Subject: USA U-18 Team

Unfortunately, the U.S. u18 seems to have lost its first game. Even so, the result wasn't too bad against one of the best division I u20 team from last year, especially considering how badly the U.S. was outshot. At the very least, I have a better idea about what I have to work with.

Assuming that the current rosters of all of the u18 teams are about complete and reflect what they will be for the WCH, the team has a good chance to promote. Barring an excess of unfortunate upsets, Switzerland (not the one from today) and maybe Belgium are the only teams that pose a challenge.

U.S. goaltending is about 5-10 points better than most teams, 10+ better than Argentina, and significantly better than Turkey and Ireland (so much so that I wonder if they haven't settled on their rosters yet). The only team with better goaltending is Belgium, but by a lot: 139-104. The U.S. team is sufficiently better than Belgium in all other categories to have a better chance, but it will need to outplay Belgium in games among the top three teams and avoid any upsets to promote.

The U.S. defense is about 20-25 points better than most of the other teams, 28 points better than Turkey, and significantly better than Estonia. Only Switzerland has better defense, but only by 5 points.

The U.S. offense is about 20-25 points better than most of the other teams, 26 points better than Turkey, 30 points better than Bosnia, and 14 points better than Belgium. Only Switzerland has better offense, but only by 3 points.

U.S. shooting is 13-17 points better than most of the other teams, 9 points better than Argentina, and 6 points better than Belgium. Only Switzerland has better shooting, by 20 points. If necessary, I am able to trade off offense for shooting since I have a few mediocre offensemen with great shooting, but I prefer using the better overall players for now.

Finally, the U.S. total strength is 20-30 points better than most other teams, 16 points better than Argentina, and 1 point better than Belgium. Only Switzerland has a higher strength, by 6 points.

Based on these statistics, Switzerland, Belgium, and the U.S. should be the main competitors to promote. I suppose that Argentina could be a dark horse candidate. Belgium is basically Argentina with a really good goalie. Switzerland seems to be the favorite, but is more or less comparable to the U.S. with better shooting.

Looking at the games for teams with good lines not reflected by these statistics, Turkey has a good first line defense at 140, Bosnia could improve its defense to 113 by playing three lines, Argentina's first line is better than its other line and slightly worse than the U.S. second line, Belgium could improve its offense and defense by about 3 by dropping its fourth line, and Switzerland could improve its offense and defense by about 4 by dropping its fourth line. By dropping its fourth line, the U.S. could add 10 points to defense, 3 points to offense, and five points to shooting. The U.S. could be even better by playing its first line more in its most important games.

Switzerland's second line is significantly better than the U.S. second line. Switzerland has an offense on its first two lines comparable to the U.S. first line. It's second line defense is comparable to the U.S. second line defense and it's first line defense is ~20 points lower than the U.S. first line defense. It should be noted that Switzerland was obliterated in its most recent game against a very comparable French top division u18 team. The U.S. first line defense is to defense what Belgium's goaltender is to goaltending in division II. Only the top two Swiss lines are close to the top U.S. line.

In the end, the U.S. should have about a 50-50 against Switzerland, making the result dependent on tactics. Between Belgium, Switzerland, and the U.S., each has home advantage once during the WCH.

Finally, I've more or less settled on the starting roster. However, I could still use more defensive depth and left wing depth capable of making the starting roster. The assistant manager spot is still open for anyone interested. Any feedback would be very much appreciated.

One thing there is no home team advantage in the playoffs. Also the team strength numbers will change a lot with players gaining chemistry and experience.

The team strength numbers will definitely change once once everyone settles their lineup. Don't worry about that stuff now. See if you can get your chemistry up and talk to managers to see if they can play some of those youngsters in official matches to gain more experience points.

The base numbers still give a good indication of the relative strength of the teams. It's unlikely that the teams that are really far behind will catch up; though I will still do my best to avoid potential upsets. I also doubt that the U.S. will get close to Belgium in goaltending (barring an injury to their one good goalie); I'm pretty sure that their goalie has good facilities as well. As for the comparison to Switzerland, the numbers will undoubtedly change over the course of the season; those numbers probably don't mean much for now. I have taken a look at the comparison between the team strength in the team's first and last games from season 12 and noted the extent of the growth.

Chemistry is a problem since only a few players are returning, but I will improve the chemistry of the roster players to as close to 100% as I can by the time the WCH approaches.

I will definitely look into contacting managers and encouraging them to play their youngsters more.

In fact, to start, I encourage anyone with a player on the u18 national to play those players more often, at least against weaker teams and in exhibitions.

Does anybody know what happens to a player on a team that is blocked? Could the player end up on the market? Are blocked accounts permanent?

The manager of one of the more important players on the team seems to have been blocked, and I hope this doesn't ruin the player's development; I suppose that the player will probably remain better than the fifth best alternative through the end of the season in any case.

After a few days he will end up on the market. Or is that at the end of the season? If it's the end of season then that sucks because that player will lose lots of development.

Placing my best pull ever on the market to try and make my stadium size bigger instead of raise a youngster Wes Austin His stat learns are 80 in off and 99 in shooting, tech and aggression 6/6 age 15 so might want to keep an eye on him for national teams depending on who picks him up and trains him.

My players are in camp for this weekend games.

I will take Bolin, Konatsu, and Robeberson off the roster.

Just to confirm, players who are in camp and called up to a national team will play but will only get the training bonus for being in camp: "If he is in a training camp, he will play for the national team, but he will get the training bonus for being in a training camp" (from the guide).

Looking through the National team thread:

"if your guy is at camp and gets called up but doesn't play you get a double training bonus. a lot of the other countries do that on purpose (Czech, Lat, UK and France do that I know of since I have players on those teams." I suppose I will leave them as the scratches in this case.

Am I missing any other considerations? I seem to have accidently left Rod Luke (the player whose manager was blocked) on the roser during his training camp, and he was able to play last week. So the main concern should be ensuring that the players receive both training bonuses?

Good win today over Austria.

I was hoping to get a look at Ulberto Brewer, but Barrett apparently decided to play through his minor injury, making goaltending strength deceptively low. Barrett should ultimately remain the starter due to chemistry, qualities, and OR.

The second line RW was also injured and missed the game. The fourth line LW was also out for camp.

Hopefully the team can get a similar result against Norway before a more challenging stretch against Serbia, Argentina u20, Belarus, and Denmark.

A good 3-1 win against Norway. The u18 team played without two important injured players and without one of its top defensemen who was in camp. There were too many penalties taken in this game, but the penalty killing units bailed the u18 team out of each penalty. The power play could stand to be more effective, though 1/3 of the power play units missed the game. Barrett in particular did a good job coming back from his injury to steal the game in goal.

Rod Luke, the ~2nd line RW, goes on the market in 7 days. Hopefully someone with good facilities can pick him up (and stop his excessive training in agression).

I wasn't expecting that win against Serbia. It helpd that they took 6 penalties to our 1 penalty (though I'm still worried about a few players who could be a penalty risk in the future) and that we capitalized on at least 2 of them. Possession, shots, and faceoffs were about even. This gave Serbia, a top division team, its first loss of the season. The U.S. remains undefeated against u18 teams.

The u18 team played without its top defenseman who was in camp again. The fourth line center was also out with an injury.

Next week will be a tough match against an u20 team.

Rod Luke (http://hockey.powerplaymanager.com/en/player.html?data=12520814-rod-luke) should go onto the market by tomorrow. His team should fold at 23:50 CET. Anybody with sufficient facilities and some money to spare who is interested in a great 18 year-old RW should make a bid.

He's on the market now.

Just a few updates:

Assuming that I have the right understanding about players that are called up but not used in a game (that they gain the additional training bonus but no experience or chemistry), I plan to put the best 17 year olds from each position on the bench (if not on the roster already). I have one to two 17 year-old players on the fourth line who are slightly worse than some other 18 year olds by a few OR but will be the best available stars for next year's team.

I will still probably opt for the better 18 year olds over the players on the bench if I need to cover for an injury or a player in camp. In the case of camp, the player in camp will take over the bench position.

I might sit some of the players who already have perfect chemistry for a few games over the course of the exhibition games. I don't now if I will use the opportunity to train the most likely replacements in the case of an injury.

Drew Gallant should provide an upgrade on defense on the fourth line by the time the World Championships come around now that his defensive skill has been improving. He will take over on the fourth line and build chemistry.

Any ideas or questions would be appreciated.