angryjay93

Buffalo

The San Jose Sharks have capped off their successful season with a 16-0 playoff run to complete the year with a combined 99-1-0 record. All of the games in the playoffs were blowouts except for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Islanders. The Isles took a 2-0 lead into the final two minutes of the third period against the Sharks 4th line. Pat Falloon came to save the day as he was subbed in for the injured Robin Bawa. He set up David Maley to make it a 2-1 Isles lead with 1:40 left and then later scored the tying goal himself with just 50 seconds. Before the regulation ended, Falloon was knocked out of the game which put the Sharks on the PP moving into overtime. It only took a mere 29 seconds for defensive defensemen Neil Wilkinson to scoop up a puck in the neutral zone, dash off for a breakaway and pot the Stanley Cup Winning goal with a beautiful deke. I had a good bit of fun with this version of the game, it certainly has it's charm and is a somewhat challenging game. But there are still some holes in the AI here and the challenge is only slightly greater than GENS in the end. Tis a shame I missed out on the bobble head by a game as I don't think I'd attack another season with the same vigor as this one.

My first season is over! The San Jose Sharks pulled off an 83-1-0 season finishing with a 74 game winning streak after losing in St. Louis back in October. Impressive as that may be, the loss ruins a run at the Gordie Howe bobble head. Line 4 did a some serious work out there as I expected. Mark Pederson took over the team lead in points despite dragging the corpse of David Maley with him. Maley certainly made things very tough as his lack of ability nearly lost the Sharks a couple of games. Late in the season the Flames had a 2-1 3rd period lead before Pederson tied the game to send it overtime and then followed it up with the game winner just 30 seconds into the extra frame. Line 1: 107 GF - 17 GA Line 2: 129 GF - 20 GA Line 3: 115 GF - 13 GA Line 4: 128 GF - 20 GA A very even performance from all the lines, I suspect Line 1 would have a much better performance now that I'm familiar with the game and I will be saving them for the most difficult playoff match up. I'll just leave other stats down below as I know at the very least coach will be interested in all of this.

Lots of smoke outside in California, thus lots of 94 indoors today. The third line killed it as they also obtained a perfect 21-0-0 record. They made up for a lack of speed and shooting acumen with in close one timers and a crash the net play style. They faced only a couple of tough games, a 2-1 home game against Winnipeg and an overtime game in Edmonton that ended 2-1. That was the Sharks first OT game this year. The defense even chipped in, More and Zettler couldn't match Wilson's 13 goals but they did pot a surprising 12 goals and finished with a surprising 50 points, the highest combined total for any pairing. Next up is Line 4 which isn't a big step down from lLine 3 although Center Dave Maley is one of the lowest rated players in the game. Pederson-Maley-Bawa Ozolinsh-Wilkinson Irbe Irbe is the best goalie on the team by far, I have my number one D corps and I have a bit more shooting skill on this line than I did with Line 3. I'm expecting a 21-0-0 performance here as well, thus leaving that Line 1 loss in St. Louis a very grave mistake.

Line 2 just kept things rolling by going 21-0-0 despite the defense not being quite as stout with Doug Zmolek and Brian Hayward committing their share of mistakes. On the other hand, the offense was just too much for almost every team to handle as Rob Gaudreau found his groove early and rode it the entire time. I have a really good feel for my dekes now, it became evident by the end of the Line 1 schedule but it just became a staple in the offense for Line 2. John Carter and Dean Evason lagged behind a bit but they still did a lot of work on offense and did a great job of getting the puck to Gaudreau. Doug Wilson led the D with a lot of ice long rushes and a few blasts from the point, he seemed very young and spry as the wind blew through his hair. I don't have any of the scores but Line 2 did face some stiff competition (Van x5, Mtl & Wpg x2, Min, Pit, Phi). Line 3 gets a bit of a gimmie to start their journey with an away game at Ottawa, the catch is that is the first of a 9 game road trip that runs them all over the east coast. Speaking of that third line... Courtenay-Sullivan-Odgers Zettler-More Hackett I'm a lot more optimistic after how Line 2 fared but I envision a few tough games as none of these guys are as capable of a scorer as Gaudreau. It's a slow unit with not much in terms of offensive talent, I also surely won't be getting 13 goals from either of my defensemen. I''d be surprised if I got 13 combined to be real. I'm still having a lot of fun, but now that I have a better feel for scoring, I'm more easily able to offset a few fluky goals allowed by my shoddy goaltenders.

Oh, I forgot this hidden goody. Push the tab button and all the players will have the jersey number displayed. Push tab again to turn it off.

You can do a hook/hold on defense by pushing B and C together on your gens controller. Also escape is the pause menu.

Just a quick recap as I'll save the more detailed update for the half way mark. 20-1-0 with line 1. I had a handful of close games but I ended strong with my 5 game home stand where I ran 4 starting goalies off to the bench including Potvin, and Belfour. Line 2 will be a true test as it composes some of the lesser talent on the roster. Carter-Evason-Gaudreau Zmolek-Wilson Hayward Hope I have some easy teams to square off against.

This game is definitely pretty awesome. I noticed the backup goalie thing too when I chased Vernon in the 1st period. I also got to go against jablonski when I faced Tampa so maybe he is the starter? Some of the player ratings are different from console version. For instance, go check out Joe nieuwendyk, he is a monster in the PC version. Also, I noticed a lot of the scratches who aren't on the console version have some really strong ratings. Ray Whitney is a scratch with ratings make him arguably the best sharks player. It's kind of a bummer that the scratches got way over juiced. I should make some more progress on Friday and I'll post that once I have it with more observations.

Took my first L in St. Louis to the tune of 3-2. I ran into serious penalty trouble and fell victim to a few fluky goals. Pat Falloon had about 5 minutes of ice time despite taking no penalties. I'll have to wrap up line 1 later on but i think i should go 20-1 barring another game with bad luck. After spending a lot of time with line 2 players in STL and then having to deal with John Carter at LW once Garpenlov got hurt at Joe Louis, I have less optimism for success. These players are really bad and I would predict a few 0-0 games. Lines 3 and 4 will be more of a battle for .500. Thankfully Irbe is my best goalie but he is my 3rd stringer. Pretty fun game that while not super challenging, is definitely a step up from GENS or SNES.

So far so good at 5-0-0. I'm noticing some of the tactics to score in Gens are pretty close to PC. I've had some close games and I suspect that my 3rd and 4th lines will cause me a lot of problems. Especially since Berezan is a scratch.

What are the default lines for the sharks?