NHL '13 GM Connected (X360)

[Gabriel]

How do I enter the league?

[Cactus Drags]

Search EWBHL and put a join request in, I'd assume. I think it's been confirmed that the 'invites' I had sent out were just XBL messages.

Sorry I wasn't around to accept any requests yesterday, I didn't realise that was how it worked. Makes sense thinking about it, since there's no option to set a password.

As the Leafs, I think my first 4 games or so are against Montreal (Apsham), Washington (Toe), Ottawa (CPU) and Columbus (CPU...because no one wants to be Columbus).

Apsham and Toe! Assuming we are all in the league already...I am off work in about 5 hours and have about 2 hours to play a game. Either one of you up for it?

Also, what's the rules on trading with the CPU? I want Backes out of the Blues and either Rask or Thomas out of Boston.

I would say same as we have for the Madden league. Any trades should be posted in the thread for review.

Gimme about a half hour and any requests will have been accepted. Probably looking to roll tomorrow or Monday evening.

[Toe]

Search EWBHL and put a join request in, I'd assume. I think it's been confirmed that the 'invites' I had sent out were just XBL messages.

Sorry I wasn't around to accept any requests yesterday, I didn't realise that was how it worked. Makes sense thinking about it, since there's no option to set a password.

As the Leafs, I think my first 4 games or so are against Montreal (Apsham), Washington (Toe), Ottawa (CPU) and Columbus (CPU...because no one wants to be Columbus).

Apsham and Toe! Assuming we are all in the league already...I am off work in about 5 hours and have about 2 hours to play a game. Either one of you up for it?

Also, what's the rules on trading with the CPU? I want Backes out of the Blues and either Rask or Thomas out of Boston.

I would say same as we have for the Madden league. Any trades should be posted in the thread for review.

Gimme about a half hour and any requests will have been accepted. Probably looking to roll tomorrow or Monday evening.

Sweet, sounds good!

[Drock007]

Can i get an invite?

Gamertag Master Love007

[Cactus Drags]

Can i get an invite?

Gamertag Master Love007

Search EWBHL and put a join request in, I'd assume. I think it's been confirmed that the 'invites' I had sent out were just XBL messages.

Sorry I wasn't around to accept any requests yesterday, I didn't realise that was how it worked. Makes sense thinking about it, since there's no option to set a password.

As the Leafs, I think my first 4 games or so are against Montreal (Apsham), Washington (Toe), Ottawa (CPU) and Columbus (CPU...because no one wants to be Columbus).

Apsham and Toe! Assuming we are all in the league already...I am off work in about 5 hours and have about 2 hours to play a game. Either one of you up for it?

Also, what's the rules on trading with the CPU? I want Backes out of the Blues and either Rask or Thomas out of Boston.

I would say same as we have for the Madden league. Any trades should be posted in the thread for review.

Gimme about a half hour and any requests will have been accepted. Probably looking to roll tomorrow or Monday evening.

[Cactus Drags]

Right, seems I can't send out any "invites" after the initial set-up screen, still waiting on the following to request membership:

New York Islanders - Dan (danhufc)

Philadelphia Flyers - Rocksta (JmonteII)

Calgary Flames - Gabriel (Mister Munster)

Edmonton Oilers - Ellis (Ample Salty)

Minnesota Wild - Mr. X (Revealer24)

Vancouver Canucks - SDM (makesyouaweapon)

Anaheim Ducks - Vamp (???)

Also, from the help menu, it seems that the commissioner does review all transactions, so question answered I guess, Ruki. Although I'm not sure what form it takes, presumably I get mailbox messages, so let me know if you put a transaction through, because I probably won't remember to check the mailbox all that often since the menu is sooo slow.

[Toe]

Sweet, I'm in the league! You get an achievement just for getting into a league.

I should wait to start playing against the computer, right?

[Cactus Drags]

Yeah, if you could hang on til tomorrow that'd be great.

I didn't get an achievement

Also, I think it is the updated roster. Nash is on the Rangers at least.

[Toe]

Ok, I'll wait. I am just going to check out my roster and get everything else in order.

[Cactus Drags]

Right, I need a more finely tuned hockey brain than mine to help me out. I just booted up to see if there was anyone else to join (welcome aboard Gabriel) and was greeted with 16 pending trades from Drock at the Kings. Firstly, fuck off, that is ridiculous. Secondly, a couple of them are with teams that are getting user GMs, which I've outright rejected. Thirdly, some of them seem a bit sketchy to me. Basically, they all seem to be young scrubs for aging vets, e.g. Andrei Loktionov for Teemu Selanne, Chris Gibson (?) for Martin Brodeur etc. But yeah, there's like 16 of them including guys like Prospal, Jason Blake, St. Louis (although Dustin Brown's involved with that one, I can't see the Kings ditching for a 37 year old), Sykora. Most of the time he'd be taking on a much bigger salary too.

Now I don't want to be a dick and just outright reject everything because I don't think it's true to life or what have you. But at the same time I'd like to keep it fairly realistic. This time around, I'm canning most of them, because seriously, fuck off. The menu system's pretty slow as it is, I'm not going through and noting down the details of 16 trades, be reasonable. Imagine if everyone else had done two or three trades, that's a shit ton for me to get through.

So, the ones I've left open and would like a second opinion on are as follows:

LA gives up LW Kyle Clifford (74OVR) $0.735m 1yr for LW Steve Sullivan (PHO - 79OVR) $1.850m 1yr seemed more reasonable than Langkow, but still, big age discrep and a decent difference between ratings and salary

LW Andy Andreoff (LAK - 63OVR) $0.585m 3yrs for RW Petr Sykora (NJD - 69OVR) $0.650m 1yr bit more reasonable?

Yeah I just decided I can't be bothered to write them all out. My main problem is that I just don't see LA needing to get in a load of vets (especially goaltenders!). Seems like he's doing what I used to do on the older games and just trading young guys for older ones who have a slightly better overall until you've got a team of superstars. The other trades were Dustin Brown and 2 minor league wings for Martin St. Louis, Alec Martinez for Hal Gill or Vinny Prospal (two separate proposals), Thomas Hickey for Filip Kuba or Stephane Robidas (two separate proposals) and Trevor Lewis for Saku Koivu.

I did accept one trade, can't remember the names but it was a minor league goalie swap with Boston.

[apsham]

SIXTEEN attempted trades? Sweet lord.

I wasn't going to tweak things all that much really.

[Cactus Drags]

16, from the reigning champions no less.

[Toe]

I was going to offer a trade to someone, but I wanted to wait until today when the league was actually going to start. I don't think I want to trade with the CPU at all, just because it's too easy to dump draft picks to put up two or three solid players.

I think if you need to make SIXTEEN trades though, you should probably have just been a team you like better.

I would turn down both of the trades you highlighted if I was GM of the other teams involved. Phoenix doesn't need a player like Kyle Clifford. They have guys like that on their roster already. The second trade is more reasonable, but only if the player LA is offering has 3 stars of potential or more.

Oh, the trade I was working on was going to offer a defenceman to Ruki for a winger like Clarke MacArthur. Thinking about it more though, the only defencemen I'm willing to part with are Roman Hamrlik or Tom Poti, and I am not sure if either of those guys get the deal done.

If anyone wants Roman Hamrlik, offer me a trade! I am looking for a second line forward.

[Cactus Drags]

I was going to offer a trade to someone, but I wanted to wait until today when the league was actually going to start. I don't think I want to trade with the CPU at all, just because it's too easy to dump draft picks to put up two or three solid players.

I think if you need to make SIXTEEN trades though, you should probably have just been a team you like better.

I would turn down both of the trades you highlighted if I was GM of the other teams involved. Phoenix doesn't need a player like Kyle Clifford. They have guys like that on their roster already. The second trade is more reasonable, but only if the player LA is offering has 3 stars of potential or more.

Oh, the trade I was working on was going to offer a defenceman to Ruki for a winger like Clarke MacArthur. Thinking about it more though, the only defencemen I'm willing to part with are Roman Hamrlik or Tom Poti, and I am not sure if either of those guys get the deal done.

If anyone wants Roman Hamrlik, offer me a trade! I am looking for a second line forward.

As easy as that may be, I still have to accept it. Otherwise, yeah I'd turn AI trading off. Thanks for your thoughts on the trades, I'll cancel them later.

In more exciting news, since I've seen Vamp around and he hasn't posted here, Dan should be joining at some point today and I know Ellis won't get the game until tomorrow, I think we may as well get started now. If you have games against Edmonton, the Islanders, Anaheim or Vancouver, I'd appreciate you leaving them alone for the time being, give them a couple of days to join. I'll look at advancing us towards the end of the week, most likely Friday.

[Toe]

Already, starting game one of my season against the Devils!

One minute in...BACKSTROM GOES TOP CORNER!

Edited September 16, 2012 by Toe

[Ruki]

So...before I get home/offer the trade....what would be fair for Backes? He is an 84. Was thinking of offering a Lombardi (82) and prospect.

[King Ellis]

I'd make a joke about how I'll now be sure to trade my terrible players for great ones but my frame of reference for hockey players stretches to Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and half of the playable roster of NHL 95.

Though apparently Jaromir Jagr is still a thing so maybe there's hope after all...

[Toe]

In a surprisingly close contest, I beat NJ 7-5. Ovechkin had a hat-trick and Mike Green scored two for me, but every time I would go up by two, the Devils would find a way to get it back. It was a lot of fun.

Ottawa just gave me a scare. They scored two early ones, and I was frustrated. Couldn't find a way to score until late in the second. I guess the first one opened the flood gates, because I ended up scoring 6 goals in total. Anderson late in some really bad ones, including two gimmes to Mike Knuble.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Toe

[Your Mom]

Ok Hockey can fucking burn in hell. This is way too hard.

[Toe]

Ok Hockey can fucking burn in hell. This is way too hard.

This game does that to you. When things go bad, EVERYTHING goes bad. I couldn't shoot, pass, or hit in the first period of the game, plus Troy Brouwer's knee exploded.