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Showing posts from July, 2015

NHL 15: Philly Flyers Offseason(Year 4)

After a great playoff run that saw us miss out on lifting the Stanley Cup by two games, what will the future hold for the Flyers? The first step to seeing that future is the offseason, which will be covered in today's post. Enjoy! Here are the end of season awards. Stanley Cup: Colorado Avalanche Presidents' Trophy: Toronto Maple Leafs Maurice Richard: Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars Ted Lindsay: Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche Frank J. Selke: Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks Bill Masterson: Fedor Tyutin, Columbus Blue Jackets William M. Jennings: Robin Lehner, Ottawa Senators Vezina: Robin Lehner, Ottawa Senators Conn Smythe: Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche Calder: Nikita Scherbak, Montreal Canadians Lady Byng: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks James Norris: Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators Hart: Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche Art Ross: Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars We did not take home a single award for the season, which definitely got me a little p

NHL 15: Philly Flyers PLAYOFFS!!! Stanley Cup Finals vs Colorado(Year 4)

As we entered the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2011, all the hard work that had been put in during the season was about to pay off. Could we lift the Cup? Stay tuned! PREVIEW (Note: Jack Campbell was injured after the end of Game 7 versus Tampa Bay, but was set to return in time for Game 3. Andrei Vaslievsky would be in net in his absence). The Colorado Avalanche finished the regular season with a record of 38-36-8, good for 84 points, and the last seed to enter the Western Conference Playoffs. Once they got into the playoffs, however, they went off, sweeping the Ducks, beating the Sharks in five games and outing the Blackhawks in six. Colorado is another forward-heavy team, led by Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon, who finished second in the NHL in points in the regular season. Their defense is not incredibly strong, but they do have elite goalie Semyon Varlamov in goal. Here are their lines. Forwards Landeskog(88)-MacKinnon(95)-O'Reilly(86) McGinn(83)-Duch

NHL 15: Philly Flyers PLAYOFFS!!! Eastern Conference Finals vs Tampa Bay(Year 4)

An incredible run in the playoffs has seen us make the Eastern Conference Finals, where the dangerous Tampa Bay Lightning await. I'm going to be honest, I did not expect this series to even be close. The Lightning are an amazing team on the game and in real life, and it was going to take an amazing performance to dethrone the kings of the east. Could we pull it out? PREVIEW Tampa Bay came into the playoffs with one of the last seeds in the East, but have been on a tear thus far, beating the Senators in six games and blowing past Buffalo in five. They narrowly lost out to the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, and are two years removed from lifting the Stanley Cup. Their regular season record was 45-27-10, good for 100 points, just two points worse than us. The Lightning are led by the incomparable Steven Stamkos, who partners with Jonathan Drouin on the first line for one of the best pairings in the NHL. The entire team is stacked with talent, and features th

NHL 15: Philly Flyers PLAYOFFS!!! Round 2 vs Pittsburgh(Year 4)

We begin the second round of the playoffs taking on Sid the Kid and the Pittsburgh Penguins. See how we fare against on of the best players in recent memory. PREVIEW The Penguins finished the regular season with a record of 46-30-6, good for 98 points. They beat the Capitals in six games in the first round, with some major help from Sid the Kid. Crosby recorded 11 points in the first round, all but 2 of them assists. They also have offensive support from Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist. The Penguins, like the Canadians, have a very strong defensive core led by Kris Letang and Derrick Pouliot. In goal the Penguins have veteran Marc-Andre Fleury. In terms of injuries, Pittsburgh will miss 85 overall defenseman Simon Despres, but he should return by Games 4 or 5. Here are their lines. Forwards Spaling(83)-Crosby(97)-Downie(82) Bennett(85)-Malkin(92)-Hornqvist(86) Kerdiles(81)-Stoll(80)-Rust(80) LaPierre(78)-Vermette(80)-Comeau(81) Defensemen Maatta(85)-Letang(88) Pouliot(9

NHL 15: Philly Flyers PLAYOFFS!!! Round 1 vs Montreal(Year 4)

We begin our first run in the playoffs against one of the teams I hate the most in the NHL, the Montreal Canadians. Since this our first time in the playoffs, I'll explain who this will be structured. For each post, we'll complete a round of the playoffs, and the posts will come out every day until we are eliminated. In each post, I'll have a preview of the two teams, mention the players to watch for, and show you the lines. I'll have a brief recap of each game, then some analysis at the end of what I thought of the series. Since I did not show you our lines in the last post, we will begin with that. Forwards Burakovsky(85)-Giroux(91)-Voracek(91) Duclair(83)-Horvat(85)-Forsberg(86) Laich(82)-Couturier(85)-Phillips(80) Lemieux(80)-White(80)-Reaves(80) Defensemen Ekman-Larsson(87)-Dumba(85) Gotisbehere(83)-Hagg(85) Pettersson(83)-Michalek(77) Goalies Campbell(88) Vasilevsky(86) PREVIEW Montreal finished the season with a record of 44-28-10, good for 98 p

NHL 15: Philly Flyers Regular Season Part 2(Year 4)

After a trade deadline that saw Bo Horvat and Matt Dumba join the Philly Flyers, we finish the regular season in today's post. Will we be playoff bound? Stay tuned! After acquiring Dumba and Horvat, I did have some concern that the team might struggle with the new players. That concern was quickly put to bed as we finished an excellent fourth season with a record of 48-28-6, good for 102 points, the fifth-best record in the league and the best record in the Metropolitan Division. For the first time in the series, we have made the playoffs and we did so in style with the division win, not bad for a team that spent the past two years in the cellar. We improved our points total from the previous year by 24 points. We scored 225 goals, actually six less than last year, but only conceded 207, 45 goals less than Year 3. I was very pleased with our drastic defensive improvement, and I know our goals tally will go up, as most of our forwards are either young up and comers or older player

NHL 15: Philly Flyers Trade Deadline(Year 4)

Welcome back to the Flyers GM mode. In this post, we move to the trade deadline with our Philly Flyers, and for the first time in this GM mode, we are true contenders. Find out what happens! The two needs that I identified on our team was the 2nd line center, which had been filled by Sean Couturier since the beginning of the GM mode, and the top defensive pairing. Oliver Ekman-Larsson had filled one spot on the top line, but we needed to find his partner. Both Robert Hagg and Sami Vatanen had struggled filling that spot, and I knew I had to trade one of them. I decided to move Vatanen, as he was three years older and already on a pretty big contract. The first trade I made was trading Alex Killorn, who had become a bit of a flop, to the Vancouver Canucks, along with 2016 3rd round pick Riley Bruce, plus a future fourth round pick, in exchange for center Bo Horvat. Horvat is 22 years old with 4 yellow star potential, and has better passing and overall offensive abilities than Coutur

NHL 15: Philly Flyers Regular Season Part 1(Year 4)

Welcome back to the Flyers GM mode, hopefully you guys are hyped for season 4. In this post, we will include the second edition of our prospect watch, and begin season 4. Enjoy! Prospect Watch(top 15 prospects currently not in the NHL) 1. Logan Brown, center, 19 years old, 66 overall, 4 1/2 yellow star potential 2. Cale Fleury, defenseman, 18 years old, 50 overall, 4 1/2 yellow star potential 3. Carl Schmidmeyer, goalie, 22 years old, 77 overall, 4 1/2 yellow star potential 4. Logan Flodell, goalie, 20 years old, 72 overall, 4 1/2 yellow star potential 5. Ivan Provorov, defenseman, 20 years old, 72 overall, 4 1/2 red star potential 6. Nicolas Meloche, defenseman, 20 years old, 77 overall, 4 green star potential 7. Evan Smith, goalie, 20 years old, 70 overall, 4 yellow star potential 8. Alexis Pepin, left winger, 21 years old, 76 overall, 4 yellow star potential 9. Evan Weinger, right winger, 20 years old, 75 overall, 4 yellow star potential 10. Samuel Morin, defenseman, 22