HFNHL LA Kings Playoff Report: "I'm just too exhausted"

[Dempsey]

With another winning regular season under their belts, the Kings once again find themselves down in the first round of the HFNHL playoffs. Down, but not out. Except, that is, for their starting goaltender Braden Holtby.

The all-star netminder, who led all NHL goalies with a whopping 73 GP in 2014-15, is just too darn exhausted to start more than two playoff games in a row without getting injured due to exhaustion.

"I'm just so tired" said Holtby while laying collapsed on the locker room floor. "So, so, so tired". The Vezina hopeful then actually fainted and passed out.

Game one of the series versus the Ducks went to double overtime, and that about did it. Game two saw the netminder just barely able to finish, and on the brink of needing to go directly to injury reserve for the remainder of the series.

And so now, coach Gerard Gallant has quite the decision to make. Start Holtby in game 3 and have him be exhaused right out of the series, or start backup Thomas Greiss in the biggest game of the season.

"What the hell is going on when a goalie who plays 73 regular season NHL games can't play more than 2 playoff games in a row without being too tired to even walk without the use of a wheelchair?!" said Gallant when reached for comment. "It's a ****in' joke. In what universe can a starting goaltender not be able to start every game in the playoffs right through to the Stanley Cup? Did the New Jersey Devils rest Martin Brodeur every second game when they were winning cups?!" said Gallant.

GM McEwan could not be reached for comment.

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[Dryden]

lol. It's going to cause teams to lose. really sucks

 

[Brent Burns Beard]

weird SIM but I suppose it should be equal amongst all teams?

 

[Canuck09]

lol. It's going to cause teams to lose. really sucks

weird SIM but I suppose it should be equal amongst all teams?

I agree with both these points. It totally sucks and I'm not a fan but it is equal across the board.

Things certainly aren't operating as I would like to see and it's a mix of the ratings set and Sim settings that are the problem. That said, the Ducks/Kings double OT game where Holtby faced 54 shots is what would've done a ton of damage to his condition and we can't really account for that. Most other games have below 30 shots and the settings are built more in line with those typical results. For those not aware, goalies fatigue based on shots faced and not minutes played like skaters.

We'll still discuss and see if any changes are made.

 

[Lord Stanley]

It was the same last year in playoffs almost every series a team had to use a back up for atleast one game. I think Toronto having two goalies with very good ratings last year was a huge benefit for them and a big reason why they ended up winning.

 

[Ville Isopaa]

Would an extra rest day between gd's during the playoffs be the answer to the problem? Goalie fatigued seemed to work fine during the regular season, right?

 

[Ohio Jones]

Goalie fatigue was excessive during the season too, for the same reasons Sean described. Recognizing that, I committed resources to ensure I'd have a high-end backup for the Blue Jackets, and it looks like it will pay off, as Dubnyk (who has not faced 50+ shot double overtimes) also found himself in the DTD list with fatigue. It's been an issue all season, so while I feel Mike's pain, I'm not sure that changing the mix now is fair either.

 

[Canuck09]

I meant to post this last night but was in bed early.

After games last night a rest day was run (already reflected online) and the fatigue thresholds were increased (less likely to fatigue) slightly. I know this won't be popular with some but there would be potential for people to be upset no matter what happened. Goalies facing normal shot attempts and coming up "injured" after only 3 games in the playoffs is far from realistic and something that isn't intended with the ratings & settings. The changes made were done with the intent of allowing goalies to play more games within normal shot totals without running into exhaustion problems so quickly. That said, we can't account for crazy double OT games with 50+ shots, so if it continues to happen, there won't be much we can do.

We'll continue to monitor results and will hopefully be in better shape the rest of the way where it's a balance between goalies being a little tired and not just able to cruise through the whole way at 100%.

 

[Dempsey]

I meant to post this last night but was in bed early.

After games last night a rest day was run (already reflected online) and the fatigue thresholds were increased (less likely to fatigue) slightly. I know this won't be popular with some but there would be potential for people to be upset no matter what happened. Goalies facing normal shot attempts and coming up "injured" after only 3 games in the playoffs is far from realistic and something that isn't intended with the ratings & settings. The changes made were done with the intent of allowing goalies to play more games within normal shot totals without running into exhaustion problems so quickly. That said, we can't account for crazy double OT games with 50+ shots, so if it continues to happen, there won't be much we can do.

We'll continue to monitor results and will hopefully be in better shape the rest of the way where it's a balance between goalies being a little tired and not just able to cruise through the whole way at 100%.

Unfortunately since we weren't aware of this, I chose to start my backup rather than let my starter get injured. I lost the game by 1 goal.

My opponent didn't start their backup, so their starter was then injured, but was then immediately back off the injury reserve due to the extra rest given. It seems that my raising awareness with this thread only served to **** me in the end.

I won't take anything away from the Ducks because they're a hell of a team, but it would sure have been nice to know I could play Holtby in game 3, and possibly only be down 2-1 with a chance to even it up tomorrow.

 

[Canuck09]

Unfortunately since we weren't aware of this, I chose to start my backup rather than let my starter get injured. I lost the game by 1 goal.

My opponent didn't start their backup, so their starter was then injured, but was then immediately back off the injury reserve due to the extra rest given. It seems that my raising awareness with this thread only served to **** me in the end.

I won't take anything away from the Ducks because they're a hell of a team, but it would sure have been nice to know I could play Holtby in game 3, and possibly only be down 2-1 with a chance to even it up tomorrow.

Roy (or anyone else) didn't know we were going to do a rest day to my knowledge so he made his decision on what goalie to play based on the same facts you did. We chose to wait until after the game so each conference would have been through an equal 3 games.

I know it sucks, but as I said, we wouldn't be able to make everyone happy.

 

[Ohio Jones]

I think it's a fair solution - and a tired Holtby may have lost by more than one goal, so second-guessing is unfortunately not going to accomplish much. However, it definitely sucks to be in LA right now - hopefully you can turn on the afterburners and fight back for a heroic game 7 finish.

 

[Dempsey]

Roy (or anyone else) didn't know we were going to do a rest day to my knowledge so he made his decision on what goalie to play based on the same facts you did. We chose to wait until after the game so each conference would have been through an equal 3 games.

I know it sucks, but as I said, we wouldn't be able to make everyone happy.

All the league has to do is announce ahead of time what their intention is, rather than do something different and then tell us about it afterwards, that's all. If you want to keep debating we can keep debating, but I'm not wrong in that we should have been informed.

 

[Regal Beagles]

But then if you had played Holtby...assuming same shots for each team in game three...even with a rest day he probably would be at 93-94 right now and done for games 4-5. Only reason I played Talbot was he was at 97 before the game and took the change. 96 or lower and its Khudobin time.

Am not disputing the notification issue but with another 30+ shots on a tired goalie I'm guessing result probably the same. It was the game one crazy shot fest that caused the problems.....maybe in future those settings can be adjusted for playoffs since we have more than the 5 minute overtime.

 

[Dempsey]

But then if you had played Holtby...assuming same shots for each team in game three...even with a rest day he probably would be at 93-94 right now and done for games 4-5. Only reason I played Talbot was he was at 97 before the game and took the change. 96 or lower and its Khudobin time.

Holtby is a 98 right now after sitting so the lowest he could be is a still-healthy 95, unless I'm mistaken.

It's not my intention to drag this out, but I'll defend my stance that we should be informed before settings and/or sim alterations are done, and not after. Particularly in the playoffs.

 

[Dryden]

Here's something for the power that be almighty SimGod to think about for next year. Instead of it being that we play every other day with no rest day in-between how about we play every other day for a teams home games then the sim does an extra rest day as a travel day then resume.

For example.

East team 1 plays at home
west team 1 plays at home
East team 1 plays at home
west team 1 plays at home
extra rest day
east team 2 plays at home
west team 2 plays at home
east team 2 plays at home
west team 2 plays at home
extra rest day
east team 1 at home
west team 1 at home

that way goalies get recovery time between switch overs for arenas.

 

[Canuck09]

Here's something for the power that be almighty SimGod to think about for next year. Instead of it being that we play every other day with no rest day in-between how about we play every other day for a teams home games then the sim does an extra rest day as a travel day then resume.

For example.

East team 1 plays at home
west team 1 plays at home
East team 1 plays at home
west team 1 plays at home
extra rest day
east team 2 plays at home
west team 2 plays at home
east team 2 plays at home
west team 2 plays at home
extra rest day
east team 1 at home
west team 1 at home

that way goalies get recovery time between switch overs for arenas.

That's a reasonable suggestion yeah. We'll look at that in combination with adjusting the fatigue thresholds to allow for greater than 5 minute OT's and the shot totals that can come with them.