თემა: II.1

Based on my records against other teams this season, Cactus HC is one of the last teams I want to play after the Edison Illuminating Company. I am hoping to play the Doppelgangers in the second round. They are a good team, but I always do well against them for some reason.

Overall, I think all of the top 8 teams probably have a chance to do well, though the Edison Illuminating company and the Big fatty cats might be the favorites.

I am wondering if it might be worthwhile to sell all of my remaining 18 year olds (and 17 year olds if my depth could ultimately handle it). My team might struggle a bit - it might become about as strong as the Coin Flips or Montana Miners, though it would be better in the long run, and I could make a nice profit to put into my arena/getting one or two more decent 16 year olds. I've already sold all of my 18 and 17 year olds that are not starters or key backups.

I pulled a great 16 year old pivot and back last season. I also purchased a decent 16 year old wing and an elite 16 year old back. I have a pretty good 17 year old keeper and my best shooting wing is also 17. I might have to keep my 22 year old back until I find a better younger player to replace him. Maybe I will test out my potential roster for next season after my camp ends (though I won't sell everyone until after I am eliminated if I do end up doing so).

Yeah, it's funny how you can match up well/not well against certain teams. I had a heck of time figuring out how to beat you and joshua eagles this season.

I think I only won maybe 2 or 3 games out of the 8 I played against you two.

P.S. In looking at it, I think Oswaldo Rowan will still be day-to-day even in the 2nd round of the playoffs.

If I were you, I would absolutely NOT consider playing him in the 2nd round... unless you want to lose.

Trust me. If you want to advance, you don't want to touch that with a 10-foot pole.

If you want proof, just look at the 3 games Joshua Eagles played his starting goalie during the 5 days he was day to day.

5 days remaining on injury:
handball.powerplaymanager...
goalie rating = 26

3 days remaining on injury:
handball.powerplaymanager...
goalie rating = 31

1 days remaining on injury:
handball.powerplaymanager...
goalie rating = 37

Here's the first game he played after his goalie was no longer day to day:
handball.powerplaymanager...
goalie rating = 40

talking about goalie .. both USA starters are down with injuries.

there is more than just the rating loss. 20 days is a long period. he will lose a bunch of chemistry as well.

How long do you think that it would it take for the great keepers that were pulled last season to catch up? Is this a chance for them to begin to take over, or is it still too soon?

Pascalle will lose position very soon sue to fact he is not gaining experience (i mean he is 2nd goalie and share minutes with first goalie). Other youngsters are not gaining experience so it can help pascalle to keep position longer than he actually "should" since he is not a started in his team.

Its a question on who will start giving full or almost full playing time to their young goalies first. at this rate, Pascalle would still remain for one more season.

also if they dont start to get experience soon then "elder" goalies as Lucius Donaldson will also compete and get the edge for 2nd goalie.

My goal was to get Lloyd Russ ready for next season but i feel he will have to play more minutes (including friendlies) to be able to take over Pascalle position. My hope is that he can before next season WC. For that Im trying to get him as much chemistry as i can. Having our starters "constantly" getting injured is helping his cause.

jack should keep the position for several more seasons ...

Yep. After my training camp from last week, Russ is officially my best goalie as far as stat ratings go.

I've been trying to stay in good shape this season, by somewhat splitting time. In my opinion, having a strong team is the best thing I can do for his long term development.

But now that we're closing in on the playoffs, and I'm happy with my energy levels, I'm hoping to double his current exp by the end of this season. That would put him ahead of Pascalle in exp, CL, OR, and age. He'll still be slightly behind in eOR... but thats it.

And I'll be shedding either Larkin or Robbins at season end, so there'll be less of a log jam next season.

If Russ drops a CL while lets say Pascalle doesnt than he will be much behind specially considering yours and salt lake facilities difference.

Experience is what will take to get there. If you want to compare, just look at Donaldson even though OR isnt great and qualities not top (for NT team).

30 experience difference is a lot. In fact reason why i didnt pick Fugate was due to Donaldson taking the playing time. With his 2 experience it would take "forever" while russ could gain a lot more. But fact is Fugate has 2 and Russ only 8. while Pascalle having "limited" time playing behind Jack still has more than russ.

Of course, you need to do what is best for your team and plans bur for Russ and any other young goalie what is going to take to take over is experience since Jack and Pascalle have great qualities and their manager great facilities.

My energy is mid to high 70's Lanky, my only goal was to be top 8. I had no delusions about sneaking into top 2. That goal has been met as of last game, so it's all gravy now.

Plus, my 2 best players have had no injuries, that means the engine will knock one of them out for at least a week.

FYI, I had mid to high 80's last season for playoffs, Big Fatty Cats stomped me like an almost dead gnat.

LOL. yeah... That's what I'm worried about.

I want to at least get a win in the 1st round. The prize money is several million better if you get 4th (worst case if you win in the 1st round) than if you get 8th (worst case if you lose in the 1st round).

But I'm kind of worried about my energy levels too. Especially if I end up playing the "Damn Fatty Cats" (I like his proposed name change HAHA).

I guess at the very least, today's matchup will be a good gauge of where I stand against him. On the bright side, I've done a camp already (i don't think he has) so hopefully I'll have a little bit extra (that I didn't have earlier in the season).

P.S.

The more I think about it, the more I think that injuries (and even "extra fees on arena and facilities" ) are caused by divergence in facilities. So if your average facility is 8, and your maintenance and medical centers are 5, I think you have more/worse injuries.

So I think you might be ok, since your medical center is one of the higher ones in the division.

After this season, I'm going to start training up the tier 3 facilities a bit faster. This season was just brutal. In addition to the injuries, I had to pay an additional ~$1 to $1.5 million every ~10 to 14 days because of extra arena and facility expenses.

That makes sense. I just get nervous when a player has been a while w/o at least a 5 day injury.

Ya, I am about sick of the frigging vandals broke in notice. At least one per week!!

hahaha. yeah. I'm just nervous about injuries all the time now. Seriously, every time i see that news in my news feed now, I'm terrified to click on it, because it's been REALLY bad news like 85% of the time this season.

And trust me... it doesn't matter if he's been out injured recently. I had one of my starters have two long-term injuries this season separated by only a week or two. So just because it's been a while, I don't think you're any more at risk anymore than I was "safe" because of having recent injuries.

*Sidenote*
I have noticed though, that the "injury query" that "randomly" gives your guys injuries seems to run most often on days when a long term injured player goes to day-to-day status (5 days left) and when a day-to-day player is healthy again.

I think that's been a lot of my problem this season. If you don't have any injured players, sometimes you can go a week or two without getting any. But as soon as you have one or two guys that comes back to your lineup from being injured, you get one or two more injuries right away. It's like a vicious cycle of injuries.

We'll test my theory out. Quentin Wiley is day-to-day tomorrow, and healthy in 6 days. I BET you if you look at the league news on those days, that I'll have a new injury (right in time for playoffs).

My only player that isn't replaceable at all would be my goalie peter Carter. I can deal with any other injury just leave my goalkeeper alone. lol