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By Mark D, June 29, 2012 4:10 pm

So taking a bit of a break from my Islanders team that can never make the playoffs, I decided to do a fantasy draft. I love doing odd teams, so for this one I had just finished watching some Slap Shot and decided to try a goon team. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of players who are flat out enforcers in EHM, so I decided to start by grabbing Role Players and tough defenseman. Here is the team I ended up with;

Clutterbuck – Dubinsky – Tootoo
Shawn Thornton – V. Sobotka – Craig Adams
B. Sutherby – Konopka – Brule
Bissonette – Burish – Ryan Reaves

Chara – Byfuglien
L. Schenn – Garrison
Leopold – Komisarek

Enroth
Bernirer

I figured this team would get pretty much wrecked. I had also heard a rumor that the “hit and grind” strategy for lines was overpowered. So I tested it out by giving that strategy to all 4 lines. I had a feeling the game was a tad broken when they went undefeated during the pre-season and just flat out stomped everyone, barely allowing double digit shots some games. Then I started playing the regular season…

They are in 1st place with 58 points and a 25-7-1-7 record after 40 games. They are last in the league with 103 goals for. But they lead the league in Goals against with only 62, 2nd place has 101 GA. The PP is worst in the league with a 13.5%, but the PK leads the league at 85.37. Basically all of the top two lines had Career years in Goals, Assists and Points. Most of those notices were around games 40-50, although some like Brule hit those marks early.

For those of you interested, here’s the stats for the season.
The Calendar of the year
The Standings
The Leaguewide Stats

Unfortunately the team only made it to the Conference Finals before being beaten by the Rangers in 6 games. What ended up happening is that Chara got hurt for the last month of the season. During his time out we played 18 games and basically matched the number of losses we had in the first 64 games during the last 18 games. The team was never the same, even when he came back.

Still, getting this ragtag team to the Conference Finals was pretty amazing. And according to Wikipedia I set a new record with lowest amount of goals against in a season. We were also nominated for the following awards:

Jack Adams Award: Scott Gordon
Calder Memorial Award: Jhonas Enroth
Frank J Selke Award: Brandon Dubinsky, Shawn Thorton

Jhonas Enroth was our only winner, getting the Vezina and Jennings trophies.

I forgot to mention, despite being almost 10+ points ahead of everyone in the league when the All Star game happened, we were only represented at the game by Enroth. And in Islander fashion, Enroth didn’t even get any icetime in the game.

Well this was a fun little experiment, but I’m probably going to stop here. Unless someone is interested in seeing where it goes.

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By Mark D, March 9, 2012 1:23 am

Well I’ve been in control of the simulated Islanders for almost 8 years now. For all that, they have 1 playoff appearance in which they were swept in 4 games. A number of things have really worked against me in this time. One season was ruined by injuries to John Tavares and Kyle Okposo. There’s been a few seasons in which we just barely missed making the playoffs. It also doesn’t help that not only was Brock Nelson not an Isles prospect (someone mistakenly thought he was a Shark) but most of the prospects sucked.

For that matter, there really haven’t been too many great players out of the last few drafts. The top of the league’s scoring leaders looks not too far off from what it looks today:

The Islanders current lines are:

Moulson-JT-KO
Kabanov-Bailey-Ambroz
Comeau-Nielseon-Nino
Martin-Marcinko-Joensuu

McBain-Matt Clark
DeHaan-DeHart
B. Kessel-Aatu Pekkala

Belengar gets most of the goalie starts, but I’ve been rotating in and out Poulin/Elias/Rosen just to test everyone.

Here’s a look at the current standings and Islanders Stats:

I love the fact that the Thrashers still exist in the game world. Mostly cause I’m too lazy to edit everything, but oh well. My main problem is the problem I seem to have every year, that the top 2 lines score a lot and the bottom line does a good job grinding but the 3rd line just gets its ass kicked. But there is hope for the future. The season I mentioned in which we lost Tavares and Okposo for the year early on? Well I ended up drafting John Shanahan. I was upset because he was a center, but I had no choice. Check out his stats in BP:

He also leads the whole AHL currently, and is helping Petrov to one of his best seasons ever. Petrov’s highest AHL total is 49 points, and he’s only 10 points off of that with half the season gone. Denny Murray meanwhile is a journeyman AHL’er at best whose skills are deteriorating but plays on Shanahan’s line because of an injury to Anton Roshenko (another former 1st rounder) and has been having a great year. Just to show how good Shanahan’s been, here’s the AHL scoring leaders:

He’s obviously going to be good, and he’s on the verge of being good enough for the NHL. His promotion might mean the end of Frans Nielsen as an Islander. Marcinko is too good as a defensive center to let go. Bailey would get bounced down to the 3rd line and Shanahan would be 2nd line center. Hopefully a small move like that will make the whole team better, especially as Frans has been struggling.

But for now the Isles are floating just outside of a playoff appearance. Considering that not too long ago the team was on an 8 game losing streak, 5 points out isn’t too bad. Just need to get some consistency going really. I wish I could trade one of my goalies and something else (or Comeau) for a better left winger. No one’s willing to trade for a goalie, and I don’t know why so much of the league is under .90 SV%. Well In a few months I’ll probably get back to playing and tell you how the season goes.

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By Mark D, January 12, 2012 1:39 pm

I have no words. All I needed to do was win one of my last two games and I would have made the playoffs. Instead I finished in 10th, one point out of 8th place. Let me go shove my head in an oven for a bit. I no longer know what is going wrong. I have 6 players with 20 goal seasons. 5 players with over 50 points, 3 players with over 60 points. Matty Moulson finished with 49 points. I think the problem is still with my bottom 6, who all finished the season in the negative, and unfortunately the patron saint of LHH (Frans Nielsen) continues to deteriorate.

Kolvachuk drove the Phoenix Coyotes to the Stanley Cup winning the Conn Smythe. They pretty much manhandled the Penguins in the final. Checking the News Stories, it appears that Kovy is going to become a UFA and the Yotes can’t afford to keep him.

I would also be remiss not to mention that Swedish Defenseman Aatu Pekkala who I drafted first overall in 2012 lead all Rookies in points (it was a weak year) and was up for the Calder but lost.

My upcoming free agents are all RFAs who I’ll probably keep. It’s JT, Tim Kennedy, Kevin Poulin, Blake Comeau and Jamie McBain. I don’t have too many free agents in BP, the only going I’m cutting loose is David Toews because I need to make room for First Overall pick John Shanahan whose also a Center.

I don’t particularly have glaring needs at the moment, I’m going to try to aim for forwards and some bottom 6 defensively strong guys.

In the First Round at 13th Overall I select Defenseman Wayne Presely, who is a stay at home dman from Canada. The CSB had him ranked 10th overall.

In the Second Round at 43nd Overall I select Defenseman Kirill Berin, an offensive dman from Russia playing in the OHL. The CSB had him ranked at 45th overall.

In the Third Round at 73rd Overall I select Right Winger Ivan Slazak, a power forward from Slovakia playing in their league. The CSB had him ranked at 74th overall

In the Fourth Round at 103rd Overall I select Right Winger Artur Ambruz, a two way forward from the Czech Republic playing in the WHL. The CSB had him ranked at 105th Overall

In the Fifth Round at 133rd Overall I select Defenseman Evgeni Semiriak, an offensive defenseman from Latvia who is playing in Russia. The CSB had him ranked at 129th Overall.

Okay, so I ended up drafting a lot more defenseman then I thought I would, but they were the best players available.

I’m going to pretty much plow ahead with the same team I already have, and see how it goes. One mistake I realized is that I wanted to hire Joel Quinvelle to be head coach. But because I had re-signed Capuano to be head coach of Bridgeport the game accidentally made him head coach of the NHL team. So I have all that sorted and I’m hoping for the best.

And here are the full stats for Year 6, which would technically be 16-17.

The Calendar for the year
The Calendar for the Playoffs

The New York Islander Stats
Last Years Stats
The Bridgeport Stats
Last Years Stats

Pro Stats

Mighty Ducks
Thrashers
Bruins
Sabres
Hurricanes
BlueJackets
Flames
Blackhawks
Avalanche
Stars
Red Wings
Oilers
Panthers
Kings
Wild
Avalanche
Canadiens
Predators
Devils
Rangers
Senators
Flyers
Coyotes
Penguins
Sharks
Blues
Lightning
Maple Leafs
Canucks
Capitals

Farm Stats

Albany River Rats
Chicago Wolves
Cincinatti Mighty Ducks
Cleveland Barons
Detroit Vipers
Grand Rapid Griffins
Hamiliton Bulldogs
Hershey Bears
Hartford Wolfpack
Houston Aeros
KC Blades
Louisville Panthers
Lowell Lock Monsters
Manitoba Moose
Miluwalkee Admirals
Manchester Monarchs
Norfolk Admirals
Philly Phantoms
Portland Pirates
Providence Bruins
Quebec Citadels
Rochester Americans
St Johns Flames
St Johns Maple Leafs
Springfield Falcons
Syracuse Crunch
Utah Grizzlies
WB Penguins
Worcester IceCats

Playoff Stats

Coyotes
Canucks
Predators
Wild
Kings
Ducks
Blackhawks
Blues
Bruins
Thrashers
Devils
Senators
Capitals
Lightning
Penguins
Canadians

The End of Year Standings
The Scoring Leaders
The Playoff Scoring Leaders

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By Mark D, November 29, 2011 7:55 pm

Well it’s 40 games into the season, so its time to show how my Islanders are doing in Year 7. They are 18-15-3-4 for 43 points and 7th in the East. They are 3 points ahead of 8th place Rangers and 4 points ahead of the 9th place Thrashers. John Tavares leads the team with 35 points (14 G, 21 A) and Kyle Okposo is second with 32 points (11 G, 21 A) and both of them are -10 on the season. Seth Ambroz has 32 points (13 G, 19 A) and a +5 on the year and Blake Comeau is still kicking around with 29 points (13 G, 16 A) and a -7.

Stats wise there is little difference between the goalies I’ve been rotating. Former 1st overall Marc Belanger in 22 games has an 89.2 SV% and 2.61 GAA. Kevin Poulin meanwhile in 18 games has an 88.1 SV% and 2.70 GAA. But while Belanger is 13-6-1-2, Poulin is 5-9-2-2. Right now Belanger is starting to get starts more often, as long as he keeps winning. Frans Nielsen is the only player flat out struggling as he has a sub 6 game rating on the season. The rest of the team is almost 6.50 or better. Former first rounder Aatu Pekkala is tied for first among all rookies with 13 points.

At the Bridge, Anders Lee leads all scorers with 29 points (17 G, 12 A) and David Toews is the key beneficiary with 28 points (7 G, 21 A). Former 5th overall pick Teoder Sleyzak is third on the team with 20 points (6 G, 14 A). Free Agent pickup Denny Murray is 2nd on the team with goals at 14. Cody Rosen and Leopold Elias have split the first 40 games and have strong outings. Former 2015 4th rounder Rich Kidd is 5th in the WHL with 44 points. Former 1st overall John Shanahan is second in the NCAA with 19 points in 14 games.

Unsurprisingly the Bruins are the top team in the league with 52 points, although Montreal is tied with them. The Penguins and the Capitals lead the other two Eastern Divisions. The Ducks lead the west with 51 points, with the Blues and Oilers the other division leaders. With 37 games played the Hurricanes have only 20 points due to 9 wins. The problem with the Canes is the offense, as they have only 75 goals. Eric Staal leads the team with 30 points, then drops down to Ruuto at 20, Hemsky at 18 and the rest of the team at 15 or less.

Ovechkin and Semin lead the league with 45 and 43 points respectively. I should point out that while Ovie is in Washington, Semin is in Toronto. For some reason Washington waived him and Florida claimed him, then Florida waived him and Toronto claimed him. Even odder is that Toronto played him in the AHL for 14 games last season in which he had 15 points. The rest of the top ten in points is Derick Brassard (Wild) Thomas Vanek (Rangers) Sean Couturier (Devils) Dustin Brown (Bluejackets) T.J. Oshie (Blues) Dany Heatley (Lightning) Bobby Ryan (Ducks) and John Toews (Blackhawks). Jonas Hiller and Dustin Tokarski are leading the league in SV% 92.4 and both of them are playing for Philly. Carey Price (Habs) and Tukka Rask (Bruins) lead the league with 20 goals.

Our current lines are:
Comeau – Tavares – Okposo
Moulson – Bailey – Ambroz
Kabanov – Marcinko – Niederreiter
Martin – Nielsen – Joensuu

McBain – Matt Clark
DeHart – Pekkala
De Haan – Kessel

It’s looking promising for the rest of the year. Maybe now the Islanders can finally win a playoff series. I swear it has never taken this long for me to turn around an NHL team before in EHM. I have no idea why. The Islanders are just cursed.

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By Mark D, September 23, 2011 3:53 pm

I guess when your top defenseman finishes the season at -28, and 2/3rds of your 4th line is -20 or worse, you probably shouldn’t make the playoffs. Also the team is extremely top heavy. I have 6 players who scored 20 goals this year, and then no one else managed double digit goals. Tony DeHart outplayed former Oshawa teammate Calvin DeHaan, posting 5 goals and 28 assists for 33 points and a +23 compared to CDH’s 29 points and -11. Former first overall selection Marc Belanger made his debut for the team taking over backup duties from Cody Rosen. He went 10-9-1 and lead the team in SV% (91.3) and GAA (2.32). Former first rounder defenseman Aatu Pekkala made his first appearance too, disappointing with a -10 in 18 games.

In the end we finished 4 points out of the 8th seed, with a 34-35-2-11 record. Hopefully Belanger is the difference maker in the long run, and a reshuffling of our defense can help change things around for next season.

To make matters worse, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. Not so bad you say? That is until you realize that I traded Rick DiPietro to the Hawks and he had an insane playoffs. His GAA was 1.99 and a 91.1 SV% to lead all playoff goaltenders. Also notable is that the streak of upsets continues, as the 1st seed in the West got knocked off by the 8th seed in a sweep.

Well it’s time to fix things, here’s the upcoming free agents:
For the Pro team, there’s really no one I’d get rid of. Kabanov, De Haan, Ambroz, Okposo, Marcinko, DeHart and Joensuu are all about to become FAs. I don’t have anyone on the farm team whose better or closer to being better to replace them with.

On the farm:
Paul Karpowich: Gone, was just a fill in goalie
Patrik Nemeth: Gone
Andrew MacDonald: Stays to be a vet D presence
Chris Crane: Was an emergency replacement, gone
Andrew Yogan: One more year
Anders Lee: One more year, just barely
Christian Isackson: Emergency replacement, gone
Gregg Sutch: Same
Kirill Petrov: One more year, barely
Sam Carick: gone
Corey Trivino: gone
Jason Gregoire: gone
Jason Clark: 2 years
Casey Cizikas: 1 more year
Cody Rosen: 2 more years (3rd string NHL’er)

At the draft, I decided to try and restock our forwards, which are starting to get depleted at Bridgeport.

In the first round at 12th overall I added LW Jasson Stephens, an all around offensive player who is an American in College and was ranked 8th overall by the CSB.

In the second round at 42nd overall I added RW Rastislav Calhoun, an all around offensive player who spent last year in the Czech league. He was ranked 50th overall by the CSB

In the third round at 72nd overall I added C Ryan Maltby, an enforcer known for his backchecking and forecheking the Canadian had 72 points and a +38 for Motcon in the QMJHL last year. He was ranked 75th by the CSB

In the fourth round at 102nd overall I added RW Jinrich Frank who played in the Czech league last year and is a power forward. He was ranked 98th by the CSB.

In the fifth round at 132nd overall I added D Josef Dluhosch a stay at home defenseman who played in the Slovak league last year. He has all the potential in the world, but has horrible consistency and loyalty.

And here are the full stats for Year 6, which would technically be 15-16.

The Calendar for the year
The Calendar for the Playoffs

The New York Islander Stats
Last Years Stats
The Bridgeport Stats
Last Years Stats

Pro Stats

Mighty Ducks
Thrashers
Bruins
Sabres
Hurricanes
BlueJackets
Flames
Blackhawks
Avalanche
Stars
Red Wings
Oilers
Panthers
Kings
Wild
Avalanche
Canadiens
Predators
Devils
Rangers
Senators
Flyers
Coyotes
Penguins
Sharks
Blues
Lightning
Maple Leafs
Canucks
Capitals

Farm Stats

Albany River Rats
Chicago Wolves
Cincinatti Mighty Ducks
Cleveland Barons
Detroit Vipers
Grand Rapid Griffins
Hamiliton Bulldogs
Hershey Bears
Hartford Wolfpack
Houston Aeros
KC Blades
Louisville Panthers
Lowell Lock Monsters
Manitoba Moose
Miluwalkee Admirals
Manchester Monarchs
Norfolk Admirals
Philly Phantoms
Portland Pirates
Providence Bruins
Quebec Citadels
Rochester Americans
St Johns Flames
St Johns Maple Leafs
Springfield Falcons
Syracuse Crunch
Utah Grizzlies
WB Penguins
Worcester IceCats

Playoff Stats

Coyotes
Canucks
Predators
Oilers
Kings
Blue Jackets
Blackhawks
Blues
Bruins
Thrashers
Sabres
Senators
Capitals
Lightning
Penguins
Canadians

The End of Year Standings
The Scoring Leaders
The Playoff Scoring Leaders