The 2008-2009 NHL Video Games Thread

[JJ Johnson 0]

Ah, see, I've parked myself in front of the net and just start poke checking, or trying to muscle people who park their way for the easy one-timers I keep giving up out of the way. This doesn't solve my inability to score goals, though. I just lost to Phoenix 5-1. I try to set up at the point and so on and so forth and get rebounds. Is that another thing I should be leaving to the CPU, because I don't think it puts them in on its own.

[the max 0]

Mess around with the create a play feature, that might help.

 

Otherwise it's all about practice. I know that's easy enough but it took me about half the season to figure out how to score goals at all. My first season I finished 27th in the league in offense with Savard leading the team with only, like, 75 points.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Savard leads the team with points in the 70s? And they say the NHL series isn't realistic. I'll work on the offense, though. Do you mess with the deke stick at all? I never touch the thing.

[the max 0]

Oh man you need to get into the deke stick. Once you know that, you have offense.

 

Savard LEAD the team my first season with 75 points. I think Thornton won the scoring race in my first year with 120 points or something.

 

Zherdev is fifth in the league for me in my current year with 41 points in 29 games. Malkin leads the league with 49 points in 31 games.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Anaheim just ran Tim Thomas out of the net in the first period. Down 5-1 going into intermission.

 

EDIT: 6-1 30 seconds into period 2.

 

EDIT AGAIN: 9-1 final. Perhaps there's an option to equip my players with guns, either to shoot opponents or, rapidly becoming the more enticing option, themselves.

Edited June 11, 2008 by JJ Johnson

[the max 0]

I suggest the ol' "Go wide, throw out front for easy one-timer" then.

 

Attack with a winger (in my case, always left), the center or right wing (sometimes both, depending on your offensive pressure) will go to the front of the net. Throw the puck out front and tap it in for the easy one-timer. Always a good go to when you need a goal.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Feel free at this point to simply guffaw at my ineptitude, but I usually try that and it never works. The thing about defense is that I give up a reasonable amount of shots, usually around 30, but they always put up anywhere from 5 to 9 to, in this current game against San Jose, 7 (to my 0). I really think it's the goalie. Surprise, nobody wants Tim Thomas or the backup I got along with Jack Johnson for Manny Fernandez, Jon Bernier.

 

EDIT: Never mind! 7-1! Petteri Nokelainen, bless your mediocre little heart.

Edited June 11, 2008 by JJ Johnson

[JJ Johnson 0]

Have any of you had any luck trading for picks? I can't even get 5th rounders off of teams.

[Matt Young 0]

Best advice to help with scoring and increase your enjoyment of thegame- switch to classic controls.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Oh, I can't even imagine playing a hockey game without the sticks anymore.

 

Patrice Bergeron sent me an e-mail apologizing for playing so poorly (2 G, 2 A, 8 PIM, -15, and one of those goals was an empty-netter). That's an awesome touch.

[Matt Young 0]

The sticks are a good concept, but clunky to use for me. I kept firing off shots when I didn't mean to.

[the max 0]

Have any of you had any luck trading for picks? I can't even get 5th rounders off of teams.

 

Teams very rarely make trades that early in the season. Gotta wait until at least about halfway through the season.

[Matt Young 0]

I just attempted and made my first trade after 35 games. I banished that shithead (in the game he is, anyway) Dan Cloutier to Tampa in exchange for Norfolk Admirals' goalie Ryan Munce. I took a small hit in skill (71 as ooposed to 74 for Cloutier) but the few times Cloutier played, he sucked hard.

 

Also, Munce, in addition to having a ton of upside, has only 1 year left on his $550K contract, whereas Cloutier has 3 years at $3 million +. I also already have an ever-improving goalie in Manchester- Jonathan Bernier- who's a 75 and still getting better. I haven't called him up yet only because he'd be riding the bench behind lights-out LaBarbera, and it'd deal a strong blow to Manchester's chances in the AHL playoffs.

[JJ Johnson 0]

I had Bernier as my backup and let him take a few lumps. I figured NHL experience would be good for him, even if he was getting shelled. I sent him back to Providence when they recommended I call up Alex Auld, though.

[the max 0]

Trying to move Chara and his 7.4 million dollar hit, only about 30 games in and still no takers.

 

I shopped him to Detroit, asking for 1st/2nd/prospect and they said no. I added a 76 overall centerman prospect that I use primarily for penalty killing and they said no. Asked for 1st/3rd/prospect and they said no. Tried Calgary (Chara WILL be going out west) and it was more of the same.

 

I'm going to get a bite on him and he'll be moved. It'll take me a full 20 million under the cap with Bergeron coming up (he'll probably ask for at least 9.5 million...he has about 450 points over the last 3 seasons) as well as a lot of raises for other players to keep them around, including my drafted goaltender who went from a 70 overall to a 79 in just two years.

 

Plus, next season is the year that Zherdev's contract is up and he'll be seeking a raise from 4 million. I need the cap space.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask both want trades. In Thomas' case, I can't trade him fast enough, but I'd rather not let a prospect of Rask's caliber go for the kind of deals people will give me. Alex Auld will hold up fine in goal - thanks to him, I'm losing 4-3 instead of 8-3! - but obviously, I'd like to shop them around for a real starter. I assume I could get a better goalie by packaging Rask and Thomas, but The Gospel of Max says don't trade more than one player for anybody. A sticky wicket indeed.

[the max 0]

I never got the roster update so I never had Rask.

 

Wish I had but you can't update the roster in the middle of a dynasty I think, so no Rask at all in my game.

 

It just doesn't make sense to trade two goalies in one deal. Trading them separately is better because you can usually get more for goalies than skaters.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Fortunately, Bernier is apparently hot, so I called him up. Seems like it's still too early for trades though, I'm 25ish games in and can't get anything for either Thomas or Rask.

[the max 0]

I usually wait until the new year to start dealing. I think that's, like, 40 games or something.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Tim Thomas is officially scratched up until that point. I gave up 7 shots against Florida in the entire first quarter and he let three in, and I lost 4-3 a game I should have won 3-1 and probably would have with Auld, so it's good to see that it's not just me. If Bernier holds up, I might deal him and Rask for separate pieces of offensive firepower.

 

EDIT: And this is the second straight month that Bergeron has emailed me apologizing for sucking dicks in hell. Is there some way to remedy this or do I just wait until he's good again?

Edited June 12, 2008 by JJ Johnson

[the max 0]

They always do that.

 

Every month, I get an email from Chara about how great his stats are and to not forget it when we enter contract negotiations. And one from Zherdev about how great his ice time is. And one from my backup goalie demanding a trade.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Tim Thomas emails me every month asking for a trade. It's like Charles Manson emailing the parole board asking for them to deny him. Way ahead of you, Chuck.

[Matt Young 0]

I haven't gotten e-mails from any players. Aside from league e-mails, finance reports, and the like, I have only gotten a couple messages from the GM/agent/whoever saying a couple of my players were happy with their ice time.

 

I would also like to note that this thread already has about twice as many replies as I was expecting.

[JJ Johnson 0]

Pseudo-midseason report! 32 games in, I'm 6-24-2 and 7 games out of 14th in the East, and four of those wins are games I simmed. My goalies are a platoon of Tim Thomas, Alex Auld and Jonathan Bernier, who will wake up later in his career in a cold sweat screaming "One-timers!" On the plus side, I'm a lock for that number one draft pick. Poor eight wins Minnesota doesn't stand a chance!

 

EDIT: I did increase my firepower remarkably by trading Tomas Holmstrom straight up for Milan Hejduk, presumably because Colorado is stupid. New lines!

 

Bertuzzi-Savard-Hejduk

Schaefer-Kessel-Zherdev

Axelsson-Nokelainen-Kobasew

Franzen-Krejci-Amonte

 

Chara-Johnson

Pitkanen-Ference

Lashoff-Wideman

 

Patrice Bergeron, French Canadian that he is, has fractured his ankle and will be out another six games or so.

Edited June 12, 2008 by JJ Johnson

[Matt Young 0]

Despite several injuries, My Kings team is 25-9-0-2 (why do they still have a column for ties?) after a 3 game winning streak over Colorado, Detroit, and Columbus, the 2, 3, and 6 seeds respectively.

 

JJ. I really think your problem is the sticks. You said earlier you couldn't imagine playing a hockey game without them, but what has it gotten you other than repeated ass kickings? I tried a game with the sticks last night and it was just a mess... a chore to play. My enjoyment of this game started when I switched to classic.

[the max 0]

If you're just going to switch to "classic" controls, why buy the new game? Most of the enjoyment is derived from figuring out the skill stick and using it to utterly dominate.

[Matt Young 0]

All the people I know who are good at the game (not including you, but friends I've played) use classic. I was having no luck with the stick and didn't like the game until i followed their advice. That's what convinced me to buy it. I can dominate without the skill stick, and you can do *almost* anything you can with the stick using classic controls. And the last NHL game I owned was NHL Breakaway '98.

[JJ Johnson 0]

I only get my ass kicked when I'm the Bruins, which is part of the reason I picked them. This way, I'll have more of a sense of accomplishment than if I had just picked my favorite team (Detroit). I've started playing teams really close, and in some cases outplaying them, only for a few lucky bounces to go their way, so I predict I'll be winning quite frequently by, at latest, the trade deadline.

[the max 0]

Zherdev is out for four months with a broken leg.

 

Fuck. I lost the three games I've played so far without him and lost by multiple goals. Bergeron is basically being assaulted and is a -5 with 1 assist in the three games without Zherdev. I don't know what to do.

 

 

[JJ Johnson 0]

And so the tables turn. Check everyone's deflection ratings and arrange your lines around who's really good at that. Then, slappers from the point like there's no tomorrow. Once you've drawn more coverage towards the point, back to Patrice. What do your lines look like in loco Zherdev?