Steve

Oohhhhhhhh.  Well this is awkward.  We are also planning to win in the next 3-4 seasons.
Of course we first need to figure out what those balls are that you speak of.

It is certainly an enjoyable run - the Union is a strong team that directly counters my playstyle, so while we will fight until the last drop, it is a tough matchup.
 
That said, my team was built to win in the next 3-4 seasons, all key players are signed long-term, and I am impressed with their play (and balls) this year. The offence has been dominant throughout the entire season. If we fall here, I will still consider it a success.

The #1 Union sweep the Duhawks and the #4 Red Tide sweep the Nightmares, which sets up a Battle of the Titans in Round 2.  Union currently lead 2-0, but I'd be surprised if the Tide don't make a push in game 3 to extend the series.
 
The other matchup is #7 Bulldogs vs. #2 Stray Cats, where the Bulldogs look to continue their domination over feline teams.  Series currently sits at 1-1.
 
Out West we have the #1 Prairie Stars, who won the President's Trophy facing off against the red hot Wolverines.  The P-Stars just evened the series at 1-1 in an offensive slugfest.
 
And the #2 Hawks (Legends of game world Biscuit) take on the #3 Ricochet.  The Hawks continue their defensive domination and lead the series 2-0.

/\
Well that was odd.  The notification was that the computer team canceled the trade, as if they offered it, not that it was rejected.  Weird.  But I'm glad it's not easy to trade with the com anymore.  Good stuff.

Love this! I like the idea of a “Roid Rage Trophy” for the individual with the most combined hits + penalties. Wish we could track fighting and wins/losses there. Maybe the winner can get a re-fillable “Golden gallon” and a years supply of creatine!
 
The “Crentist, the Dentist” award would also go to the individual who got in the most fights and had the highest loss percentage. They would get free dental work once they retired.

Gratz to bouncer and West Chicago Hawks. Game 5 and series win 3-2 for them. Nothing miraculous about losing to Hawks but the series was a bit of a weird one and I can't but be a bit of annoyed about the very ending.
 
Series breakdown:
Shots:
WES 169
ENI 138
 
This number shows edge on Hawks. They won shots in 3 games and the rest of the 2 were tied.
 
Power play:
WES 5/29
ENI 4/10
 
These numbers tell several tales and there I also see one factor to my demise. I scored all my 4 PPG during one 5-minute major, and went 0/9 after that. Hawks on the other hand had me taking too many penalties and I was playing half of the games 3 and 5 in the penalty box. Both teams also scored one shorty.
 
Individual games:
 
Game 1:
Dream start for Rage, 4 power play goals during one penalty. Pettigrew didn't know what hit him and Hawks never recovered. 0-5 and series 0-1 for Rage.
 
Game 2:
Gibazov is injured and is replaced by Lantaigne in the first line. Line gets butchered with -4 alongside -3 by 1st defense pair. 5-2 Hawks and series tied 1-1.
 
Game 3:
Penalties ruin the game for Rage. Spineless effort from them. Shutout for Pettigrew and showdown for Hawks powerplay. 3-0 Hawks and they take the series lead 2-1.
 
Game 4:
Hawks powerplay continues strong, but Rage wins this one due to even strength domination. 4-3 Rage and series tied 2-2.
 
Game 5:
Penalties again troubling Rage, who take first 6 penalties of the game but still manage 2-0 lead but Hawks quickly make it 2-2. The downfall of Rage comes in the third, with a total meltdown, losing shots 17-4 and allowing 4 goals, two of them by an unexpected hero Ventura, who only had 4 goals in the entire regular season. Rage is beaten and Hawks advance to 3-2 series win with 6-2 game 5.
 
For Rage the series started like dream and ended like a nightmare. But in conclusion, the better team won. I took way too many penalties and Hawks depth players stepped up (Journeau 25 points in the regular season, 7 in this series). Regular season was 2 wins each (one of mine overtime) and this one went to game 5 so I managed to fight as the underdog in the playoffs too. And game 4 win was by strong even strength effort, so I was not only one-powerplay-wonder in this series.
 
Season over. Now a breather and focusing on next season. Good luck to all the remaining teams.

Similar here.  I figure I'll just wait for everyone to trip over themselves when these players become FAs, hahaha.  It's more sporting that way anyways!  

My vote for Manager of the Year goes to Steven Bennett, Eldred Elite.
 
Sitting at 8-3-3-32 over half way through the season and well into relegation, he somehow turned his team around and clawed his way back into the GHL relegation playoffs and won a decisive Game 5, 1-0, to stay in the big leagues.
 
Well done, Steve.

Well, we didn't agree on anything and... well, no point in agreement if all are not in.
 
So, feel free Paul
 
That being said, I decided I won't trade against CPU teams

I echo the welcome back.
 
In regards to demotion, I said this somewhere that I actually currently see demotion as an advantage, especially if you don't have a strong team, because of all of the very meh 3-4 year contracts that a lot of GHL teams have. In fact, for a few days, I was seriously debating trying to deliberately do exactly that when I got this team. Had my second line not carried my team through the first month of the season at the top of the standings and I would have been fighting for a playoff spot like I thought I would have been I would have gone ahead and been a seller.
 
Ideally, you would quickly turn your team around so that you are back in the GHL by season 3 or 4. As a result, you could potentially gather a number of young players to build a team around. On top of it a number of players might be hitting FA too that would make good role players to fill in any gaps. All this while you likely pick low to mid in the draft for a year or two in the GHL while you build up your younger players.
 
Edit: The best time to take advantage of this though was this season. While it practically can still be done in the future you become more limited in what you can do in total as there are less bad contracts you can potentially use to your advantage when demoting.

I'm not done with the game, I've just been busy with life. Honestly I've been checking about once a week so Im not sure why I was booted. Myabe its because I havent checked my fast team in so long that I got booted from both worlds.
 
 
 
I should add, I'm a little bit peeved I didn't have time to make deadline deals  and also I'm glad my team wasn't immediately raided.

Since (most) of us can take a good joke on here, it'd be great to also see more creative awards.  For instance, rookie of the year would be a good legit one for a player that is in his first season in GHL (no matter the age) who leads in points or whatever stats you want to toss in.
 
Some other funny ones could be:
Best/Worst Goals Per $ spent
Worst Plus/Minus
Swiss Cheese Award for Goalie that meets minimum games played requirement (~10) and lowest Save %
Broken Stick Award for the player with the most Giveaways
 
Open to other suggestions, but whatever award people come up with, please explain your methodology just so we know.  

And to state the obvious, TOI is the first place to start, so set your lines so your heaviest shooters spend the most time on the ice.  But again, no guarantees as I often will have a 3rd or 4th liner randomly lead my team in shots that game from time to time.  

Since (most) of us can take a good joke on here, it'd be great to also see more creative awards.  For instance, rookie of the year would be a good legit one for a player that is in his first season in GHL (no matter the age) who leads in points or whatever stats you want to toss in.
 
Some other funny ones could be:
Best/Worst Goals Per $ spent
Worst Plus/Minus
Swiss Cheese Award for Goalie that meets minimum games played requirement (~10) and lowest Save %
Broken Stick Award for the player with the most Giveaways
 
Open to other suggestions, but whatever award people come up with, please explain your methodology just so we know.  

And to state the obvious, TOI is the first place to start, so set your lines so your heaviest shooters spend the most time on the ice.  But again, no guarantees as I often will have a 3rd or 4th liner randomly lead my team in shots that game from time to time.  

Since (most) of us can take a good joke on here, it'd be great to also see more creative awards.  For instance, rookie of the year would be a good legit one for a player that is in his first season in GHL (no matter the age) who leads in points or whatever stats you want to toss in.
 
Some other funny ones could be:
Best/Worst Goals Per $ spent
Worst Plus/Minus
Swiss Cheese Award for Goalie that meets minimum games played requirement (~10) and lowest Save %
Broken Stick Award for the player with the most Giveaways
 
Open to other suggestions, but whatever award people come up with, please explain your methodology just so we know.  

Since (most) of us can take a good joke on here, it'd be great to also see more creative awards.  For instance, rookie of the year would be a good legit one for a player that is in his first season in GHL (no matter the age) who leads in points or whatever stats you want to toss in.
 
Some other funny ones could be:
Best/Worst Goals Per $ spent
Worst Plus/Minus
Swiss Cheese Award for Goalie that meets minimum games played requirement (~10) and lowest Save %
Broken Stick Award for the player with the most Giveaways
 
Open to other suggestions, but whatever award people come up with, please explain your methodology just so we know.  

Since (most) of us can take a good joke on here, it'd be great to also see more creative awards.  For instance, rookie of the year would be a good legit one for a player that is in his first season in GHL (no matter the age) who leads in points or whatever stats you want to toss in.
 
Some other funny ones could be:
Best/Worst Goals Per $ spent
Worst Plus/Minus
Swiss Cheese Award for Goalie that meets minimum games played requirement (~10) and lowest Save %
Broken Stick Award for the player with the most Giveaways
 
Open to other suggestions, but whatever award people come up with, please explain your methodology just so we know.  

Since (most) of us can take a good joke on here, it'd be great to also see more creative awards.  For instance, rookie of the year would be a good legit one for a player that is in his first season in GHL (no matter the age) who leads in points or whatever stats you want to toss in.
 
Some other funny ones could be:
Best/Worst Goals Per $ spent
Worst Plus/Minus
Swiss Cheese Award for Goalie that meets minimum games played requirement (~10) and lowest Save %
Broken Stick Award for the player with the most Giveaways
 
Open to other suggestions, but whatever award people come up with, please explain your methodology just so we know.  

Using my own special formula that is completely arbitrary and unilateral, here are my awards for the inaugural season of the cage GHL season.
 
Most Valuable Player
 
Kwesi Cutter - Prairie Stars
 
Pavel Bure Award for Most Valuable Player to an Individual Team
 
Clemens Andresen - Union
 
Garry Bettman Award for Leadership and Community Excellence
Hector Murray - Stray Cats
 
Bobby Clarke Award for Outstanding Sportsmanship
 
Jeet Holcroft - Aussies
 
Most Points Scored
 
Ian Frerot - Wolverines
 
Most Goals Scored
 
Elouan Scott - Red Tide
 
Most Assists
 
Patrick Gornell - Red Tide
 
Plus-minus Award
 
Aleksandar Schaller - Prairie Stars
 
Best Forward, Overall
 
Aleksandar Schaller - Prairie Stars
 
Best Forward, Offensive
 
Ian Frerot - Wolverines
 
Best Forward, Defensive
 
Elie Cuillerier - Leopards
 
Best Center
 
Aleksandar Schaller - Prairie Stars
 
Best Winger
 
Jeremy Lawhorn - Wolverines
 
Best Defenseman, Overall
 
Adam Bufford - Prairie Stars
 
Best Defenseman, Offensive
 
Marek Koch - Prairie Stars
 
Best Defenseman, Defensive
 
Tenho Suomi - Ricochet
 
Best Goaltender
 
Kwesi Cutter - Prairie Stars
 
Viktor Tikhonov Award for Managerial Excellence, Innovation, and Leadership -
 
Eric T - Union

I do too. I think the mascots are fine for the most part, but there is definitely need for more of them. There's a plethora of town names and team names, but at least 60% of them are lacking any sort of matching mascot. The new jersey editor is a gigantic leap forward though, so maybe these other little issues are lining to be dealt with at some point. 

Best overall defensemen. It wouldn't be too bad an idea to offer another reward for most points by a Dman.
 
As for defensive you can sort by blocks and takeaways. Not a lot of forwards would likely show up though. Thus the time consuming task of searching through each team would have to be done. Thus if you want I'd be willing to do that.

With the end of the season here, I decided to create an awards list for best players in GHL Cage, using NHL template as example - to make it more of a lived-in world, and simply because I think the players deserve some individual recognition for all the work they have done for us this season.
Calculations are shown where relevant. Runner-ups for each category are also included. Enjoy!
 
 
 
ART ROSS TROPHY (Most League Points)
 
IAN FREROT (Wolverines) - 91 points    (https://gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=10043-A)
 
Elouan Scott (Red Tide)
Jeremie Cline (Stray Cats)
 
 
 
ALEX OVECHKIN TROPHY - (Top Goalscorer)

ELOUAN SCOTT (Red Tide) - 46 goals                  (https://gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=3196-A)
 
Ian Frerot (Wolverines)
Jeremy Lawhorn (Wolverines)
 
 
 
SILVER PLATTER TROPHY (Best Playmaker) 
 
PATRICK GORNELL (Red Tide) - 56 assists           (https://gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=1776-A)
 
Jeremie Cline (Stray Cats)
Marek Koch (Prairie Stars)/Ian Frerot (Wolverines)
 
 
 
VEZINA TROPHY (Best Goaltender)
 
KWESI CUTTER (Prairie Stars)                (https://gameplanhockey.com/goalie?gpid=324-A)
 
Gregoire Wright (Stray Cats)
Renaud Pettigrew (Hawks)
 
 
 
NORRIS TROPHY (Best Defenceman)
 
TENHO SUOMI (Ricochet)                       (https://gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=4037-A)
 
Marek Koch (Prairie Stars)
Clemens Andresen (Union)
Calculated with the following formula among D: [PTS + Plus/Minus + BKS - GVA + TKA], PER also taken into consideration  
 
SELKE TROPHY (Best Defensive Forward)
 
WESLEY SOUDERS (Leopards)                   (https://gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=8314-A)
 
Elouan Scott (Red Tide)
Jeremie Cline (Stray Cats), 
Calculated with the following formula among F: [PTS + Plus/Minus + BKS - GVA + TKA]  
 
LADY BYNG TROPHY (Most Gentlemanly Player)
 
IAN FREROT (Wolverines)               (https://gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=10043-A)
 
Jeremie Cline (Stray Cats)
Ondrej Valabik (Hawks)
Calculated with the following formula [PTS - PIM]  
 
HART TROPHY (League MVP)
 
KWESI CUTTER (Prairie Stars) - 80 PER        (https://gameplanhockey.com/goalie?gpid=324-A)
 
Elouan Scott (Red Tide)
Clemens Andresen (Union)
 
 
 
 
*Notes: Calculations may not be entirely accurate due to limited visibility and inability to sort by position in GPHM stats format - if anyone sees mistakes, let me know and I will fix.

This probably isn't the best thread to post in as it is the exact opposite of trash talk, but it seems to be the only Cage discussion, so what the heck...
 
First, congrats to the Bangers, Plastic Attack, Patriots and Owls for promotion from SHL to GHL.  I am personally looking forward to battling with the Bangers and Plastic Attack again (BHL/SHL Biscuit days).
 
Second, good luck to the Flame, Savage Storm, Dragons, Defenders and Giant Strikers in your playoff quest for promotion.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pulling for the Flame as I enjoy competing with active managers.
 
Third, good luck to the Elite, Blue Thunder, Battlin Bears and Supersonics, who are all currently battling to stay in GHL.  That's gotta be nerve-wracking.  It's amazing the way the Elite were able to turn their season around.
 
Last, and definitely not least.  Huge kudos to both Fango and Antti (Claws & Kamikazee).  Currently in relegation, but sticking with it.  Too often the only managers that get recognized are the top of the standings, but there's a huge something to be said when things aren't going your way and you stay with the team and keep battling.  I see too many managers who just bail if their team starts losing.  Think more people need to really enjoy the game for what it is.  It's a manager game with a huge element of luck/randomness/chance, whatever you want to call it.  It is just as fun, if not more, when you actually have to put more effort into it or get creative.  The only unsuccessful managers are the ones who leave.  Their loss.  Regardless if your team is doing well or not, you still get to enjoy what the game has to offer.  It's cool to win, but I personally have much more respect for the managers who still have fun even when they don't.

And I will likely find out how the Pens feel.  Early season favorites, find out you aren't that good as the season rolls along, swept.