Subject: U20 Canada National Team

Can't win them all. On to next game!

Hit tactics yesterday and things neatly fell into place. Poland whom we just beat, beat italy 4-1 previously, so it's looking good vs italy, although I gotta say they are a lot harder to fit tactics against!

Congrats Krokador. Solid win again today against Italy.

Wow... Thank you Craddock for playing over your head! Really happy with the win, as we conserved some energy and that's awesome, but boy could this have turned badly easily. I have crap luck with guessing my opponent's tactics xD But I was right about one thing: Shooting matters a LOT!

Dang! I took a chance on trying to save energy vs Brazil because it wasn't looking good for them and I figured they wouldn't be trying to win, and it bit me in the a$$.

I mean, we're still qualified and we weren't getting to be 2nd anyway, so it doesn't make a huge difference. Most of the competitive DIV I teams have a similar strength, so it's always going to be a toss up. I promise I'll be trying to win the next game!

I hate when that happens.

Well, I have to apologize again. We got unlucky on tactics after the first period (perhaps I need to revise my tactics adjustment methods), got buried by the home ice advantage of the other team, and Gagné flaked in goal on top of that. We had a really solid team overall, I just couldn't make it gel as much as I would've liked.

I made a few mistakes I'll try not to repeat, like forgetting to play Colton Gauvin throughout the season and realizing at the end he was at 0 chem. Not that we were lacking depth on D, the extra exp on the 19yo guys will be good, but it may have made a slight difference in our result here. Who knows?

The good news is: 5/22 starters were 19yos. All 6 extra call-ups were 19 and 5 of them have over 40 chem (with 2 other 19yos being over 40, and another 2 over 30). Our team next season is going to look really good (aside from a certain lack of high shooting centers)!

Arf, in-between adding players for scouting and adding players to the NT I ended up messing one up. Thankfully I think the guy can be dismissed after the elections xD

Anyways, first and 2nd round of roster additions have been made. Have not had time to actually build line-ups so the line-up for the first game will be a bit haphazard. If your player was a regular on the team last season at 19yo, his chem is up super high right now, so he won't be playing all games. Hoping you guys re-elect me so I can do my rotation thing

Well, this sucks. Other team forfeit the friendly by not having a proper lineup to field :/ So none of our players go the chem/exp or training bonus they should've had

It's a bit my fault to a degree, for not booking that game last season (I thought I had), but geez, if you accept a friendly, call up some guys to play it!

Thanks all for giving me another chance to take our team to the top division! Our roster looks pretty good this season, so I can't wait to see where I can take this bunch

Kindly note the drifting status of the Montreal Sasquatch...

Alright, we're 3 games out of the WC, so I wanted to drop in and let you guys know I'm still around, despite the radio silence. Things have been a bit crazy in this thing called "real life", but I *have* been keeping tabs.

Without going into specific tactics, be assured that this is the last game I am playing guys out of position for the sake of chemistry building.

Also a friendly reminder, if your team has a lot of youngsters on the team, we will almost undoubtedly qualify for the championship games, so if you can delay your end of season training camp, the called up kids will get even more of a training bonus!

I'm shooting for Top division this season!

Good luck!!
I have found playing the 28 lowest chemistry players in friendlies, regardless of position, is the best/fastest way to build chemistry for them. They do not build, but rather lose chemistry once the tournament starts, because they are not playing. Building chemistry on national teams is sort of like "two steps forward, then one step back". I also play the rookies on VH to maximize their gains. It also saves energy of the starting 28 for the tournament. On the senior team, I usually have to play starters once or twice as I like to keep their chemistry above 90 so they are at 100% by the end of the opening round. Friendlies are also a good time to enhance "tactics" and "special teams" stats in the weaker areas.
Great job!
Keep up the good work!

Us it the U(18 or 20) don't get to have high Chem starters while only playing them a few times due o their limited time on the team. I have to play mystarters in most games at a high intensity in other to have their Chem good enough for tournament start. It comes a little bit at the expense of the energy, but in the end I think it's worth it.

I guess the big questio0n is:
What combination of player age, tactics, and ice time puts the best team on the ice year after year for the U18 team? I haven't done enough research in that area to answer that question with any degree of confidence. I will have to see what the successful teams have been doing. There may be several ways to be successful. Canucks357..Krokador...any input??