PPM Elite League

[Mike]

Jan 19, 2009 9:45:18 GMT -5 topcat said:

Sent challenges for our three remaining away games but all three teams have the same two dates available, looks like one might get played late.

On the plus side, we won our division and playoff so finally got promotion, little bit tougher in V though, especially when you don't log in for a few days and then find out that you star netminder is out for 3 weeks and you backup, nicknamed 'The Sieve' has been letting them in for fun for a few games! Out came the cheque book and a new Finnish nettie with a 160 goalie rating comes in!

Which team didn't you send a challenge to? Whoever it is, ask them to free up a date and send you the challenge. There are plenty of dates available if you don't stuff your schedule with friendlies, so sounds like whoever it was needs to free up a date pretty sharpish else you'll be taking the points by default.

On the goalie, sounds good. I've been looking around the market lately but nobody I like enough has come up in my price range. The latest annoucement said the other two stats, passing and technical, are just as important so I'm trying to find someone good in all areas. Players with 200 in goaltending but no potential in the other two seem fairly useless to me, and anyway their price tag is usually stupidly high.

I did get a nice D-man prospect off the market, I may have overspent on him though as nobody else bid. He came up overnight, so I put 3.7mill in before going to bed. His overalls aren't very good at the moment but he's only 15, and he's got potentials of 99, 99, and 96 in the 3 defenceman areas! Future star I'm hoping ;D Now to get those training facilities upgraded!

[topcat]

Sent a message to Coventry Maple Leafs asking them to cancel their game on 10th April and replace eit with ours.

On the goalie front, logged in this morning to find that my new star replacement goalie is now also out for over three weeks My only other goalie is a young Brit who'll be decent in a few years but doesn't have the numbers to be the starter yet. Back to the market - again!

[Mike]

Final Standings
Team Points
London Ravens 91
Junior Giants G-Crew 89
Bratislava Blaze 62
Blazing Storm 59
IceRayz 58
Coventry Avalanche 53
Coventry Red Wings 45 (with 20 regulation wins)
Warwick Castles 45 (with 16 regulation wins)
Coventry Maple Leafs 30
Basingstoke Bison 28

The deadline for all games has now passed, so if you've missed some games out which could have bumped up your position, sorry, but its too late. (Infact only Bison and Castles could improve their position playing out the remaining games). Just Maple Leafs Vs Ravens will be played on the 13th April as they declared that it wouldn't fit to the schedule. However, the result won't alter the standings so we can get on with the playoffs

---------------------------------------------

Confirmed Seedings
1) London Ravens
2) Junior Giants G-Crew
3) Bratislava Blaze
4) Blazing Storm
5) IceRayz
6) Coventry Avalanche
7) Coventry Red Wings
8) Warwick Castles
9) Coventry Maple Leafs
10) Basingstoke Bison

1st Round of Playoff Games

Quarter Finals
Bratislava Blaze (3) Vs Coventry Avalanche (6)
Blazing Storm (4) Vs IceRayz (5)

Positional Playoff
Coventry Red Wings (7) Vs Basingstoke Bison (10)
Warwick Castles (8) Vs Coventry Maple Leafs (9)

Byes to the Semi Finals - London Ravens (1) & Junior Giants G-Crew (2)

--------------------------------------------

Arranging your Playoff Games

All playoff series will be played over the best of seven games. These games will follow the NHL set up, so the higher seed will play at home for games one, two, five and seven, whilst travelling away for games three, four and six.

1st Round Dates
Game 1 - Saturday 24th April @ Higher Seed
Game 2 - Tuesday 27th April @ Higher Seed
Game 3 - Thursday 29th April @ Lower Seed
Game 4 - Saturday 1st May @ Lower Seed
Game 5 - Tuesday 4th May @ Higher Seed
Game 6 - Thursday 6th May @ Lower Seed
Game 7 - Saturday 8th May @ Higher Seed

Rules for Sending your Challenges
I can't be bothered to give too much detail here. Essentially, send challenges for all 7 games as soon as you can. If your opponent has other friendlies arranged on the dates, point this out to him so he can cancel the games. Any problems, give me an ingame message or post on here. If a player doesn't accept the challenges or doesn't cancel another friendly thats in the way, he/she forfeits any games that are missed as a result. If for whatever reason neither player does anything to try to get the games arranged, they go to the home side.

[Mike]

Coming soon, SkyDome Block 2's Playoff Preview ;D (Let me know if its any good )

Here's the first two that I've done so far...

1st Round of Playoff Games - Preview

Bratislava Blaze (3) Vs Coventry Avalanche (6)
In regular season meetings, the Avs were dominated by the Blaze, losing four times, winning just once and recording one overtime loss for the extra point. This suggests we're in for a one sided affair, but I wouldn't be so sure. The two most recent meetings saw Avs win one and take the other to OT, and in so doing taking 3 league points compared to the Blaze's 2. The team strength stats make things look differant too. Both sides are given an overall of 23, however the makeup of the sides appear very differant. The Blaze are a well balanced side, although weak in goaltending with 20, the skaters are all of similar levels. The Avalanche have an odd make up, with goaltending up at 26 they have strength in net, and an average defence to sit infront of it. But look to the forwards and things get confusing, a high 26 for their offence, but just 16 in the shooting department! Stats from the season don't give many clues away to this, scoring at a level you'd expect from the 6th side. However the defence is good, also true of the Blaze who are very strong at the back. This should be a close series, but the Blaze have to be favourites, I'll say in six.

Blazing Storm (4) Vs IceRayz (5)
This series is a battle between two very differant sides, that could only be seperated by a point over 54 regular season games. The Storm are a side involved in high scorer games, with more goals finding the net in their 54 games than for any other side. The IceRayz are the exact opposite, low scoring games and they take the title for the team to see the fewest goals hit the two nets in their 54 games. However, neither team is able to make their advantage at one end promote them up the standings, as the Storm defence is letting too many in, and the IceRayz are 8th in the league for scoring. The team strength stars don't explain much though, as Storm recieve a 24 in both attack and defence, and a shooting down at 19 yet they still get the goals. The IceRayz make a little more sense, 29 in the goaltending department and 20 for defence compared to their 18 offence, certainly a side that relies on their goalie and an injury there could seriously hurt their playoff hopes. So with very little to choose, we head to the head to head results for the season where again things are hard to understand. The games have all been low scoring, other than a 6-2 Storm win on their own ice. However this low scoring makeup hasn't benefitted the IceRayz, as they've won just 2 games, on of those requiring overtime, whilst the Storm have taken 4 regulation wins including low scoring 2-0 and 3-1 victories. My prediction for the series, I have to go with the head to heads and give Storm the edge. They've been winning the low scoring games, and if the pucks start to find the net more often, this can only benefit them further. I'll go for Storm in six.

[frenchie]

Good read

I've spalshed the cash recently and signed a 301 and 290 OR player. My "wonder goalie" who did so well in VI. League is having a tough time in the V League, but I'm up to 13th, and I won 3 straight games!

[Mike]

Jan 21, 2009 14:22:20 GMT -5 frenchie said:

Good read

I've spalshed the cash recently and signed a 301 and 290 OR player. My "wonder goalie" who did so well in VI. League is having a tough time in the V League, but I'm up to 13th, and I won 3 straight games!

How much do you spend on oversize roster costs? I just went to try to find your new goalie to see how much you spent. 57 players! I'm always rushing to sell when I hit 41 lol. As I see it, 20 players on the currant roster, and 20 to be the future roster. Anyone who isn't good enough for the currant 20 or the future 20 will never play and so is straight to the market!

[frenchie]

About 60k, thats it.

My goalie is "Wayne Bryne" and i've raised him through my youth school and my high training

[Mike]

1st Round of Playoff Games - Preview Continued

Now we're onto the positional playoffs. These teams aren't in with a shot at winning the championship, but they could promote their finishing position to as high as 5th spot if they perform in the playoffs.

Coventry Red Wings (7) Vs Basingstoke Bison (10)
This game see's two sides who were seperated by a great margin in the regular season meet for a playoff battle. The Red Wings accumulated 45 points whilst the Bison had to make do with just 28. To the team stars and we quickly see an explanation for the differances between the two sides. Bison are below 20 in every category, including a lowly 14 in the goaltending department. However there are glimmers of hope, both sides are matched on 17 for their shooting abilities, and the Red Wings aren't too special between the pipes either, just a 16 for them. However the Red Wings skaters really start to do the business with their offence (27) and defence (23) stats, and with those numbers you have to wonder why they didn't make more of an impression on a playoff spot. Despite finishing 7th and therefore the highest of the non-qualifiers, they were a full 8 points clear of the 6th seeded Avalanche and 13 behind the 5th position. Their stats are a good match to the Avalanche in all but the goaltending department, and that really does enforce how important it is to have a good goalie, something both these sides appear to lack. Bison may have finished in 10th spot, but that didn't have to be the case and had their manager managed to arrange the 6 games they failed to complete, they would almost certainly have clawed back the 2 points needed to overhaul the Maple Leafs. Back to this series matchup, and in the head to heads we see things looking a little more equal. The teams are tied 3-3 after their 6 regular season meetings, and other than a 2-1 Bison win, the games were high scoring encounters, with 10+ pucks finding the net in 3 of their games. Sum up the goals and you'll find the Red Wings 29-24 winners on aggregate. Something to note, Red Wings have won the last 2 matches between the sides, so on recent form, they have to be the favourites. My prediction, well I just can't find any evidence in Bison's favour, they've scored 50 less goals, they've conceded more. Only the head to heads give them some respect, but at the end of the day its the results that count, and so we might be in for more of a series than expected. For now though, I have to go Red Wings in five, but prove me wrong Bison!

Warwick Castles (8) Vs Coventry Maple Leafs (9)
When the 8th seed meets the 9th seed, you would expect to see a close encounter. The teams names are touching each other in the standings. However look a little closer and its not quite that simple. Castle's missed out on 7th spot by nature of less regulation wins, however they failed to play 2 of their matches, both against the Bison, which had they completed you would have expected them to claim at least the single point needed to take the 7th spot. On the other side, the Leafs finished just 2 points clear of the Bison having played 3 more games, so there was plenty of opportunity for the Leafs to be leapfrogged at the end. However thats a little harsh on them, as from the games they played, they did record a higher points per game stat than the Bison, suggesting they would have held onto 9th spot. To the team stars, and we see nothing particularly interesting. Both sides are fairly well balanced, Castle's with slightly weak shooting but an overall of 21. The Maple Leafs similarly have weak shooting but they do have a noticable strength in the defence department. However, their strength is still weaker than the Castle's have in that department, and so with an overall of just 16, we're starting to see why these teams finished 15 points apart in the regular season. Look to the goals tallys and things seem to follow suit. Castle's have scored 31 more and conceded 23 less, pointing to a much better goal differance and what appears to just be to similarly built teams, one at a higher standard of the other. There's a slight pointer to Castle's having more superiority offencivly than making the gain at the back, but not really enough to talk about. To the head to heads then, and we see more of the same. In their six regular season meetings, the Castle's skated to victory 5 times, all in regulation. However, three of those were 1 goal games, and the single Maple Leafs victory was by a good margin of 6-2, and late in the season, so they'll be hoping their form carries over. My prediction then, and it all looks fairly similar to the 7th Vs 10th matchup from above, two sides with just one notable differant, one is always slightly better than the other. Therefore I'll go with the same prediction, this time Castles in five, but again I hope the Leafs can prove me wrong and make a series of it.

The Top Two Seeds - London Ravens Vs Junior Giants G-Crew

As I've previewed every other side in their matchups, I thought I should give a mention to the top finishing sides to the regular season. I should start by congratulating the London Ravens on yet again beating us all and taking the top spot, but this time the opposition was much stronger and they aren't such a garuntee for the title going into the playoffs. These two sides were clearly head and shoulders above the rest, although thats really an understatement of their dominance. The pair finished a full 27 points clear of 3rd spot, and racked up an average of almost half a point more from each game over everyone else. The Giants finished the season with an impressive +112 goal differance, but this was nothing compared to the Ravens, who racked it up to +155! Heading towards the team stars, the Ravens put up 23 as an overall, which is surprising low considering their great results. These stars are a little un-balanced though, as they record 26 and 27 for defence and offence respectivly. They're held back by 'just' 22 in shooting and a lowly 16 between the pipes. I change my mind from above, the goalie isn't quite everything! To the Giants, and this time they seem to have the measure of the Ravens. They record an overall of 27, a 28 in offence and their lowest tally of 25 coming from the goaltending department. In essence though, a balanced side which is strong in all areas, where as other sides are just strong in one or two positions. Back to the league stats, and those stars seem to make no sense at all. The Ravens are very weak between the pipes, yet their defence has seen 33 less pucks hit its net than the Giants. Going forward, and the Ravens would be expected to make their gain here, but they don't, just 10 goals better than the Giants. Headings towards the head to heads to try to get something out of this evaluation, the Giants have taken the series by 4-2 however two of their wins did come from overtime meaning they only gained two more points than the Ravens from their matchups. In the goals column, the Giants are 23-15 ahead. But I notice a funny pattern in the scoring. Other than the two overtime games and a 2-1 Ravens win, the other three games were high scoring for one side, but the other not getting much on the board. Results were 7-1, 2-6, and 6-1. Of note, the two overtime results were the first two games of the season, and in their most recent meetings, both sides have convincing taken the points from their opponents rink, with Giants travelling to take a 6-1 triamph only for the Ravens to return shortly after and win 6-2 in the Giants barn. Onto the playoffs, and these two teams take byes to the Semi Finals where they will meet a side fresh out of a Quarter Final tie. My prediction, well the rest they get now should do them good, and come the Semi Finals I think we'll see more evidence as to why these two sides are so far above the rest, and we'll be heading towards the top two sides meeting in the final. As for a series prediction, it has to go to seven games as the league table says one thing, but the stars and head to heads say another. It really is very close, but I'm going to give the edge to the Giants. On paper they're the better side, and when the sides have met this has been the case, so I'm going with Giants in seven to take the championship.

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I hope my previews are up to standard . Please feel free to post your comments, bits you liked, bits you didn't, and anything you'd like me to add for the next round of the playoffs. As I've covered the stars and such of every team now, I'll look more at the head to heads for later rounds and so they'll probably be much shorter!

[topcat]

Nice bit of research Mike, you should get yourself an analysts job on Sky Sports

I think the reason our goalie stars are so low is because my main goalies been out for 10 days and still has two weeks until his return, I bought a replacement for him only to see him go down for three weeks as well, now we're left with our 3rd choice youngster. It's really hampering our playoff chances as well, before the injuries we were around the lower playoff spots and now we dropped three games 4-5 against sides I thought we could have beaten with our normal goalie especially if I can't pull in a new goalie by time the semis start.

Up until now I couldn't be bothered to set up a reserve line up so for much of our league I was playing our full strength side, the last couple of games I couldn;t really afford to risk the injuries so we played our fringe squad, be interesting to see how they do come the playoffs.

[Mike]

Jan 22, 2009 6:36:13 GMT -5 topcat said:

Nice bit of research Mike, you should get yourself an analysts job on Sky Sports

I think the reason our goalie stars are so low is because my main goalies been out for 10 days and still has two weeks until his return, I bought a replacement for him only to see him go down for three weeks as well, now we're left with our 3rd choice youngster. It's really hampering our playoff chances as well, before the injuries we were around the lower playoff spots and now we dropped three games 4-5 against sides I thought we could have beaten with our normal goalie especially if I can't pull in a new goalie by time the semis start.

Up until now I couldn't be bothered to set up a reserve line up so for much of our league I was playing our full strength side, the last couple of games I couldn;t really afford to risk the injuries so we played our fringe squad, be interesting to see how they do come the playoffs.

The team stars are just based on the previous game I think, so they're not that accurate, but I wasn't going to let them get in the way of a good review! Nothing special in them really, everythings easily found on my spreadsheet that I record the scores onto so I just took stats out of that, and the team stars is just opening a new tab onto PPM, and just glancing at them as I write.

I'm not really sure myself who in our league's playing a reserve line and who's playing full strength. Presumably the higher teams are using their best sides and those lower down are probably reserves. Leafs are a newer team than the rest of us I think so they may be full strength just havn't had the time to develop that we have, and Bison I know Pete can't get online all to often, and not for long at a time, so he probably doesn't get around re-setting the team and changing practices often which will slow his side down a bit. I've done a bit of both, started out with the full strength side, was not far off the top 2, then went to the reserves, dropped to 7th, but decided I wanted to see how well my best players could do in the playoffs so went for the top team to get the 6th spot.

[ian28]

Hi Folks

Haven't been on for a few weeks, have been out ill, touch wood all better now, its great to catch up with what has been happening with the ppm league.

Mike, what can i say about the write ups for the play-offs, outstanding, the analysts and depth you have gone into each team is sometime else, you would think it was the NHL playoffs you were reading about, instead of a online game.

Thanks for making me your choice for the play-offs, ( hope its not a kiss of death ) but iam a bit up and down, i seem to go on a 6 or 7 game winning run and then lose 2 or 3 its strange.

Topcat, sorry to hear about your net-minding problems think goodness it gives the rest of us a chance, it was a good ding dong we had going for the 1st spot. Hopefully from today my players will increase their skills a lot faster, as i have only received my 2nd Coach today. Don't know if it will make much difference or not.

Cheers for now.

Ian

Junior Giants G-Crew

Keep up the great work Mike.

[topcat]

I was up late last night and finally managed to bring in a new nettie, probably slightly better than my original one but still 50 goalie points shy of my new signing that's still out for anoth 12 days. Stop the rot a bit but still only managed a 4-4 tie at home to a team that finished 2nd in the league and playoff to us last season.

[Mike]

Series between IceRayz and Storm, and the series between Leafs and Castles both need to be arranged. No managers have said anything about sending challenges yet so if the dates pass without the games they'll be going to the home side. If you've sent but are still waiting on your opponent, you'd better say so quick to claim the wins. It'll be a great disapointment if the playoffs are ruined by teams just not arranging the games!

[frenchie]

I love deals you can get at night

331 OR and 150Off for 1.4 million

[frenchie]

Bloomin heck that was a close one.

Wayne Bryne played his best game of the season thank god.

And great to see new signing Andrej Machaj get the game winner as well as a goal, and also Roman Sova, who I signed last night got a goal