OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Historical Replay

DFyvie · 03-19-2020, 11:12 AM

Hello all,

Thanks to the global pandemic sweeping the world, I am housebound with the entire family. Thankfully I'm armed with OOTP21 (which I haven't even touched yet) and FHM6 (which I've touched too much to be honest). Anyway, I decided to occupy my time with rehashing and documenting one of my favourite historical replays: What if I was given control over the Flames in the year 2000 instead of the future GM of the year Craig Button?

When Button was hired in Calgary, there was a lot of optimism. He had helped build the Dallas Stars into one of the best teams in the league. Flames fans, like myself at the time, thought good times were ahead.

Instead, what we got was a guy who shipped out some of Calgary's better pieces and relentlessly pursued poor fits like Rob Niedermayer and Chris Drury. He also stood by an inexperienced coach and shipped out Marc Savard for a handful of magic beans. On the plus side he did acquire Craig Conroy, so he's not all bad. His tenure didn't really set the team back that much, but he did not transform the team into a contender as many thought he would. Calgary would have to wait for Darryl Sutter to roll into town and give the roster a kick in the ass.

I had the pleasure of meeting Craig Button once, in a lounge on 17th avenue one night. I jokingly told him he should trade Iginla straight up for Mike Peca. Thank god he was far too intelligent to follow my advice for I was heavily intoxicated on cheap gin and Peca's leadership on a bad Buffalo team. He did seem like a genuinely wicked guy though.

As with my past dynasty with the Expansion Sharks, I will narrate the season through assorted fictional press-releases and editorials.

I hope this brings me a bit of joy and relief from the madness that we are all going through and gives you all something to read that is hockey related. I don't know about you, but I need the distraction.

The parameters are pretty straight forward. I simmed the '99-'00 season from Sept 17 to June 1st and took over the Flames from there.

A couple of bizarre things have happened: The LA Kings won the Stanley Cup on the back of Stephane Fiset in 18 games. The Kings were the 8th seed and routed everyone in 5 games or less. They faced Ottawa in the finals and beat them 4-0. So yeah, pretty crazy.

The second bizarre thing: the scrappy Edmonton Oilers of the late-90s finished first in the west. And, yeah LA beat them in 5 games in the first round.

Individual player stats seem really standard with lots of familiar faces doing familiar things, so nothing really stands out there. Pittsburgh had fun with Mario, Jagr and Straka all topping 100pts for the year. Brian Rafalski won the Calder trophy, Niedermayer won the Norris, Jagr the Art Ross and John LeClair won the Richard trophy with 55 goals. Brodeur won the Vezina. Rob Blake won the Conn Smyth with a whopping 10 pts and minus 7. Fiset's numbers where pretty stellar so I'm not sure what happened there.

03-19-2020, 11:12 AM	#1
DFyvie Major Leagues Join Date: May 2014 Location: Cambridge, UK Posts: 384	Historical Replay - Calgary Flames Hello all, Thanks to the global pandemic sweeping the world, I am housebound with the entire family. Thankfully I'm armed with OOTP21 (which I haven't even touched yet) and FHM6 (which I've touched too much to be honest). Anyway, I decided to occupy my time with rehashing and documenting one of my favourite historical replays: What if I was given control over the Flames in the year 2000 instead of the future GM of the year Craig Button? When Button was hired in Calgary, there was a lot of optimism. He had helped build the Dallas Stars into one of the best teams in the league. Flames fans, like myself at the time, thought good times were ahead. Instead, what we got was a guy who shipped out some of Calgary's better pieces and relentlessly pursued poor fits like Rob Niedermayer and Chris Drury. He also stood by an inexperienced coach and shipped out Marc Savard for a handful of magic beans. On the plus side he did acquire Craig Conroy, so he's not all bad. His tenure didn't really set the team back that much, but he did not transform the team into a contender as many thought he would. Calgary would have to wait for Darryl Sutter to roll into town and give the roster a kick in the ass. I had the pleasure of meeting Craig Button once, in a lounge on 17th avenue one night. I jokingly told him he should trade Iginla straight up for Mike Peca. Thank god he was far too intelligent to follow my advice for I was heavily intoxicated on cheap gin and Peca's leadership on a bad Buffalo team. He did seem like a genuinely wicked guy though. As with my past dynasty with the Expansion Sharks, I will narrate the season through assorted fictional press-releases and editorials. I hope this brings me a bit of joy and relief from the madness that we are all going through and gives you all something to read that is hockey related. I don't know about you, but I need the distraction. The parameters are pretty straight forward. I simmed the '99-'00 season from Sept 17 to June 1st and took over the Flames from there. A couple of bizarre things have happened: The LA Kings won the Stanley Cup on the back of Stephane Fiset in 18 games. The Kings were the 8th seed and routed everyone in 5 games or less. They faced Ottawa in the finals and beat them 4-0. So yeah, pretty crazy. The second bizarre thing: the scrappy Edmonton Oilers of the late-90s finished first in the west. And, yeah LA beat them in 5 games in the first round. Individual player stats seem really standard with lots of familiar faces doing familiar things, so nothing really stands out there. Pittsburgh had fun with Mario, Jagr and Straka all topping 100pts for the year. Brian Rafalski won the Calder trophy, Niedermayer won the Norris, Jagr the Art Ross and John LeClair won the Richard trophy with 55 goals. Brodeur won the Vezina. Rob Blake won the Conn Smyth with a whopping 10 pts and minus 7. Fiset's numbers where pretty stellar so I'm not sure what happened there.