Subject: USA U-18 Team

It would be an interesting idea, but opens up the possibility of abuse by a team manager who just scheduled all their home games at their own arena.

I'd like to host one too if this works.

It would be easy enough to prevent abuse by a team manager. I'm already blocked from using the a stadium used by another team, for instance the Vectordome. It would be easy enough to block use a manager's own stadium.

@pinocchio-I think you may have been the one to give me the idea in the first place, but if Leggman, who has been hosting games for awhile, claims there is no extra money for a host, and the guide corroborates some ambiguous profit sharing among the managers of national team players, then my first duty would be to maximize their profit; I probably won't be able to follow through with the idea.

Stadium Manager gets nothing but each player gets a piece of the gate for his team. It is added in the Other area.

I see.

The United States lost to Poland today, 5-3, giving up 3 powerplay goals on 3 penalties against and scoring none on 7 chances.

I am finished choosing players for next year's rosters. By the time I finished searching for players, the lineup for today's game was frozen, so the lineup that I will ultimately use will change and improve a little, but most of the best players were already in the lineup. I generally chose the 6 best players at each position and the three best players under 18 at each position (3-2 for goalies).

There are a few very promising players like Lance (16) at center and Willman (17) at goalie (if he continues to work on fixing his training ratio).

There are no depth problems like there were last year. The first line, once again, might be among the best first lines out there. The second line will be quite strong as well. There is just enough depth at both wings. After the first too lines, there are a ton of solid intermediate defensemen on both sides to choose from. The depth at center is incredible. There were at least two centers with greater than 750 OR (and decent statistics in other areas) that didn't make the team (I don't want to carry 16 centers on the roster, though 16 or so of the 50 best players from the United States might have been centers).

I am happy to receive any messages or suggestions by forum post or my private message. Anyone with a great player that they think I should consider should let me know (the player should have a level 14+ training facility, 13+ regeneration facility, ~300+ OR staff for those facilities, ~80+ AVQ for relevant attributes, ~700+ OR for 18 year olds, ~600+ OR for 17 year olds, and ~500+ OR for 16 year olds).

The deadline for any changes is tomorrow.

The United States beat Austria today 5-4 in a shootout. The full roster that I expect to compete with in the World Championships played today. "The Three Dan's" all contributed to the scoresheet. Mack Gaudreau cemented his hold on the starting goalie position.
hockey.powerplaymanager.c...

As I did last year, I am going to preview the competition for the United States at this year's World Championships:

1) Estonia: they have not yet really chosen a roster or lineup with only 27 players on the roster. Even so, it is unlikely that Estonia will be a contender.

2) Slovenia: at this time they have relatively weaker goaltending and much weaker offense offense, but having demoted from division I, they will likely be among the top contenders by the time the championships come around. They seem to have their roster set. They have solid depth but no spectacular lines like the United States' first line.

3) Canada: they have a slightly weaker defense and much weaker shooting but an otherwise comparable team. Even so, I fully expect Canada to be among the biggest obstacles to promotion. They seem to mostly have their roster (if not necessarily their lineup) set. They also have solid depth and good first and second lines (with average shooting), but still do not yet have an answer to the first line from the United States.

4) Argentina: they were a mid-tier team last year, but they seem to have the potential to be among the top competitors this year. They have a team comparable to the United States, though they seem to be lacking defensive depth (though I suspect that they have not set up their lineupe or were missing some defensemen this week, though they have most of their roster.

5) Turkey: possibly the biggest surprise for this year. They were by far one of the weakest teams last year, but this year they have found respectable goaltending and offense. They still have a lot of work to do to catch up to the United States on defense and in shooting. They seem to have a few strong forwards, but don't really have an answer to the United States' top line. With all of that said, they have more room than Estonia on their roster to pick more players and could very well become one of the top competitors.

6) Bosnia and Herzegovina: they were the biggest surprise from last year. They don't seem to have their roster or lineup set yet. I imagine that they will ultimately be competitive again this year once they figure everything out.

7) Ireland: they might be this year's Turkey as they are below average in every category. They have most of their roster filled, though I suppose that they might have their lineup set yet. With that said, they seemed to have a weak team for most of last year until they found an incredibly talented goalie at the last minute.

8) United States: they would probably be above average in all categories in Division I, but are clearly at this point the strongest contender in Division II. In addition, they have one of the best first lines and a second line with great shooting ability, and solid depth on the third and fourth lines. For most of the positions, the players are already nearly as good as last year's team was towards the end of the season.

Overall, I think Argentina might turn out to be the biggest competitor, but unlike last year where the United States was chasing Switzerland all year, the United States seems to possibly be the favorite this year. Slovenia might have a chance, as might Canada (if they manage to find players with better shooting ability), but overall there might be more parity this year.

Just a reminder - it would help if all players that are called up for the U18 national could participate in camp before the World Championships come along.

After winning the last three matches against, Belarus, Ukraine, and Denmark, the United States U18 National Team lost 3-1 to Denmark. This result shouldn't be too discouraging since almost a third of the team was out for camp this week. Denmark also managed to guess right on tactics.

Next week, the U18 National Team will have a chance of revenge against Belgium, who is struggling without last season's elite goaltender.

If you have a player on the national team and have not yet run all of your camps, please run your camps within the next 5 weeks before the start of the World Championships. That leaves three weeks to run two camps before the start of the tournament. Thank you to the managers who sent their players to camp this week.

Players in camp will play in a National Team game if called up. They won't get the camp bonus for that day but will get the 'called up for a national team game' bonus, which is only a little less, so you should feel free to call up whatever players you wish, even if they're in camp (unless the manager specifically asks you not too).

I knew about that - I just want to maximize the experience that I can give out through the "called up for a national team game" bonus. When it comes to the World Championships, as I did last year, I will still play the best players on the team, whether or not they are in camp. It would just be helpful if those players could get the extra experience from camps before the tournament.

The United States won 6-2 today against Belgium. Next week, the United States plays Norway.

There are only 4 more weeks left until the World Championships. Thank you to everyone who has been running camps before then.

I should also announce that I plan to run to manage this team next year, but only if the United States U18 National Team promotes to Division I. I think it is very likely that the United States will promote this year. Although one or two teams might have slightly better shooting or goaltending (at least for now), the United States seems to be the strongest team overall. This might be the strongest group of 18 year olds in a while with a bunch of players already in the 1,000's and 1,100's.

The United States won against Norway 5-3 yesterday, outshooting them by more than 2:1. Only a few players were out for camp. The United States' chances at promoting continue to look promising. Thank you to everyone who has run their camps over the past few weeks.

The United States will be challenged by an equally matched Italian team next week. The following week, the Ukraine will have a chance at revenge against the United States for its loss earlier in the season. Finally, in three weeks the World Championships starts with what shuld be an easy win against Estonia.

The bids to host the World Championships are in. Out of the 9 tournaments, only one bid reflects de minimis effort on the part of the organizers. I won't vote on any of the other bids. There were two other bids that named organizing members - one even had two organizing members.