angryjay93

i cant speak to snes b, but snes A dont look right at all bud.

Damn EA, you're digging way back here but I'm loving it. Hell, who even knew there would be an AJ and an EA in GDLXIII? That's the King of '94 effect for you right there.

should be around tonight

830 CST is usually the earliest I can be around.

Yeah, I tend to agree here with you Bob but I might even go so far as to say that Michalek was a 4/5 or 4/4 in his SJ days. He had to have knee surgery after his 2nd career game so we may never know his true top speed on NHL ice. I watched SJ nightly and Michalek never showed me a whole lot of side to side wiggle or even pure straight line speed that compared to the likes of Patrick Marleau. Funny thing about rankings, when one guy drops out of the top 25, a new one jumps in.

I should be able to find you Tuesday or Wednesday this week. I plan on coming on during those time frames at least one of those nights.

Yes, the basis of all sound arguments, laughing in someones face, heavy criticism, and shot taking. Well done Losing your mind because Michalek's skating may be misrepresented? Chill out man.

Yeah, gdl 1 and classic league final in 2007? I won in gdl, ea in classic

I don't recall saying that much but I hope we can play and not worry about that part.

I use the 6 button Saturn. Took a while to break it in but once I did, I vowed to never go back to keyboard. They usually are much more pricey then the Gens if I recall right. Not sure if its worth that much extra coin in comparison to the Gens version.

Yep, I'm mostly ok now. Nothing broken, just some good bumps and bruises that made it tricky to walk around this weekend. I'm a hockey player, gonna need more then some piddly Honda Civic to take me out if I'm riding my bike.

It's a preference thing, i personally like LH better. It's like deciding whether going up or down is more comfortable for someone. Plab made some good points about NYR and while I don't agree, I'm not going to say he's wrong. I do think he mistyped when speaking about Leetch as he has 99 agility, not speed. Personally, I just can't get pas the fact that I think NYR is a heavier and crummier version of Dallas.

I know I haven't made an updated tier list so I don't know exactly how similar or different my list would be but I'll just list some things I noticed for better or worse starting from S tier and working down. -I'd remove Buffalo and Rangers from the "S" and move Vancouver up: Buffalo has chemistry issues that are well documented as well as a lack of offense after Mogilny. A lack of team speed can also make things tough for them because they don't have the shot power or help from the defense to crack teams with a good defense. Even with CB check, their 2nd defender is a weakness. NYR cant shoot, plain and simple. Gartner has to be on to be worthwhile and they labor to bring the puck up ice since Tikkanen and Messier are just huge targets for teams that back check well. Plus their AI can be an absolute tire fire too often and their goalies aren't good enough to bail them out. Too many things have to go right for them to compete with good teams. Vancouver is simply a better Dallas. Bure has 5 stick handle and its simply dishonest to say he isn't a good deke player. Courtnall has the same skate ratings with a worse shot and 3 sth but he's not a problem in the C with his dekes? The support from the rest of the team is comparable enough to call it a wash. Chicago and Detroit are good teams no matter how you slice it. - "A' tier is a group I don't have much beef with except for Philadelphia and Montreal LA, Boston, and Calgary are the perfect example of weird but skilled teams that can be victimized a bit too often by their AI which tend to short circuit more often then the S teams. Each team also has a clear weakness in which to attack. Montreal is likely an A team because they are a true team that work off each other very well. They can run out a very slick skating group or a more skilled version with a bit of CB ability. Their AI is incredible, especially at home and Roy eliminates a lot of the cheapies that many other goalies give up. Very customizable team, perfect for cerebral players who don't rely on bully tactics. Philly is a nice team but more of a B team due to a lack of speed and scoring ability. Their defense is also very weak and will be victimized by every team in S and A tier. The forwards have to do too much work and just aren't quite talented enough to pull it off. Another team that suffers from a lack of depth, their bad matchups tend to stay bad. - "B" tier looks pretty good as well, these are teams with talent but even larger flaws then the teams above them. The only team I waffle on is Pittsburgh I like Quebec here, plenty of talent up front but their AI has a real tendency to just s**t all over itself in its own zone. Not enough team speed to run down the breakaway chances they seem to give up. Toronto can pretend their an "A" team from time to time, they matchup well because their team is very balanced on C and CB checkers and their AI is capable of keeping it together a lot of the time. Pretty predictable offense limits them. Winnipeg and Edmonton are surprisingly similar when it comes to end results. Both rely on a superstar with some pretty weak support. Defenses have a bit of a learning curve but can be reigned in enough to be effective. Good counter attacking teams. Can't make up my mind on Pittsburgh, great AI, can CB check, and Lemieux is just a machine if fed the puck appropriately. On the other hand they are terrible at carrying the puck up the ice, the support players have one good skill offset by many poor or average ratings and they have too many unwinnable matchups if playing a manager of equal skill. I'd likely put them down in C not so much because of their roster but because too many other teams above them are designed to kill them. -I'd probably cut "C" tier in half because I feel some teams overcome their weaknesses better than others. I'd keep NJD, NYI, HFD, and PIT in C because they can fight back very effectively. NYI because of their forwards, NJD & HFD because of their balanced and fairly mobile defenses. These teams can't be completely disregarded by teams ranked higher. I'd give STL and WSH their own tier. They are both functionally broken teams. STL is far too slow and under skilled, Hull has to be spot on and he has to get help for them to be taken serious. Too many teams can blow them up with a basic gameplan. WSH is too busy fighting themselves to worry about the other team. Bondra is an abjectly terrible deke option, Khristich is too slow to create his own offence and Ridley is a support player with no one to support. Beaupre is terrible and the defense isn't good enough to cancel him out. Pure TRAPON team with a terrible counter attack. Tampa should probably be grouped with SJ and OTT as these are functional teams that lack speed and talent. FLA and ANH deserve to be in "F" tier, they have even less speed and talent than the teams above them.

Yes, I would try to press C as little as possible in that scenario. The goalies tend to do well without the save animation and even if they allow a rebound they can react instantly.

Looks like a lot of the buds around here are saying some pretty helpful things but I think I can still help out a little bit. I've taken a look at the stats you've accumulated so far this season and have made these assumptions based on what I'm reading. -you have a very direct game style. everything is geared towards passing the puck or skating the puck with the desire of attacking the opposite goal as soon as possible. -you like to skate up ice and attack directly with your defenders -you play a very loose style which leads to high event games (lots of shots for and against as well as a lot of goals being scored) -You're getting abused by B check -Goalie issues are evident due to the save percentage being under .600 -The forwards don't back check much leaving gaps in your defense and too many responsibilities for your d-men. These are just guesses on what may be happening. It'll be up to you to determine how much these things occur if at all during your games. I do have some basic suggestions to hopefully help you slow the game down a tad. Key #1: Delegate more responsibilities to your forwards Right now I think the defense is being asked too much and because of this they may often be out of position. When you get the puck with a defender the focus should be eluding checks and finding outlet passes to eventually work the puck up the ice. All of these offensive excursions they go on only pull them out of position and leave you prone to being counter attacked. A great way to give up goals is to give up breakaways and odd man breaks. By keeping your defenders home they should do a better job of fending off these counters. Also the forwards are key to sustaining a good defense. When you lose the puck in the offensive zone don't automatically start throwing random body checks with your forwards or smashing the B button to gain control of a defender. Often, the better choice is to start back checking immediately in an attempt to block off the neutral zone. This may seem counter intuitive because you want to create a turnover right away, unfortunately these chances aren't always there for the taking. Therefore it is usually best to clog the neutral zone by reading passing lanes and attempting to direct the puck carrier out to the boards where he can be isolated from his teammates. Good players take advantage of over aggressive and out of position defenses. By playing a bit more systematic, getting your forwards to help your defenders, and keeping your defenders in position more often, you should experience better results. Key #2: Less is more with your goalie As you learn to GC try to limit your need to control it to slap shots, crease cuts, and breakaways. These situations are typically easy to recognize and if you can learn to read these situations and react appropriately then you will deter the opponent from such rudimentary methods of scoring. Don't go nuts trying to read every play and flopping around with the goalie as that will just lead to a lot of disasters. One thing I also like to recommend is something I've seen a couple other guys do and that is to refrain from using the "C" button to initiate a save animation. While these can be helpful in expanding the goalie hit box (the area he's capable of making a save) it leaves him in a freezed animation and it's really tricky to react to dekes and or rebounds if the goalie is frozen. Essentially what you want to do is to just get your chest protector in front, let the puck hit you and then switch back over to a defender if you think you can get to the loose puck before your opponent. Key #3 Be patient This may seem absolutely outlandish because the game is moving at such a fast pace but learning when to push and when to build the play can make all the difference. Like I said above, I sense that your style is very straight forward and while that can work in certain situations it isn't always needed. If you watch NHL games these days you'll notice a lot of good defenders don't just throw the puck up the ice hoping something good comes of it. A lot of them are very adept at eluding a defender by creating space for themselves or by finding their fellow defense partner with a pass to open up the play a bit. A lot of new players will just chuck the puck up the ice hoping to find a streaking forward or try to go Bobby Orr style and start motoring up the ice recklessly. These are great ways to get the play shoved back into your own zone quickly because there is no possession being held. I personally like to think of it in these terms. It is really hard to get the puck away from the other team, why in the hell am I going to give it back to them so easily? To help accomplish this you will need to work on eluding checks by not being afraid to skate backward or laterally a bit to where some open ice is. If your d-partner is on the opposite side and wide open, pass it to him and then look to break the puck up the ice. If you have a wing on the half wall wide open, use him. No sense in throwing a cross ice pass through traffic or trying to hit a streaking center with a hail mary if your winger is right there begging for the puck. Not everything needs to be pushed up towards the other teams net as soon as you get the puck. Try to build the play a bit, the AI is remarkable at times when it comes to positioning for an offensive breakout and then working it's way into the zone. Let the puck do the work instead of yourself. Then when you find specific areas to attack, go for the net and put the heat on. Key #4: Learn from your opponent Basically what you're doing here is learning on the job. Watch how they play defense, watch how they score, watch their passing, watch how they build the play. When I was learning many years ago the first thing I did was watch how people scored on me and try to learn from it by not just learning how to minimize it but by also learning how to score in that manner myself. When I first came onto the site I only knew how to score crease cuts and one-timers. I made it a focus of mine to learn the ways I was being scored on and use it for myself because if they weren't helpful tactics in which to score with, then I wouldn't be giving up those goals. Also, by watching your opponent you will learn their tendencies more and learn where to try and slow them down. This will take time and experience, a lot of trial and error because everyone is different and you will evolve as you play more games. Try to break the game down and don't focus on just winning and losing because it's how you get to those results that matter. Start slow, focus on playing better and smarter hockey and the results will come organically.

Sounds like a lot of positive developments going on here the news couldn't be any better really it seems. This all reminds me that I still need to get you the photos I have from my trip to Finland. I'll have to get them from my buddy and look them over. Depch mentioned being a little camera adverse so I'll have to run the stuff by him as well just out of respect. I'll get them to you ASAP once this is all ironed out.

What messenger name did you use to contact him? I used the two different ones and he hasn't gotten back to me and I cant PM him because his inbox is full.

Thank you for posting this Annatar as I enjoyed it very much. I thought the Gens league was going to be tough but this is shaping up to be a dog fight. I have the King of 94 and the Smashfest winner in my division. I'll have to strike first, strike hard, and show no mercy.

Yes, please!!! I have a couple quibbles about some of the placement but I'll keep it to myself. No sense giving anyone extra motivation. I'd have to agree with me being the preseason favorite, LA can be weird to work with but it's one of the most talented teams I've had in my possession since...2011? Been a good while to say the least. My value bets go to EA and Zalex. EA should be dangerous with all that offense in his hands and Zalex with Dallas seem like a good match. They D up and suit his counter attack play perfectly. If he converts his chances, fuhgetta about it.

I'll be around tomorrow night starting sometime around 930 EST. I have my time set with Fitzo for later in the week. Just hope skip and Bo are around as well tomorrow night.

probably looking at next tuesday evening since the next time i plan on being on before that is friday and possibly saturday.

Vancouver please

Yep, Seth called it. I'm right there with ya TK. At least I showed an emotion, it's progress.

I think I'm obligated to take the Kings here...so I will.