Paul T

I counted my one AAHL injury for informational purposes. Even so, take the number down by 1. 14 becomes 13... and still 11 injuries that are 5+ days. It still seems like a lot. And that AAHL player I mentioned is currently in my starting line-up. I'm sure this is happening to other teams as well - I've noticed quite a few around the league. My intention isn't to bitch about injuries - I should have been more clear. The initial point made by koekefix was that injuries seem much more common in the new release. I only have 2 years experience with it, but last year I only had 5 injuries all year (maybe 6 or 7, tops, I didn't count), so I can only assume that injuries happen more often now.

OK - I totally take back everything I previously said about injuries. Koekefix is right about injuries being out of control. I can see 5-10 injuries a year, but I am on injury #14 (11 of which being 5+ days) with a little over a quarter of the season to go. Also to note that I have not played HARD in a few weeks and haven't played DIRTY at all this year. My training has all been reduced to Easy/Medium, but that hasn't helped... My injuries so far this year (positions are what they were playing in that game): Around Day 10: 1st line F, out 1 game Day 7: 3rd line F, out 5 games Day 10: 2nd pair D, out 5 games Day 17: 3rd line C, out 5 games Day 18: 3rd pair D, out 8 games Day 19: 3rd line C, out 6 games Day 32: 1st pair D, out 1 game Day 32: 2nd paid D, out 5 games Day 32: AAHL player, out 2 games Day 34: 1st line F, out 10 games Day 38: 4th line C, out 7 games Day 43: 2nd line F, out 5 games Day 48: 1st line F, out 23 games Day 49: 2nd pair D, out 8 games

I like this idea.

I totally get your point of view. I don't think it should be "easy" for managers to build a perfect team either, and feel that managers should have to do some work before finding a perfect player. I think there has to be a happy medium. A few things just to preface: 1. I'm not trying to be argumentative - just wanted to add some additional thoughts/perspective below. 2. I have only played in a BHL league, so most of my thoughts are formulated based on that. If things are different once you get to SHL/GHL, then maybe it's not a good idea to make things "easier" as you have suggested. I truly don't know. Is that really true for free agents, though? Once a player is in the league (and I'm referencing the NHL here), you have a good idea if they are cocky or arrogant (Ego), how they play (Dirty), if they are a Leader or not - and later in their career if they are a Big Games player. Even to a certain extent their Ambition. If an NHL GM is looking for a Tough player, he already knows which players are tough and which are not. A good example is the Penguins signing Hornqvist a few years ago. Why would you interview the Sedin twins if you're looking for a tough grinder? As rookies, sure, you don't know much about players... but as the game is set up now, you can't filter prospects, you have to click through each one individually for the draft. This makes sense to me. Having to do this with free agents does not. Plus with all the media attention these days, there's so much information on every single player it's insane. And as managers, we are only one person. Professional teams have assistant coaches, other assistants, multiple scouts, etc. The information is readily available. Yes, but that is probably what most managers try to do now. Having a search filter to help you out doesn't change this tactic, it only makes it less time consuming. Sometimes you need to make a judgement call between a better player skill-wise, or a less skilled player with better traits. Personally, I'd take the skill. Yes, because filtering out a certain trait could potentially filter out a player that could fit your team perfectly, all because he has 1 bad trait. In a way, it would make the manager have to perform multiple searches, rather than one, and be just as time consuming. You have to be smart about it. I see the trait filter working when you know EXACTLY what kind of player you want, otherwise, you wouldn't be maximizing your results. Again, I don't think building the perfect team is as easy as it sounds (maybe it's easier in GHL?). I only have 2 players on my team that have ALL blue/green traits. 3 if you count a prospect that hasn't played a game yet. Often times, when you are deciding between a few players, you have to make judgement calls over which red/orange traits you can accept and which blue/green traits are more important for your team. And sometimes even when you find that perfect player, there's a chance that things won't work with salary... cap management still comes into play. There's still a lot of moving parts. ..... Next year I am going to be looking for a grinder who plays tough to fill out a 4th line, and assuming I don't promote, I'll be up against the cap. I spent a good 1/2 hour today looking at free agents alone (had a break in between meetings at work ). Filtered based on a certain Spirit rating and made sure a few other ratings didn't go below a certain amount, click on player 1, he's not tough PASS, click on player 2, he's tough but nervous PASS, click on player 3, he's tough and has good other traits, but his endurance is a 47 PASS, click on player 4, he's perfect in every way, click on contract, he wants 100K more than I can spend PASS, repeat x30... ..... I don't think adding an extra search filter for traits will change anyone's strategy, it would just save time. Everyone already tries to acquire players with good traits. It would just be an option for managers who know exactly what type of player they want and don't want to click through 20-30 players to find it. I would assume most of us have jobs and some of us families. Saving a few minutes here and there isn't a bad thing.

Good points. But what about managers who are only searching for a specific type of player. If you want a Herioc guy like a Justin Williams... or you need a tough/agitator for a Grinder/Energy line. Maybe it's an either/or search function. You can either search on ratings or search on traits. That way, you still need to do your research, but the option is there if you want it.

No. I have tried almost every combination of team focus and I get this comment after every single game. The only thing I haven't tried is going Super Defensive when I am down by 3 goals (Claude Julien style)... or Super Offensive when I'm up by 3 goals.

I've gone back and forth on this and have come to agree with this point of view. The traits data is already available, it's just a matter of time clicking through every player to find it. Perhaps a happy medium is to only allow managers to select 1 specific trait to a search instead of being able to filter out all the traits you don't like? For example, you can limit your search to Friendly/Respectful/Role Model players only, instead of being able to filter out every trait you don't want. If you want Compassionate/Respectful/Role Models, you have to do another search. But if that is not possible and it's one way or the other, I'd much rather be able to filter on traits to save time. You'll still need to sift through the candidates to find the combination of ratings you like. Also, being able to select traits has it's advantages - but it also has it's disadvantages as your search could potentially exclude a really good player just because you were looking for different traits. A good example is my defenseman KANTARIK. He's an Arrogant , Agitator, Childish , Anxious and Lazy. He also improves 2-3 ratings per year, doesn't ask for too much $$ given his rating, and plays very well. I also like the height/weight filter for the same reasons. I can do without league level and classification as you can already determine that information by their ratings.

Good question. Some of them are unique. For most of them, even when there are multiple cities with the same name, it is clear which city is being referenced. There were 3-4 that I was unsure of, so I took the city with the largest population.

I like yours better. I need to do Biscuit over without the circles around each logo.

Judging by your NY knowledge and Eichel jersey, I'm guessing you are from that area and a Sabres fan? I'm from Boston so I got to see Eichel play in college at BU a few times. Kid is an absolute stud!! Can't help but root for him, despite being a Bruins fan...

OK, I have flicked that little angel off my shoulder. Two more offers for this player today. I need to try and snag this guy before someone else does and it's too late! That and I took an unexpected loss today at home, which caused some anxiety and panic in the locker room. I feel my offer is very fair. It is very lopsided toward the CPU, at least according to my overpaid and very opinionated assistant. If I promote (currently in 1st by a few points) I think the CPU team gets the better of this deal since it involves picks. If I don't, then I probably do. But the idea is to promote, so... Quick question though - for those still reading - how do CPU trades work in terms of order? Are they decided upon in order (ex. the CPU will accept the first trade if it's good enough, even if the 2nd trade offer is better)? Or are the offers actually valued and prioritized regardless of when they were submitted?

Yes, this is purely based on the team's selected city, not where the actual manager is located. That's what got me thinking about it - I had no idea where Deferiet was. Turns out it is in NY. I figured I'd do the GHL first since most managers remain with their teams and the city isn't changed too often. With all the managers on holiday in BHL, who will probably get fired soon, it would have to be updated multiple times per season. Maybe I'll just keep the GHL updated year over year... that will give me some incentive to promote!

I started looking into team/city locations out of curiosity. Being a visual guy who digs graphics, I decided to pull a map together. Below is a map of all GHL teams. If I get more free time I may do SHL/BHL. Enjoy.

I appreciate the input, guys. I have gone ahead and canceled my trade offer so I can think about this a bit more. If one of the other teams gets the player, then I will have learned my lesson to not listen to that little angel on my shoulder. I suppose what makes this scenario different is that I know there are 4 other teams pouring trade offers for this player. It's just a matter of time until someone is able to acquire him and while the answer to "would I accept the trade?" is probably No (not that my trade offer was totally lopsided, it was fairly close), I feel that what I was offering is much more that what other teams are offering. So in a sense, I would have been helping the CPU team! At least that's what I'm telling myself to justify it. For what it's worth, for this single player, I was going to offer a similar player (2 overall ratings lower, a prospect and 2 draft picks... and depending upon promotion, one of those draft picks would have been = to where that player was drafted originally). Also, this was more of a strategy than trading just to trade. I don't want to reveal too much since it would be bad taste to reveal other team's identities, but this could have a huge impact on final standings/promotion. I think I just wanted to know if tilting the scales in favor of the CPU was seen as bad taste to give trades a higher chance of going through/make it a sure thing.

Suppose this would be frowned upon if the intention was to make the unbalanced trade, then resign from your team and take over the team you just traded with. But that's not going to happen.

Hi all, What are everyone's thoughts on unbalanced trades with computer controlled teams that favor the computer? Full transparency: There's a player I have on my shortlist that I would like to acquire. Since he's on my shortlist, I know that multiple teams over the past few weeks have tried to acquire this player, but assuming they failed (CPU rejected). There are now 2 more teams with offers on that player who I am in direct competition with, so it makes sense to try and trade for him as strategy. If possible, I would like to tilt the scales a bit toward the computer in order to do so, but not sure if that is greatly frowned upon. I figured it's better than totally ripping off the computer. If a Moderator could answer tonight, it would be greatly appreciated, otherwise, I'll probably just go ahead and try it anyways If other's are doing it, it's fair game, right? I'm struggling here because I love to play fair, but am also super competitive. #managerproblems Final note: If I ever make a trade that others think is out of line (for reasons other than being in direct competition with me), I'm OK if the trade is simply reversed. I'd rather not cause any problems that way. Thanks in advance, Paul

Hi all, Just curious whether team Focus also applies during the power play and penalty kill? For example, if I set my Focus when up by 3 goals to Very Defensive, and go on the Power Play, will my team play very defensive while on the power play? Or does that automatically shift to Offensive? And vice versa while on the Penalty Kill. I assume that Focus does not apply during special teams play, but figured I would ask to be sure. Thanks, Paul

Yes. I've been calling my players up for a game here and there as a healthy scratch to get their fitness level back up. Not ideal, but seems to help.

I have three 5+ game injuries at the moment - and 5 total injuries on the year (in the first quarter of the season). I think I had 5 injuries all of last year. I'm really only into my 2nd full year so I don't know what the norm is. Either way, it has forced me to get creative with my lineup - and that's part of the fun of a manager game. Speaking of injuries - is it possible for goalies to get injured? That's something I have yet to see.

I definitely agree on the pre-season games being restricted to Fair or Avoid physical. Sorry to hear about your bad luck. Also, for what it's worth, I have played on HARD and DIRTY 4 times combined in the past 2 seasons (the Dirty was against a team that spanked me the game before so I was out for revenge ). In those 4 games combined, 3 of my players got injured and only 1 of my opponents got injured. Not sure if others have experienced the same, but it feels risky for your own team to play that way. On the topic of injuries though - my best player was injured for 9 games right before the playoffs last year. The other team was not playing hard or dirty. I feel like it's just part of the game. Yeah, it sucks, but it happens. If anything, it challenges you to get creative with your lineup - and it makes you think about resting star players during pre-season games or near the end of the season depending upon where you are in the standings. If you want to really get frustrated with injuries, try playing fantasy (American) football. That's my 3 cents...

Thanks for the reply - and my bad... I must have missed the other suggestions on this. Good to know it's on the radar, though.

Hey all, If I didn't already make it clear in my recent introductory post, I love just about everything about this game - so if nothing changes, it's all good with me. After managing for a full season, the two minor suggestions I will make are: 1. The ability to add player traits to the filter when searching for players. Example: Say you're looking for a first line center with at least 85 Passing and 90 Spirit - and you also want to make sure he's not a Cocky A-Hole . It would be cool to be able to check off the traits you are looking for (and want to avoid) in your searches. 2. Email notifications upon receiving team messages. This is just a personal preference. I log on just about every day to check things out anyways, but as someone who manages both work and personal emails from my phone, it would be nice to have an email notification option when new messages are received (game results, player improvements, trades, etc.). Also, just wanted to add my 2 cents on the help files. I think the amount of guidance that has been provided is perfect. It gives you just enough knowledge to get started - and the answers to many other questions can be found if you look hard enough. I think knowing exactly what needs to be done to make a successful team, in some ways, takes the fun out of it. So far I've enjoyed getting to know my team, trying different things, seeing what works and what doesn't (trying players in different roles, on different lines, you get the point). I want my team to be successful, but the fun part is the journey to get there, not the immediate success. Just figured I'd share that. Thanks for reading. - Paul

Hey all, I'm a little late with this introduction as I joined late in Season 9. I've already chatted with quite a few of you via message, but figured I'd throw down the official introductory post. About me: I'm a huge hockey fan from Boston. I manage the Def Leppards, I mean Deferiet Leopards in BHL. Season 10 seemed to be successful given the team's history and I'm looking to improve on that in S11 and continue that success in the SHL in S12 We'll see... I was reading an interview with Anders and this part got my attention: Realsim. With ”realistic feeling” I don´t mean the use of real player and team names. It was never an issue that I couldn’t play with my favourite team Ottawa Senators and sign Sidney Crosby to the team. What I´m looking for is much more subtle. I want to get the feeling that there is real persons behind the all the numbers and facts. I missed a game where the psychological values played an equal part to all the numbers. Well, you nailed it! I don't know where this game as been all my life as I immediately became addicted. Anders has really done a fantastic job with everything and I'm glad to have found this game. - Paul