Subject: USA U-18 Team

The next opponent, in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, is officialy Austria.

Belarus beat Belgium and Romania upset Slovenia. Group 1 has not fared well in the first two games. Belarus is a slightly more challenging opponent than Belgium, but the United States wouldn't play Belarus until the finals anyway. The Romania upset is huge, since the winner of Austria-United States will play Romania instead of Slovenia. The United States' chances to promote, if it can convert on its opportunities, have just taken a huge step forward.

Austria-United States (as well as Portugal-Lithuania) start now. Between the two, though they are about even, I would prefer to face Portugal in future rounds.

On to Romania! The United States beat Austria 3-0 today. The United States outshot them 33-15 and scored on 2 of 6 power plays (both by the second unit). Jackson, the right wing originally from the Sparhawks with bad qualities but great OR and experience, went into beast mode today, scoring 2 goals and providing an assist on the other goal. The right defenseman, Witherspoon, provided a goal and an assist on the two power play goals. Butler had a 15 save shutout.

There was a lot to like about today's game, though I am concerned by the use of dump and chase on the power play and the many long cross ice passes made in front of the goalie, though that is mostly the fault of whoever programmed the animated broadcast. Also of concern, the United States continues to be made to give up shots against on the power play.

The United States will face Romania tomorrow for promotion to the top division. Only one more win is necessary, though winning the tournament would also be nice. Romania is the best possible matchup at this point (though it will still be a hard match with slightly more than a 50% chance of winning). The United States has better shooting and goaltending (Romania's shooting has fallen below 100 and their goaltending has fallen towards 120) but, as in almost every other game the United States has played, better defense. In the last exhibition match of last season, Romania beat the United States 2-1, but with much better goaltending. Their talent is pretty much evenly distributed, though the first line has slightly better shooting.

In the other game, Portugal will face Belarus. All the other group 1 teams lost today, even though group 1 seemed to be the stronger division.

Witherspoon is leading scoring by defensemen. Lance, Aust, Napier, and Jackson are all up there in the other categories.

Good luck to the U20 national team and the senior national team today!

Very nice win today. I knew we could beat Austria, but I didn't expect to control the game as well as we did. Nice shutout for Butler and our defense.

Disapointing loss lots of shooting but not efficient

The team failed to score a single goal on 30 shots and 5 power plays. It should have at least been a much closer game. I suspected that they might try breaking up of play, though I thought they would (and have) favored defense or counterattacks. I suppose that the United States would have had a very good chance of relegating back to division I next season anyway, but it is still very disappointing.

Tomorrow, the United States will play for 3rd place. With a win, this would still be tied for the best result that any of the national teams have achieved. I am going to give Carlson the chance to start (I'm pretty sure he should have caught up to Butler by now) as well as play some of the 17 year old backups so that they gain some chemistry.

Though I should have most of the most promising players covered, everybody is encouraged to load their players with national team potential to the national team website: ppmdb.bulls4ever.com . Generally, players should have at least 80% EQ (basically the average of the relevant qualities) and/or good OR (at least for the relevant attributes).

I have put together a preliminary roster for the U18 team. There might be a few changes to be made as a few more players are scouted and uploaded to the database, but the roster is probably relatively set at this point.

Overall, the team is really promising. There is only one starter under 800 OR. This is incredible since in past years, half of the team was in the 700's or even in the 600's for some positions due to a general lack of depth. The 17 year old prospects I chose are all players that should reach at least the 800's by next year. Even the few 16 year olds are mostly at about 550 OR (there have been very few 16 year olds over 500 OR in the past). In addition, the majority of these players have very good qualities and play for teams with level 14 or level 15 facilities.

The best teams in the United States are heavily represented this year. There are a few players (generally the players from foreign teams) from division II or division III teams, originally. The other strong teams have compensated for the loss of the High Hitterz and Irresistible Force sports academies.

In goal, Lenhart and Shaw are about even (it would be great if the team could use both in the World Championships to slow down the fall of the team's goaltending strength), though Lenhart has better potential and will probably stick as the starter. They will be as good as the goaltenders from the past few years, though not as good as Butler was last year.

On defense, the top 3 lines are already almost as good as the defense was at the end of last year. Even the fourth line is very good. In weaker years, there might be a few 200-100-100-100 players. This year, the weakest defender is starting at about 260-130-130-130. There are a lot of defenders with decent shooting, if not quite as good as last year. None of them have neglected technique. This will be the strong point of this year's team. Knapp in particular is already approaching 1,000 OR.

On offense, the team will be lead by Dupuis, Reif, and Kreger, all really strong players. The depth on LW is a bit weak (though not nearly as bad as it has been in the past) and could use slightly better shooting, though Cliff and Ferrara are still both relatively strong on the top 2 lines. The offense on the top 2 lines should be above average overall, and the top line should be able to compare to most other teams. The offense on the bottom 2 lines should be good enough with decent shooting. Even so, the key to the success of the team this year will be its amazing defense.

There will be a lot of players approaching or passing 1,000 OR by the time the World Championships start this year. Kreger is already at about 1,000 OR and Dupuis is starting at about 1,100 OR. Dupuis might turn out to be the best player other than Lance in the history of the team.

All of my current roster American players have been updated.

Thank you!

Although i am not a D1 I am working to become one possible team to provide top usa players.

Just started my training facility level 14 and will soon start the sports academy level 13

Thank you for the opportunity to manage the team again this year. I will do the best I can with the players available to me.

The roster from last game is probably the roster that I will use, including the starters that I will call up, for the World Championships.

The last game had an extremely disappointing result since Lithuania had an absurd shooting percentage for no apparent reason.

I am still waiting on a response from a few teams for the first game of next season. The United States plays a couple home and away series this season, against Portugal, Denmark, Brazil, Slovakia, and Norway (including the second game of next season which is part of the current schedule). They are all teams comparable to the United States, except for Slovakia, which shoulud be a nice challenge.

The United States' group this year includes Portugal, Slovenia, Denmark, Belgium, and Canada. At this point in time, it looks like the United States should at least be competitive and will probably have one of the better defenses and offenses, though goaltending and shooting might be a little weak. Since Shaw and Lenahrt are more or less comparable, I am thinking of preparing to use both in the World Championships. Lenhart should remain the starter,though Shaw will probably take over at some point.

Though the team is mostly set, I will double check on all the players that have been uploaded and scouted for possible upgrades and possibly replace a handful. I will go over all the players selected for the team like I did last year and like Cory Martin is doing this year once I am done choosing the team.

I plan to drop all of the 6th string 18 year olds., creating about 5 open spaces on the roster. This way, I will be able to add players from a good team about to go defunct at a moment's notice. I will also be able to watch how comparable players (who wouldn't have a chance to gain chemistry anyway) will develop over the course of the season to choose the one that really ends up being the best player. If a 6th string player becomes necessary as a substitute at some point, then I will add the player at that point.

Finally, I plan to give Camrawrn the opportunity to continue as the (primary) assistant manager. He would be the assistant manager for the first 2 weeks, the world championships, and most of the rest of the season if he accepts. With that said, since I have vaguely implied that I might give a chance to a few other managers at some point on a few occasions, I am going to give those managers a chance to be the assistant manager for at least 2 exhibition games. In order to be eligible:

1) The manger must find this thread and read through this wall of text to find this opportunity. The manager must then sign up by posting in this thread and requesting a particular 2 weeks
2) The manager must have 100 manager experience as of the time they sign up.
3) The manager must have been at least a playoff caliber team in a division III league or a member of a division II or the division I league.
4) The manager must have a general knowledge of the important points of the game.
5) The manager must have an interest in becoming the manager of a national team and be willing to take the substantial steps necessary to have a chance.
6) The manager must not be a manager or an assistant manager of another national team.
7) The manager must be from the United States.
8) The manager must generally be active in the game.
9) The manager must be willing to accept that they won't be able to make any significant changes to the team and that this will mostly give them a chance to get an idea of how the national team works and what the national team caliber players look like. I have a system and plan for roster selections that is generally set once the team is selected.
10) The manager must be willing to help at least a little with scouting.


I am looking forward to seeing what the defense can accomplish this season. Hopefully a promotion to the top league is finally in the cards for the team. At the very least, the average OR of the starters is better than in the past, and the younger players seem to be improving as well. There are an increasing number of teams that are able to make significant contributions to the team.

Please post the links to any teams with players that might be of interest to one of the national teams in this thread:

ppm.powerplaymanager.com/...

I accept, of course. This season should be good for us - I think we finally have a team that can promote.

The roster is now set for the season. I didn't really make any further changes beyond dropping 5 depth players and dropping a prospect with bad CL in favor of another good prospect with perfect CL. The players I dropped were generally the 6th string players at each position who were 18. Where the 6th string player was 17, I dropped the 2nd string prospect at the position instead. I didn't drop any goaltenders. These were players that wouldn't get to play during the season, wouldn't gain (and maintain) any chemistry, and would be very unlikely to play during the World Championships, unless there were multiple injuries at a position. The extra space will allow me to add up to 5 players that didn't make the team this year but may make the team in the future from teams that go defunct. It will also allow me to wait until the end of the season to make sure that any substitutes I may add are in fact still the best choice as of the end of the season. I will still be able to add extra substitutes if it becomes necessary, and the 18 year olds that I dropped will likely continue to be the first in line to be called up.

In any case, the defense should be exceptional, and the offense very good. Both goaltending and shooting should improve. It's unclear how strong the competition will be at this point, but the United States should at least be competitive. Next year's team and the team after that both look very promising as well. In about a week or so, all but one of the 18 year olds on the team will have at least 800 OR.

Dupuis and Knapp already have perfect chemistry, so I might scratch them for most of the preseason to give chemistry to the best prospects at their positions, Pruett and Barker. This will make the team a bit weaker during the exhibitions, but stronger in the long run when it counts.

The United States will play Spain, the runner up from last year's top division.

The offer I made in my last post still stands.