Tema: US National Team

Hey all,

I needed to end that note so I didn't get busted for too long a message. So with that in mind, here are the rest of the updates for the team;

Now that we have called up enough youth to make a roster for our friendlies, they will be in the line up going forward. Each game will be played on very high to increase the experience, chemistry, and overall quality of these players faster. In addition, any other players with longevity left was called up so they would get the training bonus....no matter how big or small it may be. That leaves most of our experienced players on the sidelines for now.


Next, I have had another idea to put forth.....I know I said I would play our best in friendlies to get max chemistry before the playoffs. I am thinking it may pay off more if we keep our future prospects in for as long as possible? Each game will affect them much more than a small increase in chemistry for the championship. Our tactics and line up are going to make competing this year difficult anyways. The loss of some chemistry is not good, but I think the trade off would pay for itself in the future.


As you know, this is my first year as the manager, so I am caught in between trying to do as well as possible in this years championship vs. the neglected state of our future teams. Sooner, rather than later, we are going to face a crossroads where our team cannot compete period (In my opinion, the team is too old and not enough youngsters are ready to fill their shoes....which will create a difficult time for the team for years to come). So with that out there, I open the court to you all and ask how you would like the team to proceed? Sending it through mail would keep our adversaries from seeing the direction we choose, but feel free to speak as you wish.

Thanks to all of you who have helped and supported the club this season so far!!

HH

Howdy to you all,

Hope you all are having a Great Sunday.....wherever you may be! Just wanted to give you all a quick note on the current status of the team. I cannot go into detail on certain areas, but as a general update....please find it below.

1) I still believe it is in our best interest to continue playing the youth on very high for each game. I am moving them around from the top and bottom lines to try and even out the training/experience bonus.

2) I am in search of a great young goalie to begin integrating training/growth for the long term. So far, no stand outs have emerged. They all seem to be missing something that prevents me from putting my faith in them (e.g. Longevity, Coaches/Facilities, Experience, Too Young, etc.). This will be an ongoing search.....

3) We have refined some ideas regarding the team this season. We are unable to speak on them in this forum.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any concerns/thoughts of your own. Trying to be transparent was one of my promises to you......so hold me to it!

HH

Howdy,

Just wanted to pass along more transparency in my thoughts regarding preferred skill percentage distribution by position for the National Team;

1) Goalie: G=100%, Pass 50%, Tech 50%.

2) Defensemen: D=100%, S=0%, Pass=50%, Tech=25%,
A=50%

3) Winger: Off=100%, Shoot=80%, Tech=50%, A=50%

4) Centerman: Off=100%, Shoot=75%, Tech=50%, A=50%

Obviously, this is not set in stone.

D-men:

Having shooting for a d-man is not frowned on heavily. I just would rather have those skill points distributed to the other attributes noted here. In my experience, I cannot seem to find any correlation of a definitive rise in goals for a d-man with greater shooting vs. another with less. However, having one with more skills in the other attributes seems to create a few more points, but more importantly, I like the idea of having a better overall defenseman to play higher up the line up against tougher opponents.

If one d-man has shooting and is close in skill distribution to another, I will play the shooting d-man on the powerplay. So I do not just ignore shooting......if it is there and the player is close in skills, I will obviously put him in before the one without shooting. Now if a d-man has an extremely high shooting skill, I do think there is a greater chance for scoring. I am talking 25% or more in shooting ability vs. the other attributes. However, this takes a substantial amount of skill points that would have been better spent on the main attributes....in my opinion.

As far as Tech goes, there are arguments both ways for having more or less than what I am asking for. Having less increases the other attributes and makes a stronger d-man. My concern is penalties when it matters most (very high tactics and when playing teams that are much better than our squad). I also like having a higher Tech when the player begins to negative train (Runs out of longevity). Once a d-man gets closer and closer to 0 Tech, I find the penalties to become a bigger problem. Having more Tech allows the player to play more seasons before hitting that problem. These older players are usually a critical piece of the team puzzle due to their exceptionally high experience number.

I am always open to discussion and may be totally out to lunch here, so feel free to bring your own opinion to the table.

Wingers:

I like a higher shooting percentage for wingers. The 80% number is just what I use. However, depending on the breakdown of skill percentages, it may call for a different allocation. In other words, if the training percentage for shooting is low....then it may be better to train the other skills over shooting.....or, if it is higher vice versa. I will still lean towards playing a winger with more shooting than without, but I understand the challenges and differences we will have in this area. Unfortunately, we do not have an abundance of choices right now, so we will run with what we have. I just want you to know where I stand with my thought process/opinion regarding wingers.

Centermen:

I prefer a centerman with a little less shooting percentage than a winger, say 70%~75%. I am open to even lower shooting if the skill points are allocated to the other attributes for a centerman. I believe that a higher number in passing may be more advantageous than shooting. I'm talking 5~10% only. I am open to many different combo's for this position.....this is just my thoughts/opinion.

Lastly, experience is extremely important for all positions. Any player with more experience and similar skills/attributes will almost always get the call. The only exception is if one player is getting too old and the younger player has a trajectory to pass him up in the near future. Therefore, I ask that all managers try to increase the experience of any current or future National Team player. This is a critical piece of a players ultimate skill/playing level. It impacts all aspects of the player and is vital in competing against other players/teams.

That's all for now. Please remember, these are my opinions....they are not the guide for how to train a player for the best output. Only the game engine knows what the perfect skill ratios are. I just wanted to give you all a look into what I feel has worked for me. I can agree that I am probably wrong with any of these ideas.....but it's what I have to go on from my experiences. I am always open to new ideas and will never pretend to know what is best here. These are just guidelines and I will always be amenable to better strategies. So don't take this as the only road onto the team.....if you have a different experience and/or have some examples of a better way, please feel free to present them. The more input we have, the better we all will become. So use this as an open invitation to anyone who has had a better experience, knowledge, and/or opinion!

Thanks for your support,

HH

Hey all,

In trying to keep you updated and knowing where the team is headed, please find my latest thoughts;

As you know, we are playing each National Team friendly game on very high energy and employing our youth for the experience/training/chemistry boost. I feel that this is our best strategy for now. With the ongoing reduction in USA managers, the future player pool is also going to shrink for the team. Therefore, starting early with the youth we do have will help in competing, years down the road. I know I have said this before. I did so to refreshen your minds on the plans for the near future;

1) I plan to return to the best line up we can
muster for the playoffs.....which will entail
inserting the senior players into the line up.

2) The downside to that strategy is our lack of
chemistry entering the tournament with an all new
line up.

3) After looking at the current chem. for these
senior players, it is my estimation that it will
take at least two games to regain a 100%
chemistry for each line. This is the cost of
a friendly season youth strategy.

4) In addition, my hope is to not relegate this
season. I know that is not setting the bar very
high.....but it's where we landed last season
with full chemistry.

Being that this is a Team that represents our Country, I am open to other thoughts/concerns over the teams direction. I could play the senior line up for the last few friendlies in an effort to level them up before the playoffs. Just to be honest....I do not feel that will gain us much and will take away from the youth.....who are playing on Very High each week on a National Team. The improvement to them should be substantial vs. the minor chemistry bump we would have playing the older line up on Very Low. We should not play the Senior team on Very High during friendlies....as the loss in energy will hurt the team more than the chemistry that is gained.

So with all that said, I open the microphone to all of you. If there are any questions or concerns with the direction I am taking.....here is your opportunity to speak. Again, I am trying to represent the Country as best I can. That means representing all of you!

HH

I recommend continuing to play the younger elements on very high for the remainder of the season. Additionally, don't underestimate the fact that our tactics will be superior to those of other teams that played at a much lower intensity throughout the season.

Hello to you all,

As you all know, this will be my first stab at running the Senior Team in the playoffs for the World Championship. I am excited to learn the ins and outs of the tournament. I cannot say a whole lot in the forum regarding the team moving forward, but my e-mail box is always open for more direct questions/answers....so feel free.

With that being said, please find the latest general update regarding the team;

1) The lines have been set for the upcoming world championship. They are the best combination, in my opinion, for this years tourney. Obviously, it is not an easy task to pick each position.....but rest assured there is a process that was used to form each line. In addition, these may change as we progress through the tournament.

2) The plan to play our youth every friendly on very high this season was a success in my opinion. The training boost is much more effective using younger players. In addition, all of these youth players are over 80% ~ 90% chemistry.

3) The decision on playing very high also increased our tactic percentages for each main tactic along with the PP and PK. Obviously, there is still a need to continue with a concentrated effort, to bring them all to a point where strategic choices for each game actually effect the matches more efficiently. The upcoming playoffs will increase these percentages faster.

4) Unfortunately, by playing our youth, the playoff roster will take some time to get their chemistry back. We will see how it affects the lines moving further and further into the preliminary games. Something I'll certainly keep an eye on.

5) I chose to use our best youth/with longevity/and training ability to fill the open roster spots for the championship games. They will not play.....but they will get the bonus training/money for each game played. If someone is injured in the main line up, I will replace them with the next best player in the rankings. Even so, I will keep the most viable players for training advantages in the open roster spots.

6) Each opposing teams 1st, 2nd, and 3rd lines (including goalies) have been scouted. Hopefully this will help yield a better result regarding the line matching aspect.

7) We are overmatched by most of the teams we will face. This takes into account all of the information above. This being my first year, I can only institute so much in such a short time regarding my desired strategy. I just ask you to bear that in mind as the games wear on. Try and trust the process........as this is all part of a bigger stratagem. If any of you has any questions, please feel free to reach out at any time.

Lastly, I promise you all that my decisions and effort will be in earnest, to do the best for the USA National Team! Thanks to all of you and I'll see you at the rink on Saturday,

HH

Good afternoon to all USA Managers:

I am hoping you understand why I did not send any updates during the playoffs. I felt the need to keep any thoughts under wraps in order to prevent any possible advantages given to our opponents during the tournament. Now that I have had a few days to compile my thoughts, please find the latest thoughts regarding the team. This first post will only entail the season and the first round of playoff games. I will focus on the world championship games in the next post.

The regular season was just for the youth and allowed me to try some different things as I learned how things operate at this level. As it turns out, playing the youth on very high through the regular season brought them all above 80% chemistry for them. Obviously, they gained the additional training bonus/experience gains/bonus money to the teams who had their players in the line up every Saturday. I think the experiment was a success and plan to continue it for the upcoming season if elected.

The round robin playoffs had many interesting points that I would like to focus on. The first game was Portugal:

1) We out shot them 37-21.
2) They took 5 penalties to our 2. It did not lead to a goal, but having more PP also increases our shots on goal for the game. More shots are always a good thing and I believe effects the game....even though no pp goals.
3) We got lucky on tactics somewhat;
a) We caught him on 2 of 3 periods on our main tactics. The 1 we missed, was not advantageous for either club.
b) He caught us in the 2nd period on the PK. The other 2 periods had no advantages for either club.
c) We caught him in all 3 periods for the PP. Somewhat surprised it did not result in a pp goal.....but we'll take the shots on goal as a result.

We both played on Very High for all three periods. He did play his top lines more than his weaker ones, while we stuck to an even 25% for each line. We got stronger each period and pulled out a 2-0 victory for the first playoff round robin game!

The second game was Lithuania:

1) We outshot them 35-31.
2) We took 6 penalties to his 1. Luckily, this did not result in any pp goals.
3) Some more luck on tactics this game;
a) There was no advantage in the main tactic showdown.
b) We won all 3 period tactics regarding the PP and PK!

The game was fairly close, but eventually we potted two even strength goals and took home another 2-0 victory. Something of note however......he only played on High...while we played on very high all game. Us using the higher importance may have something to do with the extra penalties on our behalf.....not sure....just a thought. It was a very close game at any rate.

Next was Argentina:

1) We outshot them 34-23.
2) 4 penalties each. Our only goal came on the PP.
3) We won the main tactic line up in the Overtime period. There were no other match ups in the main tactics for either team other than that.
4) Our PP did not hit on the advantage against his pk tactics at all.
5) We did hit 3 periods out of 4 on our PK tactics against his pp.

Both teams went very high throughout. Our team got stronger as the game went on. The OT period was all in our favor. Unfortunately, we could not pot one and it ended in the shoot out. Our first loss was a 2-1 in the shoot out. At least we gained a point for the effort.

Austria was next;

1) We outshot them 33-28.
2) We had 4 penalties to their 7.
3) We won 2 periods of main tactics. The other one had no advantage either way.
4) We won all 3 periods in our PP tactics. We scored 4 PP goals in this game!!
5) No advantages in our PK tactics for either team.

We got stronger as the game wore on. The end result was a 6-2 victory!! At this point, we were the number one seed for our group.

The last round robin game was against Brazil;

1) We were outshot 52-11.
We took 6 penalties to their 3. Some good news, they did not have a single PP goal in the game.
2) We hit the advantage in the 3rd period for main tactics. The first 2 had no advantage either way.
3) We hit the first 2 periods for our PP tactic as the winner. The 3rd was a 0 burger for either team.
4) Our PK hit the tactic advantage for all three periods.
5) Now, to take a step back......before the game, I took a look at the standings/teams and even if we lost this game and all the worst situations occurred against us, we would still make the world championship. With that in mind, I pulled our best line (and goaltender) and sat them on the bench to rest. I put the non used players on the roster and made them the number one line for the game. I also flipped line 2 to line 4 and line 3 to 2. In addition, I played line one at 45% ice time and lowered the other lines as much as I could. Lastly, I played on very low throughout the game to try and save as much energy as possible for the upcoming playoffs. I could have tried to win and retain the number 1 seed.....but I felt the extra energy would be more important moving forward.

We got completely outplayed. We did hit on several countertactics, but it did not matter. The result was a 6-0 loss....giving Brazil the number 1 seed and we fell to the number 2 seed. Not sure if this was the move to make, but I made it and I'll have to answer for that.

So that is a quick run down and the broad strokes of the round robin playoff run. In the end, we made the world championship playoffs and we went into it as the number 2 seed in our group. I considered this a good result for the club so far. The next round would be a lot tougher. I will post my thoughts for that soon. However, if you feel these are a waste of time, please just let me know. It takes a lot of effort to produce these updates. If there are interested USA managers, then I will continue to work these up. Thanks for your support and one hell of a job by our two other National Teams!!!! Congratulations to both teams/managers, what a great year for the U18 and U20. Congratulations!!!!!!! Thanks to you all,

HH

Hello again,

As promised, please find the re-cap for the world championship playoff games;

The first game was against Spain;

1) We were outmatched on our bottom two lines, but I did not want to run 3 lines to save energy for the tougher opponents.
2) We outshot them 42-22.
3) Penalties were even at 4 a piece.
4) There was no advantage with main tactics for the first two periods. We got lucky and won the main tactics for period 3 and OT.
5) We hit on the PP tactics every period of the game.
6) We hit on the PK tactics also for the entire game.
7) We started to pull away in the third and into the OT. First shot in the extra period and we had a close 2-1 OT win.

Overall, a close game that I felt we should have won.

Next was Slovenia. This was a different animal. He outmatched us pretty much across the board. I knew it would be a tough game and shortened the line up to 3 lines.....with a heavy weighting to our better lines.

1) We got out shot 39-19.....ugly.
2) We had 5 penalties to his 2.....not good.
3) No advantage to either team with main tactics.
4) Our PP tactics only gained the advantage in the third. Each team ended up with a PP goal, so nothing gained there.
5) No advantage for either team in the PK department.

This game we got out played throughout. Our goalies both had a sub par game which eliminated any chance we had of competing. I moved Moose into the third line to try and shore it up. His high experience and top energy levels did not seem to matter much. I tried changing main tactics after the 2nd with no help there. I think the guys were just over matched and tired. Bottom line, we got crushed by a better team.

The last game was a consolation match against Bulgaria.

1) We won the shots produced battle at 47 to 36.
2) Penalties were even at 5 a piece. Both teams were tired by this point.
3) Main tactics were a draw throughout.
4) We hit on the PP tactics for all 4 periods. The end result was 2 PP goals on our end.
5) We hit the PK countertactic for all 4 periods also.
As the game wore on, we seemed to gain some momentum. I removed Moose and went back to the original line up. In the end, it was an OT goal for Bulgaria to take the win. Our second line had a whale of a game and came to play. Their goalie was lights out and we lost a game I felt we should have won. No matter, this wrapped up the season on a sour note for me. The boys gave it their all and that's all I can ask for. Next season is already here and it's time to start all over.

Thanks for your support throughout the year. Good luck in your teams and I'll see you at the rink.

HH

Hey guys,

In a continued effort to improve the National Team, I have a request for all of you.

Now I know this has been said before, as I have found it in older posts, but it is not being done.....so a friendly reminder. When anyone is going to sell any American player that is not a wash out or a definitive reject.....we really need to know about it. Having a heads up allows other American Managers a chance to bid on him. This will only result in more money for your player....so why not do it? It also allows all of the National Team Managers an easy process to track them when we cannot keep them in Country. So with that said, I ask all of the US managers and any other managers that may read this, to please post on this forum when a USA player is on the market. Cheers,

HH