Hartford Whalers Dynasty: Brass Bonanza

[Argonaut]

1981 PLAYOFFS

Well we did better in the playoffs this year, taking the Maple Leafs to the full 5 games after going down 0-2. The home team won every game in the series which was interesting. I've attached the scorelines. Dave Keon played quite well in the series for the Leafs, getting some bragging rights over his former team (while on his former former team?)

The Stanley Cup Final was an interesting matchup between the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins. The Sabres made short work of the Bruins, capturing that elusive title that they haven't so far in real life. What's with my crazy dynasty that has the Blues and Sabres avoiding long Cup droughts? I think it's well-deserved though, as the Sabres have done very well in the regular season and have been tough to score on. They have the legendary Scotty Bowman as coach so I'm sure that factors into it.

We're seeing a bit of a different 1980s so far, with no Islanders or Oilers dynasty as of yet. I'm keen to play on and find out what's next. Hopefully the Whalers can enter the conversation at some point.

I forgot to screenshot the league leaders and things like that, but Gretzky was tops in points of course. Kent Nilsson actually led the league in goals for the newly minted Calgary Flames.

[Argonaut]

1981 OFFSEASON

A busy offseason arrives as there's 2 big storylines for us:

1. The switch to a geographic division-based NHL format and playoffs
2. The arrival of Ron Francis!

We're preparing for life in the Adams Division, and I'll have an in depth look at that in the next post. And of course Ron Francis headlines the new NHL arrivals along with Chris Chelios. The rich get richer in Montreal as our division rivals now have Larry Robinson, Rod Langway, and Chris Chelios at the point....

Awards season was quiet in Hartford, as we only had Brian Propp pick up the 2nd Team All-Star spot at LW. The Canadiens have 4 out of the 6 1st Team All-Stars!
Don Cherry was fired by the Rockies, which is a funny history meets reality story. More surprising was Glen Sather being fired by the Oilers, so someone else will have to lead them to greatness.

I did 2 notable trades in the offseason, bringing in Joe Mullen and Mike O'Connell. Joe Mullen will be a mainstay at RW and a goal threat for a long time. I fleeced the Blues a bit in that trade, but I don't mind because they won their Cup. The Mike O'Connell trade was more fair, sending future Cup winning coach Joel Quenneville to his Blackhawks. O'Connell bring more of a two-way game and a righty shot to balance out our defensive corps 3L/3R.

[Argonaut]

MEET THE ADAMS FAMILY

The 1981-82 season marks the beginning of the Hartford Whalers' membership in the Adams Division, where we will be for most of our existence. I believe this to be the toughest division in hockey, so we'll have our work cut out for us. Historically Hartford was a bit of a punching bag in this division, and was often the 5th team in the standings, and therefore missed out on the playoffs. But now that I'm managing the Whalers and contending, how will it all shake out?

Our division rivals...

MONTREAL CANADIENS

The powerhouse of the division and the winningest team in hockey history. The Canadiens have been one of the best teams in the league so far in my game. They're aging a little bit from their dynasty in the 70s, but still won the Cup in '86 and '93 in our timeframe on the back of Patrick Roy.

Right now they will be tough to score on, as they are led by elite defensemen and defensive forwards like Larry Robinson, Rod Langway, Chris Chelios, Bob Gainey, and the up-and-coming Mats Naslund and Guy Carbonneau. Guy Lafleur is entering his 30s but can still light the lamp. Just an all around great franchise... to have any playoff success in the Adams Division, teams will have to go through Montreal.

BOSTON BRUINS

We don't know how the future will shake out with playoffs and everything, but the Bruins have a leg up on being our biggest rival from the get-go. Sharing the New England territory, Boston is our rival from a geographic sense. They're a tough team and we'll have to go through them as well. Last season they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals but lost against yet another team in our division...

The Bruins are led by another elite defense pairing in the veteran Brad Park and the young stud Ray Bourque. They're pretty well-rounded and have some guys who can score like Rick Middleton, and notable grit from Terry O'Reilly. If they have a weakness it's in goal, where they don't have an elite netminder unless they trade for one or draft one. I can't recall if they had any good drafted goalies historically, I just remember they had Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin who started on other teams.

BUFFALO SABRES

It's funny that the Sabres are only the 3rd team to come to mind as I'm listing the Adams Division, and they're the defending Stanley Cup champions! In truth I'm not as worried about them long-term as the Canadiens and Bruins, because a lot of their core is aging. Perhaps why they overachieved and why I should be more worried is that they're led by the legendary Scotty Bowman.

On offense, the Sabres have 2/3 of the French Connection in Gilbert Perreault and Rick Martin, both entering their 30s. Danny Gare was hot in the first couple of years but is on the decline. Craig Ramsay is also still good but aging, and Don Edwards has been one of the best goalies in the league thus far. To me it seems like they're due for a dropoff, but who knows? Scotty could get some more mileage from this team. The Sabres are a bit of a wildcard, we'll see what happens.

QUEBEC NORDIQUES

And last but not least, we have our fellow WHA import Quebec Nordiques. This team is actually sneaky good, and part of the reason why I don't think there's any pushovers in this division. Every year will be a battle for making the playoffs amongst all the 5 teams. And then the rivalries will only get deeper as we play for 2 rounds in the postseason.

The Nordiques are led by the Stastny brothers, the best of whom is of course Peter Stastny. Did you know he was 2nd in scoring for the 1980s decade behind only Wayne Gretzky? The Stastny brothers defected from Czechoslovakia and are some of the first great NHL players from behind the Iron Curtain. The Nordiques also have the excellent Michel Goulet, another top player of the 80s. They also have a young Dale Hunter and Real Cloutier, the latter of whom was super elite for Quebec in the WHA. All in all a solid team, and they'll pick up a couple of elite players later on in Joe Sakic and Eric Lindros.

[Argonaut]

1981-82 SEASON PREVIEW

I've attached the season preview... apparently the game thinks I'm one of the top 3 teams in the league? We'll see. Also, Mike Liut gets a shoutout as one of the better goalies.

The new divisional setups are here and looking good. It's the Rockies' last year before they become the Devils and adjust things a bit more.

Our lines look pretty good... I think this will be the last year I have the Rogers/Stoughton connection, so we'll see how they do. Against my better judgment I'm also rolling with the Enforcer/Agitator wingers as my extra skaters. We'll see if it helps us draw penalties.

I'm also playing Ron Francis as my 3rd center, although I think he's a bit underrated in his rookie season. In reality he was a point per game guy from the start.

[Argonaut]

1981-82 HALFWAY POINT

It's the halfway point of the season and the Whalers are in trouble. A point back of the Nordiques for the final playoff spot in the Adams, and we also have a losing record. Even worse, our best player Mark Howe just went down with an injury for 2 months.

I decided I have to shake things up. Gone are the enforcer and agitator, they were never part of my style anyway. I've also bumped the tempo setting up by one, as I noticed my players were faster than average. It fits with my ideal of a quick and effective offense too.

I've had to make some minor trades here and there, as especially on the blueline guys were getting injured a lot. Ronny Francis is also sent to the AHL as he wasn't effective... the game doesn't have him rated quite right in his rookie season.

We'll see how we get on in the 2nd half of the season, but it's going to be tough without Howe.

[Argonaut]

1981-82 END OF SEASON: SO CLOSE YET SO FAR

My changes seem to work, and Hartford mounted a valiant effort in the 2nd half of the season to go above .500 and finish the year strong. Even without Mark Howe for 2 months. But we missed the playoffs! By 1 point! It came down to the final game and we lost to the Bruins, where a win would have sent us through. We improved a lot, but Quebec had a great second half too.

I can't complain too much as Quebec was the better team, with a noticeably better goal difference. But man! The Adams Division is tough. Even tougher than I expected. Without a wildcard system like the one that exists today, you can have crazy scenarios like this one where my 83 point Whalers miss out and the 61/60 point Penguins/Canucks get in. Remember, 16/21 teams make the playoffs, so it's bizarre the Whalers are one of the teams who miss out.

I still like this old playoff system though, to be honest. Fun, with good rivalries and stories.

I've attached the final standings and point totals. Blaine Stoughton had a fantastic year with 54 goals and 105 points. Mike Rogers was injured for a bit which hindered his chances of reaching 100 points. League-wide, it was the Gretzky show again. But the Montreal pairing of Robinson/Langway was ridiculous.

We're still not quite there yet, and I want to re-tool for next year and give it another go. We've been hit by some misfortune but I still like our underlying philosophy at Hartford.

[q_uebecois]

Hey, awesome idea! I am looking to do something similar for fun with the Quebec Nordiques, how did you get it so that players got automatically drafted to their in real life team? Cheers, keep up the good work.

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by q_uebecois

Hey, awesome idea! I am looking to do something similar for fun with the Quebec Nordiques, how did you get it so that players got automatically drafted to their in real life team? Cheers, keep up the good work.

Glad you enjoy. There's an option when you start a historical game to turn off the draft. The tooltips guide you in the right direction when you click it off I think. Give it a try, beating the Canadiens is tough!

[q_uebecois]

Yes I think I found it, thank you! Keep up the good work like I said I look forwards to seeing the progression of this franchise.

[Argonaut]

1982 PLAYOFFS & INTO NEXT SEASON

I'm playing this series on 2 different computers, so in transferring back and forth sometimes I forget to take screenshots and miss stuff. When in doubt I just forge ahead.

Anyway, in this season's playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens went all the way and defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the 1983 Stanley Cup Finals. Gretzky and the Oilers were up 2-1 and 3-2 in the series, but failed to close out the well-rounded Habs. That's 2 straight seasons with Adams Division champions raising the Cup. The Oilers still have to wait for their first.

For end of season awards, I think we only had Brian Propp getting 2nd Team All-Star at LW.

As the season rolls over, we have the Colorado Rockies moving to New Jersey to become the Devils, and there will finally be some stability in the NHL teams until the 90s expansion. Although 21 teams is kind of an odd number, I do like this era of the NHL... no team feels out of place in their division or in the league.

In more interesting news, Don Cherry is named the coach of the Maple Leafs which I'm sure is a dream come true for him!

[Argonaut]

1982 OFFSEASON & SEASON PREVIEW

Finally we can run 4 full lines as the NHL now permits 18 skaters, so I adjust my team accordingly.

The big offseason move was the acquisition of Larry Murphy, who I grabbed from the Kings. The deal basically amounted to Murphy and Patrik Sundstrom for Mike Rogers and Blaine Stoughton. The Rogers/Stoughton era in Hartford is officially over. They leave as the all-time assists and goals leaders respectively in Whalers history.

Larry Murphy is obviously a premier defenseman. He's a bit more offensive than Mark Howe, and a right-handed shot. So I decided to mirror-image my tactic and turn my RDs into quarterbacks and my LDs into two-way guys. The LWs and RWs have been flipped as well. We'll see how it works out. I'm happy to have an elite #1 pairing, something that was missing when compared to a team like the Canadiens (Robinson/Langway). Murphy won the Calder Trophy in 1980-81 so we've traded for guys who were back-to-back Calder winners in Propp & Murphy.

Ron Francis has had a boost to his attributes thankfully, and the game even thinks he'll be involved in the scoring race. It'll be a seamless transition to him as my #1 center, and he takes over captain duties as well. The Whalers are starting to look pretty good and get a shoutout in the season preview.

I've also changed from Snipers to Perimeter Shooters, as my guys were more suited to that. I've run some testing and this kind of role switch doesn't make that big of difference anyway. I've started to pick up a few Swedes including Sundstrom and Hakan Loob, who will both be very good in the future.

[Argonaut]

1982-83 END OF REGULAR SEASON

Jumping right to the end of the season here, as there were no major complications. The Hartford Whalers put aside the disappointment of missing the playoffs last season, and finish in 2nd place in the Adams Division behind the Montreal Canadiens. I think we got 97 points or something like that. Forgot to take a photo again!

My philosophy is working well now, and I've attached some stats to show it. We're 5th in goals and somehow 2nd in goals against, despite playing offensive hockey. A key factor is being last in PIMs, and also having the top penalty kill in the league and 3rd ranked power play. It all adds up to 79 power play goals for, and only 27 power play goals against. That's what I've been looking for!

Our top line of Propp/Francis/Mullen did very well, with Francis' bid for 100 points only derailed by a short injury. Also, our top line finally has a healthy plus-minus which I attribute to their improved two-way play (in contrast to Rogers & Stoughton). And probably to the acquisition of Larry Murphy.

The Adams division placings went like this:

1. Canadiens
2. Whalers
3. Nordiques
4. Bruins
5. Sabres

So we'll have 2 good matchups in the 1st round, MTL/BOS and HAR/QUE. We'll try to enact revenge against Quebec for beating us to a playoff spot last year.

[Argonaut]

1983 PLAYOFFS

Hartford has won its 1st ever playoff series! We were favoured against the Nordiques and delivered, beating them 3 to 1 in the best of 5. I was happy about that, but it set up a 2nd round matchup against the defending champion Canadiens.

The series with Montreal was tough, and we almost pulled it out. We were down 2-0, before storming back to win 3 straight. Unfortunately a Game 6 loss at home sealed our fate, as we were blown out in Game 7. I attribute the loss to not having a hot goaltender. I don't know if I fully agreed with the hot-or-not indicator, as I believe Mike Liut should have been heating up a bit more, especially after his 3-0 shutout against Quebec.

We were also a bit devastated by injuries during the playoffs, especially to our defense corps. I've attached a photo of the kind of thing I was dealing with.

In the broader playoff picture, the Oilers won it all against the Rangers to claim their first championship. Wayne Gretzky was actually injured mid-playoffs, so he missed the final. But Mark Messier lifted the Cup in the end. The game has Moose as captain ahead of Gretzky anyway, I guess because of his strong leadership.

[Argonaut]

1983 OFFSEASON

Mike Liut picks up 2nd Team All-Star, and we get Sylvain Turgeon in as a rookie. In real life he hit the ground running as a teenager and had an excellent rookie campaign. But his ratings are poor right now and I learned my lesson with Ron Francis... he'll spend a year in the AHL. I think the recalc doesn't quite take into account super-teenagers, aside from Gretzky. Probably a lot of manual work for the researchers?

We also bring in Pierre Larouche, who was a great goalscorer and also played for the Whalers historically. I ship out Darryl Sutter as I have a plan to tweak the players/tactics a bit for next season. There was some other trades I think, but I won't list them all... just the new tactical approach in the next post.

[Argonaut]

1983-84 NEW TACTICS AND LINES

I've decided to go with a tweak to my tactical approach this season. I hope it's both more offensive and more defensive! What I'll be doing is adding more goalscorers and removing my two-way forwards from Lines 1-3. So it'll be a playmaker flanked by a sniper and a shooter. And then Line 4 will be a shutdown defensive line, that's prioritized to take defensive draws, play against the opposing top line, and also play on the penalty kill.

I've noticed that the bottom lines don't really get enough ice-time to score all that much, so it's a bit of a waste to have goalscorers and playmakers there. They usually end up being minus players. So I've given the 4th Line a new purpose, and freed up the Top 9 guys to score more goals. Now the wingers are all focused solely on putting the puck in the net, so hopefully we'll be hearing Brass Bonanza more often in Hartford. The sniper/shooter combo gives a bit of a different attacking approach on each line, though I don't know how much that matters to the game engine.

The cool thing about my setup now is that the 4th Line is matched up against the opposing 1st, freeing up my other lines to match up against slightly weaker lines. My 1st is matched against their 2nd, 2nd matched against 3rd, and 3rd matched against 4th. So hopefully that'll allow them all to be better than the opposing players and score more goals.

For the 4th Line... we've picked up Gaeten Duchesne in a trade, Brent Peterson on waivers, and drafted Greg Gilbert in-house. They're all playing as backchecking forwards and have their sliders set to defend only. I've also tweaked their tactics a bit to dump the puck in, slow the tempo down, and play a less skilled game. They're there to prevent goals. We'll see how it goes.

I know I'm deviating from my original philosophy of no checking lines. But one should never be inflexible, there's always opportunity to adapt. I think because of how icetime works, there's a certain percentage of time in a game where you have to focus on defense... whether it's on the PK, against a skilled line, or a defensive zone faceoff. Plus it'll be fun to have 6 wingers all set to sniper/shooter and have the centers and defensemen feeding them.

[Argonaut]

1983-84 END OF SEASON: WHALERS HARPOON THE WALES

Just a fantastic pun in the title there. I never really thought about how fitting it was that the Whalers were in the Wales Conference until now.

A great season for Hartford as we finish with 110 points, our best ever showing and tops in the division and conference. Only the Oilers with a whopping 136 points had more in the NHL.

I like our tactical/lines setup now for sure. A lot of our success comes down to having a lot of good players now, but I believe the changes helped as well. If you check the player stats, our 4th Line members were 2, 3, and 4th in the league in GA/60. That's remarkable and more than anyone could dream from a checking line. Gaeten Duchense also got a Selke nomination.

Also, we were #2 or #1 in all major statistical categories. Tops in PP and PK %. But still near the bottom in drawing penalties, I guess that's the price you pay for playing less aggressively. Joe Mullen was 2nd in goals with 68, half of them on the power play. Ron Francis was near the top in assists and points. And everyone's plus-minus is much improved too. Our goalies were almost an even platoon, with Greg Millen seemingly hotter.

Millen will get the nod against the Buffalo Sabres, who we face in the 1st Round.

[Argonaut]

1984 PLAYOFFS & AWARDS

I don't have any screenshots of the playoffs, but it was a disappointing 1st Round exit to the Sabres, who barely squeaked into the playoffs. Amazingly Buffalo went all the way to the Cup final, only to be swept by the juggernaut Oilers. We've built a good team, but you need some extra luck sometimes in the playoffs. Especially in our tough division.

We've picked up some postseason hardware, which is nice. Joe Mullen won the Lady Byng, which is a trophy that I hope our team wins a lot with our low PIM style. He had a really nice season with 68 goals and 124 points.

Gaeten Duchense also won the Selke, which is a great nod to our checking line. Duchense played high pressure minutes against opposing top lines, was prioritized for defensive faceoffs, and played on the top PK unit. And he still finished with an excellent +16 rating! I highlighted before how our 4th Line guys were so good at preventing goals this season.

Greg Millen was nominated for the Vezina and finished as a 2nd Team All-Star. It's kind of annoying that he was hot, because I want to emphasize Mike Liut on these 80s Whalers. Having a hot goalie seems to mean a lot in FHM. The Oilers swept the 1st Team All-Stars, wow.

Also, we scored 98 PP goals and only gave up 33 PK goals. That's gotta be some sort of record on the PK. Special teams is working as designed for sure. We'll get that Cup eventually. I hope. But even if we get through the Adams Division we'll probably have to face the Oilers!

[Argonaut]

1984 OFFSEASON

We pick up a couple of cool players in the intake -- Ray Ferraro and Sylvain Cote. I think Hartford has a pretty dry spell for much of the rest of its history in the draft. So we'll really have to protect and recycle the assets we do have.

Super Mario comes into the league this season, so he'll be the best chance to challenge Gretzky's crazy numbers. Ron Francis was listed as one of the better players in the NHL the last couple of seasons, but now there's some big talent starting to come up. Patrick Roy also joins the Canadiens. Great.

We've sent Engblom and some OK depth to the Jets for Dave Babych. I've been decimated by injuries to defense in past years, especially during the playoffs. Larry Murphy missed the playoffs last season. I've brought in Babych (who played for the Whalers IRL too) to play equal minutes with Howe/Murphy on the 2nd defense pairing. The hope is that spreading the minutes around will limit injuries. And it's nice to upgrade the team too.

We've dropped all pretext of being fair in assembling this team, it's a juggernaut now. We have to compete with the Adams Division and the Oilers too. The 1984-85 season preview has us as Cup favourites. Go Whalers!

[croatian]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

1983-84 NEW TACTICS AND LINES

I've decided to go with a tweak to my tactical approach this season. I hope it's both more offensive and more defensive! What I'll be doing is adding more goalscorers and removing my two-way forwards from Lines 1-3. So it'll be a playmaker flanked by a sniper and a shooter. And then Line 4 will be a shutdown defensive line, that's prioritized to take defensive draws, play against the opposing top line, and also play on the penalty kill.

I've noticed that the bottom lines don't really get enough ice-time to score all that much, so it's a bit of a waste to have goalscorers and playmakers there. They usually end up being minus players. So I've given the 4th Line a new purpose, and freed up the Top 9 guys to score more goals. Now the wingers are all focused solely on putting the puck in the net, so hopefully we'll be hearing Brass Bonanza more often in Hartford. The sniper/shooter combo gives a bit of a different attacking approach on each line, though I don't know how much that matters to the game engine.

The cool thing about my setup now is that the 4th Line is matched up against the opposing 1st, freeing up my other lines to match up against slightly weaker lines. My 1st is matched against their 2nd, 2nd matched against 3rd, and 3rd matched against 4th. So hopefully that'll allow them all to be better than the opposing players and score more goals.

For the 4th Line... we've picked up Gaeten Duchesne in a trade, Brent Peterson on waivers, and drafted Greg Gilbert in-house. They're all playing as backchecking forwards and have their sliders set to defend only. I've also tweaked their tactics a bit to dump the puck in, slow the tempo down, and play a less skilled game. They're there to prevent goals. We'll see how it goes.

I know I'm deviating from my original philosophy of no checking lines. But one should never be inflexible, there's always opportunity to adapt. I think because of how icetime works, there's a certain percentage of time in a game where you have to focus on defense... whether it's on the PK, against a skilled line, or a defensive zone faceoff. Plus it'll be fun to have 6 wingers all set to sniper/shooter and have the centers and defensemen feeding them.

This last picture, is that setting for 4th line ?

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by croatian

This last picture, is that setting for 4th line ?

Yes, that's right. They're on their own settings while Lines 1-3 play more offensive.