Subject: USA U-18 Team

Shoot I've forgotten to give you the guys I scouted. Do you want me to just mail pictures of their stat page or is there another way you want them

I got busy with school and hadn't checked for a about a week and I forgot at that point.

If your done can you help me with Russia. I got like 2 players I cant cover from The first line. Can you help me with that? I also have both goalies. I can post them here if you would like.

Just tell me who

5/2/16 is the deadline for all these guys
Line 1
Nikita Afanasyev RW
Grigoriy Abramkin RD
Mikhail Fomenko C


If you have any extra time before 5/2 please try to get Yuriy Apahov or Andrey Fedorov (Both Line 2) Or anyone from the 2nd line.
Please send all the scouting reports to Cap. Thanks.

sent it 2 times

That would be fine. You can also just highlight copy the player page from the player's name down to the OR. It looks a little sloppy, but it's quick and I'm used to reading it in that format at this point.

Ok, I'll send them in a minute.

The first game against Serbia takes place today. While I don't think the United States is guaranteed a win against any team in the division, I liked the United States' chances against any of the other teams.

Hungary has insane goaltenders, but otherwise, there is no elite team in the group like the Czech Republic or Slovakia. Portugal, ranked #2, is the top 4 team in the group due to good luck in the last few seasons, but they aren't one of those insane unbeatable teams with 5 divisions (though they do have a pretty strong team that is better than it appears). Serbia, the 5-8, has always been in the top division, but they have been more average recently and at this point have fewer leagues than the United States. Hungary, though possibly the favorite due to their goaltending, promoted back to the top division this season. Their best team, one of the best in the world, recently folded.

Despite the injury to the starter, I believe the United States will still have the second best goaltending in the group playing its backup. Even the U.S. third string goaltender (though now on a team with weak facilities), is at about as good as any Serbian or Portugese goaltender. The starter will return for game 6 well rested. I wouldn't be surprised if the United States has the best goaltending in the tournament for game 6, and with luck, the playoffs, so the injury could turn into a strength if the United States can take care of business in the first 6 games.

The teams that the United States could face in the next round include Slovenia, Russia, Germany, and Slovakia. All of them are very good and might be the best team if they switched with one of the teams from the U.S. group. Getting 2 wins for the next round in the first round could prove extremely important.

Good luck to the all of the U.S. national hockey teams today!

The United States beat Serbia 6-1 today in the first game of the U18 World Championships in Portugal. I was a little worried as Serbia has been a very tough opponent in the past, but the United States had good luck with penalties, converting on powerplays, and tactics today. Taking too many penalties and failing to convert on the powerplay have hurt the United States in past campaigns.

The United States outshot Serbia 33-20. The United States won 55.9% of the faceoffs. Serbia took 5 penalties and the United States took 1. The United States converted on 3 of 5 powerplays. All 3 lines contributed to the score. Jadyn Petersen scored a hat trick and currently leads the tournament.

In the other game in the group, Portugal shut out Hungary 2-0. The United States plays Portugal tomorrow. One win (or even two overtime losses) would be enough to clinch the next round at this point. Even one overtime loss would give the U.S. a solid chance. The goal differential from today will also help a lot in case of a tie breaker. Hopefully Serbia manages to advance to the next round so the goal differential and win will carry into the next round.

In the other group that will combine with group 2 in the next round, Germany beat Slovakia 5-3, and Russia beat Slovenia 4-3 in overtime. In a surprise upset, Spain beat the Czech Republic 5-0.

Congrats to the U20 team for its 5-3 win. The 3-2 loss against Italy was disappointing for the senior team after leading 2-0 for most of the game, but hopefully it will have better luck tomorrow.

Yay, my player did something useful!

Did you put him on the 3rd line to try to get better match-ups for scoring potential?

That was my intention. The third line was the first line moved down 2 spots. It seems to work sometimes, and I've seen other managers try it, though I'm not quite certain if it helps or how much it helps. The defensemen on the top two lines from Serbia were at least as good as most from the United States. Their offense was fairly close for all three lines, so it didn't matter to move the top defensemen down to the third line.

I tip my cap to Cap. We dominating. Nice win In the shootout! 2-0 baby. GO USA!

There are now only 8 teams that have been in the top division longer than the United States. Somehow, 3 of them will be fighting to avoid relegation this season.

Serbia, Russia, and the Czech Republic are all in the relegation round. All of them are good teams that the United States won't have to worry about going forward this season. Bulgaria will be the other team in the relegation round.

There are 5 teams that have always been in the top division. The three teams fighting to avoid relegation are all among those 5 teams. The other two, Latvia and Slovakia, have advanced.

The other three teams from the group of 8 are Croatia, Finland, and Poland.

While some potentially difficult opponents were eliminated, it is honestly a bit worrisome that the game is random enough to allow quality teams to face relegation.

Just curious, but have you ever tried matching the line time percentages to those the opponent uses? It might be useful for exploiting or nullifying certain matchups. I've personally never tried it, just popped into my head when I read this.