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Let's Play Hockey Legacy Manager I've moved from HLM20 to HLM21, with a lot of quality-of-life changes and added detail. But most of what's below is still relevant! What is HLM21?  Hockey Legacy Manager 21 or HLM21 is a simple but fun ice hockey General Manager simulation, available on Android or iOS Edit: or it was when I started this game, I'm not sure you can even download it any more. What this means is that we don't play or directly control each game ourselves, but we sign and draft and trade players and hope we build a championship-winning team! Why HLM21? HLM21 is not the most advanced hockey sim out there, as you might have guessed. It's a mobile game, so it lacks a lot of the detail from games like Eastside Hockey Manager (EHM), Franchise Hockey Manager (FHM), or even the "Be A GM" mode from EA's NHL series on Playstation and Xbox (although it's pretty close to that last one). But that means it simulates super fast because there's nothing extra going on, and I like it for another reason: The developer doesn't have an NHL license, so even though every team's roster starts off accurate (to when the game was released, at least), all of the player names are randomized. I'll also be using Reddit user /u/seacucumber3000's AI-generated hockey player faces to give the names some personality. I think it's more fun to play this way, to become attached to "your" players and watch them grow and triumph and fail, than it is to just try and simulate real life. So here's the plan... I'm going to start by simulating a month at a time (roughly 10-15 games out of an 82 game season), writing up a few paragraph summary at the end which contains anything interesting that happened or any developing storylines. Last-second wins or losses, injuries, trades, hot or cold streaks, etc. If and when we reach the playoffs I'll slow down, of course, so we don't skip over everything all at once. Then comes the draft, re-sign period, and we're off to the next season! I think the most fun part of simulating/GMing is seeing how the players that you chose turn out, and the multi-year storylines that emerge. So I want to focus on keeping the story moving, rather than agonizing over every game. One thing to note: Since I'm such a big fan of player growth, I am of two minds when it comes to how most hockey games do "Potential" and "Ratings": On the one hand, I hate how you can draft a player and immediately know who's better than who, and whether they're a future superstar or a bust before you even make your next pick. It takes away all the fun of seeing how they turn out. But on the other hand, sometimes it's fun when you're forced to throw that 79 Overall "4th Liner" on the 3rd line and watch him score 40 points. So to accomodate both sides, I'm going to try including info like "what real life player he's supposed to be", potential, and ratings in Spoiler Tags. I'll also be censoring this information in screenshots. That way, if you want to play God and know, you can check. If you want it to be more realistic, you can play along without knowing. I only ask that, if you read the spoiler tags, try not to ruin it for everybody else! I'll be hinting at players ratings or potential with my in-game blogs, but I'll never come right out and say it, and I may even be wrong sometimes (accidentally or on purpose). Abbreviations G - Goals A - Assists P - Points: The combination of Goals and Assists. When I write something like "1-1-2" or "15-20-35", it's Goals-Assists-Points. Unless I'm talking about a Goalie, then it's probably Wins-Losses-Overtime Losses... You may also see PPG - points per game. S or SOG - Shots or Shot On Goal: Technically, if you take a shot and miss the net, it's not a "shot". +/-: Even-strength or short-handed goals for you are pluses, the same for the other team is a minus for you. Unaffected by power play goals. Controversial in real life, but it's one of the few stats this game tracks, so we're going with it. ATOI - Average Time On Ice: In this game, 1st line forwards get about 19:30 per game, and decrease by 3 minutes for each line. 1st pair D gets about 23:30, 2nd pair 19:30, and 3rd pair 16:30. SVP - Save Percentage: I always write it as a decimal (.915), but some people write it as a percentage (91.5). GAA - Goals Against Average: Goals scored against a goaltender, averaged to 60 minutes. If you give up one goal in 20 minutes, your GAA is 3.00. The game lists player's ratings as such: OVR OFF DEF. According to the game itself: quote:Players on the first line should be over 87 overall. Players on the second line should be between 84-87. Third line players should be between 82 and 85 and fourth line players should be below 81. First-pair defensemen should have a rating over 87. Defensemen of second pairs are between 83 and 87 and those of the third pair should be above 79. The GHL     Champions      Season Preview, Year 1 October Welcome To Teal Town #1 Trade Announcement/November December Trade Announcement/January February Year 1 Trade Deadline March Sharks Season Wrap-up League Season Wrap-up Brettbot fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Dec 21, 2023 |
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Houston Satellites Season 5, 2023-24 Preseason Training Camp September, World Cup October November December January February Trade Deadline March/April Houston Satellites Season 4, 2022-23 Preseason Training Camp September, World Cup October November December January February Trade Deadline March/April, Regular Season Wrap-Up Playoffs, Round One Playoffs, Round Two Season Wrap-Up Retirements/Draft/Hall Of Fame Re-Sign/Free Agency Houston Satellites Season 3, 2021-22 Preseason Training Camp Season Preview, Year 3 World Cup October November December January February Trade Deadline March/April Regular Season Wrap-up Playoffs Round One Playoffs Round Two Playoffs Round Three Legacy Cup Finals Season Wrap-up 2022 Draft Contract Renewals Free Agency Houston Satellites Season 2, 2020-21 Season Preview, Year 2 World Cup October November December January February Trade Deadline March/April Regular Season Wrap-up Playoffs Round One Postseason Results Season Wrap-up 2021 Draft Re-Sign/Free Agency Houston Satellites Season 1, 2019-20 Season Preview, Year 1 October November December January February Trade Deadline March/April Regular Season Wrap-up Playoffs Round One Season Wrap-up 2020 Draft Current Roster Forwards pre:Tuukka Ahonen RW Power Fwd 22 77 Top 9 Finland Robert Baranka C Two Way 29 82 Top 6 Czechia Anders Brown LW Playmaker 27 82 Top 9 USA Tim Finnigan C Sniper 31 88 Elite Canada Alexandre Fotiu LW Two Way 25 80 4thLn Canada Trent Fredheim C Two Way 25 87 Top 6 USA Dicks Glynnensteins LW Power Fwd 34 87 Elite Latvia Andreas Johansson LW Sniper 28 82 Top 9 Sweden Sergei Kuleshov C Two Way 22 78 Top 9 Russia Sebastien Kuznetsov RW Playmaker 30 80 Top 9 Switzerland Raimo Laine LW Sniper 26 85 Top 9 Finland Todd Luongo C Two Way 23 85 Top 6 Canada Scott Meighan C Playmaker 27 87 Elite Canada Tyler Taffe RW Sniper 31 84 Top 6 Canada pre:Jacob Baker RD Two Way 23 84 Top 6 Canada Markus Javanainen LD Two Way 24 92 Elite Finland Jere Maki RD Offensive 27 88 Top 4 Finland Jeff Peters RD Two Way 36 85 Top 4 USA Marcus Petersson LD Defensive 27 86 Top 4 Sweden Tracy Simpson LD Two Way 22 87 Top 4 USA pre:Kaden Fischer G 25 78 Backup Hungary Jason Sauer G 24 86 Starter USA   Current Standings  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Jan 17, 2024 |
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Sep 25, 2020 14:26
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San Jose Monitor - Tuesday, September 1, 2024 Sharks Season Preview  General Manager: Phineas Goonson Head Coach: J.J. Thornton The San Jose Sharks enter this season just one year removed from winning the Legacy Championship, and having won it twice in the past four years (bookending Toronto, who won back-to-back in '21 and '22). After a down season and a disappointing first-round exit in 6 games to eventual 2024 champions Calgary, the Sharks are hungry for a bigger bite of the playoffs this year. Goal scoring seemed to be their biggest weakness last year: despite having a .920 SVP and 6 shutouts, starting Goalie Matthew Guerard ended the season with only 36 wins in 64 games. It certainly didn't help that 26 year old backup Jaroslav Pilar, once presumed to be the starter of the future, seems to have stagnated. An 8-10 record with an .889 SVP and a 3.71 GAA isn't going to cut it. With the 34 year old Guerard on the last year of his contract, GM Goonson will have to make a decision on the future of the team's crease soon. Key Players:  Lou Lacombe | C | 35 | Sniper 3 YR $8M | Canada | 6'1", 200 Logan Couture, Elite, 86 86 85 Among active players, he leads in playoff games played (189), and is second in playoff goals (75) and fourth in playoff points (157). His 28-30-58 centering the first line was good enough for third among forwards in points, although he went from +20 in '23 to -16 last year. 1-1-2 and a -5 in 6 playoff games last year, although remember: he's just one year removed from 14-11-25 in 24 games and Playoff MVP.  Eric Laxton | LW | 33 | Sniper 1 YR $7M | Canada | 6'2", 210 Evander Kane, Top 6, 85 87 83 Led forwards last year in points with 30-33-63. Has played mostly on the second line since 18/19 (16:05 ATOI last year), although it looks like he'll start this year on the first, with Lacombe moving down to center the second. Did not play in the playoffs last year due to injury.  Tod Kaminsky | RW | 27 | Sniper 5 YR $7.305M | Switzerland | 6'0" 210 Timo Meier, Top 6, 87 87 87 Likely the best overall forward on the team, he only managed 24-29-53 and a -9 on the first line last year, after 71 points and a +14 on the second line in 22/23. Given his young age and the fact that the entire team had a downturn last year, it's likely not a concern. 1-2-3, -5 in 6 playoff games, although it wasn't for lack of trying: he had 21 SOG.  Elias Sjoberg | D | 34 | Offensive 3 YR $11.5M | Sweden | 6'0", 190 Erik Karlsson, Elite, 90 92 88 11-56-67 off the back of an incredible 266 SOG was good enough to lead the team in points, although his defensive game suffered like everyone else's: only a +5 last year, down from +37 in 22/23. His 2-2-4, -2, 15 SOG in 6 playoff games wasn't enough to drag the team to the second round.  Matt Evans | D | 30 | Two Way 3 YR $7.75M | Canada | 6'1", 221 Morgan Rielly, Elite, 87 87 87 Fans may salivate at the thought of another 70+ point season (18/19), but last year's 11-25-36 is more in line with his usual results (in fact, he hasn't hit 50 points since that career year). His +/- was identical to Sjoberg's, going from a more typical +37 in 22/23 to only +5 last year. Starting Lines:   Young Guns:  Derek Sykes | C | 24 | Power Forward 1 YR $675K | USA | 6'2", 209 Medium Top 6, 83 83 82 Drafted first round #30 overall in '20, Sykes hasn't found a home in the top 6 like he had hoped by now, but he still racked up 9-12-21 and a +13 in his first GHL season while bouncing between the third and fourth lines. If that was his contribution to a team having a bad season, here's hoping he can take advantage of the opportunity of playing with Lacombe on the second line this year. 23 year old Roman Rozsival medium Top 4 and 24 year old Ron Lemieux low Elite, both Defensemen, will start the season with the big club, likely mixing around in the 5/6/7 spots. Johan Olvestad medium Elite, 2023's second round pick (#59), has impressed the team with his improvement, but the young Defenseman will nonetheless play in the Minors this year. Last year's highest draft pick was Jame Gray, a Goalie picked in the second round, #50 overall. The scouts say he has amazing medium Elite potential, but the 6'1" 19 year old will start the season unsigned and playing in Juniors.
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Sep 25, 2020 14:27
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Sharks Monthly Rewind October 2024  The Sharks' season got off to an inauspicious start with a 4-0 shutout at the hands of Philadelphia. Things didn't get much better, being out-scored 14 to 6 over their next three games. It took overtime against Montreal on 10/17 to pick up their first win, with RW Tod Kaminsky scoring with 3 seconds left in the game. Coach Thornton made a small adjustment, substituting Bill Faubert for Dean Ribeiro on the 2nd defensive pair, leading to a 2-1 OT loss to New Jersey and a 5-1 win over the Islanders. A 7-5 loss to Boston on 10/26 looked closer than it actually was, thanks to three third-period San Jose goals. Thornton made more changes, moving Lou Lacombe up to 1st line Left Wing and Eric Laxton down to the 2nd. He also dressed Anssi Armia for 3rd line Center, and Bill Daze came in at 4th line Left Wing. Roman Rozsival injured his foot in the 3-2 loss to Buffalo on 10/28, putting him on a 3-week timeline for recovery. Eric Brophy received the call-up and moved directly into the 3rd D pair. He acquitted himself well, managing to be +1 in the 3-1 loss to Toronto that closed out a painful month for the Sharks. Standings after 11 games: 2-8-1, 5 points. 8th Northwest Division, 30th Overall. Analysis: First, the good (this shouldn't take long): Lacombe with two goals, four assists, a plus four, and 40 shots on goal in 11 games... and that's about it. While six other players have five or more points (Sjoberg leads with 1-7-8), Lacombe and Brophy (+1 in 1 game) are the only plus players on the entire team! While everyone had a bad month, though, Laxton stands out as the worst of it. Zero goals, three assists, and a minus 10 in 11 games would be terrible for a fourth liner, let alone someone getting top six ice time. If the team wants any hope of salvaging this season, they'll have to make a move in net early. Guerard has seemingly fallen off a cliff, with one win, seven losses, and an .887. Pilar actually wasn't that bad in his limited time (1-2, .906), but can you trust your team to a guy who's a career .899 over 57 games? Month 1 Stats  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Oct 7, 2020 |
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Sep 25, 2020 15:20
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Is it possible to recreate Ron Hextall? Not exactly. It's possible to create custom players and add them to a team, but you have to do that before you start a new save file. Same with editing players already on the roster. If we had enough interest, though, I would be fine with restarting a new team with goon players instead.
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Sep 26, 2020 01:55
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 Sharks' Goaltending Woes Leave Them In A Pinch posted by Lester Lancaster, 10/31/24 0832PST First off, let me be clear: I'm not laying the blame for the Sharks' rough start solely at the feet of our goalies. I think something was rotten in the chumbucket, if you know what I mean, because the whole team's been in a funk. That being said, we can't ignore the obvious. Matt Guerard has not lived up to his contract, or his job as the starter. He was fantastic last year, with a .920 that was his best since his first year in the league (13/14 with LA, he had a .934 in 19 games). Could it just be age? When the Sharks brought him back on a 1 year, $4.121M contract at age 34, you have to figure they at least considered the possibility of him slipping. Whatever his problem is, it's happened to him once before: In 18/19 he had an .896 in 62 games. Ironically, he ended up with the same number of wins that year (36) as he did last year with a .920! Hmm, maybe it's not his fault after all... In any case, we here at WTTT have done our due diligence and examined the goaltending situation around the GHL. First things first, forget Free Agency. There's no one available that I'd be comfortable with trusting even as a backup, let alone a starter. So let's look at trades. About 18 teams, or almost 2/3 of the league, could improve their crease greatly by trading for Guerard and using him as a backup. If they believe that the problem is more about the players in front of him, a trade could turn out to be a steal for somebody. Within those teams, a full 10 could even improve their starter (again, assuming Guerard turns it around in a new city). And being on the last year of his contract, that's a low-risk option for a team low in the standings who've got a young goalie close to being GHL-ready. Detroit's next to last in the East, and with their forward corps they should be near the top of the heap. Or Minnesota, for example, is lurking just outside of a playoff spot with a perfectly average team all around. Los Angeles is somehow third in the West with two backup-quality goalies, but maybe they know their luck could soon run out. Edmonton is in a playoff spot with two lousy goalies, but it's the second wildcard and there's four teams behind them that could pass them with a single win. Vegas is running two replacement-level goalies, and they don't even have a single goalie prospect in their organization. The problem, of course, is that a team with lousy goaltending isn't gonna have someone to send back our way to take Guerard's spot. So this would have to be a multi-team deal, sending Guerard one way and finding his replacement elsewhere. Buffalo and the Rangers both have GHL-capable goalies languishing in the minors. Buffalo might be convinced to sell high on Dominik Balej 82 Starter, 32 with 2 years left at $2.587M. He’s 5-0 with a .952 this year, but he’s a career .907 in 256 games. With a younger cheaper starter signed for next year and a 21 year old ready to make the jump, Balej is the odd man out. The Rangers are set for a starter, but have 28 year old Ivan Kravets 81 Elite (3-1, .917) playing backup on the last year of a $1.066M deal, and 23 year old Keith Farkas 80 medium Backup in the minors, although in his only GHL season he went 7-17 with a .900. The final option, of course, is to do nothing. Whether you think Guerard can turn it around, or you want management not to chase another early playoff exit at the expense of high picks, there's something to be said for letting Guerard play out his contract and waiting for 24 year old Gerry Kariya 79 medium Low Starter, 20 year old Jean Carter 77 medium Low Starter, or 19 year old Jame Gray 75 medium Elite to mature. WTTT’s final suggestion? Move Guerard for a bonafide top 6 forward while people still want him, and his replacement (even if they’re not as good as G) should at least give us league-average results. Brettbot fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Sep 29, 2020 |
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Sep 27, 2020 02:03
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From: GHL Headquarters 10/31/24 2:15 PM The San Jose Sharks announced today that they have traded G Matthew Guerard, D Martin Michalek, a 2024 4th round pick, and a 2025 4th round pick to the Detroit Red Wings for RW Dody Harrington Top 6 Playmaker, 86 87 85. "Matt has been a key part of our team for years, and we wish him well in Detroit." said Sharks GM Goonson. "But we are focused on making the postseason, and we think Dody will be a major contributor to our future success." Harrington, 26, was 0-2-2 and +1 in 12 games, playing on Detroit's third line. He was drafted in the 4th round (#121) by Ottawa in 2017. Michalek, 23 76 medium Top 6, was drafted in the 2nd round (#53) by Arizona in 2021. He signed with San Jose as a free agent and had yet to appear in a GHL game.  Dody Harrington Sharks Monthly Rewind November 2024 Things seemed to get off to a poor start after the big trade. Pilar, with 24 year old Gerry Kariya backing him up, had an .866 in the first two games of the month, losing 3-2 and 4-3. The team's luck seemed to turn around after that, though, and the Sharks won the next three games in a row, including a 3-2 victory over Vancouver on 11/11. Coming into the third period tied at 0, Kaminsky scored just 45 seconds in, assisted by Harrington for his point with the Sharks. Zanussi and Evans also scored, and by halfway through the final period it was 3-0 San Jose. Vancouver scored twice in a minute and a half to put a scare into the Sharks, but they held on for the final 2:30 to take the victory. Ken Miller injured his ankle in the game against Los Angeles on 11/12, and would be out for 2 weeks. Peter Nikitin would move up to the second line to take his place. Kariya finally got his chance to start a GHL game on 11/16 against Florida. His teammates made sure he felt supported, scoring 8 goals from 5 different players, including a hat trick for Kaminsky. Sjoberg had three assists as well. Kariya faced 33 shots in total and stopped them all for a shutout in his first pro appearance. Rozsival was officially activated from the IR and played in the 5-4 OT win over Boston on 11/18. Sjoberg scored his 200th career goal at 13:15 in the second. A trio of Boston goals in the third sent the game to overtime, but Lacombe ended it on the first official shot of the extra frame. A 4-3 victory over Anaheim on 11/20 would come with a steep cost, as Laxton would injure his Achilles and be placed on IR for approximately 3 and a half months. Zanussi moved into the opening left by the injured sniper. Harrington would score his first goal for San Jose on 11/22 in a 4-2 victory over Arizona. Kariya couldn't keep the magic going versus Vegas on 11/24, giving up three goals in the first period of a 3-2 loss. Even after the .893 that night, he still had a .953 and 1.50 GAA on the season. Pilar didn't fare any better on the next night of the back-to-back, giving up 6 goals on 29 shots for a .793. He probably should have been pulled after he gave up 2 goals in the first 20 seconds of the third period, but perhaps Coach Thornton was trying to send a message. The Sharks would score three goals in the last 7:30 of the game, but come up one shy in a 6-5 loss. Miller returned in time for the final game of the month on 11/28 versus Philadelphia. He also scored the first goal of the game, unassisted. Down 3-1 in the third, he scored the second and assisted on the third to send the game to OT. 35 year old Clay Bureau, playing in just his second game of the year for the Flyers, scored the overtime winner. This month: 7-4-1 Standings after 23 games: 9-12-2, 20 points. 6th North West, 27th Overall. Analysis: A huge turnaround from the first month. Agree with it or not, that trade accomplished its mission: a genuine playmaker on the first line got his linemates going and bumped everybody else down, giving them easier matchups. Detroit had no GHL-bound defensive prospects over 20 and no spare defenders between ages 20 and 29 at all, so they could use a player like Michalek. They also have no first this year and no first, fourth, fifth, or seventh next year, so they needed a refill on picks. Lacombe is really going since he moved up to the first line, 5-6-11 +4 and 40 SOG in 12 games this month. Zanussi (6-6-12 +6 33 SOG) and Nikitin (7-7-14 +8 15 SOG) are holding their own on the second line. Sykes is 5-5-10 +12 27 SOG centering the third. The focus among forwards now is the fourth line. Helander and Dineen are -8, Sauer is -6. But considering they started the month around -5, it's not a major concern yet. On defense this month, Sjoberg (4-12-16 +11 28 SOG) and Evans (1-9-10 +11 33 SOG) continue to be a formidable pair. The middle pair has been fine with Faubert (1-1-2 +3) and Bordeleau (0-5-5 +3), although their stats still look rough overall after that first bad month. The bottom pair was unsteady thanks to lackluster peformances by Brophy (0P -3 in 12GP), Lemieux (0P -2 in 6GP), and Rozsival (0P -1 1SOG in 6GP). At the end of the month, Rozsival was sent down and Ribiero was called back up from the minors to try some new combos on the backend. Goaltending is still an ongoing question. Pilar went 6-3-0 as a starter this month, improving his GAA slightly (3.31 vs 3.33) but degrading his SVP (.906 to .900). Kariya is 1-1-1 with a .931, but that is inflated by his shutout first game. He was roughly an .888 goalie otherwise. A further trade to solidify the crease would be ideal, but there doesn't seem to be any good options out there. For those keeping track at home, by the way, Guerard is 9-4 with a .926 in Detroit, taking them from 8th in their division to 6th, 1 point out of a wildcard spot. Month 2 Stats  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Oct 5, 2020 |
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Sep 28, 2020 01:05
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Sharks Monthly Rewind December 2024 The month started with a back-to-back against Florida and Tampa Bay. Kaminsky led the way with a goal and two assists in a 6-2 win against the Panthers. Kariya cost the Sharks the next game against the Lightning with a brutal .682 on 22 shots. He had plenty of scoring support, and the Sharks were up 3-1, 4-3, and 6-4 before giving up three unanswered in the last ten minutes of the game. Stefan Traverse Steven Stamkos had a hat trick and Olander Prusek Ondrej Palat had 3 assists for the Lightning. The next game, against Washington on 12/4, would be a 1-0 win off the back of Bordeleau's first goal of the season. This was Pilar's first shutout of his career. In the 4-3 OT win over Ottawa on 12/9, Daze would tie the game at 2 in the last minute of the first, then tie the game at 3 with 3:40 left in the third before Svoboda potted the game-winner in overtime. After giving up two goals in the first five minutes, Kariya locked it down on 12/10 against Minnesota, ending with 30 saves on 33 shots for a .909 in another 4-3 OT win. The third back-to-back of the month came against Calgary and Vancouver. Kariya had a .909 and Lacombe had 7 SOG but nothing to show for it in the 3-1 loss against Calgary. Pilar had even worse luck, putting up a .943 on 35 shots and still losing to the Canucks, 2-1. Ribeiro, recently moved up to the second D pair, scored his first goal of the season (also his first point). He had 24 points last year. Brophy came back into the lineup, playing on the third D pair, and scored the first goal of his career in a 6-3 loss to Edmonton on 12/18. Miller was moved up to the second line in place of Nikitin to help solidify their defense after the loss to Edmonton, but it was all offense after he opened the scoring in the 5-0 win over Vancouver on 12/21. His line had 8 points (Miller 1-0-1, Svoboda 0-3-3, Zanussi 2-2-4). Evans had a goal and two assists, and Pilar got his second shutout of the season. The Sharks closed out the year with a 7-3 win over Dallas on New Year's Eve. Dallas scored 3 goals in the first, but once Daze scored four minutes into the second the floodgates were open. Evans, Dineen, and Helander all had 3 points. This month: 7-6-0 Standings after 36 games: 16-18-2, 34 points. 8th North West, 27th Overall. Analysis: This month had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. After winning 5 out of the first 6, they turned around and lost 5 out of the next 6. The Sharks are doing themselves no favors, but they are lucky by being in a weak division. They're only 5 points behind the Kings, who are third in the North West. There's still time to salvage this season. Pilar seems to have found his footing, going 6-3 with a .923 this month. Perhaps all he needed to flourish after three straight years as a faltering backup was to have the role of starter forcibly thrust upon him... or perhaps the stress will catch up with him eventually, only time will tell. Kariya went 1-3, and his save percentage yo-yoed as he had one terrible game, two good games, then one bad game to end the month under .900. Expect another goalie trade soon as GM Goonson tries desperately to improve his backup goaltending, even just a little. The defensive carousel continued, as Lemieux was sent down at the end of a month after only having one assist and going -4 in 8 GP. Rozsival got the call up and should start next month on the second pair, trying to cover defensively for Bordeleau. Daze led the team this month with 6 goals, Evans with 11 assists and 14 points, and Evans and Sjoberg were both +10. Harrington is 2-17-19 and +4 in 25 games since being traded to San Jose. Guerard is now 12-10 and a .914 in Detroit. Month 3 Stats  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Oct 5, 2020 |
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Sep 30, 2020 01:05
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From: GHL Headquarters 01/01/25 10:15 AM The San Jose Sharks announced today that they have traded G Niklas Jonsson, C Adam Taglianetti, and RW Ken Stoner to the New York Rangers for G Ivan Kravets Igor Shestyorkin 81 Elite. Kravets, 29, has an 8-7 record with an .897 SVP this year, and is 82-111 with a .902 SVP in his career. He was drafted by the Rangers in the 4th round (#121) in 2014. Jonsson, 19, medium Backup was drafted by San Jose in the 6th round (#174) in 2024. Taglianetti, 25, 78 medium Top 9 was drafted by San Jose in the 6th round (#185) in 2017. Stoner, 24, 77 medium Top 9 was drafted by Edmonton in the 3rd round (#67) in 2020. He signed with San Jose as a free agent in 2021. All three had yet to play a GHL game.  Ivan Kravets Sharks Monthly Rewind January 2025 First off, the month started with another trade. Kravets was once viewed as the future of the Rangers crease, but never lived up to his potential. His best season was his second (20/21), going 15-18 with a 2.93 GAA and .906 SVP with 4 shutouts. With a younger, better starter signed for the next 4 years and an even younger GHL-ready backup stuck in the minors, the Rangers had no need for Kravets any more. What New York does need is reliable forward prospects. While their young defensemen are a respectable lot, almost all of their youth forwards are longshots, 4th line/depth guys, or both. Taglianetti and Stoner are now their two best forward prospects overall. Jonsson was nothing special, not expected to be a full-time starter, but he's only 19 so the Rangers have plenty of time to wait and see. Sjoberg and Kaminsky combined for 13 shots against Montreal on 1/2, but they scored only 2 goals and it wound up a 4-3 loss. Sjoberg had another 6 shots against Toronto on 1/4 but went scoreless, while Kaminsky had only 2 shots but scored on both of them in the 6-2 win. Kravets got his first start for the Sharks against Ottawa on 01/5, taking a hard-luck 2-1 loss despite a .920 SVP. Back-to-back wins against the Kings and Coyotes on 1/15 and 16 were huge for the Sharks, catapulting them from 8th to 5th in their division. Kravets had a .964 and Zanussi scored 2 goals on 8 shots in the 5-1 win over Arizona. Unfortunately Rozsival hurt his jaw in the game, and would be out for almost 3 weeks. Brophy would take his spot on the second pair. A 3-0 shutout loss to Anaheim on 1/21 came on the second night of another back-to-back, and in the middle of a 4 game 0-3-1 losing streak that knocked San Jose back to 8th in their closely-contested division. Faubert would move up to the second D pair. A 7-1 win over the Rangers on 1/25 at least helped them feel better, even if it didn't help them in the standings. Bordeleau and Lacombe had 2 goals each. The Sharks closed the month with another back-to-back, resulting in a pair of losses. A 5-4 OT loss to Pittsburgh (interestingly, an identical result to the last time they faced the Penguins earlier this month), and a 6-2 drubbing at the hands of the Red Wings featured five unanswered goals to start the game before Zanussi scored a pair in the third period. Former Shark Guerard walked away from the game with a .935, compared to Kravets' .793. This month: 5-7-2 Standings after 50 games: 21-25-4, 46 points. 8th North West, 25th Overall. Analysis: Another tough month for the Sharks. They got hot at the right time to give themselves hope, then blew it at the end of the month. Defense is their weak spot: aside from the top pairing (+23) and Faubert (+3), the rest of the defense is all minus. Most egregiously, Ribeiro 4P -11, Lemieux 3P -10, Brophy 1P -10, Rozsival 2P -5. These are all young players, sure, but the Sharks likely cost themselves a playoff spot by relying on too many youngsters at once. Not that the forwards can escape some blame. Miller is +13, Sykes is +11, no one else on the forward corps is over +4. Pilar is putting up the best season of his career with a .909, basically legit starter numbers in the GHL, yet is only 17-14. Kravets had a .905, yet had only 1 win in 4 games. The 2-1 or 1-0 tough loss is rare: when they hold opponents to 3 or fewer goals, they win. When they give up 4 or 5 or 6, they lose. Not hard to understand. That being said, Goal Differential is usually a good measure of where teams will end up in the standings, roughly speaking. The best team (St. Louis) has a +37, the worst team in the league (Columbus) has a -51. The Sharks are currently a +4, and if the league were sorted by Goal Differential, they would be 11th in the league, not 25th! There are teams ahead of them that are as low as -32! So whether those teams are getting lucky or the Sharks have been unlucky, this team is not as bad at "score more goals than the other team" as it might seem. Harrington's stat line with the Sharks so far: 4-27-31, -1 in 39 GP. Guerard is 15-15 with a .916 for the Red Wings. Did GM Goonson give up on him too soon? Even though he's slowed down from his blazing hot start in Detroit, it sure would be nice to have that save percentage in San Jose right about now… Unless things go just right for the Sharks (and just wrong for everybody ahead of them) in the next month, they're going to have some tough decisions to make when the trade deadline comes up at the end of the month. They've got just over $9 million in cap space, but they'll almost certainly be better off not spending it. Should they move Laxton? He's 33 and injury-prone, but he's also a top 6 forward who's on the last year of a $7 million contract. He could probably fetch a first-rounder. Lacombe has 2 years left on his contract after this year, but he's also 35 and could be thinking about retirement. To lose two top 6 snipers in one year would definitively set the team into rebuild mode. The Sharks have their first, second, two thirds (Minnesota), a sixth, and a seventh in the upcoming draft. Month 4 Stats  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 1, 2020 19:38
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Sharks Monthly Rewind February 2025 On 2/1, the Sharks announced that they had signed Power Forward RW Marty Trudel 75 70 79 medium Top 9 to a 3-year, $925K contract. Trudel, 23, was drafted in the 6th round (#168) by Dallas in 2020. He played out his Entry Level Contract with the Stars without appearing in a GHL game. The month started off with a 5-2 loss to last-place Columbus on 2/2. Nikitin scored both goals. Rozsival came back from injury after the first game and took his place on the second pair. Sauer scored just nine seconds into the game vs. Colorado on 2/6, but what seemed like a good omen was for naught, as it would end up a 4-2 loss. After a 4-3 loss to Vegas on 2/8, Rozsival was moved down to the third pair. He had 0 P and went -6 in 3 games. Back-to-back games against Edmonton and Anaheim on 2/10 and 11 resulted in two more regulation losses. After 7 losses on a row, the Sharks finally got their first point of the month with a 4-3 OT loss to Vancouver. Up 3-0 entering the third, Jordie Drury J.T. Miller scored a natural hat trick for the Canucks to tie the game. Apparently inspired by earning a point, the Sharks picked up their first win of the month on 2/18, 3-1 over Dallas. Zanussi had a goal and two assists, and Sjoberg had three assists but no goals on 9 SOG. Kravets earned the W with a .966 on 29 shots. Dineen kept the good times rolling by scoring 2 goals in the 4-2 win over St. Louis on 2/20. Pilar picked up his first win of the month. After that, unfortunately, it was back to losing with back-to-back losses against Nashville and Chicago. Rozsival would score his first career goal against the Blackhawks. Svoboda injured his hip in the 3-1 loss to Minnesota on 2/25, but he would only be out for about a week. Wild LW Mark Murdoch Marcus Foligno scored his 100th career goal in the game. The Sharks' final game of the month came against Edmonton on 2/27. They were up 3-1 after one period, but they gave up 3 unanswered to lose 4-3. This month: 2-11-1 Standings after 64 games: 23-36-5, 51 points. 8th North West, 30th Overall. Analysis: Well, that certainly wasn't the month anyone expected out of this team. Let's start at the beginning: Trudel is a defensive power forward, a fine minor league signing but nothing special. It continues GM Goonson's habit of signing middle-6 potential guys who never made it with their draft teams, but still have a couple of years left to figure it out. If nothing else, he provides depth or a future throw-in to a trade. Rumor has it that Florida tried to trade their first-round pick for Bordeleau at the start of the month, but the Panthers were so close to the salary cap that a deal couldn't be worked out. I'm sure San Jose's GM is still wishing he could've made it work because, despite a decent performance, Florida is 9 points out of a playoff spot and finished the month in 22nd place overall. It turns out that losing to the last-place Blue Jackets was a harbinger of things to come, as the Sharks lost 7 games in a row to start the month. They gave up at least 4 goals in every game, while never scoring more than 3 themselves. Their 2-0-1 stretch after Valentine's Day was the best that things got all month. Or, depending on how you look at it, a minor speed bump in their race to the bottom with Columbus. Sharks Head Coach Thornton insists that the team isn't trying to tank, but they couldn't have done a much better job if they were… Another 0-4 streak closed out the month, and the trade deadline looms tomorrow, March 1st. Both Anaheim and Nashville were reportedly interested in Laxton, although neither of them have a first in this year's draft, offering next year's instead. Interesting side note: Columbus is in last place, but they only have their fifth and seventh in this upcoming draft. Talk about mismanagement of assets! Buffalo (3rd in the league) has the Columbus first, as well as their own and Chicago's. Month 5 Stats  
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Oct 5, 2020 00:59
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 Trade Deadline Report The day started off with the big trade: San Jose gives: LW Eric Laxton D Paul Robertson Carolina gives: 2025 1st round pick (EDM) It was the trade everyone expected to happen. Laxton, 33, had been limited to just 19 games this year due to injury (2-6-8 and -10). With their record cratering and Laxton likely seeking a raise from his current $7M contract, the Sharks decided to move him to a contender. Robertson, 20, 64 medium 7th D was a 7th-round pick for San Jose in 2024. Scouts say he's a future bottom-pairing D man, just a throw-in to sweeten the deal slightly. Edmonton is 15th in the league and 2nd in their division so, barring their total collapse, Carolina isn't giving up a lottery pick. San Jose gives: D Chris Bordeleau New York Islanders give: 2025 1st round pick Bordeleau Colin Miller , 32, had 5-14-19 and was a -19 in 64 GP, and was on the last year of a $4.595M contract. He fits in on the Islanders' second pair, and should allow them to use 33 year old Mike Carbonneau Mark Pysyk (2-0-2 in 64GP) as a 7th Defenseman. The Islanders are 2nd in their division, 5th in the league, so their 1st will be a late pick. San Jose gives: G Ivan Kravets D Bill Faubert 2026 6th round pick Nashville gives: 2025 2nd round pick 2026 4th round pick Kravets, 29, was basically a mid-season rental for the Sharks, just meant to hold the line while the young goalies continued to mature. Despite performing admirably (.902 SVP), the team let him down, and he's better than his 2-6 win/loss record looks. Nashville was running 38 year old Chris Bellefeuille Cory Schneider 78 Elite as a backup, who went 6-10 with an .885 and 3.80 GAA. Faubert Brenden Dillon , 34, had 5-8-13 and was a -7 in 59 GP, and will slot in to Nashville's third pair. He was on the last year of a $4.055M contract. The Predators are currently in the second wildcard spot in the West (16th overall), 2 points ahead of Winnipeg with a game in hand. San Jose also announced the signing of two players: LW sniper Brett Larocque, 23, 76 78 74 low Top 6 signed a three-year, $785K contract. Larocque was a first-round pick (#29) by Anaheim in 2019. C sniper Milos Sivek, 22, 73 76 70 medium Top 9 signed a three-year, $740K contract. Sivek was a third-round pick (#85) by St. Louis in 2022. The Sharks' prospect pool is mostly full of playmakers and two-way players. San Jose is nowhere near the contract limit, so these signings will hopefully add some goal-scoring for the future. Around The League Nashville acquired 35 year old LW Josh Raymond Jamie Benn 87 Elite from Dallas in exchange for a 1st, a 2nd, and 37 year old D Mike Corbet Marc-Edouard Vlasic 82 Elite. Corbet, the former Shark (2020 Legacy Cup Champion), was traded to Ottawa after the 21/22 season and still has 2 years left at $7M per. After a painful 23/24 on a dreadful Senators team where he had 1 goal, 0 assists, and was -38, most thought he'd retire. But he came back this year and had 1-3-4 and is only -4 in 53GP, and his reward was being flipped to Nashville two weeks before the trade deadline, only to be flipped again to Dallas as teams play Hot Potato with his contract.
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Oct 7, 2020 03:34
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Sharks Monthly Rewind March 2025 After the excitement of Trade Deadline day, the Sharks still had a game that night. A 6-2 victory over Chicago came from six different goal-scorers, including 13th forward Bobrovsky coming off the bench to get his first goal of the season in 23 GP. Svoboda would return from injury on 3/2, pushing Bobrovsky back out of the lineup. Sykes had a pair of goals in the 4-3 win over last-place Columbus on 3/4. It took overtime, but the Sharks beat St. Louis 3-2 on 3/8. Lacombe scored the game-winner. The 6-5 win over Washington on 3/10 was a nail-biter. Up 5-1 entering the third, the Sharks gave up a goal 30 seconds into the period. Miller scored what would turn out to be the game-winner a minute later, before they gave up three more goals, narrowly avoiding defeat. Evans had 1 assist and 7 SOG. San Jose’s first loss of the month came against Detroit, 3-2 on 3/12. This was also Kariya’s first start of the month. Another victory came against Edmonton on 3/14. Lacombe had a pair of goals, Harrington had 4 assists, and Ribeiro and Sjoberg scored in the third period to ensure the 4-3 win. Kariya got another start on 3/16 against Calgary and, despite a .909, picked up his (and the team’s) second loss of the month, 3-2. Pilar didn’t fare any better the next day against Vancouver, as he had an .800 SVP in the 6-1 loss. Only Miller kept the game from being a shutout. Another pair of losses followed, a 4-0 shutout to New Jersey and a 3-2 loss to Vegas. Pilar reversed the team’s fortunes on 3/24 with a .971 on 35 shots, leading to a 2-1 victory over Calgary. Sauer would injure his back in the game, being placed on IR for the rest of the season. Bobrovsky returned to the lineup. Kariya picked up another loss on the first night of a back-to-back, a 5-4 OT loss to Chicago. Down 4-3 in the third, Harrington scored with three minutes left to tie the game, but the Sharks would be outshot 5-1 in OT until one squeaked through Kariya to end the game. The next night was a different story, as Harrington had 2-1-3, Kaminsky had 1-2-3, and Pilar picked up another win, 5-3 over St. Louis. Harrington would receive what team doctors described as a “minor facial fracture” in the 3-2 OT loss to Nashville on 3/29 and be placed on IR for a week. Armia would come in to center the 4th line. Dineen scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Vegas, and Pilar had the shutout on 28 shots. Svoboda hurt his finger and would be out for a few days. 25 year old Two-Way LW Rasmus Lahti 79 76 81 medium Top 9 would get the call-up. Pilar had a .935 and Kaminsky had 6 SOG, but the Sharks were shut out 2-0 on 4/3 by Dallas. Svoboda and Harrington would return on 4/5, so Lahti was sent back down with 1 SOG and an even +/-. Coming into the third down 6-1, Daze, Bobrovsky, and Nikitin would score, but it wasn’t enough as the Sharks racked up another loss, 6-4 to Colorado. Kariya got the final start of the season on 4/7 against Minnesota. Lacombe had 2 goals, Kariya put up a .935, and Evans had 2-2-4 and 6 SOG in the 5-2 win. One of the goals was Evans’ 100th of his career (now 101-406-507 +130 in 922 GP). This month: 9-7-2 Final standings after 82 games: 32-43-7, 71 points. 7th North West, 30th Overall. Analysis Well, this was a surprisingly great month, considering they sold off several key pieces. Overall, this certainly wasn't the year the Sharks hoped for. They went through some hot and cold streaks, but unfortunately for them, the cold streaks lasted longer than the hot ones. The Sharks looked like a bizarre team this year: The top defensive pair blew everybody away, while the rest of the defense was middling-to-bad. The first line looked pretty lousy, but the middle six had a great year, and the fourth line held their own. The goalies didn't look great, but that's so dependent on the players in front of them that it's hard to make a judgement on them overall. Management seems to have reloaded heavily, though, in order to give the veterans on this team another shot at a championship. Three first-round picks this year (including what will hopefully be the second overall) might give them what they need to make the most of the top line and top pairing's next few years. Looking around the league, Columbus went on a tear somehow and climbed out of the basement to pass Vegas and San Jose for 29th. This is rather pointless, of course, but at least they hurt Buffalo's chances at the first-overall pick. The Oilers and Islanders stayed where they were, so the extra picks San Jose picked up didn't move. Nashville's trade deadline moves failed to work out for them, though, as they fell from second to sixth in the Wildcard race and missed the playoffs entirely. Carolina was a little "luckier", falling from the top of their division to the first Wildcard spot. Final Lineup   Final Stats   Final Standings  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 7, 2020 20:19
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Team Leaders Elias Sjoberg, 74 Points, 60 Assists, +34 Tod Kaminsky, 30 Goals Matt Evans, +34  Jaroslav Pilar, .901 SVP, 26 Wins Traded Away Matthew Guerard with Detroit: 27-26, .918, 2.78 GAA in 53 GP Eric Laxton with Carolina: 6-3-9, -2, 31 SOG in 14 GP Chris Bordeleau with Islanders: 5-4-9, +5, 29 SOG in 19 GP Bill Faubert with Nashville: 0-1-1, -3, 23 SOG in 17 GP Ivan Kravets with Nashville: 3-7, .897, 3.26 GAA in 10 GP Around The League Most Goals, Points, SOG: Mikhail Radulov, MTL: 52 Goals, 105 Points, 396 SOG Most Assists: Jean-Claude Dollas Jonathan Drouin, MTL: 76 Assists Best +/-: Scott Berry Shayne Gostisbehere, PHI: +48 Best SVP & GAA, Any GP: Paul Nash Pheonix Copley, WSH: .934 SVP, 2.40 GAA in 2 GP Best SVP, Min 10GP: Gary Hauser, MIN: .926 in 24 GP Best GAA, Min 10GP and Most Wins: Alexander Lyashenko Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL: 40 Wins, 2.52 GAA in 62 GP Most Shutouts: Jesper Wallstedt, OTT: 6 Shutouts Fewest PPG: Jaroslav Ruzicka, TOR: 0 G, 1 A in 82 GP Worst +/-: Scott Gove/David Bethel David Savard, CBJ: -48 Worst SVP, any GP: Petr Svoboda, PHI: .869 SVP in 4 GP Worst SVP, Min 10GP: Jason Gorence Jake Oettinger, DAL: .870 SVP in 18 GP Worst GAA: Keith Farkas, NYR: 4.29 GAA in 18 GP Worst Winning %: Paul O'Regan, ANA: 6-16 in 23 GP (.261 winning percentage)
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Oct 7, 2020 21:28
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Playoffs Round 1  Round 2  Round 3  Finals    Notable Playoff Performances Carolina RW Artem Petrov Andrei Svechnikov: 14-11-25 82SOG +14 in 23 GP Carolina LW Eric Laxton: 6-12-18 52SOG +5 in 23 GP Colorado D Bill Dupont Bowen Byram: 4-21-25 64SOG +10 in 21 GP. Boston D Chris Bergland Charlie McAvoy/ D Ted LaBarbera Torey Krug: 1-13-14 / 0-13-13, +24 in 16 GP. Carolina G Stan Lalor Spencer Knight: 16-7 .924 2.50GAA 1SO Boston G Tapio Pikkarainen Tuukka Rask: 10-6 .941 1.92GAA 3SO Chicago G Andreas Ekman Anton Forsberg: 2-0 .951 1.50GAA 0SO League Awards      Congratulations to Elias Sjoberg for winning Offensive Defenseman Of The Year and Defensive Defenseman Of The Year! This is his third Offensive Defenseman award, and his first Defensive Defenseman award. Retirements Former Shark Jeff Courteau Jamie McGinn, 36. Drafted by the Sharks in the 2nd round (#37) in 2006, he played 4 years for them before being moved at the 11/12 trade deadline to Colorado. He then played for five different teams in 7 years, with injuries limiting him to just 7 points in 19 games for the Panthers in 18/19. Looking like his career was over, he took all of 19/20 off before re-signing with the Sharks and, in a shocking comeback, had 31- and 35-point seasons in the Sharks' bottom six. Unfortunately, injuries caught up with him again in 22/23; he played only 26 games and was not considered part of the Sharks 2023 Legacy Championship Team. Signing with Tampa Bay, he managed 29- and 32-point seasons before finally retiring this year. Also retired: Evgeny Zholtok Evgeni Malkin, age 38, despite putting up 40-48-88 and +21 this season. The Pittsburgh center's career numbers: 597-874-1471 in 1339 GP. Carolina backup G Jack Girard James Reimer at 37, having finally earned a Legacy Cup. After putting up an .896 in 18 games in the regular season, he had 1 win and 1 loss with a .933 in the playoffs. Montreal G Colin Vachon Carey Price, 37. Despite making the finals last year, the Canadiens missed the playoffs entirely this year, and Vachon decided to hang them up. He had 532 Wins and a .919 in 986 career games. Boston G Tapio Pikkarainen, 38. After cruising through the first two rounds (5 games each), Boston ran into the eventual champions and lost in 6. Pikkarainen's .941 was the best for a starter in the playoffs, but somehow it wasn't enough. He had 471 Wins and a .919 in 858 career games. Draft Lottery   Dallas wins big, moving up from 7th to 2nd and bumping San Jose down to 4th. The season is now officially complete, and it's time for the GHL Entry Draft. Brettbot fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 12, 2020 01:38
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So here's a question: I see that people are reading this thread, but obviously nobody's commenting. Would you guys rather pick a new team? I can change the team names, colors, and logos. We could restart and "relocate" one team or make an entirely fake league. I can import a name pack to make all of the players real, or I can edit players to put anybody in the game. You could pick a team, or I can make you a free agent and see where you wind up. Let me know what's interesting before I start another season!
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Oct 12, 2020 02:43
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OK, so I want to restart this game, but I really want to get more participation this time. So I present to you, the all-new, revamped Goon Hockey League:  31 teams to choose from, so I want some votes! Who do we play as? And if you wanna create a player (Roster or Prospect), let me know and I'll add you to our team. First & Last Name and Position at a minimum, but I can edit player type, country of origin, age, height and weight, and more.
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Dec 22, 2020 01:34
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Satellites Season Preview Houston Herald Sunday, Sep 1, 2019  General Manager: Phineas Goonson Head Coach: Tex Rubinowitz When it comes to the Satellites’ forward corps, they’ve got a bona fide first line with Glynnensteins, Finnigan, and Voynov. Moger has the skill to play on the first line, too, but Coach Rubinowitz's hands are somewhat tied. The weakest link in the first line is the playmaking Russian on the right wing (no offense, Alex), but two snipers and a power forward might not be ideal for play style. So Moger will start at second line center, at least to begin the year. The wings on the second line, though, are questionable. Baranka, at 25, has probably reached his peak as a consistent 15-goal, 30-point man who would be better suited for the third line. Caron, the 2003 1st-round pick for Yellowknife, put up only 6-4-10 and was -16 in 31 games for them last year. The fact that he's technically a second-liner who only makes $1.5M was probably the reason Houston picked him up. The bottom six is nothing to write home about, although Laine, 22, and Buswell, 24, both had 22 points and 90+ SOG in around 60 games last year. On Defense, Abrahamsson is an elite offensive D-Man, and Javanainen will start the year on the top pair at only 20 years old, having scored 12-21-33 with a -14 in his first pro season. Lehto, 25, should acquit himself well on the second pair. He put up 11-21-32 and +14 last year, although that was with first-pair ice time. Maki, 23, has yet to take the next step and live up to his potential, although he'll surely be hoping to steal the other half of the second pair from Klementyev. In goal, 6'7" Whitmore had some eye-popping results last year, including a .934 SVP. Expect those numbers to come down this season, though, as even 33-year old Kazakh backup Vyshedkevich had an above-average .923 last year. The Satellites are definitely in Win Now Mode. GM Goonson has handed out some contracts which get questionable in the later years, obviously figuring that if they win a Legacy Cup or two now, all will be forgiven in 3-6 years. With only $2.168M in cap space, they don't have too much room to play with, should a trade become necessary. They do have some decent players in the pipeline, however: aside from youngsters already in the GHL like Laine and Javanainen, there's last year's first round pick (#13), playmaker Todd Luongo 74 OVR medium Top 6, and 2017's first rounder (#26) goalie Jason Sauer 70 OVR high Starter . Key Players  Tim Finnigan | C | 27 | Sniper 8 YR $9.85M | Canada | 6'1" 200 The 2010 2nd overall pick had 33-47-80 and a +17 last year. He then signed an 8 year extension and was named Captain. The Satellites have made it clear that they want to build around this young superstar sniper as the face of the franchise.  Dicks Glynnensteins | LW | 30 | Power Forward 6 YR $9.5M | Latvia | 6'3" 225 Although he had a slow year last season by his standards with only 27-26-53 and +14 in 78 GP, Glynnensteins usually averages 70+ points, so he's hoping for a bounce-back year. He's spent his entire career in Houston, picking up 649 P in 745 GP, and was named Alternate captain when Finnigan picked up the C at the end of last season.  Jarred Moger | C | 35 | Sniper 3 YR $7M | USA | 5'11" 190 Age doesn't seem to be slowing down Moger yet, as he had 38-26-64 in 75 games with Regina last season. Not bad for a 7th round pick (#194) from 2003. His skills should allow him to feast on weaker assignments and hopefully boost the rest of Houston's questionable second line. That contract could become an anchor sooner than later, though.  Jonas Abrahamsson | D | 27 | OFD 3 YR $4.25M | Sweden | 6'2" 180 The team's other Alternate, 10-35-45 and +6 in 64 GP last season. An elite player on a sweetheart of a deal for three more years, injuries are the only question in his game: he's only played a full 82 once (17/18), when he also set a career high for points with 67. The Satellites coaching staff is relying on him to take Markus Javanainen under his wing for at least one more season, and the young Finn couldn't ask for a better teacher.  Billy Whitmore | G | 32 4 YR $4.916M | USA | 6'7" 215 After an average first year with Houston (.916 SVP, 2.26 GAA), he set new career bests last year with a .934, 1.89, and 7 shutouts. A solid presence in net can steal games, so if he's anywhere near as good this year as last, the Satellites are in good hands. Preseason Lineup  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Dec 22, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2020 03:02
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Houston Monthly Rewind October 2019  The Satellites' started off the season at home on 10/05 against San Francisco. Down 1-0 to start the second period, Maki scored the team's first goal of the season on a rocket from the point less than two minutes into the period. Finnigan would assist on Maki's goal before adding two of his own, securing the 3-1 win. Voynov also had two assists, and Whitmore earned the win with a .969 on 32 shots. After the game it was straight onto the plane to play in Indianapolis the next night. Finnigan opened the scoring against the Hoggers in the first, and tied it at 2 with 30 seconds left in the second. Moger gave the Satellites the lead with his first of the season 1 minute into the third, and Glynnensteins picked up an insurance marker with 7 minutes left. Ryan Magnan scored his second of the game for Indianapolis with the goalie pulled, but Houston held on to win 4-3. Vyshedkevich got the start due to the back-to-back, picking up his first win of the season despite an .875 on 24 shots against. Finnigan again opened the scoring on 10/08 against Charlottetown. Laine and Voynov would both pick up their first goal of the season, leading to a 3-2 victory. The first loss of the season came against Whitehorse on 10/10. The game was a scoreless goaltender's duel entering the third before the teams traded goals to end the game tied at 2. Roy scored both goals for Houston, his first points of the season. Eventually Jimmy Benn would score to win it in OT for the Huskies. The rematch against the Confederates on 10/12 would turn into another goalie battle, broken only by Laine late in the second period. Whitmore picked up his first shutout of the season while facing 31 shots. Javanainen scored his first goal of the season in the 2-1 win over Charlotte on 10/14. Baranka scored his first versus Hamilton on 10/16, but one goal wouldn't be enough, leading to Houston's first regulation loss of the season, 2-1. Whitmore backstopped the Satellites to another shutout victory, 3-0 over Halifax on 10/18. Buswell would score his first goal in the third period. The next night in Quebec City didn't go as smoothly. Javanainen opened the scoring with 9:47 left in the first, but the Aces answered a minute later. Jeff Miller would then score a natural hat trick for QC, one goal in each period. Finnigan got the Satellites back within one with 7:17 to play, but Vyshedkevich would give up two more goals to end the game with a .760 on 25 SA. Final score: 6-2. On 10/21, Houston was tied with Atlanta 2-2 at the end of one period. It would stay that way until 4:00 left in the third, when Caron fired a centering pass off a defender and it deflected into the net. It would officially go down as an unassisted goal, Caron's first goal (and point) in 10 games. Robinson added his first of the season to secure the 4-2 win. Laine would again score the only goal in a 2-1 loss to the league-leading Yellowknife Diamonds on 10/24. Moger had 7 SOG and Glynnensteins had 5, but neither could beat Yellowknife's backup Rob Walker, who was 3-0 with a .980 SVP on the season by the end of this game. Tremblay scored for his first point in 12 games versus Halifax on 10/26. Down 4-1, Finnigan and Laine scored early in the third to get Houston within one, but Zack Kuntar would score for the Mariners to put the game out of reach. Vyshedkevich would pick up another loss, 5-3. Whitmore earned yet another shutout in the final game of the month, a 4-0 win over Tucson on 10/29. Samuelsson scored twice, 30 seconds apart in the first period, his first goals of the season. Standings after 13 games: 8-4-1, 17 points. 1st Southwest Division, 4th Overall. Analysis: The team’s strengths and weaknesses have become obvious, even this early in the season. Finnigan started off red hot, with 5 goals in the first 3 games, before going on a 5 game goalless streak. Despite that, by the end of the month, the first line were all roughly point per game and +7. The third line is about half a PPG and +6. The second and fourth line, however, are not getting it done. Everyone knew the second line was more of a “bottom six with a good center” line, but it’s not working too well as they’ve only got 7 points combined in 13 games. To be fair, -4 isn’t horrendous and Moger is piling up the shots with 39. The fourth line is just there, 3 points combined and -3. The top D pair is on pace for 30+ points and has an even +/-, which would be low for Abrahamsson but a good next step for Javanainen. The bottom two pairs have 10 points and are all +3, solid results. Whitmore had an outstanding month, outperforming even his last year results, which were fantastic. If he can keep it up, he has legitimate claim to being the best goalie in the league. Vyshedkevich, on the other hand, has had a rough go of it. 1-2-0, .844 SVP, 4.67 GAA are some brutal stats. In his defense, it’s a very small sample size, so a few good games could right the ship pretty easily. October Stats   October Three Stars  League Leaders 
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Dec 30, 2020 18:18
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Houston Monthly Rewind November 2019 The month began on 11/01 with Houston’s first time getting shut out this season. Despite 33 SOG (including 5 from Finnigan), the Satellites couldn’t solve Kansas City’s backup Petr Beranek, leading to a 2-0 loss.  Tomas Solovev Following the game, the Satellites announced the signing of 35-year old Austrian sniper Tomas Solovev 81 OVR Minor to a 1 year, $850K contract. Solovev, a 2003 5th overall pick by Charlotte, had 36 points in 64 games on Indianapolis’ third line left wing last season, but had gone unsigned so far this year. After spending his first 8 full seasons in Charlotte, Solovev played for 8 different teams in the next 6 seasons. Reportedly, GM Goonson had been worried about his team’s depth, and wanted to shore up the bottom of the roster before injuries hit. Brule would be sent to the minors and Vrbata would ride the pine as Solovev took the fourth line LW spot for the next night’s game against Louisville. Vyshedkevich would earn his first shutout of the season with 28 saves, and Samuelsson, Finnigan, Voynov, and Glynnensteins would all score in the 4-0 victory. Solovev had 3 SOG and an even +/- in his debut. It turned out that the GM was right to worry, as Laine would injure his foot in the game against Louisville, with an estimated 2 week recovery. Solovev would move up to take his place on the third line.  Sebastien Kuznetsov The following day, the Satellites announced another free agent signing: Playmaker Sebastien Kuznetsov 80 OVR Top 9 agreed to a 1 year, $1.332M contract. The 26-year old Swiss right wing had 17 points and was +10 in 64 games on the fourth line for Kansas City last year. A 3rd round pick (#87) by Louisville in 2013, he accrued 28 points over 83 games during his Entry Level Contract. After the Kings failed to tender him a qualifying offer, Kuznetsov signed a 3 year contract with the Springs and put up 16 points in 19 games his first year. After only scoring 39 points over the next 114 games, though, KC let him go to free agency at the start of this year. Kuznetsov would make his debut on the fourth line RW in the 11/05 rematch against his former team, Kansas City. The result would be very different from the first game of the month, as the Satellites came out on top 6-2. Kuznetsov had 2SOG and was -1, but Solovev scored the first 2 goals, Lehto and Roy had 2 assists each, and Moger had 2G 1A and 7SOG. Another victory came on 11/10, 4-2 over Albuquerque. Doc Maggs had 9SOG for the Dukes, but Whitmore denied all of them. Caron earned an assist on a Moger goal, breaking a six-game pointless streak. Up 2-1 entering the third against Whitehorse on 11/13, the Satellites would give up two goals before Glynnensteins tied it with his second goal of the game, with 9 minutes left in the period. Voynov would provide the finishing touch in the 4-3 OT victory. Voynov had 1 goal 2 assists and Finnigan had 3 assists. The next night in Kelowna, Roy would score just 10 seconds into the game, assisted by Solovev who was on a bit of a hot streak. Moger would tie the game at 2 late in the second, but the Grizzlies would score again to beat Houston 3-2. Vyshedkevich would take the loss, and Javanainen failed to score despite 6 SOG. Laine would return from injury the next day, taking the third line LW and bumping Solovev back to the fourth. Buswell would now be a healthy scratch, with just 1 goal and a -6 to show for 19SOG in 19GP. Houston would suffer a surprise 4-1 loss to 29th-place Brandon on 11/16. It was scoreless beyond the halfway point of the game, but once the Harvesters scored they never looked back. Solovev would score the Satellites’ only goal, assisted by Kuznetsov for his first point with the team in 5 games. Defenseman Erwan Morin got his first career goal for Brandon with 16 seconds left in the game. Caron opened the scoring against Kelowna on 11/19, his first goal since 10/21. Houston was up 4-3 until 7 minutes left in the third when Anders Lack tied it for the Grizzlies. Finnigan would end it in overtime to give Houston the 5-4 OTW. Whitmore was lucky to get the win, earning 2 overtime wins and 1 loss in the past 3 games despite producing an .884 SVP. The Albuquerque Dukes would come to town on 11/21. Apparently getting the monkey off his back was good for Caron, who scored another goal, and Roy scored his third goal in 4 games. Whitmore also looked more like his usual self as he locked down his fourth shutout of the season on 29 shots. Glynnensteins had a pair of goals versus Oklahoma City on 11/23, but the Wranglers exploded for 4 goals in the third to win 4-2. Javanainen had 8SOG but nothing to show for it. Whitmore would wind up with an .840 on just 25 shots. It was never close on 11/25 vs. Victoria. The Gardeners scored 4 goals before Finnigan answered, and Glynnensteins and Caron added goals late, but Vyshedkevich would earn the 6-3 loss with a .760 on 25 shots. In the rematch vs. OKC the next day, Whitmore would again give up 4 goals for another .840 on 25 shots. This time, though, the scoring helped overcome the deficit. Moger had a pair of goals and Lehto and Maki also scored in the 5-4 win. Lehto hadn’t scored since 10/29 vs. Tucson, and Maki hadn’t scored since the first game of the season, vs. San Francisco! The final game of the month was the day after Thanksgiving, 11/29 vs. San Francisco. Solovev and Glynnensteins would score the only goals in the 2-0 shutout. Standings after 26 games: 16-9-1, 33 points (8-5 this month). 2nd Southwest Division, 6th Overall. Analysis: First off, this month was a tale of two signings. Solovev, the veteran who might have been considering retirement when going unsigned after 14 seasons, took a sub-$1 million contract and proved his worth, with 7 Points and +4 in 12 games. Kuznetsov, on the other hand, has not been quite as successful. The young playmaker is likely looking at his last chance to stick in the GHL. Signed for $1.3M, he’s only got 3 Points and a -2 in 11 games. Normally such a relatively small contract would be no concern, but considering Houston’s minimal amount of cap space, it has to smart a little bit. Contracts like Marotte (2x$2.137 but in the minors), Tremblay (2x$3.25 on the fourth line), and Vrbata (1x$4.75 on the bench) may have to be moved at the cost of draft picks if the Satellites expect to make a deep playoff run and shore up the second line. Speaking of the second line, they’ve actually managed to turn things around a bit this month: Moger with 9 Points, Baranka with 7, and Caron with 5, all +2. The first line has continued chugging along: Voynov with 14 Points, Finnigan and Glynnensteins with 13, all +4. The third line has been generally good, but not perfect: Roy with 5 Points, Samuelsson with 4, both +3. Laine, since coming back from injury though, had 0 points and was -1 in 7 games. He and Solovev may be swapping lines in the coming month. On defense, the first D pair improved from last month: Abrahamsson with 7 Points, Javanainen with 6, both +3. On the second pair, Lehto had 5 Points but Klementyev had only 1, and they were even in +/-. For the third pair: Maki with 2 Points, Robinson with 1, but they were +3. In goal, Whitmore faltered a bit. He had a 7-3 record, but only a .915 this month. This may just be luck, but it may be due to the changes in the fourth line: Tremblay, Vrbata, Buswell, etc. all having 1-3 points and -6 in the first month didn’t look too impressive on the score sheet, but Solovev and Kuznetsov are more offensively focused than the players they replaced. Vyshedkevich still isn’t looking great, with an .890 and another 1-2 record this month, but his one win was a shutout and he improved his overall SVP. November Stats   November Three Stars  League Leaders 
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Jan 8, 2021 |
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Jan 1, 2021 18:50
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glynnenstein posted:I'm enjoying seeing my Latvian sportsman score. Are there penalty stats? Just curious. It's funny, I could've sworn there was... but I must've been playing too much EHM lately, because there's not. There's no sim of powerplay or penalty kill at all, at least it in the explicit stats. Maybe it's taken into account behind the scenes, like if you had a team of all power forwards you'd give up 10 goals every game from all the PK time. I just downloaded HLM21 today, and it is in there, along with stuff like coaches influencing your play style and international tournaments and more. It runs kinda slow on my phone, but maybe if I get used to it, I'll transition the whole league over after this season. Brettbot fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Jan 3, 2021 |
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Jan 3, 2021 03:05
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Before I start, I just want to say that I've discovered that I can edit anything about a player on my roster at any time, except their ratings. So the option is still open, if anyone wants to submit a player. I can turn one of our prospects into you or, if you want to be a pro already, when I inevitably make trades at the Trade Deadline I'll make the trades and then edit those players once they're on our roster. I'll be adding this to the OP, as well. Houston Monthly Rewind December 2019 Before the first game of the month, Coach Rubinowitz shuffled his bottom six a bit: Vrbata would take Kuznetsov's place on the fourth line right wing, in an attempt to bolster the line's defense. Laine would move down to the fourth line left wing, with Solovev moving up the the third. The month started strong with Whitmore earning a 26-save shutout over Tucson. Moger had a goal, Finnigan had 2 goals, and Glynnensteins had 3 assists in the 4-0 win. Voynov would score the only goal in a 2-1 loss to Albuquerque on 12/03. In the rematch against the Dukes on 12/05, Abrahamsson would score his first goal of the season before the Satellites gave up three. Voynov put the team on his back, though, scoring his second natural hat-trick of the season in the third period. Voynov would finish with 3 goals 1 assist, Abrahamsson with 1 goal 2 assists, and Finnigan had 3 assists leading to the 4-3 victory. The score would be the same when the Moncton Phoenix came to town on 12/07. Glynnensteins had 2 goals 2 assists, and Voynov had 3 assists. After 4 games the reconfigured bottom six hadn't contributed a single point, so the Coach returned the lines to the way they were. I guess that's why they pay him the big bucks, because Solovev scored the first goal in the 4-2 win over St. John's on 12/10, assisted by both Kuznetsov and Tremblay. Victoria came to town on 12/13, and it wasn't even close. The first goal of the night was Samuelsson, assisted by Laine for his first point since his injury last month (Actually, since the 4-0 shutout over Tucson. No, not the one that opened this month. The one that ended October.) Kuznetsov scored to make it 5-0 late in the second, his first goal in 13 games with the Satellites this season. Myles Clymer spoiled Whitmore's shutout in the third, though, so the final score was 5-1. Finnigan and Voynov both had 1-2-3, continuing their blazing hot streaks. Alas, all good things must come to an end. Maybe the team can blame the back-to-back for the reason they got shutout 3-0 in Memphis the next night. Vyshedkevich wasn't great with an .897 on 29 shots in his first game this month, but the goalie can't score for you, too. Laine did his best, with 6 SOG but nothing to show for it. Brandon went up 1-0 in the first on 12/16, and it took until halfway through the third before Baranka would tie the game. Looking like we were headed for overtime, Lehto would squeak home the game-winner from a net-front pileup with just 19 seconds remaining, fed by Laine. Caron would pull his groin in the tussle, but team doctors declared him "day-to-day". Samuelsson and Tremblay would have to bump up a line when Caron wasn't ready for the game against the St. Catherines on 12/19. Buswell would anchor the fourth line, seeing his first action in 15 games. Down 2-0 in the second, Laine cut the lead to one, but that would be the last goal scored until Olander Frolik sealed the 3-1 win for the Panthers with 3 seconds left. It was Frolik's 100th career goal. After being medically cleared to play, Caron met the team in Florida the next night to play in Jacksonville. The Rivermen took a 2-0 lead (led by sniper Evgeny Nabokov) before Finnigan, Glynnensteins, and Javanainen (with his first goal of the month) put Houston back on top 4-2. But the Rivermen weren't done yet, though, as they answered a minute and a half later, then tied the game with 2:00 left. Lehto would end it in overtime, earning Vyshedkevich his first win of the month. Javanainen (1-0-1) and Finnigan (1-3-4) both had 7SOG in the wild ride, Glynnensteins had 2-2-4, and Voynov had 3 assists. The Satellites went strong into the Christmas break, shutting out Whitehorse 5-0. Finnigan had 2-1-3, Voynov 3 assists, and Moger scored his first goal since the first of the month, 9 games ago. Vyshedkevich had a gem of a game upon the team's return on 12/28, serving up a .966 in a 2-1 win over Kansas City. Abrahamsson (1-1-2) scored, unassisted, off a sneaky steal in the first. Miika Timonen tied it up for the Springs in the second, but Moger took the lead back early in the third and Vyshedkevich shut the door, stopping all 10 shots he faced after that. Finnigan had 7SOG but was held off the scoresheet. Whitmore took the hard-luck loss in the final game of the month vs. Portland the next night. Despite a .929, a lack of goals led to a 2-0 win for the Roses. Dale Chiasson earned his first shutout of the season with 30/30 saves. Portland, by the way, are third in the league thanks to 7 extra points from overtime losses, despite having two average goalies (11-9, .914 and 11-9, .900). Standings after 39 games: 25-13-1, 51 points (8-3-1 this month). 2nd Southwest Division, 4th Overall. Analysis: The first line went wild this month, firing on all cylinders. Voynov 7-14-21, Finnigan 7-10-17, and Glynnensteins 6-10-16 in 13 games, all +12. And it's a good thing they did, as they carried the rest of the forwards. The second line played more like they did back in October: Moger 3-2-5, Baranka 2-3-5, Caron 0-2-2, all +1. Caron now has only 8 points in 38 games. The third line had a shockingly bad month. Samuelsson had 1 goal, Roy had 1 assist, both -3, and Laine was their best performer with 1-2-3 and a -1 in 4 fewer games. On the fourth line, Solovev had one goal and was even in +/-, Tremblay 0-2-2 and Kuznetsov 1-1-2, both +2. On defense, Abrahamsson had a great month with 3-8-11. Javanainen had 5 points, and they were both +7. For the second pair, Lehto had 3-4-7 and Klementyev only 1 goal 1 assist, but they were +3. Klementyev is a long way from scoring 44 points, as he once did with Iqaluit in 13/14. On the bottom pair, Maki had 1 assist and Robinson had no points at all, but they were +2. Maki has never surpassed his current 5 points total, which is somewhat shocking for a player billed as an "Offensive Defenseman", but he's also just 3 shy of his career high in games played (42 in 17/18). Whitmore had another incredible month in goal, with a .945 and a 7-2 record, including 2 shutouts. Vyshedkevich went 2-1 on the back of a .907, once again improving his SVP, although it still ranks among the worst in the league. December Stats   December 3 Stars  League Leaders 
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Jan 5, 2021 01:33
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Houston Monthly Rewind January 2020 Memphis continued to stymie the Satellites this season, as the Soul shut out Houston again on New Year's Day, 4-0. This was their second meeting of the year, the first ending in a 3-0 shutout last month. Robinson sustained a jaw injury in the loss and was estimated to be out 2 weeks, so 33-year old Czech Moravec would get his first playing time of the year on the third D pair. The game against Indianapolis on 01/03 started much like the last game, with Houston going down 2-0 in the first. Finnigan got the Satellites on the scoreboard halfway through the second, but the Hoggers answered back a minute later. Undeterred, Finnigan scored again 20 seconds later to make it 3-2. Tremblay tied the game at 3 near the end of the second, then scored the go-ahead goal early in the third. Caron also added a tally to make the final score 5-3. Moravec had an assist and was +2 in his first game of the season. After the game, it was announced that Caron had been suffering from the flu, but the Satellites weren't due to play for another 5 days. Glynnensteins opened the scoring against Red Deer on 01/08, but the Bison tied it up before the end of the first. Moger reclaimed the lead in the second, but Red Deer tied it up again in the third. Despite the Satellites pouring on 38 shots in the game, the Bison would win it with :48 left in overtime, and goalie Joe Lee earned his 3-2 win with a .947 SVP. Vyshedkevich was the losing goalie. Whitmore was again the victim of his own team's inability to score, picking up a loss in a 2-0 shutout at the hands of first-place Yellowknife. Joaquin Fraser earned his third shutout of the year for the Diamonds. Houston continued their bad habit of falling behind early this month, by going down 1-0 to Regina on 01/11. They managed to turn it around this time, though, with Samuelsson tying the game 30 seconds before the end of the first period. Solovev took the lead with a goal in the second, and also assisted on Lehto's goal in the third to secure the 3-1 win. Robinson would officially return from his injury before the game against Kansas City on 01/14, but Coach Rubinowitz would leave Moravec in for another game. Voynov would score the only goal in the 2-1 loss to the Springs, and Robinson would take his place back on the third pair after the game. Facing Charlotte on 01/16, Moger's goal 1:15 into the game would turn out to be the game-winner in a 5-0 shutout over the Queens. Klementyev assisted on that goal, as well as one from Finnigan (1-2-3), before scoring his own for a 1-2-3 night. Klementyev now had 4 points in 7 games, after scoring 5 in the first 39. Javanainen also scored his first of the month, and this was Whitmore's 8th shutout of the year. A 3-2 win over Tucson on 01/18 kept the positive momentum going, headed into the All-Star break. Returning to play to face St. Catherines on 01/27, the Satellites held a comfortable 4-1 lead late in the second before Billy Hajdu started the comeback for the Panthers. They scored 3 to tie it, and then a fourth unanswered goal to take the 5-4 overtime win. Finnigan had 2-1-3 and 10 SOG in the loss. The last game of the month came on 01/29 against Milwaukee. Voynov had 1-1-2, Javanainen 1-1-2, and Abrahamsson 0-2-2 in the 3-1 win. Standings after 49 games: 30-16-3, 63 points (5-3-2 this month). 2nd Southwest Division, 8th Overall. Analysis: Not a great month for the Satellites. You could argue that overtime is basically a coin flip, and if those games went the other way, 7-3 isn't too bad. But if they hadn't made it to OT, on the other hand, 5-5 is pretty bad. They slid from 4 to 8 in the league, but at least they have 1-3 games in hand over everyone in front of them. The first line was +4, with 11 points for Finnigan, 10 for Voynov, and 6 for Glynnensteins. That looks slow compared to their explosive last month, but it's definitely still good. The second line surely didn't dazzle anybody with 5 points for Moger, 2 for Caron, and 1 for Baranka, but they were only a -1. Sometimes you have to look on the bright side. In the bottom six, Samuelsson had 3 points, Roy and Laine 1 each, all -3. Poor Laine started out this season hot, with 8 points in 13 games, but since his foot injury he's had only 4 in the last 32. The fourth line had a good month: +4, Solovev with 4 points, Tremblay and Kuznetsov with 3 each. On defense, Abrahamsson had 8 points and Javanainen 7, but they were a minus (-3, to be exact) for the first time all season. In the middle, Lehto had 3 points and Klementyev 4, and they were +5. Maki was +1 and Robinson was -1, and neither had any points. Maki is still stuck at his career-high of 5 points. Moravec had 1 assist, 7 SOG, and was +2 in his 5-game stint. Whitmore went 5-3-1 this month. His .921 was about 20 points below average for him this season, but would still be top 5 in the league over a whole season. It's worth repeating: He's been really, really good this season. Vyshedkevich had an .897 in his one overtime loss. January Stats   January 3 Stars  League Leaders 
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Jan 8, 2021 |
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Jan 6, 2021 03:19
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So we’re still a month away from the Trade Deadline, but I think we know where our strengths and weaknesses lie, so we might as well start thinking about : What do we target at the Trade Deadline? We probably can’t get everything we need, obviously, but the glaring holes are: Second Line Wingers - Moger is doing the best he can, but those guys he’s playing with are really bottom sixers. With a competent winger or two, we might have 25 or 30 points each from that line, not 10 or 15. We’ve already stunted Baranka’s growth in his last possible year, probably, by playing him over his head. Backup Goalie - Ideally, you wouldn’t have to play your backup goalie at all once you reach the playoffs, especially when your starter is having a record-setting year. But if an injury happens and we have to play Vyshedkevich, we’d be better off forfeiting and saving ourselves the embarrassment. He’s really been that bad. The Whole Bottom Six - These players will be available for much cheaper prices than the top players we want. Maybe an energized Third and Fourth line will take some pressure off the First? The problem is that those forwards, at least, won’t come cheap. So we have to decide, should we be: All-In Buyers - You’re never gonna have a year like this from your goalie again, and your first line and D corps are legit. Go all out and try to win our first Legacy Cup? Cautious Buyers - Take something if you can find it for a reasonable price, but don’t pay a king’s ransom for it. We don’t have many high-value prospects, so First Round Picks are gonna be just the starting point for what we need. If we flame out in the playoffs, without much in the prospect cupboard, AND we traded away our early picks for years to come? GM Goonson might be on his way out the door. Stand Pat - Rely on Whitmore to put the team on his back and carry us to the promised land? It’s certainly possible with the way he’s playing. Be sellers, I guess? - We’ve been Top 10 in the league all year long, but I guess you could make an argument for keeping just the core players and selling off all of the spare parts. We’ve got the first line, elite goalie, and top 3 D-men locked up for 3-8 years, can we turn it around in that short a time with better asset management? Worth bearing in mind, of course, is the fact that we’re only about half a million from the salary cap, less than a league minimum contract. We don’t currently have ANY room for a single player without shoving someone out the door first.
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Jan 6, 2021 03:21
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Houston Monthly Rewind February 2020 The month began with a wild, high-scoring game in San Francisco, featuring five lead changes and overtime. Kuznetsov, Moger, and Abrahamsson all had a goal, Solovev had a goal and an assist, and Glynnensteins had 2 goals including the game-winner in the 6-5 OTW. Vyshedkevich picked up his second shutout of the season with 31 saves in the 4-0 win over Fredericton on 02/03. While the big guns were mostly silent, Houston’s bottom three lines all had at least one point, including Laine with a goal and an assist (now 1-2-3 in 2 games). The next night vs. Moncton, Klementyev and Voynov would score to give the Satellites a 2-1 win. Whitmore had a .967 on 30 shots. Solovev would injure his wrist in the game and, believing it to be fractured, team doctors gave him a three-week recovery period. Buswell would get the chance to take his place on the fourth line left wing, seeing his first action since December 19. Thanks to the back-to-back, Vyshedkevich would get another start vs. Tucson on 02/07. Remarkably, he would earn his third shutout of the year over the Foxes, 5-0. Moger continued his scoring streak. Voynov had 2 goals, Caron got his first goal of the month, Kuznetsov scored again, and Baranka had 2 assists. The next night’s rematch against the Friars would not go as well. Moger scored Houston’s only goal (assisted by Lehto and Baranka) in the first period of the 5-1 loss. Whitmore had an .808 on only 26 shots. Facing Iqaluit on 02/11, the Anglers went up 1-0 in the second period before Finnigan tied it. Iqaluit would take the lead again in the third period, before Finnigan tied it again. Unfortunately, the pattern continued as Iqaluit scored in overtime to take the 3-2 win. Moger was held off the scoresheet, ending his scoring streak at 3-3-6 in 5 games. Buswell, apparently trying to make the most of his chance back in the lineup, had 5 SOG. Milwaukee came to town on 02/13. Finnigan and Glynnensteins both had 1-2-3 in the 3-2 win. Javanainen also scored, but after the game it was announced that he would be out for about a week with a mysterious “upper body” injury. Moravec would return to the bottom pair for the first time since January 14. Another back-to-back started at Louisville on 02/15. Samuelsson and Finnigan had 2 goals, Roy and Voynov had 2 assists, and Laine had 1 goal and 2 assists in the 5-4 OT win. Maki also had an assist, his first point of the month, finally setting a new career high for points with 6. Whitmore earned his 30th win of the season. In Atlanta the next night, the Lumberjacks finally got to Vyshedkevich in a 3-2 Houston overtime loss. 4 of the 5 goals were scored in the second: Samuelsson scored both Satellites goals, assisted on both by Laine, and Roy and Moravec also had an assist. The game then remained tied until Alex Schriner beat Vyshedkevich in OT. Interesting note, the Lumberjacks employ all three of the Gauthier brothers: 23-year old Steve on the fourth line, 25-year old Craig on the first line, and 28-year old Rich on the third line. The game against the Portland Roses on 02/19 would be a see-saw. Starting with Portland scoring in the second, the teams then traded goals until regulation ended tied 4-4. Roy (1-1-2), Caron, Kuznetsov, and Laine (1-1-2) all scored in regulation before Abrahamsson won it for Houston in overtime, 5-4. Lehto also had 2 assists in the game, and Buswell had an assist for just his second point in 28 games this season. Javanainen would return to the top D pair after the game vs. Portland. Moravec had 1 assist, 2 SOG, and was +1 in his 3 games. Samuelsson had another 2 goal night against San Francisco on 02/21. Lehto scored his first goal all month, and Tremblay scored his first since the game against Fredericton on the third of the month. Laine also had an assist in the 4-1 win, setting a new career high for points (8-15-23 in 56GP) in 2 fewer games than last year, his first in the GHL. It was a first line show against Oklahoma City on 02/23. Glynnensteins had 1-2-3, Voynov had 1-1-2, and Finnigan had 0-2-2 in the 3-2 win over the Wranglers. Samuelsson had 1-1-2, and Finnigan and Roy also scored in a 3-1 win over Iqaluit on 02/25. Whitmore had a .970 on 33 shots. Solovev would be reactivated after the game, so Buswell would leave the lineup with 0-1-1, 16 SOG, Even +/- in 10 games. A final back-to-back would close out the month, the first game in Baltimore on 02/27. Vyshedkevich would get the start against the out-of-conference opponent, leading to a 5-3 loss. Kuznetsov, Abrahamsson, and Baranka were the goal-scorers for Houston. Solovev picked up an assist in his first game back. Then it was back onto the plane to fly to San Francisco for the final game of the month. Caron, Laine, and Finnigan all scored, but Whitmore let in a back-breaker of a goal with less than 4 minutes left in the game, leading the Friars to beat the Satellites 4-3. Standings after 64 games: 40-19-5, 85 points (10-3-2 this month). 1st Southwest Division, 3rd Overall. Analysis: A great turnaround from last month. Not to pick on Vyshedkevich after the month he just had (2-1-1, .930, 2 SO), but it goes to show what a difference a solid backup goaltender can make. He’s improved his overall record to 6-6-2 (3 SO), and his save percentage to .902. Whitmore had a .904 and no shutouts this month, but still went 8-2-1. Sometimes timely offensive outbursts save you. On defense, Abrahamsson continued to pile up the points with 10 in all 15 games this month, but Javanainen only had 4 in 12 games. The duo were +3, though. On the second pair, Lehto had 10 points, but Klementyev had only 3, and they were an impressive +9. On the bottom pair, Maki got the one point to set a new career high, but was -2. Robinson actually had two points and was -1, and Moravec had 1 point, +1 in 3 games. Up front, Glynnensteins had 4-11-15, Finnigan had 7-7-14, Voynov had 4-8-12, and they were all +3. The second line continued to struggle, unsurprisingly. Moger had 4-4-8, Baranka 1-5-6, Caron 3-1-4, and they were all -1. The third line had a great month. Laine was blazing with 4-10-14, Samuelsson wasn’t too far behind with 8-4-12, Roy had 2-7-9, and they were all +6. Finally, bringing up the rear, Kuznetsov had 4-2-6 and Tremblay had 2-2-4, both +3 in 15 games. Buswell had 0-1-1 and was Even in 10 games, and Solovev had 1-3-4 and +3 in 5 games. Now, on the eve of the March 1st Trade Deadline, comes the big questions. Who amongst these players have we seen the last of in a Satellites uniform? Who will still be here tomorrow? What new faces will we see? February Stats   February 3 Stars  League Leaders  And just for fun, a bonus:  I just happened to see these three very similar faces, side by side, while scrolling through the Raw Faces folder. Then I remembered the three guys with the same randomized last name on the same team. Serendipity! Brettbot fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jan 10, 2021 |
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Jan 8, 2021 15:24
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glynnenstein posted:The 1/8 game reminds me of the Caps circa 2010. Ugh. Oh yeah, I've seen that kinda of game from the Bruins before. I feel bad for Dobby Vyshedkevich, though, it was his only game that month.  Also sorry, I really wanted to give the Lethal Latvian the First Star this month for finally scoring the most points, but then I figured a fourth-liner battling injury to score 14 was more impressive than a first-liner scoring 15... v v Let the kid have it, right?
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Jan 8, 2021 15:43
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 Trade Deadline Report The first trade of the day came early:  Marotte was languishing in the minors for Houston. The 6’7” 2011 1st round pick (4-8-12 +5 in 57GP last year) should at least get the chance to be 7th D for first-place Yellowknife. The Satellites were clearly trying to open up cap space, moving a 2 x $2.137M contract for an early 4th round pick. Thanks to some roster shuffling, Houston now had $4M of space to work with. Early in the day, there were rumors that Houston may try to trade for 40-year old playmaker Jon Gagnon from Regina. 1997’s first overall pick was on the last year of a $2M contract and had 39 points in 63 games on the second line for the Cyclones. It would have been a conservative move, and one easy to defend if it didn’t work out because it wouldn’t have cost much.   Those rumors were put to a halt when it was announced that Houston had acquired Scott Meighan 86 OVR medium Elite from Charlotte. The 24-year old playmaker had 23-23-46, -1 in 63GP, and was on the last year of a $3.65M contract. He was reportedly unhappy with the team’s place in the standings (9 points out of a wild card spot) and unlikely to re-sign. Additionally, he was stuck behind two playmakers that the team had already committed to long-term: 23-year old Jonathan Conroy (7x$10M) and 31-year old Kurt Gorence (4x$6M). With 21-year old playmaker Chris Coleman also nipping at Meighan’s heels, it was clear that the Queens would have to move on, even though was likely a future star. The cost would be steep, though: a 2020 1st, a 2021 2nd, and a 2022 2nd. Giving up the 1st this year was unavoidable, but at least GM Goonson managed to hang onto his future 1sts. This leads to the inevitable question: Will the Satellites be able to afford re-signing him at year’s end? Or will Meighan demand too much, and Goonson will be out of luck? For now, though, there’s no sense in worrying about it: we’ve still got the rest of the season to get through.   The final trade of the day for Houston would come when they exchanged LW power forward Rich Voss 66 OVR medium Top 9 for G Andreas Brasar 80 OVR backup from Iqaluit. The 21-year old Voss was a 1st round pick by Houston in 2016 and had signed his ELC, but had yet to appear in a game for the Satellites. 27-year old Swede Brasar, a 7th round pick for Hamilton in 2011, had been scratched all season as a third-string goalie for the Anglers. In his last pro season (with Oklahoma City in 17/18), he went 10-15 with a .908 SVP and a 2.43 GAA. Shockingly, it seems it was a quiet trade deadline otherwise, with no notable trades to report on. Just one more month to go before the regular season wraps up, and the playoffs start. The new-look Houston Satellites:   If it seems like I’m rushing this season a bit, I am. It turns out HLM21 is WAY more in-depth, with minor leagues to assign your players to, coaches to hire, PP and PK units and penalty stats, chemistry for your lines, World Juniors and International Tournaments for your players to participate in, and more. So I’m going to power through the rest of this season, then make the necessary edits to rosters and stats before I start a second season in HLM21.
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Jan 9, 2021 01:32
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Houston Monthly Rewind March/April 2020 The month led off with a 5-4 loss to Brandon. Caron scored, and Finnigan and Voynov combined for 6 points, but Whitmore's .800 SVP spelled doom for the Satellites. Meighan had 2 SOG and was Even in his debut. The game against Memphis on 03/05 ended more to Houston's liking, with a 4-1 victory. Moger scored twice, assisted on both by Meighan for his first points with the Satellites. Laine also scored, and Abrahamsson had 2 assists. The rematch against the Soul on 03/07 would go the other way. The Satellites went down 3-0 before halfway through the first, and although Glynnensteins and Laine scored to make it close, the final score would be 3-2 Memphis. The fourth line was -3 in the first three games, so Coach Rubinowitz traded out Roy for Tremblay to try and bolster the defense. Trying to lessen the load on Whitmore, Brasar would get the start vs. Fredericton on 03/10. The starter hadn't been performing well lately, possibly due to fatigue from starting so many games. Brasar would have a respectable .909 on 33 shots against, but would wind up losing 3-2 in OT. The Redlegs went up 2-0 in the first before Robinson scored his first point in 10 games and Glynnensteins (1-1-2) tied it up in the third. Voynov also had 2 assists. Whitmore squeaked out a win vs. Jacksonville on 03/12, 4-3 in OT. Solovev, Tremblay (1-1-2), and Voynov (1-1-2) would score. Javanainen (1-1-2) now had 1-4-5 in the past 4 games. Facing Meighan's old club Regina on 03/14, Voynov, Finnigan, Solovev, and Kuznetsov would all pick up 1-1-2 in the 4-2 win. Since switching Tremblay in for Roy, the fourth line had 4-6-10 and was +4 in 3 games. The second line, after two good games, had zero points and was -5 in the next four. Caron would move up to the right wing, switching Meighan to left and sending Baranka down to the third. Brasar would see another start against Portland on 03/16, picking up his first shutout for the Satellites in a 4-0 win. The lineup changes apparently had good effect, as Moger and Meighan both had a goal and an assist. Caron and Baranka had 1 assist each. The next night against Victoria would be a high-scoring affair, but Houston came out on top 6-4. Meighan had a whopper of a night, with 2-2-4. Moger had 2-1-3, and Finnigan, Abrahamsson, and Glynnensteins all had 2 points. Baranka picked up 2 goals in the 3-2 win over Quebec City on 03/20. Glynnensteins had the third. Houston officially clinched a playoff spot with the win, with 98 points and still 9 games to go. Brasar would get another start vs. Albuquerque on 03/22. Klementyev would score the only goal in a 3-1 loss to the Dukes. Abrahamsson had 3 assists in the 4-2 win over Red Deer on 03/24. Voynov, Moger, Solovev, and Baranka were the goal scorers. A back-to-back started with a 6-1 win over Oklahoma City on 03/27. Javanainen had 3 assists, Moger had 2 goals, Caron had 2 assists, and Meighan had 1 assist. Samuelsson scored his first goal of the month as well. After the game vs. the Wranglers, the team announced that Meighan would be out for a few days for concussion screening. Baranka would move back to the second line, and Roy would return to the third. The following night in Hamilton was close, but Brasar would earn an overtime loss 4-3 to the Lightning. Finnigan had 2 goals and Voynov had a goal and an assist. In the 4-3 overtime win over Kelowna on 03/30, Samuelsson scored again. Finnigan had 2 assists, Voynov had 3 assists, and Glynnensteins had a hat trick, including the OT winner. Meighan would be cleared to return in time for the game vs. Yellowknife on April 1. He would assist on one of Abrahamsson's 2 goals in the 3-0 shutout win over the first-place team in the league. Baranka scored the third goal. This was Whitmore's ninth shutout of the season, and the team's 50th win. Finnigan would score the only goal vs. Regina the next night in a 3-1 loss. Brasar picked up another loss for the Satellites, and he now had a 1-2-2 record despite a .919 SVP. The Satellites may have been suffering from their own success on 04/04, when last-place Red Deer shut them out 3-0. The Satellites would end their season on a 3-game losing streak, as Baltimore beat them 6-4. Houston was up 4-2 by the end of the first, but the Crabs scored four unanswered goals to complete the comeback. Whitmore perhaps should have rested one more game, ending up with a .760 SVP on 25 shots. Standings after 82 games: 50-25-7, 107 points (10-6-2 this month). 1st Southwest Division, 4th Overall. Analysis: Although the three-game skid at the end is not how the Satellites hoped to conclude the month, it was still a fairly good month overall. Brasar was the victim of bad luck, earning only one win in 5 games despite putting up an above-average .919 SVP. Whitmore, on the other hand, earned 9 wins despite an .897, reducing his season SVP from .933 to .928. On D, Abrahamsson had 16 points and Javanainen had 9, and the pair was +9. Javanainen improved his season best by 3 in his second year, while climbing from -14 to +19. Lehto had 5 points to beat his season best by 2, and Klementyev had only 1 point this month. Both were -1. Maki and Robinson both had 2 points, but they were +3. Maki set a new season high by 3 points and improved his +/- from -1 to +10. Up front, Voynov had 10-12-22 this month, finishing with 30-62-92 to lead the team. He blew away his previous career best by 20 points. Finnigan had 7-11-18 to finish with 39-50-89, beating his previous best by 9 points. Glynnensteins had 7-8-15, to improve 22 points from last year. The whole line was +7 this month, and their +37 was a career best for all three players. Moger and Meighan were symbiotic once they got going. Moger had 8-3-11, +2 this month. He scored 25 goals and 41 points on the second line, despite not playing with adequately skilled linemates for ~60 games. Meighan had 3-8-11 and was +3 in 16 games with the Satellites. Caron was 6th in TOI among forwards for Houston, despite earning only 21 points, +2 in 81 games. Baranka matched last year's points with 30, Samuelsson was just 2 shy of his career high with 32, and Laine beat his previous point total by 12 to end with 34. Roy, with 21 points, beat his total from last year by 3 in 8 fewer games. Solovev was a solid depth signing, with 20 points and a +12 on the fourth line. Kuznetsov earned 19 points: 2 more than last year, although he was still 3 points shy of his career high in 13 more games. Tremblay matched his last year's points with 17. Vrbata had the lowest PPG among forwards in the league this season with 1 in 18GP (.055 PPG). Second-lowest? Buswell with 2 in 30 (.066 PPG). Regular Season Stats   Final Standings   March Stars  League Leaders  Playoff Tree  Houston's opponent in Round One: Oklahoma City Wranglers  vs. 
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Jan 11, 2021 01:42
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Round One Game One in Houston got off to an unexpected start, when Randy Higgins opened up the scoring for Oklahoma City in the first period. The Wranglers fourth-liner had only 5 goals in 82 games this season. Finnigan got his first of the playoffs halfway through the second period to tie the game at 1. The game remained tied until Caron gave the Satellites the 2-1 lead in the third, and that would be the final score. Whitmore earned the win with a .964. Game 1: 2-1 W  Finnigan would score twice in the first period of Game Two, to give Houston the 2-0 lead. Jacques Bernier would get the Wranglers within one in the second, but Glynnensteins added a goal to his 2 assists to re-establish the 2-goal lead by the end of the period. Oklahoma City would tie the game with 2 goals 1:15 apart in the third, though, sending the game to overtime. Brad Deslauriers, 34-year old third-pairing defenseman, would score in OT to give the Wranglers the win. Game 2: 4-3 OTL  Heading to Oklahoma City for the next two games, Moger scored his first goal of the playoffs in the second period of Game Three, but the Wranglers would tie it before the end of the period. They again scored 2 goals a minute apart in the third to secure the 3-1 Oklahoma City win. Game 3: 3-1 L  Cully Picard would earn a shutout in Game Four, as the Wranglers picked up a 4-0 win. Moger and Finnigan both had 4 SOG but nothing to show for it. The top D pair and second line were the victims in this game, and those players were now all -4. Game 4: 4-0 L  Back home in Houston, Voynov scored twice in the first period of Game Five to get the Satellites off on the right foot. Maki would make it 3-0 before Jeff Korn finally got the Wranglers on the board, but Voynov answered right back with his third goal of the game. Tremblay scored his first of the playoffs to make it 5-1. With 4:13 left, Allan Nilan started the comeback for Oklahoma City. Brian McHugh scored 30 seconds later to cut the lead to 2. Randy Higgins scored to make it 5-4 with 30 seconds left in the game, but the Satellites would just barely hang on to pick up the win. Game 5: 5-4 W  The teams returned to Oklahoma City for Game Six. The Satellites got off to a good start, with Javanainen and Baranka putting Houston up 2-0. Audette would answer back for the Wranglers, though, and Colton Lakovic would tie the game before the end of the first. The entire second period would pass without a goal. Then, with 12:45 left in the third, Danny Audette scored twice to complete his hat trick and eliminate the Houston Satellites in 6 games. Game 6: 4-2 L  Oklahoma City has eliminated Houston in 6 games Analysis: A brutal end for a team that was Top 5 in the league all year. Most of the team was even-keeled, plus or minus 2 in 6 games isn't a big deal. Our first line was actually better than theirs. Our top D pair and second line, though, got torched. -8 for the forwards, -7 for the defensemen. 1 pointi for Javanainen, 0 for Abrahamsson. True, Javanainen is a little weak, not a "true #2 defenseman", but at least he's got room to grow. Abrahamsson should have carried his own weight. And Caron was a weak right winger for Moger and Meighan, but 2/3 of that line are legit second liners. Just a bitterly disappointing end to what should have been a deep playoff run. Next update should be a year-end wrap-up and take us all the way to the Draft. Playoff Stats  
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Jan 12, 2021 |
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Jan 12, 2021 01:38
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 2020 GHL Legacy Cup Champions: Charlottetown Confederates  Awards:  Alexei Ivanov leads the league with 50 goals, then wins Playoff MVP en route to a championship. There’s an outcry among fans of “reputation award!” after Halifax C Stefan Moore wins the Defensive Forward award with 90 points but a -2. Ivanov is too busy celebrating to be concerned, despite leading forwards with +46. Regina's Elias Jonsson wins Offensive Defenseman award with 13-68-81 +20 in 82GP. Yellowknife's Craig Johnston wins Defensive Defenseman with 10-44-54 +39. Whitehorse D pair Eddie Ledin (8-31-39 +52) and Robin Melin (5-19-24 +52) unavailable for comment. Louisville C Nate Finnigan, 20, wins Rookie Of The Year with 16-30-46, +18 on the third line. Whitmore earns Goalie Of The Year, leading the league in wins (43) and shutouts (9) with a .928 SVP and 2.22 GAA in 63GP. Yellowknife's Joaquin Fraser had a 2.00 and .935, but 1 fewer win and 5 fewer shutouts in 2 fewer games played. Futility Award, F: Charlotte C Jonathan Conroy. 66 points, -45. Futility Award, D: Indianapolis D David Welch. 40 points, -54. Black Hole Award: Houston C Marcel Vrbata. 0G 1A in 18GP. Snakebite Award: Atlanta D Cole Yachmenev. 1G 47SOG (2.1%) in 45GP. Backcheck Award, F: Brandon LW Jim Larocque. 4-17-21, -39. Backcheck Award, D: Charlotte D Joe Kruse. 2-5-7, -35. Frustration Award, Starter: Chad Aucoin, Atlanta. 19W 46GP .413 winning percentage. Frustration Award, Backup: Andreas Brasar, Houston. 1W 5GP .200 winning percentage. Sieve Award, Starter: Dominik Hanzal, Whitehorse. 24-18, .901, 3.02 There were a couple of guys with worse SVP but exactly 41GP. Can't be a "Starter" unless you play more than half the season. Sieve Award, Backup: Mark Segal, St. Catharine's. 2-0, .862, 4.00 Ironic that Segal won both games he played, despite having the worst SVP of any goalie in the league. No retirements for current or former Satellites. At the draft lottery, St. John's jumped from third to first, pushing last-place Red Deer back to second. Indianapolis would also move up one spot to third, pushing Brandon from second all the way to fourth. Note that this year's champions, Charlottetown, have the sixth overall pick from Fredericton.  Our current picks: 2 (59), 4 (112), 4 (121), 5 (152), 6 (163), 6(183).
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Jan 13, 2021 01:26
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 First, a question for anyone who's still reading this: Should I change the update frequency? Is monthly good, or too much? Maybe I should break it up into first half of the year/second half? Then we could really blast through the years. 2020 GHL Draft  The top player selected in the 2020 draft was, as expected, Alexandre Montenegro. The 18-year old Canadian is a left wing playmaker, and scouts say he is potentially a generational talent. Montenegro had 112 points in 52 games in the CJGHL. He'll join last year's first-overall pick, also drafted by St. John’s, center Jack Hayes.  Red Deer had to “settle” for the second-ranked playmaker in the draft, Swedish right wing Lars Nokie. Nokie, 18, earned 16 points in 35 games playing against men in the SGL last year.  Rounding out the Top 3, Indianapolis selected 17-year old center sniper Quin Leonard. The 6’4” Leonard had 82 points in 45 games in the CJGHL. Tucson drafted the first goalie, 18-year old Russian Yuri Mirsky, at number 7. Atlanta took the first defender at number 9, 19-year old Marian Mojzis from the Czech Republic.  Houston drafted the following players: (59) Brandon Irwin 18, C, USA. Watching him play, you’d consider him a sniper. But scouts have also praised his unusual skill for defending, for a shooter at least. Likely outcome: Best case? A Middle Sixer who puts up 30 or 40 points with a positive +/-. Worst case? A rock-solid Fourth Liner that you wish could handle more ice time. (112) Alexander Khristich 19, D, Russia. A towering offensive defenseman at 6’8” and 229 lbs. A lack of finesse led some scouts to shy away from recommending him, wondering whether his “skill” on the ice was really talent or simply due to his size. Likely outcome: “High floor, low ceiling” is the phrase. Probably a career major/minor tweener. (121) Sergei Kuleshov 19, C, Russia. A two way forward who wishes he was a sniper. His offense isn’t far from GHL level, but his defense is dreadful. Already a big body at 6’2”, 204 lbs. Likely outcome: A Bottom Sixer who put up points, but needs to be paired with someone responsible to keep his +/- from plummeting. (152) Thomas Boumedienne 18, LW, Sweden. An offensively-focused playmaker. Scouts are high on his work ethic, but sometimes you just don’t have the skill to play in the best league in the world, no matter how hard you work. Likely outcome: A Fourth-Liner who can play on the Third in a pinch, but isn’t expected to make it his permanent home. (163) Linus Eriksson 19, G, Sweden. A solid but unsurprising young goalie. In fact, maybe too solid and unsurprising, as he doesn’t stand out from his contemporaries in any way. And, at “only” 6’1”, he’s small for a modern goaltender. Likely outcome: As the saying goes, “goalies are voodoo”, so who knows? If he ever makes the GHL, it’ll be as a backup. But, as of right now, he’s not even ready to play in the minors. (183) Tuukka Ahonen 18, RW, Finland. A well-rounded power forward. Rumor has it that some scouts consider him a diamond in the rough, and that the Satellites were secretly praying that no one snagged him ahead of his projected 6th round. Likely outcome: Let’s not over-sell the kid. He’s not going to be a star or anything. But if he can live up to his potential, he’ll lock down a place in Houston’s Middle Six, easy. Brettbot fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Jan 15, 2021 |
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Jan 14, 2021 04:33
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Roster changes for 2021 Released to Free Agency: C Marcel Vrbata, RW Chad Caron, D Richard Moravec, G Alexei Vyshedkevich. Re-Signed: C Scott Meighan: 4 x $5.060M C Mikael Samuelsson: 1 x $2.290M C Robert Baranka: 2 x $2.070M D Alexander Klementyev: 1 x $1.890M RW Dainius Galanov: 3 x $1.680M RW Sebastien Kuznetsov: 2 x $1.260M G Andreas Brasar: 1 x $1.160M LW Raimo Laine: 3 x $1.137M LW Tomas Solovev: 1 x $885K G Lou Bernier: 2 x $735K D Glenn Johnson: 1 x $695K Signed from Free Agency: D Isaac Nantais, 21. 72 OVR low Top 4. A two-way defenseman, drafted in the second round (57) by Oklahoma City in 2017. The Satellites are taking a few gambles here. Solovev is 36, but Houston had no other snipers to turn to in the bottom six. Klementyev is 34 and scouts say he was already looking a step slower by the end of the season, but again: he was still Houston’s best option on the bottom pair. GM Goonson mostly opted to keep things the same, which makes sense if you consider their regular season performance, but is a surprising move considering the way they flamed out in the first round last year. At least he moved the team towards the younger overall and rid himself of some overpriced contracts. With some more cap flexibility, the Satellites will have the ability to make some moves if they have to. Our coaches going into this year:   Our opening night lineup:    Meighan moves up to the first line, while Voynov and Laine join Moger on the second. Todd Luongo, the 20-year old Two Way forward, will get his first chance with the big club, anchoring the fourth line. Powerplay and Penalty Kill will start the year just by using the best offensive and defensive players on them, respectively:   Down in the MGHL with the Austin Sputniks:   One of the nice things about HLM21 is that the game automatically fills out your minor league lineup with mid-60s OVR players in their 30s, so you have the option of signing as many young guys as you want without worrying about filling the whole roster. Brettbot fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Nov 8, 2021 |
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Jan 15, 2021 16:04
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Might as well make the World Cup update since nothing else has happened yet. Several Satellites players were honored to be invited to the World Cup!  In the end, though, there were no surprises:    Canada took the Gold medal, Sweden the Silver, and Russia took home Bronze. But wait, how are all of the Russian players at the top of the points ranking if they only finished in third?  Oh. Well, let's look at the Houston players' results:  Klementyev and Kuznetsov had the misfortune of playing on poor teams (relatively speaking, of course). Whitmore had the opposite problem, being stuck behind Yellowknife goalie John Grant and not getting a single game.
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Jan 15, 2021 17:53
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Houston Monthly Rewind October 2020 Before the first game of the season, the GHL head offices sent out a memorandum, reminding all teams and fans that the league had switched this season to a 3-2-1-0 point system. Regulation wins would earn a full point share, while overtime games would result in a 2/1 split. Yes, I totally forgot that that was an option, let alone that I had chosen it. My bad! Meighan scored the first goal of the season on the powerplay against Milwaukee on 10/05. Laine would take the rare Diving penalty, leading to the Mugs tying the game at 1, but Finnigan regained the lead for the Satellites before the end of the first. Milwaukee would again tie the game on the powerplay in the second, and the game would remain tied until Meighan won it, 3-2 in OT with his second of the game. Whitmore started the season strong, with a .949 on 39 shots against. Facing Yellowknife on 10/08, Luongo would score his first career goal with 7:50 left in the first. Klementyev would add to the lead 4 minutes later, and Robinson made it 3-0 in the second before Yellowknife finally answered on the powerplay. The Diamonds would score on the PP again in the third to make it a 1-goal game, but the Satellites held on to win 3-2. After the game, with the Satellites looking at a mere 20% on the PK, Baranka and Samuelsson would join the second unit in place of Lehto and Maki. The game against Victoria on 10/12 would go scoreless all the way to OT, when defenseman Alex Peters would beat Whitmore for the 1-0 Gardeners win. Brasar would take the loss in his first game of the season vs. Portland on 10/15, with a .900 on 30 shots. Kuznetsov had a goal and Lehto had a goal and an assist in the 3-2 loss. Facing Whitehorse on 10/17, the Satellites would go up by a goal only to let the Huskies tie it, three times. Irving Lucas would take the 4-3 lead for Whitehorse with 1:12 left in the game, and that would be the final score. Whitmore had his first bad game of the season with an .871. A 3-1 win over Regina on 10/22 stopped an 0-0-2-3 slide since the first two games. Meighan, Moger, and Finnigan scored the goals. The Satellites went up 3-1 on Tucson on 10/29 thanks to Finnigan, Glynnensteins, and Laine, only to collapse in the third and lose 4-3. It took OT vs. Kelowna on 10/31 to find a winner, but Voynov gave Houston the 4-3 win in the last game of the month. Baranka had 2-1-3 and Lehto had 3 assists. Record after 12 games: 2-3-2-5, 14 points. 5th Southwest, 21st overall. Analysis: Well, 5 wins out of 12 games isn't great, to say the least. Especially when 3 out of 5 didn't earn full points. Special Teams seems to be what's killing us overall: The powerplay was below average (14.3%, 21st), and the penalty kill greatly improved from 20%, but it still isn't good at all (75%, 28th). We may have to keep an eye on what Assistant Coaches become available and try to boost those areas. Whitmore was fantastic as usual with a .928 SVP. Our second and fourth forward lines are negative in +/-, but not too far. The third defensive pair was such a concern though that, after the last game of the month, GM Goonson went out and made some moves:  Right side Two Way D Erik Cernik, 23, 80 OVR medium Top 6 was a Restricted Free Agent for St. Catharines, but the Panthers had no cap space to offer him a contract. The 6'4" Slovak, a former 2nd round pick, had 12 points and a +11 in 67 games last year, but he was forced to sit the first month of this season without a contract. With no compensatory picks required under $1M, GM Goonson presented Cernik with an offersheet of 3 x $935K, which he signed. St. Catharines was unable to match, and Houston had a new, young bottom-pairing defenseman.  Not finished yet, Goonson also signed 27-year old Swede Frederik Carlsson 80 OVR 7th D to a 1 year, $950K contract. The left side Two Way D-man had 28 points in 155 career games over 5 seasons in Atlanta, Fredericton, and St. John's. With too many spare parts defensemen now clogging up the depth chart, Goonson put out feelers around the league and soon received an offer:   Klementyev, a 7th, and next year's 4th for RW sniper Spencer Fox 80 OVR Top 6. Fox, 26, is on a 1 year, $695K contract. Expected to be a top-line contributor when he was drafted, Fox had languished in the minors his entire career, despite scoring 2 goals in his only 4-game call-up. The fourth line wasn’t working with three Two Way centers, so hopefully Fox on the right wing instead of Tremblay will provide a spark to help turn things around next month. October Stats    October Three Stars  League Leaders  MGHL Check-In The Sputniks are third in the league with a 9-1-0-3 record. Right wing sniper Dainius Galanov is leading the team with 16 points, but only a +4. Khristich, the big D-man, has only 1 point but is +9 on the bottom pair. G Lou Bernier, 25, is putting on quite a show, with 9 wins and a .941 in 11 games.   
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 01:42
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Houston Monthly Rewind November 2020 The month started strong, with a 3-1 win over Fredericton. Glynnensteins, Solovev, and Samuelsson all scored, and Fox picked up an assist for his first point. Whitmore had a .970 in his first game. After that, unfortunately, the team went on another slide, losing three in a row starting with back-to-back 3-0 shutouts at the hands of Milwaukee and Memphis. Carlsson scored 2 goals and Brasar took the L in the 7-3 loss to Yellowknife that followed. After scoring only three goals in three games, the Satellites exploded for 14 in the next two: a 6-1 win over Red Deer and an 8-3 win over Tucson. All 6 goals in the game against the Bison were from different scorers, while Meighan and Solovev had 2 each in the victory over the Foxes. After a 3-2 OT win over Oklahoma City, Brasar got his first start since he gave up 7 to Yellowknife. He was better in the rematch against Red Deer, but he still gave up 4 in the 4-2 loss. The Satellites just can't catch a break when it comes to backup goalies. Next, Houston beat San Francisco twice, back-to back. The 5-0 shutout over the Friars on the 25th would turn out bittersweet, though, as Meighan would break his collarbone in the game and will be out until January. Voynov returned to the first line and Baranka moved up to the second. The first game without Meighan went better than anyone thought, beating Portland 7-0. Abrahamsson had 1-3-4, and Finnigan and Laine had 2 goals each. Houston would split the last two games of the month, with Whitmore beating Baltimore 2-1 and Brasar taking a 4-2 loss to Moncton to reach 0-5 on the season. Standings after 25 games: 9-4-2-10, 37 points. 7-1-0-5 this month. 4th Southwest, 15th Overall. Analysis: Huge difference from the first month. Eight wins, seven of them in regulation. If this trend continues, the team will keep climbing and a bad October could be left behind. For forwards, the first line was scoring, but are barely positive in +/-. Finnigan has almost half his points this year on the PP (9/20). The second line locked it down defensively this month, with Voynov +8 and Moger and Laine + 11. One concern is Samuelsson, who has just 4P and is -7, yet just got moved up to the third line because of injury. The fourth line just can't seem to get going, with only 4 points spread across 4 players in a combined 53 games. Our defense is doing great. Abrahamsson and Lehto have 17P, the whole D-corps is +5 or better. GM Goonson is looking like a genius with those Free Agent signings. Whitmore had an unbelievable .950 SVP this month, and now leads the league with a .939. Brasar was worse this month than last, dragging down his SVP from merely "slightly below average" to a heinous .861. The powerplay actually fell one spot to 22nd with 13.8%, just .1 behind Fredericton. The penalty kill climbed to 85.7% though, ninth in the league. November Stats    November Three Stars  League Leaders  MGHL Check-In The Sputniks are now 20-1-0-6, 3rd in the league. Jon Murray leads the team with 29 points, +10. On D, Tracy Simpson has 8 points, +11, and Khristich still only has 1 point but is +16. Lou Bernier continues his impressive play with a 17-4 record, .942 SVP and 1.71 GAA.   
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Jan 19, 2021 14:07
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Houston Monthly Rewind December 2020 Fox opened the month's scoring against Jacksonville, but the Satellites found themselves down 3-1 in the third. Glynnensteins scored twice on the powerplay to send the game into OT, but it wasn't enough as Houston fell to the Rivermen 4-3. The Satellites turned it around in the next four games, though, by beating St. John's 5-2, Yellowknife 3-1, St. Catharines 4-1, and Albuquerque 3-2. Finnigan had 3-3-6, Glynnensteins 0-6-6, Abrahamsson 3-2-5, Javanainen 3-1-4, and Lehto 0-3-3 during the 4-game win streak. Since being added to the powerplay at the start of the month, Fox also broke out with 2-3-5 on the PP (and 1 even-strength assist) in the first 4 games. Alas, all good things come to an end, and so it was that Brasar got his first start of the month vs Fredericton. To be fair, the team only spotted him one goal in the 4-1 loss. But an .871 is becoming a sadly common performance for him. Voynov had 1-1-2 in a 3-1 win over Halifax, Fox had 1-1-2 in the 5-4 win over Charlotte, and Moger had 1-1-2 in the 4-3 OT loss to Atlanta. Lehto, Moger, and Baranka all had 1-1-2 and Laine had 1-2-3 in a wild 6-5 OT loss to Whitehorse. On Christmas Eve, it was announced that several Houston players had been invited to the World Juniors:   The month ended with a back-to-back against Iqaluit. Brasar got the first start, dropping game one 7-3 with a .794. Whitmore, surprisingly, didn't do much better the next night, losing 5-3 to end the month. Standings after 37 games: 15-4-5-13, 58 points. 6-0-3-3 this month. 3rd Southwest, 15th Overall. Analysis: Not a bad month to start with, but it could have been much better if they hadn't ended it on an 0-0-2-2 slide. The first line continued their theme of offense over defense, as they were all PPG or more, yet they were also -7 on the month. The second line was fine, about half a PPG and only -2. On the third line Solovev had 6 points, but Samuelsson and Kuznetsov had only 3 points combined. But they also barely got scored on, going -1 this month. Fox was the breakout star on the fourth line with 8 points, while Tremblay and Luongo combined for only 5 points, and the whole line was even in +/-. The defense performed very oddly this month. Abrahamsson had twice as many points as Javanainen (12 to 6), but the first pair were both -6. On the second pair, Lehto had four times as many points as Maki (8 to 2), but they were both +3. For Carlsson and Cernik on the third pair, in their first month together they had 4 points and a +5, but they had 0 points and were -7 this month! In goal, Whitmore appeared in 10 games and went 6-0-3-1, meaning the team earned 21 of 30 possible points in front of him despite a .900 SVP. He was still much better than Brasar, who had an .833 in his two appearances. The Powerplay has been on fire this month, climbing to 18.6%, 12th in the league. The Penalty Kill also improved slightly to 86.1%, 5th in the league. December Stats    Three Stars  League Leaders  MGHL Check-In The Sputniks are now leading the MGHL with a 28-2-1-11 record. Jon Murray still leads the team with 48 points, +15, although 4 other forwards are within 4 points of him. On D, Brian Skidmore is almost PPG with 7-32-39, Tracy Simpson and Isaac Nantais are +21 on the second pair, and Khristich has fallen from +16 to +4. The goalies have cooled off just a bit: Lou Bernier won 6 out of 10 games and reduced his SVP (although still league-leading at .931) despite having 3 shutouts. Jason Sauer won 3 of 5 games, and lowered his SVP just barely, from .928 to .925.    The World Juniors are still in progress, but at the New Year break, Canada and Finland are leading their respective Groups.  Finland leads the individual points board, with this year’s projected first-overall draft pick Aatu Ramo leading the way, followed by 2022 Draft-eligible Bjorn Ambert and Houston’s own Tuukka Ahonen. Indianapolis’ Quin Leonard (currently playing with the MHGL Evansville Grasshoppers) and Kansas City’s Bowen Burch (currently playing with the MGHL Joplin Jets) round out the Top 5.  I wouldn’t expect it to stay that way, though, since Finland’s numbers are a bit inflated by early beatings laid on the worst teams in the tournament.  The rest of the Satellites’ prospects don’t have much to show in the tournament so far: 
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Nov 3, 2022 |
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Jan 21, 2021 22:14
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Houston Monthly Rewind January 2021 On January 1st, the Houston Satellites announced they had made a trade with the Lousiville Kings: G Andreas Brasar and C Jim Buswell for G Mike Sims. Brasar, 28, 80 backup is on the last year of a $1.16M contract. The Swedish netminder, a 2004 7th Round pick (#199) for Tucson, will now be on his seventh team (eighth if you count his two stops in Baltimore) in 12 years. He had no wins in 7 appearances this season, with an .852 SVP and 4.57 GAA. Buswell, 25, 79 medium Top 9 was a 2013 1st Round pick (#29) for Houston. The 6’2” Canadian, a Two-Way Center, had 18-20-38 and +15 in 42GP for the MGHL Austin Sputniks.  Sims, 38, 84 Starter was a 5th Round pick (#154) for Houston in 2001. Sims started the season with the Brandon Harvesters where he went 2-4 with an .899 SVP. He then got traded to Louisville, where he went 4-8 with a .901 SVP. He has a career .908 in 465 games, and is on the last year of a $1.5M contract.  Halfway through the season, the Kings were second-last in the East and 12 points out of a playoff spot. They certainly weren’t going to re-sign a 38-year old goalie for next year, and we aren’t Top 5 in the league any more; we can’t afford to be dropping games thanks to a lousy backup goalie when we’re in a race just to stay in the playoffs. Louisville wasn’t particularly interested in Brasar, unsurprisingly, but they wanted to get rid of Sims and they were interested in Buswell, who is a borderline GHL/MGHL player and still relatively young.  Whitmore started the month with a hard luck loss, as the Satellites fell to Albuquerque 2-1 in the first game of the month despite his .939 on 33 shots. Lehto had the only goal, unassisted. Things didn't improve in the next game, as Houston was shut out 4-0 by Victoria's backup Page Lander in the first game of a back-to-back. Sims got his first start with Houston the next night vs. Regina. He picked up the Satellites' first win of the month, 4-2, with a .938 on 32 shots. Baranka, Fox, Laine, and Solovev were the goal-scorers, and Cernik got his first point of the season by assisting on Baranka’s goal. Whitmore picked up his first win this month with a .925 on 40 shots in a 4-3 OTW over Atlanta. Glynnensteins had 2-1-3 and Fox scored the OT winner. Another vexing 2-1 loss followed, to Tucson this time, punctuating the fact that the Satellites seem to be having trouble scoring this month. The next game vs. Oklahoma City would go to OT, before Voynov finally got the 3-2 game winner with 4 seconds left. Jan. 13 would bring two pieces of good news. First, Thomas Boumedienne and Team Sweden had won Gold at World Juniors!   Boumedienne had 4-6-10, +8 in 7 games playing on Sweden's second line, alongside Fredericton's Alex Holm (9-4-13, +8) and a projected 2nd Round pick for this year's draft, C sniper Melker Sjodin (2-2-4, +8). Sweden defeated Tuukka Ahonen and Team Finland to make it to the Gold Medal Game, while Brandon Irwin and Tracy Simpson with Team USA beat Canada to face them. Finland put up a valiant effort but fell short of the Bronze, despite having the highest-scoring first line in the tournament. Sweden, meanwhile, completed their undefeated streak and blew out Team USA 5-1 to earn Gold.    The second piece of good news was that Scott Meighan had returned from his broken collarbone in time to face Brandon on the 14th. Voynov would push down to the second line and Tremblay (3 points, Even in 35 games) would come out of the lineup. Sims got his second start of the month vs. the Harvesters, earning the first star of the game with a .970 in the 2-1 win. Solovev and Fox scored the goals, and Meighan had 6 SOG but no points in his return from injury. The next game vs. Regina was one to forget, as Houston lost 6-2. The Cyclones got out to a 6-0 lead before Laine and Meighan made the score less embarassing, but the Satellites never had a chance. Heading into the All Star break, Houston beat St. Catharines 4-2. Abrahamsson, Finnigan, and Lehto had 1-1-2, and Luongo also scored against the Panthers. Apparently well-rested after the break, Whitmore and the Satellites earned a 4-0 shutout over Indianapolis. Javanainen had 3 assists, and Solovev and Moger scored. Facing Charlottetown on the 29th, Glynnensteins and Meighan scored, but it wasn't quite enough as Houston lost 3-2. The next night in St. John's, Sims got his third start of the month, facing the Advancers. He made it to OT but couldn't continue his perfect streak, as the Satellites would lose 3-2. Meighan picked up an assist on Finnigan's powerplay goal, meaning that (after his first game back where he didn't score) he had 3-2-5 in the past 5 games. Standings after 49 games: 19-6-6-18, 75 points. 4-2-1-5 this month. 4th Southwest, 13th Overall. Analysis: This was not a great month. We had some unfortunately-timed games where we couldn't score, getting shut out or losing 2-1. The Win/Loss record was basically a seesaw, and the team failed to put together any kind of a streak. Meanwhile, San Francisco apparently had a great month: they leapfrogged Houston to take 3rd in the Southwest, even though the Satellites moved up 2 places in the league overall. Meighan returned to the first line firing on all cylinders, with 5 points and a +2 in 6 games. Finnigan and Glynnensteins both had 9 points, +3. Voynov had 8 points and was Even, but he spent half the month on the first line. Moger and Laine only had 4 points each and were -1, it seems that they were the ones having the scoring problems all month. Not surprising since they were playing with Baranka, who had only 3 points and was -2. The bottom six was dragging this month, too. Solovev had 4 points and Kuznetsov had none, but they were playing with Samuelsson who had just 1 point and was -2. Fox had 3 points +1, Luongo 2 points +1, and Tremblay had zero, although he was +2. On defense, top pair Abrahamsson and Javanainen combined for 13 points, but they were -3. Up next, Lehto had 7 points and Maki had only 1, but they were +2. On the bottom pair, Carlsson had 3 points and Cernik just the one, but they were +1. A huge turnaround for that third pair, who were -7 last month. Whitmore appeared in 9 games and had only 4 wins, although one of them was a shutout. Sims had a 2-0-1-0 with a .939 SVP and 1.95 GAA, total night and day results compared to Brasar. January Stats    Three Stars  League Leaders  MGHL Check-In The Sputniks are 34-2-2-14, 1st in the league. Jon Murray still leads the team with 63 points, +25, but again the whole first line is within 4 points. On D, the first pair is scoring like crazy, almost PPG and +16. The second pair has less than 20 points, but are +25. Khristich has only 3 points on the year but is +4. In goal, Bernier went 6-3 this month. For some reason Sauer only played one game, though.   
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Oct 17, 2021 |
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Jan 25, 2021 12:34
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Houston Monthly Rewind February 2021 The theme of "good and bad" continued this month with the first game, against Portland. Javanainen would score two goals in the third period to give the Satellites the 8-6 win over the Roses, only for it to be revealed after the game that he had suffered a minor fracture in his leg. Houston would be without their #2 defenseman for about two weeks, and this at a critical time leading up to the trade deadline while they were clinging to the second wildcard spot. Not to be overshadowed by the injury, though, is that Finnigan had 1-3-4 and Glynnensteins had 4 assists in the high-scoring game. Robinson would play on the bottom D pair, pushing Cernik to his off-side. Solovev had 2 goals, and Voynov and Meighan had 1-1-2 in the next game, a 5-4 win over Oklahoma City. Although he got two wins, Whitmore had a concerning .854 over the first 2 games, so Sims would get the next start vs. Kelowna. He didn't disappoint, with a .919 in the 4-3 win. Abrahamsson had 2 assists in the game. Whitmore put in another distressing performance with an .878 vs. Brandon, although he did face 41 shots, so the team wasn't making it easy for him. His performance cost him this time, as the Satellites lost 5-4 in OT. He still had a .920 on the season at this point, but he had only played 42 games at this point, so fatigue shouldn't have been a factor in his recent play. Coach Rubinowitz stuck with Whitmore to face Red Deer, and the starter proved the Coach right with a .938 in the 4-2 win. Amazingly, Javanainen would return slightly ahead of schedule, in time to face the Halifax Mariners on the 13th. Whitmore would earn his first shutout of the year, and Abrahamsson scored the only goal for a 1-0 win. Sims got the next start, the first of a back-to-back against San Francisco. Javanainen scored Houston's only goal again, but this time it was a 3-1 loss. More concerning, Voynov injured his foot in the game, and would be out about 2 weeks. The next night, Whitmore got the start and (despite an .879) picked up the win thanks to 7 goals from his teammates. Laine had 2, and Tremblay got one in his first game back in the lineup. After the game, though, the big news came down: Javanainen re-aggravated his leg injury, and this time the prognosis was 3 months recovery time. The 21-year old won't be seen on the ice again this year, unless maybe if the Satellites made it all the way to the Legacy Cup Finals. Whitmore had another good game vs. Moncton (.939 in a 3-2 win) only to follow it up with another game where he got bailed out by goal-scoring vs. Tucson (.848 in a 7-5 win). Sims was supposed to play the next night of the back-to-back vs. Hamilton, but he pulled something in warmups and Whitmore had to play, resulting in an .828 in the 5-2 loss. I actually have no idea what happened there. Either a glitch or the lineup didn't save when I swapped goalies. Sims got his final start in the next game, a 6-5 OTW over Charlotte. Moger had 2-1-3, Lehto had 2 assists, and Samuelsson got the OT winner. Whitmore closed out the month with a .946 on 37 shots to earn the 3-2 OTW over Kelowna. Finnigan and Fox scored in regulation, and Meighan got one final goal to end the month. Standings after 62 games: 27-8-7-20, 104 points. 8-2-1-2 this month. 3rd Southwest, 11th overall. Analysis: At first glance this seems like a great month. We won 10 of 13 games and picked up 27 of a possible 36 points. Look closer, however, and there are some worrying signs. Whitmore, who led the league in Save Percentage earlier in the year, had an .896 in his 10 games. And we lost our 21-year old #2 defender until probably the third round of the playoffs, maybe even the finals. If we even make it that far without him, of course. Overall, though, it seems we were able to outscore our poor defense this month. For forwards, the first line was +4 this month. Glynnensteins had 7-9-16, Finnigan had 3-11-14, and Meighan had 7-7-14. Voynov only had 8 points and was a -4 on the second line this month, but Moger had 6-8-14, Laine had 8-4-12, and both players were even. In the bottom six, Fox had 7 points off the strength of 5 goals and Kuznetsov had 5 points and was +5. On D, Abrahamsson had 3-12-15 and was an impressive +8 this month. Javanainen had 3-2-5 but a -1 in just 4 games before his injury. Luckily Lehto has been playing out of his mind while filling in on the top pair, with 1-13-14 and a +14! Similar to last month, Maki only got 2 assists but he was +1 while playing mostly with Carlsson, who also had 2 assists but was -3. On the bottom pair, Cernik had 4 assists and was even, while Robinson had 1 assist and was -1 in 9 games. Despite his sub-.900 SVP, Whitmore went 7-1-1-1 with a shutout this month. Sims had a .913 in his first two games, but giving up 5 goals in the OTW over Charlotte knocked him down to .896 this month, identical to Whitmore. February Stats    Three Stars  League Leaders  MGHL Check-In The 44-2-3-16 Austin Sputniks remain 1st in the league and have clinched a playoff spot with 139 points! 30-year old Josh Brule leads our minor-league team with 30-47-77 and a +34, although Jon Murray (21) is only 1 point behind him in 6 fewer games. Thomas Boumedienne (19) and Tuukka Ahonen (19) are putting up respectable numbers with 30+ points each, but their Center Brandon Irwin (19) is lagging behind with only 15 points in 65 games. Also worth noting: 35-year old Power Forward Ben Roy with 11-7-18 in just 15 games. For defensemen, Brian Skidmore (22) leads the point race with 11-50-61 and a +23, but Isaac Nantais (21) and Tracy Simpson (19) have him beat defensively with matching +33s. Alexander Khristich (20), the 6'8" Russian, had just 3 points but was +6 on the third pair this month. The "Offensive Defenseman" has only taken 9 official Shots On Goal all year, so 1 goal and 5 assists is maybe not so bad? Lou Bernier (25) is making the most of what may be his last season as a "prospect", with 7 wins in 8 games in net, including a shutout. Jason Sauer (22) had 3 wins in 5 appearances, but he must've had a tough month as he dropped his season SVP from the .920s to just .905.   
Brettbot fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Oct 22, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 13:54
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 GM Goonson got to work early on Trade Deadline day. Finding a second pair Left D wasn't easy, so his first move was for depth, trading LD Dick Lupien 72OVR medium 7th D and a 2021 6th round pick to Oklahoma City for LD Ron Hansen 81OVR Top 6.  Ron Hansen Hansen, 39, was drafted in the first round, 13th overall, in 2000 by the Louisville Kings. A journeyman Two Way D, Houston will be his 9th team as he currently sits at 955 games played. He had 1-13-14 and a -15 this year for the Wranglers, and is on a one year, $650K contract. Lupien, 25, was drafted in the second round by the Hamilton Lightning in 2013. He never played for them, signing with Houston as a free agent in 2017. He didn’t make much of an impact there either, with just 2 assists and a +7 over 11 games from 2017 to 2019 for the Satellites. He has two years left at $690K.  Next, Goonson started making calls for a Left Winger to help out the bottom six. An abundance of Two Way Centers filling all positions wasn’t helping the team’s chemistry. It had to come as something of a shock when St. John’s came to him with an offer: 33-year old two way C Art Tremblay 80OVR Top 9 for 25-year old LW sniper Miles Wong 80OVR medium Top 9, a 2021 3rd round pick (originally from Portland), and a 2021 6th round pick.  Miles Wong Originally drafted by the St. John’s Advancers in the fourth round of 2013, Wong hasn’t quite lived up to his potential, averaging just 22 points and 66 games played per season over five seasons. His defense is his weak spot: although he’s improved from a -21 in his rookie year, he’s currently on pace for the best +/- of his career... with a -1. He’s only managed 7-4-11 in 64GP so far this season, but he’s also been playing a mere 8:09 per game on the fourth line. St. John's were apparently desperate to move their fifth-best Left Wing who still had two years left on a $2.750M contract. Tremblay, on the last year of a $3.250M contract, had just 2-2-4 and an even +/- in 41 games this year for Houston. A first round pick for Brandon in 2005, Tremblay set his career high for points in his rookie season, scoring 45 with the Harvesters in 07/08.  Finally, the GM got a call back from Tucson. The Foxes were 17 points out of the second Wildcard spot, and already have their top 4 D-men locked down for the next 3-7 years. That left 27-year old Swede Jonas Bergman 84OVR Elite as the odd man out.  Jonas Bergman Bergman, on the last year of a $4.166M contract, had 2-13-15 and was -3 for the Foxes this year. Drafted 10th overall by Tucson in 2011, the defensively-focused blueliner hit his career high for points just last season with 2-26-28. That was a bit of an outlier, though, as he averaged only 18 points per season over 9 years. The cost for this rental would be high, though, as Houston sent their 2022 First Round pick the other way. With no Seconds this year or next, there was no wiggle room for negotiations: It was a First or nothing.  There were no major trades around the league, but some of the more interesting ones: Quebec City traded a 4th, a 6th, and LW Michael Repik to Whitehorse for C Adam Repik. The Austrian winger, 32, had just 5 points in 63GP for Quebec City. The Slovak center, 25, had 39 points in 65GP for the minor league Dawson Pups. Kansas City was apparently seeking "veteran leadership" for the playoffs, acquiring 38-year old C Mikko Koski from Kansas City for 26-year old RW Kiefer Sheehan, a 3rd, and a 5th. Koski had 27 points (and a -13) in 60GP for Hamilton, while Sheehan played only 16 games in the minors for the Joplin Jets, but had 16 points. Brandon acquired RW Joel Ahola (16 points in 60GP) from Louisville in exchange for C Cooper Murley and two 4ths. What makes this one strange is that Murley has 57 points in 59GP in the minors, and Brandon still added two picks just to get a guy who's only on pace for 22 points. I guess the allure of a 6'4" power forward is too strong for some GMs to resist. I don't think I mentioned this before, but this game has a "Find A Trade" button. So you can either select the players/picks you want, or what you want to get rid of, and the computer will suggest trades from teams around the league. I force myself to do trades this way so that I can't cheat the computer by, say, stealing a quality prospect by offering up a pile of late picks. I also try to be able to explain why it's a reasonable trade to make, so I usually won't trade with teams that are in a playoff race unless it's a win-win for both teams. Brettbot fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 01:05
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Houston Monthly Rewind March/April 2021 March started out looking tough, with three games back-to-back. Fox scored less than a minute into game 1, and Whitmore put up a .971 to lead the Satellites to a 2-1 win over Memphis. Voynov then returned from injury, bumping Kuznetsov back to the fourth line. Sims got his first win of the month the next night, 5-4 over Brandon. Fox again opened the scoring, and Glynnensteins and Laine both had a pair of goals. Meighan would strain his bicep during the game, moving Kuznetsov back up for a few days. Finally, the road trip to Kansas City was too much for the tired team, as Luongo scored the only goal in a 3-1 loss. The Springs clinched themselves a playoff spot with the win over Houston. Wong got his first point for Houston with an assist on a Voynov PP goal in the 5-4 win over Albuquerque on 3/5. He then scored his first goal in a 3-1 win over Louisville on 3/10. Fox also scored again in that game, giving him 3 goals in 6 games. Glynnensteins, Meighan, and Finnigan combined for 7 points in a 5-2 win over Indianapolis on 3/12. Houston was now tied for 2nd in their division with Albuquerque. Sims got his second start of the month vs. Hamilton on 3/14, but the team let him down as the Satellites were shut out 4-0. The next night was a win over division leaders Kansas City, however, with Houston clinching a 2021 playoff spot! Glynnensteins had three assists and Bergman got his first point with Houston, an assist on a Solovev goal, in the 5-3 victory. A wild night in Quebec City on 3/21 earned Hansen his first point for Houston in just his second appearance. Moger went on a tear, scoring four goals and adding an assist in the 5-4 win over the Aces. Laine had 1-2-3 and Voynov had 3 assists on the night as well. Laine and Lehto scored in the 4-2 loss to Tucson the following night, dropping Sims' record to 1-0-0-2 this month. The following day news came from Austin that C Brandon Irwin had seriously injured his knee in a game vs. Santa Fe and would be out approximately three months. Irwin, 19, was a second round pick (59) for the Satellites last year, and had 11-6-17 and a +10 in 76 games on the second line for the Sputniks this year. Hansen picked up 3 assists in the 5-4 win over Victoria on 3/26. Two days after turning 40, he now had 4 assists and a +3 in 5 games since being paired with Maki on the second D pair. Bergman, on the other hand, found himself a healthy scratch after tallying just 2 assists and a -6 in 14 games. A back-to-back against Whitehorse and Memphis to close out the month resulted in a 2-1 regulation win for Whitmore and a 3-2 overtime win for Sims. Meighan assisted on all 3 goals and Wong scored to end the game in OT. Sims started the April 1 game vs. Louisville, losing 3-2 in OT. Lehto assisted on goals by Finnigan and Fox. Whitmore took a regulation loss the next night, 4-3. Finnigan, Solovev, and Wong were the goalscorers. With second place in the division locked up, Sims got to start the last two games vs. Kansas City. A 3-1 loss was hardly his fault, with Baranka scoring the only goal. The Satellites would end the season with a 4-2 win in front of the home crowd. Abrahamsson, Glynnensteins, and Solovev scored, Meighan had 1-2-3, and Sims had a .949 on 37 shots against. Final Standings: 38-9-8-27, 140 points. 11-1-1-7 this month. 2nd Southwest, 9th overall. Analysis: A very solid month overall, and a good way to end the season. Baltimore leads the league with 166 points, with last year’s champions Charlottetown and then Kansas City behind them, both at 157. At the bottom of the league, Moncton had 93 points, Regina had 92, and the Fredericton Redlegs took last place with a mere 78 points (22-3-6-51). Glynnensteins had 18 points, finishing just 2 behind last year’s total. Finnigan had 16, a whole 18 fewer than he hit last season. They were both -4. Meighan had 14 points and a -2 in 18GP, leaving him 8 behind last season, but on a 68 point pace if he had stayed healthy. The big difference from last year: No forward is above +9 (Baranka) this season, whereas last year the first line finished at +37! Moger had 14 points this month, giving him a 13 point improvement over last year. Laine had 11, beating last season by 15. While Voynov had 13 points in 19GP, it’s still over 30 short of last year, when he led the team with 92 points. Granted, he’s playing on the second line now, but hopefully he’s not slowing down THAT much at age 34, with another year left at $6.250M. Wong had 4-2-6 and a +3 in 20GP for Houston. Not exactly mind-blowing, but a 25 point pace with a positive +/- isn’t bad for a third-liner. And considering they got some picks with him while shedding salary, it’s looking like a smart trade for Goonson. Baranka, while never seeming to draw attention to himself, finished with 29 points, just one shy of last year. Fox finished with 25 points, a respectable showing for a guy who had spent his entire career stuck in the minors and waiting for a chance. Another good trade by Goonson way back in October. Speaking of smart moves by the GM, he opted to bring back Solovev at age 36 to play bottom 6 minutes. It seems his faith was rewarded, as the Austrian sniper finished with 31 points, 11 more than last year. Kuznetsov finished with 17 points, 2 shy of last season. Luongo, still just 20, had 14 points in 75GP in his first pro season. On Defense, Abrahamsson had 12 points this month to beat last year’s total by 5. Javanainen didn’t play, of course, so his total remains 23 in 56GP. He had 36 in 79GP last year. Considering he’s coming off his ELC this year and is due for his first “real” contract, big questions remain about what he’ll demand and what the Satellites will do with him. Lehto had another 10 points this month, finishing with 22 more than last season thanks to his performance while on the top pair. He also led the team with a +28. Proving that the GM isn’t infallible, though, Bergman was a total bust with Houston. 2 points, -6 in 14 games is rough for a guy who was essentially supposed to replace Javanainen. The fact that he cost a First is what really hurts. We have to admit it, Tucson fleeced us this time. Maki, playing a little over his head on the second pair, still managed 11 points and a +10, 3 points over last year. Hansen, 40 years old, contributed 5 assists and a +1 in 11 games, while playing more minutes than he has since 16/17. Carlsson and Cernik, signed as depth on cheap deals at the end of October, both had 11 points on the bottom pair. Whitmore finished with 40 wins in 62 appearances, a .919, and 4 shutouts, not quite matching last year (43/63, .928, 9 SO). Sims had 7 wins in 13 appearances and a .912 for Houston. Remember, this is the 38-year old who had 6 wins in 18 games and a .900 for the other two teams he played for this season. And he replaced Brasar, who went 0-7 with an .852 for us. Houston's Opponent in Round One: Albuquerque Dukes! vs.  Final Stats    Final Standings   Three Stars  League Leaders  MGHL Check-In Austin finished first in the Northwest, but second in the league with a 53-6-4-19 record, 175 points. The Savannah Saplings (Atlanta Lumberjacks affiliate) finished 2 points ahead of them, thanks to a perfect 10-0-0-0 run to close out the season. The first line was explosive, with Jon Murray (21) leading the team with 33-63-96, +41 in just 76GP, and Dainius Galanov (23) with 43-49-92, +40 in 82GP. Thomas Boumedienne (19) had 46 points, +9 and Tuukka Ahonen (19) had 45 points, +11 on the second line. Brian Skidmore (23) led the D with 13-61-74, +32 on the first pair. Tracy Simpson (19) had 28 points, +41 and Isaac Nantais (21) had 30 points, +41 on the second pair. Alexander Khristich (20) had 6 points, +14 on the third pair. Lou Bernier (25) looks ready for the big-time: 40W in 53GP, .926, 2.20, 11SO. Jason Sauer (22) was respectable in relief, with 19W in 29GP, .902, 2.87, 3SO.   
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Oct 28, 2021 01:25
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 Game 1 @ Houston The atmosphere was electric as the puck dropped in front of a sold-out crowd in Houston. An early tripping penalty against Albuquerque at 18:41 went nowhere, with only one shot on goal for Houston. Another penalty against the Dukes came at 12:46, a charging penalty against Ross Johnson. This Houston powerplay also only resulted in one shot. Being outshot 11-7 despite having 4 minutes of advantage, things were looking shaky for the Satellites when Wong broke the 0-0 tie with 3:37 remaining in the first. The Satellites tried to press their advantage before the period ended, and they were helped by Adam Lamby taking a hooking penalty with just 50 seconds left. Unfortunately they couldn’t get a rhythm going and the powerplay was now 0-3. Coach Rubinowitz must have had some strong words for the team during the intermission, because the Satellites outshot Albuquerque 8-2 in the first half of the second period. Cernik and Dominic Tanabe took matching roughing penalties, but Tanabe couldn’t let the feud go, as he took another roughing penalty immediately after exiting the box. This led directly to Moger making it 2-0 Houston at 10:27 of the second. The Dukes came back strong, and it could have been bad when Cernik took a slashing penalty with 2:41 remaining, but Bryan Lilley bailed the Satellites out by taking an elbowing penalty off the ensuing faceoff. Hansen took a diving penalty at 17:43, but this actually led to 2 SOG for Houston and none for the Dukes. With the game winding down and Albuquerque getting desperate, Kuznetsov put the nail in the coffin to make it 3-0 at 10:54. Tanabe took his third minor of the game, this one for slashing, but the refs called Finnigan for diving to make it 4-on-4. Mike Lalime scored to make it 3-1 at 3:06, giving Albuquerque some hope. The refs, apparently fed up with Houston, called another diving penalty, this one on Abrahamsson at 2:20. The Dukes pulled their goalie for 2 minutes of 6-on-4, but it wouldn’t be enough as Houston held on. Final Score: Houston 3 - 1 Albuquerque, Houston leads 1-0. Game 2 @ Houston Game 2 started as all Albuquerque, with the Satellites being outshot 12-6 despite having two powerplays, just like last game. Luckily for the Satellites, none of them went in, so the game remained tied at zero. The second period would be more of the same, as Houston was outshot 11-6 despite having three powerplays this time. Fans, coaches, and players alike must have been losing their minds, as things looked worse and worse for the Satellites. The third period started off with a refreshing change of pace, as Houston put up 5 shots unanswered before Cernik and Laine took back-to-back penalties for elbowing and delay of game, respectively. The Satellites’ luck held out, as Albuquerque’s powerplay wasn’t any better than Houston’s. With 12:40 remaining in the third, Kyle Conroy took a cross-checking penalty, and Meighan finally broke through 33 seconds later to give the Satellites a 1-0 lead. Less than 4 minutes later, however, Adam Lamby would tie the game for Albuquerque, 1-1 at 8:22. The teams traded shots for the rest of the period, and a Glynnensteins charging penalty with a minute left in the game led to nothing for the Dukes. The Satellites came hard in overtime, outshooting Albuquerque 14-6 in the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the seventh shot would be the one that mattered, as Adam Lamby would sneak one past Whitmore with 5:08 remaining to win Game 2 for the Dukes. Final Score: Houston 1 - 2 Albuquerque OT, Tied 1-1. Game 3 @ Albuquerque Energized by being in front of their hometown crowd, Albuquerque opened the scoring early with a Paul Stanton goal at 17:45 of the first period. Fox put the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty at 15:54, and Meighan added an elbowing minor at 15:30. It only took 12 seconds for Bryan Lilley to capitalize on the 5-on-3, and Albuquerque was now up 2-0. The rest of the period was quiet, but Houston was outshot 14-6 after 20 minutes. The second period didn’t start any better, as Blake Weber put the Dukes up 3-0 at 19:48. This awoke the Satellites, though, as they fired 13 shots on goal before Laine got his first of the playoffs with 4:03 remaining. Houston would add 5 more shots to their total, but Connor Healey was solid in net for the Dukes and the game went into the second intermission 3-1 Albuquerque. Kyle Conroy scored just 7 seconds into the third to make it 4-1 Albuquerque. The rest of the period both teams would trade shots and penalties, but that would remain the final score. After a .960 in the first two games, Whitmore had a putrid .882 in this one, and Glynnensteins couldn’t find the back of the net despite 7 SOG. Final Score: Houston 1 - 4 Albuquerque, Albuquerque leads 2-1. Game 4 @ Albuquerque Game 4 would be a huge one for both teams, as Houston would either tie the series at 2 or come within one game of elimination. Mathieu Pineault gave the Satellites the early advantage with a charging penalty, and Abrahamsson capitalized at 14:29 to make it 1-0 Houston. The rest of the period went without penalties or goals. The referees really seem to have it out for Houston, as Kuznetsov was called for roughing just 6 seconds into the second period. Kyle Conroy wouldn’t let the opportunity pass, and tied the game 1-1 at 19:14 of the second. Solovev took a high-sticking call at 16:50, and Blake Weber made Houston pay 20 seconds later, 2-1 Dukes. The Satellites couldn’t pay Weber back on a late hooking call, but then scored anyways 30 seconds later with Voynov’s first of the playoffs, making it 2-2 going into the third. Laine took a hooking penalty at 18:43 of the third, and who would find the back of the net but Weber again to make it 3-2 Albuquerque. Weber took another minor, slashing at 14:32, but the Satellites again came up empty. Conroy made it 4-2 at 10:56, but Finnigan answered back a minute and a half later to keep Houston within one. Unfortunately for the Satellites, Albuquerque controlled the rest of the game, and there would be no overtime. Final Score: Houston 3 - 4 Albuquerque, Albuquerque leads 3-1. Game 5 @ Houston The series returned to Houston for what could be the final game of the series. The game didn’t start off too well, with Fox being called for interference at 19:29. A minute later, Cernik would take a charging penalty. That’s 5 minors in 5 games for the young D-man. Luckily for him, Whitmore stood tall and the team killed off both penalties. Despite being outshot 9-4, Finnigan found the back of the net at 7:56 to give the Satellites the 1-0 lead. Houston then outshot the Dukes 5-1 before Bryan Lilley got called for delay of game. It took Fox just 44 seconds to capitalize, and suddenly it was 2-0 Houston. A cross-checking penalty by Moger led to nothing for Albuquerque to end the period. Again the Satellites couldn’t stay out of the box, as Maki got caught high-sticking less than a minute in, but then Paul Stanton shortened the Dukes’ powerplay by hooking at 17:44. Things were quiet for a while, until Kyle Conroy finally got Albuquerque on the board at 11:47 of the second. The 24-year old sniper now had 7 points in 5 games. With 4:40 left in the second, Ross Johnson managed to bang one home in front of the net. The 6’5” 4th line Power Forward had only 2 points in 59 games this season, but suddenly the game was tied at 2. Blake Weber took a hooking penalty to start the third, but the Satellites couldn’t cash in. It wasn’t until 15:39 that Baranka broke the tie with his first of the playoffs. Cernik took another delay of game penalty at 12:53, and he now had 12 PIMs in 5 games. After the Satellites killed off that penalty, Laine jumped on the ice just in time to steal an errant pass, broke in all alone, and put home the unassisted goal to regain the 2-goal lead for Houston. The zebras’ love affair with diving penalties continued, this time calling Bryan Lilley on it. Less than 30 seconds into the powerplay, Glynnensteins got his 5th point in 5 games, and now it was 5-2 Houston. The fired-up Latvian added 4 more SOG in the game to give himself an even 10 on the night, but the score would remain 5-2 and Houston would hold off elimination to force a Game 6. Final Score: Houston 5 - 2 Albuquerque, Albuquerque leads 3-2. Game 6 @ Albuquerque Back to New Mexico for Game 6, with Houston hoping to take the series back to Texas tied at 3. Solovev and Voynov would replace Fox and Wong on the powerplay, and Bergman replaced Carlsson on the third pair. Except for a Laine tripping penalty at 14:54, the first period passed quietly with the team trading shots. Houston took 5 of the first 6 shots to open the second period, yet it was Perttu Hyvonen who scored first to give Albuquerque the 1-0 lead. The Satellites went on the powerplay thanks to Ross Johnson roughing again, but the Dukes escaped harm. They wouldn’t be so lucky next time, as Abrahamsson scored on a Paul Stanton penalty and tied that game at 1. Wong gave Houston the lead with 2:17 left in the second, and then it was on to the third period. Meighan made it 3-1 less than a minute in, only to have Blake Weber score from center ice on a dump-in to make it 3-2. Officially there was only three seconds between goals. The Satellites would have one more powerplay, five penalty kills, and a 4-on-4 in the last minute of the game, but they would hang on to win. Two of those penalties, by the way, were Cernik, who now had 1/3 as many PIMs in 6 games as he had in 70 regular season games. Final Score: Houston 3 - 2 Albuquerque, series tied at 3. Game 7 @ Houston Cernik came out of the lineup for Game 7, with Carlsson rejoining the bottom D pair and Bergman playing on his off-side. Samuelsson would also replace Luongo as the 4th line Center.The teams each had one penalty in the first period, but Albuquerque was outshooting Houston 9-4 by the end. Another pair of penalties passed without a goal in the second. Houston was tilting the ice in their favor, yet Nathan Byfuglien finally gave Albuquerque the 1-0 lead at 12:12. The frustration seemed to set in, as Houston had to kill off four penalties in a row after that. Paul Stanton gave the Dukes a 2-0 lead with 2:07 left in the second, but Laine scored less than a minute later to keep the Satellites within one. Houston got an opportunity to tie the game when Bryan Lilley took a delay of game penalty 5 minutes into the third period. It took 45 seconds for Glynnensteins to tie the game at 2, leaving the hometown crowd going wild. Neal Poti would silence them 20 seconds later, though, giving Albuquerque the 3-2 lead. Although Houston poured another 8 shots on goal, it was no use. Final Score: Houston 2 - 3 Albuquerque, Albuquerque wins in 7.  
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Oct 30, 2021 00:07
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