THE 2010 DOUBLE-A DRAFT (sign-up, roster post, picks, discussion, etc)

[seventieslord]

Come on, Walt!

 

[Hedberg]

Game 6: Team Hartley 3 Team Tippett 2

1st Period:
1-0 HAR Viktor Yakushev 2 PP (Billy Breen, Ales Hemsky) PP 7:04
1-1 TIP Brian Gionta 1 (Walt McKechnie, Mike Rathje) 19:41
2nd Period:
NO SCORING
3rd Period:
2-1 HAR Ronald Pettersson 3 PP (Lars-Erik Lundvall, Nils Nilsson) 1:53
2-2 TIP Mikko Koivu 2 (Ron Schock, Bryan Marchment) 8:06
OT:
3-2 HAR Ronald Pettersson 4 (Don Sweeney, Nils Nilsson) 10:45

Holmqvist 20 Saves
Hebert 43 Saves

Three Stars
1. Ronald Pettersson
2. Nils Nilsson
3. Guy Hebert

These two teams continue to create exciting games and Team Hartley has survived in OT again to push the series to seven. Team Hartley opened the scoring on a 5-on-3 powerplay created by Jeff Carter and Mike McEwen penalties. Unlike their first opportunity in the series, Team Hartley converted with Yakushev drilling a one timer past Hebert. In the final minute, Brian Gionta finally scored on a wreak wrister along the ice that fooled Holmqvist as he slid in the opposite direction. I wouldn't consider it one of Gionta's ten best chances, yet it found the net (also giving McKechnie a well-deserved first point).

Jumping ahead to the third period, Team Tippett was too over-exuberant in their pursuit of a short handed tally, which led Ronald Pettersson finished off a beautiful intricate passing play. The lead was not to last for too long as Mikko Koivu scored another weak goal on Holmqvist, this time high glove. Mike Grier, camped out at the top of the crease, hit the post on an entirely empty goal and the teams moved on to overtime yet again

Holmqvist attoned for his prior errors with two amazing stops off of Cammalleri to keep his team alive. Team Hartley buzzed for a few shifts before Ronald Pettersson eventually potted the game winning goal to force the seventh and deciding game.

Player comments:
- John Marks provided a ton energy tonight and was stopped on several occasions as he continues to look for his first goal
- Sergei Svetlov also looked desperate to score tonight and was robbed twice by Hebert
- Joni Pitkanen showed a lot of offensive jump
- Wayne Babych, who's cooled down, was re-united with Koivu and Schock on the third line and their line put in a very strong performance
- Hockey would be way more entertaining if teams went for it short handed the amount these two do
- Marcus Ragnarsson continued his great play, making a number of memorable interceptions. He also shadowed Breen very well. He's definitely been the series' best defender.
- Mike Knuble continues to be a non-factor. Hopefully for Team Tippett he's actually noticeable for game 7
- The scratches were Ashton, Berry, Dukowski, Fox, Flett, Martin for Team Hartley and Boutette, Horcoff, Hunter, McLaren, Norton, Sturm for Team Tippett.

 

[Hedberg]

Game 7: Team Tippett 3 Team Hartley 2

1st:
1-0 TIP Wayne Babych 6 (Ron Schock, Gerry Hart) 9:12
2nd:
1-1 HAR Viktor Yakushev 3 (Billy Breen, Shirley Davidson) 11:37
3rd:
2-1 TIP Mikko Koivu 3 SH (Pat Boutette, Bryan Marchment) 5:34
3-1 TIP Brian Gionta 2 (Mike Knuble) 19:54
3-2 HAR Martin Rucinsky 1 (Ales Hemsky) 19:59

Hebert 21 Saves
Holmqvist 22 Saves

Three Stars:
1. Mikko Koivu
2. Brian Gionta
3. Guy Hebert

Team Tippett opened the scoring with Wayne Babych sniping a Ron Schock pass five-hole on Holmqvist. Billy Breen had a chance to tie the game up in the same frame, but put his back hand off the cross bar. Al MacNeil nearly scored the series' first goal by a defencemen, but the puck trickled past the post.

Breen's line would strike in the 2nd, creating a beautiful feed to Viktor Yakushev, left wide open on the right post, who slammed the puck into the goal.

After a disappointing performance on the PK last game, Mikko Koivu had what Pierre McGuire would scream at top of his lungs "a monster game." Koivu broke took Boutette's pass and broke in alone on Holmqvist, where deked to his backend and roofed the puck over Holmqvist's outstretched leg for the series' nicest individual effort. Team Hartley had their chances, and Hebert made a couple of huge stops off of Ronald Pettersson and Nils Nilsson. With the extra attacker pulled, a slew of Team Tippett players missed the empty net (including Ragnarsson and twice by Mike Rathje, the first off the post). Finally, with only six seconds to goal, Brian Gionta sped past the tired Hartley players and put the game away. Off the faceoff, Hemsky fed Rucinsky, who's long range wrister caught Hebert off guard with 0.9 seconds to goal. ( presumably Hebert was already planning his celebration)

Player Comments
- No goals by a defencemen. They had their chances, but nothing went in for them.
- Svetlov had 5 or 6 great chances, but like all series, was unable to bury them
- The difference in the series when Holmqvist/Hebert were in net and when others were in net was quite noticeable, even though the quality of goals surprisingly didn't change.
- It was disappointing that this game had the fewest chances of the series
- Scott Hannan had struggled somewhat through the series, but was wonderful this game
- The series' offense was pretty much generated by the top 6 of Team Hartley and the bottom six of Team Tippett. Combining the two might make for a team that could challenge a AAA squad
- The scratches were Ashton, Berry, Dukowski, Fox, Flett, Martin for Team Hartley and Horcoff, Hunter, McEachern, McLaren, Norton, Sturm for Team Tippett.

 

[VanIslander]

Nice work hedberg

The series winner, Gionta from Knuble? Must have been at a line change or else a right winger out of position.

 

[Hedberg]

The series winner, Gionta from Knuble? Must have been at a line change or else a right winger out of position.

Knuble was shifted to LW on the top line as Gionta and McKechnie were getting a lot of shots and the hope was Knuble could shovel in some rebounds.

The final lines were
Knuble - McKechnie - Gionta
Cammalleri - Carter - Cole
Koivu - Schock - Babych
Boutette - Malone - Grier

Davidson - Breen - Svetlov (although in the third period of game 7, Yakushev and Svetlov switched places, with Rucinsky taking the draws on the third line [although I think he took only three of them, one in the final seconds])
Lundvall - Nilsson - Pettersson
Hemsky - Yakushev - Rucinsky
Marks - Prospal - Rota

Some guys were playing out of position and the lack of centre depth hurt Team Hartley. Berry and Ashton could both play centre, but neither played very well in the series and sitting Hemsky, Rucinsky, or Rota for one of them didn't make Team Hartley better. Despite Team Tippett being better on the draw, the time of possession was pretty even and I don't think was a factor.

The special teams were:

Hartley:
PP1: Davidson - Breen - Yakushev - Hemsky - Mironov
PP2: Lundvall - Nilsson - Pettersson - Rucinsky - Pitkanen
PK1: Breen - Marks - MacNeil - Sweeney
PK2: Nilsson - Pettersson - Plumb - Hannan

Tippett:
PP1: Babych - McKechnie - Gionta - Cammalleri - McEwen
PP2: Cole - Carter - Knuble - Koivu - Hill
PK1: Schock - Grier - Rathje - Ragnarsson
PK2: Koivu - Boutette - Hill - Marchment

 

[seventieslord]

Yeah, if I was to do more ATD simulations, I'd turn the carry, shoot, and offense meters for defenseman way more up. They need to pinch more and shoot more, or their goal totals will continue to be unrealistically low.

Great job on the writeups. It's fun, eh?

 

[Hedberg]

Yeah, if I was to do more ATD simulations, I'd turn the carry, shoot, and offense meters for defenseman way more up. They need to pinch more and shoot more, or their goal totals will continue to be unrealistically low.

I think it's a problem with the game's hard code as well. Pitkanen, who we didn't adjust the rating, other than one game didn't do much. You did a tremendous job with the ratings for the forwards. The Swede line in particular was great as they complemented each other nicely. Another problem with the game was the AI has certain goals it scores over and over. I was shocked when Koivu deked as that was the first time I'd seen that.

Great job on the writeups. It's fun, eh?

It is. I wasn't sure how entertaining it would be, but I found myself cheering for the teams by the end. If there's another lockout one day, I know what I'm doing

 

[Hedberg]

The ten skaters I enjoyed watching the most in the series:
1. Ronald Pettersson - Homer pick, but he was the most entertaining of the Lundvall - Nilsson - Pettersson line
2. Walt McKechnie - Only one assist, but he did everything; great on faceoffs, ate up ice time, generated chances. Fantastic
3. Marcus Ragnarsson - By far the best defencemen in the series
4. Mike Grier - The energy he displayed on the PK was a delight to watch and he forced the superior Hartley power play to be cautious when he was on the ice
5. Billy Breen - Fantastic hockey IQ and had a great collection of moves. Generated a lot of breakaways, but the goaltending bested him more often than not
6. Wayne Babych - Contributed well and scored some nice goals (the only one that wasn't was his sneaky five-hole shot to tie up the game up late)
7. Mikko Koivu - Showed a lot more skill than I was expecting and his line with Babych and Schock was Tippett's best.
8. Lars-Erik Lundvall - He really cooled off after his blazing start, but his shot was great. Too bad he didn't carry on the momentum
9. Al MacNeil - Very steady and picked up a surprising number of assists (although Marchment's offense was more surprising)
10. Ales Hemsky - Made a lot of really nice passes and very unpredictable in the offensive zone, keeping the Tippett defence chasing.

Disappointments
1. Shirley Davidson - Was given the top line ice time, but failed to do much with it. He had good speed, but probably should have shot more and when he did shoot, he missed the net too much.
2. Mike Knuble - In Game 7 he had a nice deke to get in a shot on goal, but that was pretty much the first time I had noticed him
3. Mike McEwen - He probably suffered from his ratings, but he did very little at either end of the ice
4. Sergei Svetlov - Invisible for the first couple games and then snake-bitten for the rest.
5. Bob Berry - It would have been nice for him to become a regular to help out Hartley's centre issue, but he had too many turnovers and was hemmed in his own zone to much. Rota outplayed him significantly
6. Rod Flett - He was interesting to watch due to his size (especially matched up against Gionta, who looks absurdly small in the game's graphics), but he didn't do anything memorable and Pitkanen played well enough to win the spot in the rotation on Team Hartley's blueline
7. Scott Hannan - Was slow and a defensive liability. If he wasn't a 2nd team all-star I would have benched him.
8. John Marks - Good energy on some shifts, but never did anything memorable.
9. Nils Nilsson - His wingers were excellent, he wasn't. Made some really ill-advised passes
10. Erik Cole - Scored some goals, but pretty much his only tactic was to camp out and fire a low shot. Worked twice, but was invisible other than that