleischmann, one of few remaining original Caps, finally made it into the lineup and he is a scoring machine. It is crazy. He will not be denied. Tootoo is really slumping but I have faith in him. I am all done with trades unless something really sweet comes along. Me smells another Cup.
So here is how the line up is looking (with subs if necessary):
Henrik Zetterberg - Andy McDonald - Marek Svatos Ruslan Fedotenko - Zach Parise - Petr Prucha Richard Zednik - Stephen Weiss - Jordin Tootoo Ben Eager - Tomas Fleischmann - Brandon Bochenski
From Wikipedia: "Mr. Big combined two popular musical trends of the rock scene in the 1980s: a particular brand of hard rock, focused on melodies and listener-friendly choruses, and impressive technical proficiency, then called shredding."
Impressive technical ability, then called shredding. Gotta love some 40 year old dude trying to sound hip.
Mr. Bro has a nice ring to it but might I suggest a name change, it doesn't matter what the first name is so long as the last name is Fister cos I think Mr. Fister rolls off the tongue way better.
Well, I semi-cheated. Remeber how I said that this game is much easier than FIFA? What I did was right around the trading deadline I signed a bunch of free agents that I had no intention of keeping. My salary is super low right now so I could afford to do it. So I signed all of these guys and traded them to the worst teams in the league for their 1st round picks. It was a genius move. So now I have a bunch of good rooks that will be in my lineup for cheap for the next few years. The only downside is that I can't do the same thing this year as all of the teams are right around the salary cap max. Maybe it was all those free agents that I brought in last season...
I like it when I get little emails in the game and they are addressed to Mr. Bro.
Things are still going good here. I won a 2nd Stanley Cup, won 1st place in top GM voting, and secured 5 of the top 8 draft picks. My starting goalie Ilya demanded a substantial raise so I decided to trade him and a 2nd round pick for young goalie Kari Lehtonen. I'll save about 4 mil a season for the next 2 years so that is good. I also traded my old backup for a rookie goalie whose name I can't remember, I think Kuehl. The game invents players for the draft so he is one of those.
Now I will bitch. Almost all of the stupid owners somehow got themselves right up to the salary cap so it is impossible to make trades to save money. It is also impossible to trade for draft picks, which sucks because that was my big plan for this season. Two of my best players will want hefty raises this year and I would rather trade them for picks then re-sign them. Especially since my roster is so deep. If I trade Cole and Cammalleri for picks then I will be sitting pretty. But who knows now? So, that is frustrating. Stupid GMs.
My lineups are almost exactly the same:
Henrik Zetterberg - Andy McDonald - Marek Svatos Erik Cole - Michael Cammalleri - Jordin Tootoo Ruslan Fedotenko - Travis Zajac - Konstantin Pushkarev Richard Zednik - Stephen Weiss - Timofei Shiskanov
this is what i hear as i fall asleep at night 'this is bull****! they always score in the last seconds! this game never lets me have a shut out!' 'oh nhl '07 why is it that you are the only one who understands me?' sure nhl '07, she's asleep...
Nothing has wasted more of my time this year than this glorious game. While I miss some of the features from NHL 06, NHL 07 is still impossible to beat. The action is realistic, the game does not cheat too often, there are the Finnish and Swedish elite leagues in addition to the NHL, and you can play either season or dynasty mode. The dynasty mode is not near as complicated as FIFA which is both good and bad. Sometimes I wish that dynasty was FIFA style to add a bit more strategy and realism. That being said, it is probably good that it is not that complicated as it would cause me to yell at the tv a lot more than I already do.
I decided to play dynasty this time around with the worse team in the league, the Washington Capitals. I am in season 2 after having a glorious run to the Stanley Cup in season 1. My team has vastly improved over last season's rag tag group through genius trades and free agent signings so I am hoping to bring home my 2nd cup. My starting lines are as follows:
Henrik Zetterberg - Andy McDonald - Marek Svatos Erik Cole - Michael Cammalleri - Jordin Tootoo Ruslan Fedotenko - Stephen Weiss - Konstantin Pushkarev Richard Zednik - Jarkko Immonen - Brandon Bochenski
As you die hard hockey fans can see I only have one remaining original Cap in my lineup in Pothier. This is mainly becasue they were the worst team in the league and the majority of the players were horrible. I still have Boyd Gordan as my back up right wing and Thomas Fleischmann as my sixth center, two players who I am holding on to as they are still young and I hope play them as starters in the next few seasons.
I just traded Mike Commodore for Michalek and am more than happy with my results. Fedotenko is not really working out and if he doesn't start producing pretty soon I may have to move him. Tootoo is hilarious in this game becasue in the real league he is a 4th line enforcer and in the game as he gets older he just scores goals like noone's business. It is awesome.
If you are not even into hockey this game is so addictive that you will not be able to put it down once you get the hang of it.
