Asunto: US National Team

Yesterday's game against Slovenia went well. We secured the win and brought our GD even, pulling us into 3rd place in the tournament.

Today we play tournament host Sweden, who is in a big hole sitting at 0-2. They're in desperate need of a win to avoid relegation to Division II. Considering the strength of their team it's unlikely they'll head down to II, but it's an interesting possibility with them just having demoted from the Top Division this past season.

We suffered an unfortunate but not entirely unexpected loss yesterday against Sweden. As of right now they're showing as the strongest team in the Division, with a stellar defense that showed up to play. On the bright side, it was only a 0-1 loss, so the GD is still decent.

Today we play possibly the next strongest team in the Division in Germany. While their Offense, Defense, and Shooting aren't too far ahead of us, their goaltending is much stronger. It will be hard to come by goals, but if we can get 1 or 2 and our defense and goaltending can shine, we may be able to win.

Good luck to the rest of the teams today as well! Currently, each of us are in a playoff position. Let's keep it up over the remaining games!

Yesterday's overtime win against Germany was a big boost to our playoff hopes. I'm not going to lie, it was a little unexpected too. Our chances of winning were low, but we needed the points for the playoff push so it was certainly worth the energy. Our special teams were both great and abysmal. We allowed no PP goals and we scored 2 of our own, but we also let in 2 shorties. Players from each line managed to contribute. The best part of that is the 4th line made their tournament debut against Germany, letting some of our guys who had been playing previously rest so they're fresher down the road.

Today we play Argentina, who is currently at the bottom of the group with 3 points and a -7 Goal Differential. If they manage a win against us, that moves Argentina into the playoffs and we would be playing to avoid relegation. At this point, anything less than an overtime victory for us means we could find ourselves in the relegation round. Argentina is fairly evenly matched with us in every aspect, including goaltending. For some reason they've been sitting their best guy most of the qualifying games. I wouldn't be surprised to see him show his head today.

It's too bad about the loss today, but at least the United States doesn't have to worry about relegation. In addition, the quality of prospects passing through the U18 and U20 seems to me to have been improving on average over the past few seasons, so the future is bright, and Lance could join the team next season (eventually making impact in a few seasons).

In any case, luck plays an extremely significant part in these tournaments, whatever else a manager might try. The United States Senior National Hockey Team has continued to be a solid team with a chance to eventually promote to the top division if luck favors the team more in future seasons.

I think we were one or 2 seasons late to start the rebuilding but it is going to the right direction.

Sorry, missed an update because I went to work early this morning!

Yesterday's shootout win against Argentina was exactly what we needed to secure a spot in the playoffs. I changed the ice time for the lines in this one, giving the bulk of the playing time to the almost completely fresh 4th line. The goal was to help rest some of the top lines who'd been playing all of the friendlies, with the thought that the fresher bodies could handle more of the work load and still be fresher at the end. I also rested Clinton for the playoffs, giving Nyquist his first start of the tournament.

Today's loss against Croatia was naturally disappointing. Going in, I definitely felt it was a winnable game. We took only 1 more penalty and allowed no PP goals, while scoring 1. Unfortunately, we fell behind 2-3 in the 2nd period and couldn't come back, eventually letting in an empty netter to seal the game.

It was a disappointing end to the season, but congratulations to the U20 and U18 teams on their wins today! Good luck and go add some more Ws to the column!

I feel pretty strongly about Lance making the team next season. Even if we don't have an older center take a strong CL drop, one of our 26 year olds has his shooting neglected by his manager throughout the season at times. It gets unacceptably low and I may have to dump him. He didn't get to play in the tournament as a result of the neglect.

In 10 seasons you will have the best scoring center if he doesn't have a career injury .. er the same as huge cl drop

Welcome to season 19 everyone! I know we're all still pretty disappointed in our sponsor offers and the inevitable CL drops, but now we have a whole new facet to the game engine to learn and play with, so it's a pretty exciting season. Think about it, this is the first time the hockey engine has been updated in years! I don't recall an update to the hockey engine as big as this since I started playing in season 9.

This season I wanted to approach roster tweaks differently. In consideration of the fact that the elections are occurring during this week and as much as I'd like to retain my position, I may lose it to someone, I am not going to make any changes during this time. Instead, I am going to list my proposed changes in individual posts. This allows managers to make a case for or against any changes. Think I'm looking at things incorrectly? Show me. Think I should swap that guy for someone else? Tell me. In this way other points of view can be considered, and if I were to lose, the next manager can completely disregard my thoughts and mold the roster as they see fit, or they have a basis to consider. More posts to follow.

CHANGE 1
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OUT: Parker Ryan Trejo - I try not to dump players who drop to 2 CL as they can still be quite useful, but there are more factors here. Trejo is one of the unfortunate few to be hitting 2 CL at the tender age of 27. This is fairly early in the career path. To top it off, he already lost his spot in the lineup last season and is unlikely to regain it. For a long period last season, his manager completely neglected his shooting, letting it dip under 50% of offense. I am a staunch advocate for training shooting to AT LEAST 60% in ALL forwards. I've had my top two leading goalscorers be centers in a season, so I truly believe the thought that centers only need 50% shooting is archaic.

IN: Louie Lance - I've been coveting this prospect since he was on the U18 team. He comes in only 18 OR lower than the next player on the team, which is quite impressive considering he's 2 years younger. Lance has great Qs and is well-trained, including carrying a decent shooting ratio. On top of that, Lance has been getting playing time on his team for a few seasons, where he is the best OR player and team captain.

CHANGE 2
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OUT: William Guinn - Guinn was edged from the lineup last season. While he is a strong LW with good shooting, he hit 1 CL and has yet to break 2100 OR. He has a wealth of experience, but wing is arguably where we have the most depth, with players on and off the team ready to step up.

IN: Ben Bovier - He's been on the outside looking in for a few seasons, and finally has a chance to make the team. He skates on the same side as Guinn, which makes it easy to slip him in. His shooting ratio is only SLIGHTLY worse than Guinn's, but his celing is MUCH higher and he's already nearly 100 OR better than Guinn. Bovier is only 27 and is still sporting 3 CL. He is behind Guinn in experience, but not terribly, and with his ability to train much better than Guinn he will make the ground up easily.

CHANGE 3
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OUT: Ryan McManus - McManus is one of our most experienced players, being part of the small handful with over 300 experience. However, most of that experience is simply making up for how under-trained he is. McManus has yet to break 1900 OR, and at 1 CL it will be a bit into the season before that happens. He's been a great defender for the team and played in the tournament last season, but we have plenty of other players on the team who can rotate in and will contribute comparably on defense due to their much higher OR, and can also give more on offense due to their higher shooting. Although McManus is not entirely the stay-at-home type of defender, most of our defenders have higher shooting.

IN: Daniel Carter - Carter was on the team 2 seasons ago until the existence of James Bryant came to my attention. Bryant is hands down the better of the two, so I had to flip them at that point. Now Carter gets his spot back. Carter is not meant to be a straight-up replacement for McManus, but someone who will work his way into the roster over the next few seasons. As I stated before, we have enough depth on the roster for d-men who already have chemistry to slip into McManus' spot in the lineup.

CHANGE 4
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OUT: Christopher Plummer - Plummer is a great contributor as a d-man and on the point with solid shooting. Unfortunately, he hit the dreaded 1 CL like McManus and we have other d-men ready to rotate in. This is a hard one, as I can almost see not dropping Plummer this season.

IN: Primo Cambridge - Effectively the 2 play the same side, and Cambridge is younger and has 3 CL, but he is less experienced and about 100 OR lower. Of course this means Cambridge has the higher ceiling and will be surpassing Plummer sooner rather than later. Plummer is the more offensively-minded of the two. This change is not set in stone yet and may not happen this season.

CHANGE 5
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OUT: Elvis Davis - I like to keep the roster at 47 players; 9 centers, 17 wingers, 17 defensemen, and 4 goalies. This is nearly 9 full lines of depth (which is fairly excessive), with 4 goaltenders. More importantly, it keeps 3 roster spots open to save players from teams about to go defunct. If a manager goes inactive, their players are lost forever when the time runs out and the team actually loses the manager, which can result in lost NT talent. Although Davis is only on 2 CL, his shooting has been running about 50-55% since I've been running the team. He's been bumped down the lines each season until he finally didn't play in the championships last season. I was considering dropping Darryl Chen here to trim down to a 47 man roster because of his drop to 1 CL, but Chen has a much better shooting ratio, which is why he retained his spot in the lineup for the championships. Between the two, Chen is much more useful than Davis.

NOTES
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- The [hockey_team=22353] look to make an impact if these changes are made. Trejo will be returning to the team with his head hung low, but the Stars could be sending up to 3 players to replace him.

- Jackson Morrell is the only player who dropped to 1 CL who wasn't mentioned in the previous changes. He is still one of the highest OR players on the team, the long-time captain, a universal winger, and he has a great shooting ratio. He is one of the most versatile weapons we have, and he can help us promote to the top Division. Only so much can be accomplished with youth and looking to the future; Morrell is a player who helps us win now. There's a very strong chance he doesn't get cut until he hits 0 CL.

- Christopher Powell just missed making the roster. If Lance hadn't just graduated from the U20 team, Powell would likely be taking Trejo's spot. The [hockey_team=25677] are very close to having their first player make the US national team (unless I'm forgetting a player they had on the team previously).