Subject: USA U-18 Team

The United States starts out in first with 1 win and +4 GD. Belarus starts out in second with 1 win and +2 GD. Ukraine starts out in third with 1 win and -2 GD. Belarus starts out in 3rd with 1 win and -4 GD.

If the United States wins 2 games, it will stay in division 1. If the United States beats Belarus and loses to the Ukraine, then it can at worst tie Belarus and Ukraine, in which case Ukraine would need to gain at least +7 GD and score more goals to force the United States to relegate). If the United States beats Ukraine but loses to Belarus (which is the most likely case), then Bulgaria would need to win out and gain at least +9 GD and score more goals). If the United States loses both games, then it can still remain in the division if Bulgaria beats Ukraine and loses to Belarus and GD otherwise works out.

If the United States wins at least 1 game, then it has a great chance at remaining in division I. If the United States earns at least 1 point against Ukraine, then it could avoid relegation if Ukraine doesn't beat Bulgaria in relegation and Bulgaria either loses to Belarus or loses to Ukraine in Overtime. If the United States earns at least 2 points against Belarus then the United States should promote unless Ukraine wins 2 games and Belarus beats Bulgaria. With 1 point against Belarus the United States would need Bulgaria to beat Ukraine and lose to Belarus or beat both in overtime). With 2 points against Ukraine, Bulgaria just needs to lose or go into overtime once.

The short version - it looks promising.

LD2 Hollingsworth will be out today due to suffering from Angina - I'm sorry, I meant to say upper body injury.

It's over. The United States will compete again in division I next season. Bulgaria and Ukraine will relegate to division II. Since there wasn't the talent this year to have more than a fluke chance at promoting, I've accomplished what I set out to do for this season, though it was closer than I would have liked. Next season's team will be a much stronger team that I suspect will be able to compete for promotion, starting with C Louie Lance, who is already the best player on the team this year as a 17 year old.

The United States plays Belarus tomorrow in a game that has no consequence. I will be giving ice time to the substitutes who haven't had a chance to play up to this point.

Hunter Quick is now in sole possession of first place with the most goals in the tournament (6). He is also tied for first in points with 8 points. Antone Butcher is tied for first in scoring by defensemen with 5 points. Quick, Means, and Lance are all in the top 5 for shots.

In todays game, the United States beat the Ukraine 4-2. The United States outshot them 39-29 and won 56.7% of the faceoffs. Ukraine had 6 penalties and the United States had 3, but nobody scored on the powerplay.

Hunter Quick opened the scoring for the United States with an assist from Gillis and Carpenter. Ukraine quickly scored the equalizer. The fourth line retook the lead with a goal by Snyder, assisted by Parker and Maher. Later, in the second, Lance extended the lead to 3-1 with assists by Myrick and Schwab. In the third, Butcher contributed a goal with assists by Means and Gillis to extend the lead to 4-1. Ukraine quickly started to come back with another goal, but they couldn't build any momentum off of that goal. Belarus beat Bulgaria 3-1 in the other game. Belarus and the United States both have 2 wins - Ukraine and Bulgaria 0. Hollingsworth somehow decided to play through his Angina for today's important game. Willman was a wall, stopping 27 of 29 shots.

Congratulations to the United States U18 team on remaining in division I, and good luck to the U20 and senior teams!

Great win, congrats! Exciting to see my player up there at the top of the goals list, too. And you thought it was "inconvenient" when Phillips got hurt.

I'm pumped to see the team next year, especially with Lance around 1350 or 1400 OR at age 18. I just checked through the top division U18 rosters, and only found one 17yo with a higher OR, and very few in even the same neighborhood.

Thanks! Lance should easily be better than anyone on the team over the last few years - he's already close right now. Leggman pulled him at the start of the season as a 500 OR 17 year old and sent me a message about him right when I started managing the team 3 seasons ago, and he's been gaining the national team bonus over the course of the last 3 seasons. In addition to his OR, Lance will start next season with perfect chemistry. It helps that he ended up on a good team as well.

In addition to Lance, Wes Austin is also of an elite caliber, if not necessarily in the same league as Lance. Austin is already almost as good as any of the RW's on the current team and has great qualities (80-99-99-99). In goal, Butler should be at least as good as any of the keepers from the last few years. He should start next season approaching 380-190-190. Chisholm will be solid on defense. There's no comparable supertalent at LW, but Berrios and Prado should at least provide some solid depth at the position. There's also Strawberry who is a >900OR RW. Witherspoon, Castillo, and Brewer will also provide solid depth on defense. Workman and Dorey will provide depth at center. There will also be a few solid 17 year olds like Pierre (LD) from SLKP and Dupuis (C) and Knapp (D) from the Psychos. These are just the players that I found last season. I'm sure I'll find more once I go over the players I've scouted over the course of the season.

The United States lost to Belarus 3-2 in a game that has no relevance today. Belarus scored 2 power play goals and one short handed goal to win the game. The United States got what I believe is its first power play goal since the first game.

On the bright side, it looks like Quick will end the tournament in sole possession of first place for goals with 7 goals (2 more than second place) and for points with 9 points. Antone Butcher is also the highest scoring defensemen with 6 points.

It looks like Netherlands and Brazil (who the United States almost beat out to make the playoffs) will promote to the top division. Bulgaria and Ukraine will demote to division II. It looks like Sweden will promote from division II to division I. Slovenia will promote if it didn't lose today; otherwise, Canada will promote. Switzerland and Austria are demoting from the top division. The finalists in the top division are Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Germany.

I hope to be back next season. Whatever the case, I will continue to work on putting together a team based on the players I have scouted. The work done by bulls4ever will help a lot. It definitely looks promising so far. The United States U18 National Team will start next season with a rematch against the Argentina U18 National Team.

After starting to look through the players that have been uploaded to the database so far, it seems like there will be a lack of depth at RD. The third best 18 year old RD is worse than the 6th best LD (including UD's under both categories). The second best 18 year old RD isn't exceptional, and the best one has high OR but weak qualities. I guess there is a really good 17 year old UD that should be able to fill in on the second or third line.

If anyone has any information on a good RD, it would help if you could post in this forum. I am looking for a player that is at least starting around 240-120-120 trained near a 2:1:1 ratio. The player would need to have good qualities and good training/regeneration facilities (13 would probably be a reasonable lower bound). Good shooting is a plus, and bad technique is not too much of a minus absent better alternatives.

if you cant find a quality one, perhaps playing a couple of lines with 2 LD. at least they get experience moving forward to u21 and senior ...

I would be interested if anyone could quantify the penalty for playing out of position (though I could figure it out by trial and error during the exhibitions). I think the starting lineup might be fine without resorting to that though. There are the 2 decent RD's and the 17 year old UD is probably good enough to warrant a spot this year. There is actually one more promising ~700 OR RD, but his Def is way too high relative to the other attributes. Even so, it would still be good to have more depth in case of injuries.

this season i faced issues on center, but that was my fault. Now that we have the database, i need to make sure we will have depth too.

I have looked through the defense and goaltending so far. I've added the players who play those positions that I believe I will be interested in, though I might still make some changes.

Remember everyone get out and vote for the National Team Managers. Thanks

The United States won its first exhibition of season 16, destroying Argentina 8-0 (while only outshooting them 25-23). The first line at least will be extremely talented this year. The first line offense and goaltending in particular are already as good as they have been at the end of the season in the past.

Most of the defenders and goaltenders that will be on the team this year played today, though I will probably make at least a few changes. I still need to look through the forwards, though a lot of the better ones also played today.

I've gone through all the players for all positions that have been scouted and uploaded to the database or mailed to me, and I have put together a preliminary roster. I will be dismissing and replacing about 12 players if and when I have the opportunity to do so. I still have a few more players to scout and that I have asked other managers to help scout to look through before the deadline, but most of those players were 16 year olds. There probably won't be many further changes to the roster.

I chose the 6 best players at each position (and the 3 best goalies) based on OR, qualities, facilities, staff, CL, and good ratios. It is usually enough to have 2 substitutes at each position (additional substitutes tend to have been a waste of roster space); I used the extra space to get a head start on next year by finding the best prospects (this is especially helpful at the beginning of the year when the 18 year olds have graduated and the new team has not yet been selected). I also found the 2 best 17 year olds at each position (only 1 goalie), not counting the 17 year olds that might have already been among the 6 best at their respective positions. I also tried to find the best 16 year old at each position.

The schedule is set for the season (except for the first game of next season). The United States will play Ireland next week). Camrawrn (The Rainbow Unicorns) will probably be back as the assistant manager. The home arena will probably be the Norman Bates Arena (Psychos) once again.

The United States will compete with Lithuania, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, and Belgium in the group stage. The other group consists of Sweden, Portugal, Austria, Argentina, Belarus, and Romania. This year the United States will be competing for promotion into the top division. There is an element of luck, but the roster will be solid.

Thank you to everyone that is helping with scouting and uploading players. Anyone with a player that they think is worth consideration should either send me a message or upload the player to this website: ppmdb.bulls4ever.com . I am happy to listen to any suggestions or answer any questions. Good luck in the upcoming season.

Good luck Caps and enjoy the database you always wanted and I have failed to provide due to too much work and no desire to come home and code some more...

I will continue to develop new features. you guys can always message me with suggestions and I see what I can do. I tried to fill the earlier suggestions as quick as i could as the main goal was to finish the basic functionality for Hockey.

This week i wont be developing anything as i need to look, myself, for senior players for our roster.