Assunto: US National Team

We offered him a tryout. Unfortunately, he skated about as well as Colton Orr. He also tried just wearing a pair of shorts, his practice jersey, and some cleats on the ice.

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Colton Orr....hahahaha

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A new season is upon us, which means yet another chance for the US to try and finally break through into the top Division! I've tweaked the roster slightly, but not nearly as much as last season. Here are the changes:

In: Terrence Nyquist
Out: Mikey Figueroa
Figueroa dropped to 1 CL on a team without near maxed facilities. Unfortunately, Nyquist switched teams as a RFA last season to a team with facilities near Figueroa's team's. However, Nyquist still has some steam left with his CL and more upside than Figueroa. He's also a few years younger and about 150 OR ahead of Figueroa, though a little behind on experience. He comes in pretty comparable to our backup, Chad Davidson (best known for outplaying Kevin Clinton in the WCH last season). This should give us quite the stable of goalies.

In: Cletus Ervin
Out: Geoffrey Whitman
Whitman has a wealth of experience that will be missed, but he is under-trained and a non-factor offensively. Ervin comes in pretty comparable to Whitman's defensive attributes, but miles ahead in shooting. Add in the OR he has on Whitman, as well as being a few years younger and higher CL and it's a good swap. It works out even better since Whitman had lost his spot on the WCH roster last season, not making an appearance in a single game.

In: James Bryant
Out: Daniel Carter
This is really just correcting a mistake from last season. Carter should not have made the team with Bryant out there. The two are pretty much on comparable career trajectories, but Bryant is a year ahead and has about 3x the experience. We're swapping out someone destined to ride the pine this season for someone who could actually step in and fight for a WCH roster spot. Definite upgrade.

In: George Warren
Out: Stanton Staton
This is weird one. The two are the same age. Staton has about 2-3x the experience of Warren, but Warren is about 150 OR ahead of Staton. I'm banking on Warren becoming the better of the 2, if he can get more playing time on his current team. Another swap correcting a roster decision from last season, but ultimately may not impact the final WCH roster like Bryant above.

Now, for a little positional analysis:

Goaltending: B
We've always been a bit behind the top teams in Division I in this department. Clinton is good and he keeps getting better, so we have room to make up ground. Davidson has proven to be a capable backup who can log some minutes. If Nyquist can get his chemistry up in time, we may have 3 goalies who can play in the WCH. This could open up some possibilities for us, as UK (who promoted to the Top Division) was able to save their best goalie until the playoffs by playing their backup for most of the qualifying games.

Defense: B
We have a great mix of veterans and younger, skilled players. We have a bevy of defenders who can shoot and contribute offensively while not being a liability in their own end. Our defense actually ends up being pretty close to our offense in team strength. Why does it only warrant a B ranking then, you ask? A couple key veterans are sitting at 1 CL and we don't have any truly remarkable prospects coming up in this position. We have a lot of players who are very similar in OR, age, and experience, but nobody truly outstanding coming in to replace the older guys. We won't necessarily be hurting going forward, but we don't appear to be on the verge of taking a big step forward, either.

Wing: A-
This is easily our strongest position. I couldn't even find room to fit Ben Bovier on the roster because of our strength here. We have some great, experienced players from the WCH roster of last season. We weren't really hit by CL drops here and we have a good group on the bench trying to crack the lineup. Chemistry prevented this area from seeing much change last season, but after this season's friendlies we have a few unfamiliar faces who could see some ice time when the games count. Why the minus, you ask? We have a couple of players who are a bit under-trained in shooting, but they're so strong in OR and experience that cutting them isn't really an option. Hopefully their managers will be open to modifying their training slightly to up shooting in their ratios, regardless of the associated Qs.

Center: C
The biggest issue with this position for us are the shooting ratios. With a handful of exceptions, most (especially our most experienced players) have shooting at about 40-60% of offense. A couple prospects on the team are slightly better ratio-wise, but not outstanding in terms of OR. Rodger Baker looks to be very good and should build up the chemistry needed to take a shot at the roster this season, though his low experience is a concern. Louie Lance is actually one of the most exciting players on the horizon for the US and the center position in general. Good ratios, stellar OTR, and already gaining experience and tearing up his league. I am literally counting down the days (110) until he ages out of the U20 team and can join the senior team. Unfortunately, he's not eligible for the team this season and doesn't affect my grade.

By the way, my guys are in camp this week so please, leave them out of the friendly match.

Not that I'm really in a position to train WCH caliber players, but where do you want the shooting ratio for centers?

I see Bryant and Clinton will be out of the camp by Saturday's game. Are you planning on running another consecutive camp?

mmessner- In general 70% is the minimum for shooting that I'd like to see for forwards. 80% is pretty much the sweet spot, and for the rare winger who has an excellent shooting attribute, 90-100% is a possibility.

no. should be fine then

Thank you for your votes of support! I appreciate another chance to lead the national team, and I hope to improve upon what I accomplished last season, as 6th place was far from a satisfying finish.

In a craptacular twist, PPM saw fit to place us in the same grouping with Germany and Sweden, both of whom were just relegated from the Top Division after last season. Playing out of that group and into the playoffs should be interesting.

For anyone who looks at the NT over the next few days, I have placed Mr. Orange as a temporary assistant manager to the team in order to help him test adding NT functionality to his PPM add-on, PPMe. If you haven't used it before, I highly recommend it!

If you'd like to help him test his newest version, it can be found here:crossrider.com/install/42...

This version is still in the testing phases and will have a few bugs, so please be aware. There is a more stable version with fewer features out there as well. It is not recommended to have both versions installed or weird things can happen. The PPM forum for the project is here: ppm.powerplaymanager.com/...

Sent some players to camp this week.

As you've probably noticed, I haven't updated at all this season during the friendly games. We've had some pretty good matches and even pulled out some wins against stronger teams playing mostly youth. Because I've been using the friendly games primarily as a way to give the training bonus and experience to younger guys and to get chemistry up for ALL players, the results have been erratic.

The World Championships start this weekend, and it's going to be an uphill battle without a doubt. Our group features both Sweden and Germany, two very strong teams that were demoted from the Top Division after last season. We definitely have a tough road to the playoffs, but our players have enough chemistry where you won't be seeing the same players every game, which should help make up for some areas we may not be as strong.

We suffered a disappointing shutout loss 0-2 yesterday to Italy. I narrowed it down to 2 possible tactics their manager was going to use and ended up on the wrong end of 50-50 odds. In spite of the loss, Davidson looked good between the pipes, preventing what could have been a worse loss and potentially saving our goal differential for the tournament. Davidson started with the goal of having Clinton fresh for Sweden and Germany, but that may not be a possibility now.

We face Slovenia today, another regular in the division like Italy. A win today can bring us right back into contention for a playoff position. Additionally, Slovenia beat tournament host Sweden yesterday. This means that one of the potential group juggernauts has to claw their way up the standings just like us.