Personal Historical Challenge, p3 Salary Cap yrs

[lawrence97]

09/10 Season Preview

1-Rangers
2-Lightning-St. Louis, H. Sedin, Nagy, Jokinen, overrated.
3-Blackhawks-Datsyuk, Marleau, Miller, Briere.
4-Thrashers-Lundqvist, Pavaeslki Malkin
5-Devils-Getzalf, Vanek and Fleury in goal, Miek Green is an ace in D.

8-Columbus-Crosby-Sedin with decent 2nd line forwards, and Kiprusoff
12-Colorado-Savard/Heatley/Hossa still there but around 30
20-Nashville-Always ranked low, can Chara keep them top 5?
27-Minnesota-Ovechkin. They've made the playoffs once


Should be anopther easy season, no teams have 5/6 strong forwards and 3/4 defenders. Columbus should be closest to us but lets see.

[lawrence97]

09/10 Season

Semin loses his place to Wheeler. Bottom 3 are Lucic, Semin and Perron. Have Benn Tavares Tarasenko to come, most likely Richards Semin and Lucic will have to make way. But thats for another time. Kopitar-Toews-Kovalchuk L1, Nash-Richards-Gabroil L2 Wheeler Spezza Kessel l3.
Power play time will see everyone bar Gaborilk get time with Burns and Weber the 2 d men.

Loss of pronger, has affected us a bit, we are 18-3, but goals a bit down, and PK Subban doing excellent as a rookie, but not the production off or def that Pronger was. Blake Wheeler also not quite as strsong as Semin was, Rick Nash also not scoring as well without Semin. But still on pace for 500 rather than 570 goals. Will leave them be, except Burns replaced by Markov on pp2 unit. Atlanta on fire and start 28-3-3. however 29th November onwards theyh lose 6 of 7 and take themselves out of the race with us for 1st., Tampa Bay are now catching them with 53 games gone. Rangers 44-6, but goal scoring not improved, still on pace for 500.

2010 Olympics

US stun Russia in quartesr with Paul Stastny scoring the winner in OT! Czechs, Swedes and Canadiens left in. Sweden thump USA in the first semi, and Canada win 3-2 in the other. Canada, Russia and Czechs have won the 3 nhl players olympics. USA beats Czechs for 3rd, whilst Canada stunned by Sweden 3-2 in the gold medal game. Alex Steen and Erik Karlsson score two 3rd period goals, to overturna 2-1 deficit!

With around 17 games left of the season, Rangers 116- Atlanta 97-TB 92-Phoenix 90. Crosby leads with 131 points, Kovalchuk with 62 goals. Ovechkin is a consistent 60 goal scorer but can do nothing to improve the Wild's position. Despite 5 top 3 picksd in the last 6 years, they've draft Marchand Kreider, Hyman, Stepan and Shattenkirk. Wild have had these point finishes, 56-64-90-70-47-72. With only the 90 resulting in a playoff appearance. This years its on pace for 53.

End of season, Rangers 149 points and 505 goals. Kovalchuk top scorers with 82 goals, but Crosby wins Art Ross with 169. Rangers go from 11 100pt scorers to just 4 with 2 on 98. Blake Wheeler and PK Subban arae both 50 points behind what Semin and Pronger provided. Nash goes to 36 goals.

[lawrence97]

2009/2010 Playoffs

Chicago ranked 2nd didn't even make playoffs, New Jersey 4th favourites snuck in as 7th seed in east.

Rnd1: We fall behind 2-1 to very average Philadelphia team, but switch lines, as Kessel goes to 4th line and Semin reunited with Nash. Win 3 straight. Colorado beaten by Crosby's jackets. Nashville, knocked out by Anaheim.

Rnd2: We sweep Joe Thornton's Florida easily. Anaheim knocked out Crosby.

Rnd3: We face the leagues second best team Atlanta. This is Lundqvist Malkin and Pavelski. Pavelski is a beast, with 151 pts this season, and back to back 60 goal seasons.Lundqvist has Rozsival, McDonagh in front, so they'll be the toughest test i've faced in a while. But we sweep them, but no game was won easily!

Stanley Cup:We face Anaheim, repeat of four years ago. Brodeur still playing for them, as are Iginla, (k)Tkachuk, and J. Staal. They shouldn't have a chance. Game 1 is a 12-3 beating! Ducks will do well to avoid a sweep. 6-2 win for the rangers in game 2. Gm3 in Anaheim is another easy 6-1 for the Rangers. kopitar leads all players in the playoffsd with 30 points. 2 more points in game 4 helps the Rangers to another dominant win 9-2. Toews Markov and Gaborik all had 4 points in the game. A very easy 4-0 sweep. Putting Nash and Semin together when we were 2-1 down to philadelphia, turned us back into the monster team we can be. Blake Wheeler did not have a good season or playoff he is at risk of losing his spot. With a lot of youngsters coming through have to manage payroll and promotions. Busy off season ahead to set the team roster.


Hart:Crosby
Conn Smythe:Kopitar
Calder: Nazim Kadri(LAK)
Norris:Mark Streit (NYR)
Vezina: Roberto Luongo (TBL)

[lawrence97]

2010/2011 Pre Season

Nick Lidstrom had to be traded at 40, to Anaherim for two 1st rnd picks later on in the year. I have 14th and 30th of this draft which is deep. 5 players unavailable, including Kucherov. 4 excellent goalies are available, as is Schiefle and Zibanejad. Lucic and Wheeler are to be traded to get two decent players in this draft and also to get Benn and Tavares in the line up.
Koipatr and Weber sign deals at 7 million, whilst Kovalchuk is cheap at 4!


1)Gaudreau-NYI
2)Huberdeau-Van
3)JT Miller-Edm
4)Kucherov-Carolina
5)RN-Hopkins-Min
6)Helleybuck-LAK
7)Schiefle-Phil(couldn't make a trade with them for this pick)
8)Trochek-Toronto
Trade Pens for 11th pick(WHEELER AND A 4TH)
11)-Zibanejad NYR
14)-Hamilton-NYR
15)Ullmark-Phil
Trade STL for 2 1st rnd picks and my 1st and Milan Lucic
16)T. Hertl -NYR


This sorts out my team for this year and salary cap issues.

i trade Anisimov and Vorachek as they have no hope of making my team to Nashville for two 1st rnd picks. Cam Atkinson is my reserve forward.

Kuztensov, Van Riemsdyk and Evander Kane, will be decisions next year based on cap issues.

[lawrence97]

2010/2011 Season Preview

In a dumb trade, St louis sent 20 yo and 2x 100 point scorer Stamkos to Chicago for Visnovsky, a world class d, but who is 33. Makes no sense money wise either. Chicago with a steal. Top line of Marleau Datysuk Stamkos.

Rankings
1,Rangers
2, Atlanta-Lundqvist.Malkin/Pavelski
3,New Jersey Getzalf/Green/Vanek/Girouz/Fleury
4,Anaheim-Lidstrom/Iginla/Brodeur/J. Staal
5,Tampa Bay-H. Sedin-Jokinen-Luongo-St. Louis

Columubs-8-Crosby, D. Sedin, Giordano, Parise.
Minnesota-27-Ovechkin-Kesler(Nugent-H in minors)

Rangers should win easily again. Lost lidstrom, Lucic and Wheeler. But replaced with Carlson, Tavares and Benn who all look very very good.

[lawrence97]

2010/2011 Regular Season

Start off with a shock loss to Carolina, and straight away we can't seem to score at our previous rate. After 21 games, Atlanta and Rangers tied for 1st with 35 points.Rangers on course for 460 goals, which would be lowest since 1987/1988


At Christmas, with half the season to go, Rangers top by 6 from Crosb'y Blue Jackets who are 32-10-1. We are 35-6-1. Atlanta had a shocker gaiing 18 points out of a possilbe 42 in this quarer of the season. Crosby and Malkin on 75 points each. Jeff Carter has 41 goals! We are still on pace for 460 goals, want to at least push on for 500. Have re jigged the lines. Streit back to number 1 defender.

3rd quarter, line changes make no difference, goal scoring improve slightly to 470 forecast, but points ratio still stays the same.Columbus 8 points behind us. Minnesota imporving this year. 2nd in division, 4 pts off a playoff spot and 7 behind Calgary for 1st in their division. Crosby and Malkin still top 2 in the points race, but Pavelski right behind. Ovechkin is 6 clear for most goals.

End of Season
We win presidents trophy by 16 from Columbus. Minnesota fall off and finish 2nd last in their division. Ovechkin loses Maurice RIchard by 1 goal to Carter. Crosby Art Ross, despite late charge by Spezza. Malkin fell to 5th. We scored 458 goals, which is a stunning drop off from just 2 years ago. We have a genuine chance of not winning the Cup this year.

[lawrence97]

2010/2011 Playoffs

Top teams all made 100 points, would be nice for Crosby-Rangers final, but really want Rangers to be knocked out early, as bored of our winning streak!

Rnd1: We have Washington, Bobrovsky, Bergeron, but not much else, they did play us well this year going 1-2 with all three being close. one game goes to OT, but iuts still a sweep. Columbus sweep, but Atlanta out in 7 to Philadelphia.

Rnd2: New Jersey for us, a top 5 team, with good depth, Vanek Giroux Getzalf is a strong top line. Green scored 104 points from the d. Second only to Dan Boyle of Detroit. First game is an easy win, but Devils strike back in the next! However a 9-2 and 6-3 wins gives the Rangers a chance to wrap up at home, which they do in ot to win in 5. Columbus through in 5 to meat Calgary. Philadlephia in another 7 game series, this time verse montreal are our opponent.s

Rnd3:Crosby, D. Sedin and Frolov(phil) all lead with 20 points so far. Philedlphia, with 106 points in regular season, and with depth if no real star players score 3 goals in the 3rd period to take the 1st game 3-2. Calgary flames with Bure trying to add to his 93/94 stanley cup winners medal, lose 6-4 in the first game. Both teams reverse the results to leave both series tied at 1. Rangres take the lead with a 4-2 win at Phillie thanks to 2 goal Nash. 2 goal parise leads Columbus to a 5-0 win and a 2-1 series lead. An ot goal by Weber leads the Rangers 3-2 in gm 4 to leave them 1 game from the Stanley Cup final. Calgary however tie their series with Columbus, with a 6-4 win. Rangers finish the job with a 4-3 win in game 5, thanks to a last minute Semin goal! Jeff Skinner scores the last of 3 3rd period goals to overturn a 5-3 deficit to a 6-5 win for Columbus. Pavel Bure with the goal in the 3rd to seemingly wrap it up for Calgary. Turning point of the series? Yes, Columbus and Vrosbby make their first SC Final appearance. Parise with 3 points as a 4 goal 3rd, give Columbus a 4-1 win and a 4-2 series win.


Stanley Cup final.Frolov leads with 27 points for the eliminated Flyers. Crosby 27, Sedin 26 and CAmmalleri 23 for Columbus. Kessel leads Rangers with 21, having played 5 games less.

Game1:Crosby line is held pointless, its the Sedin-Skinner-Parise line that combines for all 3 goals for Columbus, but its in vain as Rangers get to a 5-1 lead by start of 3rd, Goals spread accross the team., Final score 6-3 Rangers.

Game2:Crosby needs to step up, his line was a -3 in the first game, Cammallieir and David Jones on his wings. Well Crosby gets a goal, but Rangers with a 7-1 win. Was 2-1 after one, but game gets away from columbus after that. Spezza with 3 points Kovalchuk with 2 goals. Shots 37-27 Rangers.

Game3: A must win for Crosby, but again pointless and -2, as its their Parise line that combines for 2 goals. But again in vain, Rangers 4-1 up after 1st, Gaborik Kopitar Spezza and Markov with the goals. Columbus rally in the second, to get it to 4-3 and then 5-4, but can never equalise. Kovalchuk makes it 6-4 early in 3rd, and that holds up.


Game4: Can we sweep? Can Crosby make a difference? No to the first and no to the second question. Crosby pointless and a -1. His stats in the final are poor. Kopitar has owned him. Crosby 1 goal, 0 assists, and a minus 6! Rangers take the lead after 1 , but Nycholat and D. Sedin turn the game around, before Markov and Nash make it 3-2 halway throughb the 2nd. Rau makes it 3-3 after 2. Shea Weber retakes the lead for the rangres, but Skinner and Giordano make it a 5-4 win for Columbus who get 1 win on the board! Columbu were out shot 44-25. Kiprusoff at 33 showing life in the old dog yet!

Game5aniel Sedin turns this into a series! Rangers have once before blown a 3-0 series lead. This game is even, with both teams around 40 shots, Kovalchuk opened the scoring and Spezza makes it 2. But the Sedin line again combines to make 2-1 Rangers after 1. Columbus then stun the MSG to take a 4-2 lead, Crosby getting an assist. Sedin another 2 points, to take his tally to 3. Burns closes the gap to 3-4 with a goal at 19:51 of the second.We then equalise through Kovalchuk on The PP 7 mins into the 3rd, but Parise gives the win to Columbus. 3-2 lead to the Rangers


Game6:Sedin star man so far for Columbus, whilst Kovalchuk has stepped up for Rangers. Columbus in front of a packed home crowd, fall to Kovalchuks double, Sedin scores from Crsoby to make it 2-1 after 2, But Toews and Kovalchuks second ices it for the Rangers

Rangers 4-2 Champs, Kovalchuk should win the conn smythe, he lead us with 26 points with Kessel, Sedin led all playoff players with 33.

Hart:Crosby
Conn Smythe: Mark Streit(Kopitar and Kovalchuk had better cases, but he still was a major pieve)
Calder:Jakub Voracek(NAS)
Norris: Mark Streit
Vezina: Wade Dubielewicz(Edm)

Kopitar got Frank Selke award*
Vezina:

[lawrence97]

2011/2012 Pre Season

Need to offload some moneyt to get within cap. Richards, Van Riemsdyk and Markov, can all go, as Evander Kane comes in for RIchards, Volynov for Markov, and JVR is 22 and is never making the team.
Draft, is not deep, and although i have three picks 12th is as high as they get. Vasilevsky best player available, but i'm after either Forsberg or Guentzel.

1)Lindholm-Pitt
2)Guentzel-Buffalo
3)Jones-Islanders
4)Forsberg-Colorado
5)D. Toews-Buffalo
6)Pesce-Min Wild
7)Vasilevsky-EDM Despite offering Richards, Markov and 2 1sts!
9)M. Rielly(Send Richards to Boston for this pick)
12)Teravanienen
Trade Markov to Detroit for 3 1st rnd picks. then JVR plus my first for a Carolina 1st.
18)Poulliot
19)Merzlikins
20)Trouba


A lot of defenders, but no attackers available. I've made my team worse, but Richards and Markov were just too expensive.

[lawrence97]

2011/2012 Season Preview

No major trades, our defensive set upis young again, we probably will have a similar season to last, but hoping for 500 goals.

1)Rangers
2)Winnipeg-lundqvist
3)New Jersey-getzalf
4)Columbus-Crosby
5)Dallas-justin Williams

Minnesota Wild still 26th. If they'd taken the trade with Markov and Richards they'd have been top 10. Ovechkin is starting to decline. I've manually intervened. Coachbility is low for him, which i think caused the decline.

[lawrence97]

2011/2012 Regular Season

Rangers 18-3, but again scoring is at the 450 rate. Winnipeg 17-4, Nashville 13-3-4. Pavelski top points scorer, Kopitar top goal scorer. Change things up and put Kopitar as a C, with Spezza fourth line, Gaborik back in the top 3. Defensive players, 3 are under game raating of 60, which is real issue, and i change rushing d to quarter backs and Point shooters.

Rangers 33-8-1, last 5 games we lose 3, after a very good run. On path for 480, will stick with these lines,.Winnipeg 6 points behind. Kopitar now takes over scoring race lead, and is still top goalscorer.

Back on pace for 500 goals, 53-8-2, lost quarter, just drop a point in a shoot out. Kopitar 129 points Sedin 118. Kopitar 58 gls, Ovechkin 54. Has a decent lead in both races, but Ovechkin is coming in strong.

End of Season
We hit 501 goals, we sloed a bit towards end of season, clear first with 144 points.6 players get 100 for us and 1 99. Kopitar cleans up with a 172 point season and 84 goals! Gaborik really was the difference Spezza get 100 points despite being on 4th line. Shows how much being on the 1st line power play iscrucial to getting your points! Minnesota make te playoffs! IN the worst division of the league, Ovechkin ledas them to 97 points. He is second in goals again.

[lawrence97]

2011/2012 Playoffs

Can anyone dethrone the Rangers, 4 teams all around 113 points have the best chance, Win, SJ, Col & Crosbys Columbus. Dallas the only pre season favrouite to not make playoffs

Rnd1: All 5 make it through fiarly easily, Minnesota and Ovechkin out at first hurdle in 7 to the Red Wings

Rnd2: Winnipeg and Rangers through in5, Crosby in another conference final to face the Sharks. Rangers make light work of the devils

Conference Finals: WHAT just happened, Winnipeg win the first two in MSG, and the games are not close! 8-5 and 7-3. Pavelski with 3 assists in game 1 and John Mitchell with 3 pts in game 2. Rangers ahve to win now, and they don't! Winnipeg put themselves in a great position to knock us out after 15 straight cups! In a game the rangers nevewr lead, Winnipeg with 2 points from Malkin and Pavelski hold on for the 5=4 win. Lundqvist in net doing a stellar job for Winnipeg! Game 4 and its a SWEEP! Jets tbf have outplayed the Rangers most of the series, and Malkin and Pavelski again combined 3 times to know us out easily 8-5! New name on the cup this year! Crosby is knocked out by number 1 seeds San Jose in 7.Roman Josi and Jeff Carter leading the way.


Stanley Cup FInal: Jeff Carter on fire with 20 goals and 35 points, leads all point scorers, Pavelski and Malkin for the jets just behind him, having played 4 games less. Winnipeg take a 2 -0 lead at home 6-3 and 9-1. Zuccarello actually cuasing most of the damage. San Jose bounces back with a 7-5 win and a 6-3 win at the tank, Roman josi with 5 points accrosds those two games. The teams then win their home games again, to leave a game 7 at Winnipeg. Can the sharks buck the trend and win away? Gustav Nyquist scores the only goals in the first periuod to give San Jose a 2-0 lead. Winnipeg in the second start turning the screw and outshoot San Jose 17-11. However its Andrew Ladd with the 3rd goal for San Jose at 13:00 of the 2nd. Jets need a goal, and they need it fast and dominate the remainder fo the period. Sanford in net for the Sharks, can not stop Havlat from Malkin and PAvelski 1 minute later, its a curcial goal, as the momentum swings, and barely 30 seconds later Brown from Zuccarello makes it 3-2. The 2nd period ends there. The Sharks are under the thumb! 3rd period, its 17 shots to 5 as the ice is slanted just one way. Muzzin from P[avelski ties it at 13 minutes, and a power play goal at 17:58 from Pavelski, created by Malkin give Winnipeg the lead. San Jose can't come back and Winnipeg are the champions! Carter is points champin playoffs with 47, but didn't really have an impact in the final. Pavelski and Malkin had 42 and 39 for 2nd and 3rd. Pavelski was the real hero. Zuccarello had some excellent games for San Jose as did Barrie on D.


Hart:Kopitar(&Selke, Maurice & Lindsay)
Conn Smythe: Tyson Barrie(game loves a def as conn smythe!)
Calder:Gabriel Landeskog (Van)
Norris:Shea Weber(NYR)
Vezina:Lehtonen(NYR)

[lawrence97]

2012/2013 Pre Season

Players out
-Kovalchuk-Salary(Van for 2 1st)
-Varlamvo-Salary(Nashvile 1st with Ekholm)
-Kuznetsov-doesn't make team(Fla 1st this year with Atkinson)
-Atkinson-doesn't make team(Fla Trade)
-Ekholm-doesn't make team(Nashville trade)

The draft picks i have this year are Det, Stl, Car, Ana, Nsh and mine. Anaheim is 5th , everyone else is 16th or higher.

Draft: Draisatl, Reinhart, Mackinon, Shesterkin & Barkov

1)Draisaitl-Colorado
2)MacKinnon-Buffalo
3)Reinhart-Ottawa
4)Barkov-Dallas
5)Shesterkin-NYR who else(Kovalchuk traded to Van for 2 1st rnd picks)
6)Verhege-Tampa Bay(wanted him, didn't think he'd go this high)
7)Morrisey-Tampa Bay
8)T. Bertuzzi-Edmonton
9)DeAngelo-Phil
10)Nichushkin-NYR
13)D. Nurse-Edmonton
16)Gavrikov-NYR
17)Buchnevish-NYR
24)Sorokin-NYR
25)DuClair-NYR

A very eastern european flavour to my picks, Gutted to miss out on Barkov though, but Shesterkin is very decent compensation.

[lawrence97]

2012/2013 Season Preview

1)Rangers
2)Jets- still a good team, Bryden Schenn joins their top 6 forwards, they'll be though again
3)NJ-Getzalf & Claude Giroux, Vanek and Mike Green a 3 time 100 point scorer on D.
4)Tor-Patrick Kane, Duchene and Yandle. Toronto over 100 pts last year for only 2nd playoff appearance since 2000
5)LAK, They'not makde playoffs since 02/03, 40 year odl Jagr still there, with Couture, Kadri, Sharp and Jonathan Quick. Surely they'll make it this year?

9)Columbus-Crosby and 32 year old D. Sedin. But not much else.
19)Minnesota-Nugent-Hopkins still in ahl, all on Ovechkin.

Genuinely don't think Crosby or Ovechkin have a chance for a cup in this play through. Rangers targets this year are 500 goals, and Stanley Cup, bonus if we can get revenge on the Jets on the way

[lawrence97]

2012/2013 Season


Giving David Perron PP1 time, as been a faithful 4th liner for what will be his 5th year. Tarasenko and Semin will be on the 4th line. Kane gets 3rd line with Tavares and Benn. All three top lines get 18 mins, Power play is where the 100 pointers will come from.

Start off with 3 tight games and 2 blow outs, including a 15-1 defeat of Buffalo, my highest scoring game in a while. Perron actually leads all with 10 after 5, he'll swap with Gaborik. Rangers 10-0 to start, as is Columbus. Winnipeg 8-2, and Ovechkin's WIild 7-2! Lets see if they can continue their hot starts. Chicago 6-1-1 aswell

INT

We go 18-0 before a crunch game with the Jets, who beat us 5-1! Chicago on fire, 17-1-1. After 24 games, Rangers 46pts, Winnipeg 44, Chicago 41 and Columbus 38. Ovechkin tops points with 61 and goals with 30. They are on 33 points 12 clear of Calgary in their division with 3 games in hand. Safe to say Ovechkin is carrying that team hard! We are on course for 510 goals.

At half way stage, we beat Jets 6-4, and this season is all about getting Perron to 100 points now. He is on 49, so just 1 point off the pace. Ovechkin has gone turbo, as has Sedin and Crosby. All of them on 90+ points with Ovechkin on target for 200. Will be the first since Mario in 01/02! Chicago Columbus and Winnipeg all around 67 points. Minnesota 52 but their division is awful so will comfortably win it. Rangers 10 clear. Still on course for 500+ goals.

Tweak our lines and tactics again and have a 10 game spurt Nash-Spezza-Gabroik top line, Kopitar-Tavaes-Perron 2nd line, with E. Kane-Toews-Kessel on l3. PP time shared by perron kopitar spezza and toews l1, semin tavares kessel and benn l2. Streit and Burns the d men.

With 1/4 of the season to go, Sedin is now points leader with 147, Ovechkin fallen off the pace, but still leads goal charts with 66. Columbus are 50-10-3! Rangers 58-3-2 and Jets 46-15-2. Columbus having quite the season. Perron on 76 points, hanging on in for 100! Rangers on course for 530 goals.

Defeat Columbus in the final stretch and Winnipeg, Perron needs 8 off final 6 games to get to 100! Switch lines again to put him with Spezza and Nash. 6 in four. Our form has dropped as we've lost cohesion trying to get Perron his 100. 4 in 2, 3 in 1, and final game of season, is a 10-2 win against Philly where he gets 4 points, to finish on 101!

Daniel Sedin finishes on 190 for the Art Ross, Ovechkin his first Maurice i think with 93. Rangers 154 points from Columbus 138, scoring 533 goals. Mainly thanks to 188 from Kopitar. Winnipeg 127, and the Wild are 4th on 114, after an excellent end to the season. Ovechkin had 185 points. If he hadn't had that blip in the second half of the season, he'd have got to 200 pts and 100 goals. Playoffs now. Lets see if Columbus can make me eat my words.

[lawrence97]

2012/2013 Playoffs

Rnd1: I have switched my lines, with Kopitar Spezza and Kessel my main line, with Toews Nash Gaborik on line two. Toews gets on as 4th attacker on my main power play line. Tampa Bay up first, win first game 9-2, but they shock me 6-5 next game! Then 5-2 to take the lead! 9-4 win for us brings it back to 2-2, 4-1 and 3-0 gives us an uncomfortable 4-2 series win. That stle of paly will not be enough against Winnipeg. Minnesota through, as are Winnipeg and Columbus.

Toronto New Jersey and LA all made the playoffs as the other top 5 teams, but all seeded between 5 and 7 and all knocked out in first round.

Rnd2: 1v4 and 2v3 as all top teams make it trhough. We have Rask, Erik Karlsson , Eric Staal and Kucherov to get through in Carolina! San Jode with Josi and Jeff Carter face Ovechkin's wild. Crosby's BJ's, get Chicago armed with Datysuk, Marleau and O'Reilly. And then Winnipeg, with the 150 point Joe Pavelski and Evgeni malkin agaisnt Ottawa with Milan lucic and thats it! ottawa show well above their weight and won a lot of close games., Their goal differential was 38, next worse in the final 8 was Minnesota with 75. Pretyy much everyone else in the hundreds. Ovechkin's Wild are defeated in 5 by San Jose. Other top teams ease through in 4 or 5 games.


Rnd3: Jets vs Rangers, and Sharks vs Blue Jackets All four teams recent stanley cup participants. Ovechkin has 23 points to Lead, Malkin Pavelski, Crosby and Sedin are unsuprinsgly right there. For us, no Kopitar, Tavaes, are best points producer with 12 in 10. We've not played well, so time to chop up lines again.

Game1: Kopitar shows up! He scores 4 points, Malkin and Pavelski get 2, and we squeak home 7-6. Winnipeg had got to an early 3-0 lead, before we claw it back to 5-4 at end of 2nd. after 10 mins of scoreless play in the 3rd, 4 goals in 4 minutes decide the tie our way 6-5, with Kessel from kopitar the winner. shots were 35-32 to winnipeg. San Jose thump Columbus 7-4 in the first game, Jeff Carter 4 goals giving them home adv straight off the bat.

Game2: Winnipeg show they are high to win, and thump us 5-1. Zucarello three points, Lundqvist 38 saves as we just can't beat him. McDonagh also chips in with 3 points as 3 Rangers from real life punich this Rangers team! San Jose take real charge of their playoff series, with a tight 5-4 win. Jeff Carter gets the tie breaking goal after 9 mins of the 3rd period. 3 points for Sedin and Crsoby go to waste.


Game3: Winnipeg4-3 Rangers! I hate this team! Malkin with 2 assists as they go 3-0 up, we claw it back to 3-3 with Kane and a double from Gaborik, but deep into 2nd OT, Pouliot wins it for the Jets. We are in trouble. Not as much trouble as Crosby, as Jose with the 3rd period goal to win it for San Jose 2-1 to go 3-0 up in the series.


Game4: Must win, and its not, another win for the Jets! We are changing lines again, Duncan Keith with two goals, to put us deep in a hole!m San Jose stamp out the BJ's with a 5-0 demolition in game 4 for the sweep.


Game5: Rangers 7-4 Jets, giving kopitar and Spezza 22 mins of ice time works as we get contributions from everyone to win 7-4. Shots are 28-26, we get a rare bad game from Lundqvist to give ourselves a chance. Paveslki Malkin Barrie and Zuccarello all get their points as usual though.

Game6: All about the second period here. Jets 2-0 up early thanks to Postma and Porter, but Gaborik gets us back in the game before the first intermission. IN the 2nd period, Kessel Equalises, Schenn puts the Jets back in front and then 3 straight goals, Kopitar, Gaborik and Subban with his 1st of the playoffs makes it 5-3. We've dominated play with 34 shots to 18. Jets come back in third, with 12 shots to 8, but can only manage 1 goal through Dustin Brown. ITS A GAME 7 AT MSG!

Game7: Comeback is complete! Jets are horrible tough opponents it has to be said. Yet again they go 2-0 up through Pavelski and Brown. Their top two lines have been a match for us. its just been one bad game by Lundqvist that's decided this series. However, we are are level by end of second, Tarasenko(his first) and Kopitar(10th). Mark Streit with the go ahead goal 9 mins into the third. Toews with insurance 5 mins later as we happily knock out the Jets!


Stanley Cup Final. Jeff Carter and his 14 goals are the main threat we face here, but Sharks are not the Jets, we should be able to beat them with a lot less drama than against the Jets. Machessault also provides decent scoring depth for them. Pavelski and Malkin top playoff stats. Kopitar is 11 points off then. Tavares manged just 1 point against the Jets!

Game1: 5-2 win. Not as comfortable as it sounds, as three late 3rd period goals turn a tight 2-2 game. Nash 3 assists the 1st star.

Game2: The regular season series was tied at 1-1, but Rangers take the 2nd playoff game 7-3.Kopitar 4 points, as we again had fallen into an 0-2 hole in the first. Jist like game 1, 3 goals in the 3rd win it for us, as we had scored late in the 2nd to take a 4-3 lead.

Game3: Same pattern as before, San Jose take the lead in the first, we equalise in the 2nd, and take a 1 goal lead into the third, before blowing them away in the 3rd period. This time a 4-3 end period lead turns into a 9-3 humiliation. Tarasenko 2 goals, Gabrorik a hat trick.


Game4: For once we oprn the scoring, Kopitar in the first. He adds another on the power play in the 2nd, an then assists Burns for another to make it 3-0 after 2. Gaborik pretty much ends it early in the 4rd, despite Josi answering wih 13 mins left to go. Kopitar completes his hat trick for a superb series, Gaborik his 2nd and 14th of the playoffs and Nash with the final goal for a 7-1 thumping and Rangers sweep the Sharks to get the SC back again


Kopitar gets 29 points, still can't catch Pavelski despite playing 5 more games. Nash Gabroik and Spezza all 2 or 3 points behind him.

Hart:Sidney Crosby
Conn Smyth-Mark Streit(thats just a terrible call)
Calder:Nikita Kucerov(Carolina)
Norris:Mark Streit(this game just loves this guy)
Selke:Kopitar deserves silverware for his perfromances)
Vezina:Ryan Miller(Chi)

[lawrence97]

NHL PreSeason 2013/2014

NHL changes structure to 2 divisions per conference. Columbus and Detroit now now in east. Winnipeg i'm happy to seed go to the west. Trading one super team for another really. Dumb trade, Vancouver get 17 yo Mackinnon for a 29 yerar old Parenteau, and a 2nd rnd pick. PArenteau is a good player, but Mackinnon already looks ripped. These are exactly the type of trades I banned myself from doing.

Streit will have to go as he's asking for too much money and have to get under the cap, as will either Voynov or Subban. Gaborik is out for Zibanejad.
Klingberg and Hamilton ready to go in D. With Kopitar Weber Kessel and Spezza all aroud the 7 million mark, Tough calls lay ahead next year.
Luckily Nash only wants 3.9. He's my most useful player. a 9/10 players for a 7.5/10 price!

Draft: Unavailable-Pastrnak, Rantanen. Available-Eichel, Nylander, Point, Connor, Hintz,Larkin, Meier, A. Kempe We have 11th, 16th 22nd and 30th pick. Trades incoming.

1)Pastrnak-Buffalo
2)Ekblad-Edmonton
3)Rantanen-Phoenix
4)Eichel-Pittsburgh
5)Point-Florida
Can not offer anything to get this pick, So get Barkov from Islanders for Streit and 2 1st rnd picks
6)Nylander-Anaheim
7)Sanheim-Edmon
Kyle Connor is a cert to be taken here, must trade my 11th for Cgy's 8th. buts its like pulling teeth. They say no to Benn Subban Sorokin and the 11th pick for 8th! They don't even trade the pick for Kopitar Toews Weber and Kessel. Thats how stupid this trade system is. Wish they regarded who they picked as important as how they valued the draft pick before hand
8)Connor-Calgary
I decide to then offer a trade of Subban and a 2nd and 3rd round pick which they should resuse considering just what they previously refused for the pick to select him. But not this is fine!. This breaks my rule of not signing any prospects, but i'm annoyed so i do it anyway, give myself this one allowance as he's one of my favourite players and its been 55 game years of not breaking that rule.
11)Hintz-NYR
Trades
Gaborik for Boson 15 1st rnd
16)Meier-NYR
22)A. Kempe-NYR

Very decent depth again, Jamie Benn is struggling I will soon have to let Spezza go, Barkov-Toews-Hintz is a very decent future 1-2-3 depth at Centre. Is the CONNOR MCDAVID DRAFT NEXT YEAR.

Tyler Seguin is released, at age 21 i sign him, I will give Calgary Benn for a cheap pick to make up for the Connor trade(though PK Subban at age 23 is not that bad)

More strange decisions as Hyman and Lindholm are released by thier clubs, I snap them up and worry about my cap and players later, they can go in ahl for this season

[lawrence97]

2013/2014 Season Preview

1)Rangers
2)Winnipeg-Same core as last year. Glad they are in the west now
3)New Jersey-Getzalf/Green/Giroux, the three G's
4)Philadelphia-Schiefle now makes the team, with Backstrom and Pacioretty
5)Toronto-Patrick Kane & Duchene

9)Columbus-think last year was their high point, but always a chance with Crosby
14)Minnesota-Nugent Hopkins still in minors at age 20, Ovechkin has Derek Stepan, not a great team.

Our team is stacked, Nash starting to decline so he'll have to go next year to make space. Semin, Kane, Perron probalby also as have Hertl, Connor, Hymas Barkov to come in! Embarssment of riches

[lawrence97]

2013/2014 Season

Target as ever is Stanley Cup, Expecting Winnipeg to be only threat.

Kopitar-Spezza-Kessel
Nash-Tavares-Tarasenko
Semin-Toews-Kane
Perron-Zibanejad-Seguin

Our defence is not what it once was Weber is only one who makes it the top 10 list of defenders(no2). This game really values excellent D men, ours are not quite excellent, Carlson Burns Weber our top 3, Klingberg and Hamilton should be world class soon, but Voynov not at that level. Hoping from big things from Carlson who has Mark Streit boots to fill.


500 goals with our inexperienced is the target and 150 points.

Start off like a house on fire, but Kucherov's Carolina look menacing right behind us. We then hit a goalscorer slump, and afeer 1/4 of the season, we are on 35 points, Winnipeg 34, Carolina slump a little bit, we are on pace for 502, fallen off the 600 after the first 9 games. Points battle and top goal scorer are very close, with Sedin and Jeff Carter leading by 1 on each respectively

Halfway...Rangers 63, Winnipeg 67. whole host of teams in the 50's/ We are on pace for 500 goals still, Daniel sedin leads with 94 points, Carter with 42 goals. John Carlson is every bit as good as i hoped as my number 1 def.

Olmpic Break, Ranges went on a 17 win streak, but somehow are LEVEL with Winnipeg who are on a 13 game win streak at the break! Sedin 2 clear of Crosby in points, and Kopitar top goalscorers, 1 from Carter. Pavelski/Malkin powering the winnipeg juggernaut.

Olympics, of the 4 'nhl' olympics, usa haven't won any of them. Can they win this one before we take a break for 12 years? All star game is held right in the middle of it! Olympics q-f, Can vs Fin, Usa vs Slv, Cze vs Sui and Sweded vs Russia. Finland shock Canada, Sweden beat Russia, whilst USA faces of against the Czechs in the other semi final.

USA beat the czechs with a young 42 yo Jagr still playing! Sweden will face them in the final, after handling Finland.

and its the USA with Carlson, Pavelski and Kessel winning their first gold, with a 5-1 thump of sweden. Czechs get the bronze. Apart from Finland, all the major nations won 1 gold medal in the 5 nhl olympics from 1998-2014.


End of season With the last 7 games left to go, the Rangers and Jets are still tied, having only dropped 4 points each since the olympics break. They go head to head and its Winnipeg who win 5-3! Anoter loss to Anaheim cooks our goose, and we are not President Trophy winners for the first time in decades! 95/96 when Grewtzky Red Wings were top! Winnipeg an unbelievable 146 points and the Rangers 141! Sedin is art ross winner-177, Ovechkin overtakes everyone with Maurice Richard win with 83 goals. Rangers only 487 goals. A real slow down last 10 games of the season, can we recuperate in the playoffs. Winnipeg have to be favourites!

[lawrence97]

2013/2014 Playoffs


Carolina after such a hot start, are out, they have the problem of being in the Metro where 6 good teams are, and finish 9th, in east despite having 7th best record, they woudl have made the playoffs in any other division. Columbus and Minnesota both made the playoffs. All other big teams made it.

Rnd1: New Jersey, no easy start for us. and we get past in 6 despite Claude Giroux's efforts. Columbus are out! Favour for us as they were the best team in the east after us.

Rnd2: Min and Win get through, we get Philadlephia, probably the easiest opponent yet, Pacioretty and Schiefele their best players. We sweep, Winnipeg blast Ovechkin's Jets aside. I really don't think either Ovechkin or Crosby will win a cup unless they get a fa, or are traded.

Rnd3: Patrick Kane's Toronto await us. Canucks get the Jets. Canucks have weapons in Landeskog and KOvalchuk, Mackinnon isn't ready yet, neither is Huberdeau, but they have a lot of young good players. they should be a force soon if not now. We beat Tor in 5, Vancouver go up 2-1 over Winnipeg, and force a game 7, Winnipeg escape through the skin of their teeth, a 3rd period equaliser to win in OT!

Stanley Cup Final

The giants collide. Winnipeg have bee in same conference and we've met 4 times over the past 5 years, with them inflicting our only playoff defeat in the 21st century. Then they win the presidents trophy, the first time we don't win it since the 90's as well.

Pavelski and Malkin lead their scorers, but Zuccerllo provides good depth with Braden Schenn. Keith Mcdonadh Barrie and Lundqvist make them excellent everwhere.

Game1: Shock for me not to have home adv, but its deserved, Winnipeg won both regular seasons games, by a combined scored of 12-5. However. its the Rangers won win game 1. A crazy first period leaves the score tied at 3. Rangers get 2 unaswered goals in the 2nd, before Brown and Zuccarello tie the game 7 mins into the 3rd. Carlson and Tarasenko who with 2 goals and an assist is first star of the game make it 7-5. Malkin claws one back with 20 seconds to go, but its too late! 7-6 is a hell of a way to start the series.

Game2: If we can win here, it really should make us heavy favourites. This game is just a shootout. Tarasenko repeateds with 2 goals and an assist for second straight 1st star performance. The goalies are getting shelled here, Rangers win 9-7, in a game that was never really close.Rangers were always at least two ahead with the lead being 4 for most of the game.


Game3: We have to win this one, we can't give such a dangerous opponenet any hope, Malkin and Kopitar leads the playoffs points. This game is a fairly low scorer. First period is all Jets as they go 3-0, Mitchell, Malkin and Regin. Rangers score two in the second, Kopitar and Tavares. The third is all winnipeg, but no goals are scored. Jets get a huge win.


Game4: We don't win this and its adv Jets. And we definatley don't win this. Malkin 5 goals and an assist tears us apart, and its a 10-4 laugher for the Jets @MSG.

Game5: Winnipeg have woken up and its a 4-1 win, to put them on the brink!


Game6: Winnipeg stomp all over us 8-4, in a very dissapointing series by us. Winnipeg pick up a very deserving Championship for the 2nd time in three seasons! Malkin top scorer and he must be MVP.

Hart:Crosby
Conn Smythe:Malkin
Vezina:Jonathan Quick(la)
Calder:Johnny Gaudreau(nyi)
Norris: Tyson Barrie(wpg)

[lawrence97]

Connor McDavid Draft and 2014/2015 Pre Season

Having been outplayead by Winnipeg last year, i've re-evaluated my roster, and Nash, Perron, Kane and Vyonov are all to be traded. Hyman Barkov Buchnevich and Morgan Reilly to come in to replace. Spezza may be traded if we have cap issues. Lehtonen, probably for Shisterkin next year.


Draft
Unavailable: McDavid, Matthews, Tkachuk, M, Kapriov, Marner
Available: Seb Aho(c),Thompson, DeBrincat,Barzal, McAvoy

I have 8th and 16th pick, so will trade my players for future picks.

1)Connor McDavid-Colorado. Yes its Draisaitl and McDavid on the same team.
2)Matthews-Arizona
3)Tkachuk-Florida
4)McAvoy-Ottawa
5)Marner-Anaheim
6)Thompson-Buffalo
7)DeBrincat-Nashville
8)S. Aho-NYR
Nash and 16th pick, to Devils for fololwing 2 1st rnd picks
Volynov & Perron & a2nd to Stl for 2 1st rnd picks
9)Kapriov-Washington

Got the player i was after, just hopeful that i've made the right choices to get back on top. A lot of great players have been drafted, and if Colorado can sign some defenders and gk, they'll give me as much trouble as the 60'S Blackhawks, the Gretzky red wings, the 80's north stars, and the current Winnipeg Jets!