Power Pros Forum

I very rarely get involved in actually playing the games (I played the last Great Britain game, but that was to get Ovechkin 50 goals and give Malkin the chance at the league lead in goals), but the gameplay is set to an easy difficulty, making comebacks possible if I decide to intervene in the third period. I won't intervene in any of the gameplay for the playoffs though, just simulating all the way.

I think the GM mode difficulty is set to easy as well, but I don't think that makes any difference in the simulation, or the trading, or pretty much anything after you start, GM difficulty can't be changed after you start or anything. I'm not sure what makes much of a difference in the simulating, I've had teams rated 100-100-100-100 not make the playoffs before, I'm surprised at how many games this team has been able to win.

Kind of sucks that the conferences wound up having such a difference in skill. Beyond putting Russia in the West and Canada and USA in the East (hoping sometime to face either in the Stanley Cup Final), the teams were placed completely at random, so the skill difference is entirely coincidental, hopefully at some point, trading, free agency and drafting will even them out somewhat.

Playoffs, Round One, Russia vs France:

Game 1:
Goals:
Morozov (RUS)
Conner (FRA)
Gonchar (RUS)
Fedorov (RUS)
Ovechkin (RUS)
Final:
France: 1
Russia: 4
Russia leads series 1-0

Game 2:
Goals:
Fedorov (RUS)
Malkin (RUS)
Conner (FRA)
Final:
France: 1
Russia: 2
Russia leads series 2-0

Game 3:
Goals:
Malkin (RUS)
Palmieri (RUS)
Final:
Russia: 2
France: 0
Russia leads series 3-0

Game 4:
Goals:
Brunnstrom (FRA)
Morozov (RUS)
Lashoff (FRA)
Final (OT):
Russia: 1
France: 2
Russia leads series 3-1

Game 5:
Goals:
Malkin (RUS)
Datsyuk (RUS)
Gonchar (RUS)
Kovalchuk (RUS)
Grebeshkov (RUS)
Johnson (FRA)
Radulov (RUS)
Final:
France: 1
Russia: 6
Russia wins series 4-1

"I have to give credit to France's goalie Ty Conklin, if it wasn't for him, this series would have been an absolute blowout, he kept most of the games close, and he even stole a win for France, saving 50 of 51 shots for their OT win."


Playoff Series Results:
Russia over France 4-1
Moscow over Austria 4-0
Finland over Belarus 4-2
Slovakia over Springfield 4-0
USA over Czech Republic 4-2
Moncton over Stockholm 4-3
Quebec City over Weisswasser 4-3
Sweden over Canada 4-3

Round 2 Playoff Matchups:

Russia (1) vs Slovakia (4)
Moscow (2) vs Finland (3)

USA (1) vs Quebec City (6)
Moncton (2) vs Sweden (5)

Some Stanley Cup favorites have already been eliminated after just the first round, like Canada and Weisswasser, there looks to be some very exciting matchups for the second round of these playoffs.

Polling indicates 60% of people believe Russia will beat Slovakia in the second round, nowhere near the same amount of people who predicted them to beat France, this series could definitely go either way.

Round 2 Preview:

Russia vs Slovakia:

Russia:
Offence: 100
Defence: 90
Goaltending: 96
Overall: 95

Ovechkin (91) - Datsyuk (94) - Semin (85)
Kovalchuk (89) - Malkin (93) - Radulov (82)
Morozov (83) - Fedorov (81) - Palmieri (80)
Gordon (74) - Bitz (79) - Kozlov (79)

Gonchar (85) - Markov (87)
Tyutin (82) - Volchenkov (87)
Sauve (74) - Grebeshkov (80)

Nabokov (89)
Bryzgalov (87)

Slovakia:
Offence: 89
Defence: 91
Goaltending: 91
Overall: 90

Hossa (89) - Handzus (82) - Gaborik (90)
Svatos (81) - Sutherby (79) - Kovalev (82)
Satan (80) - Taffe (79) - Kopecky (81)
Foucault (73) - Rau (74) - Afinogenov (79)

Visnovsky (87) - Chara (91)
Meszaros (82) - Sekera (82)
Johnsson (80) - Jurcina (80)

Halak (88 )
Budaj (81)

"Our offence will definitely need to pick up in this series for us to have a chance, we're facing a much tougher defence and a goalie who you would think is a lot better as well."

Playoffs, Round Two, Russia vs Slovakia:

Game 1:
Goals:
Palmieri (RUS)
Handzus (SVK)
Sutherby (SVK)
Malkin (RUS)
Hossa (SVK)
Final (OT):
Slovakia: 3
Russia: 2
Slovakia leads series 1-0

Game 2:
Goals:
Gaborik (SVK)
Svatos (SVK, 2 goals on 2 shots, before Russia had their first shot of the game...)
Svatos (SVK)
Kovalchuk (RUS)
Handzus (SVK)
Final:
Slovakia: 4
Russia: 1
Slovakia leads series 2-0

Russia announce that they will start Bryzgalov in game 3.

"Before the playoffs started, I was completely trusting of Nabokov for our run, but he is giving up far too many bad goals to nearly talentless players, ridiculous..."

Game 3:
Goals:
Gaborik (SVK)
Gaborik (SVK)
Satan (SVK)
Malkin (RUS)
Final:
Russia: 1
Slovakia: 3
Slovakia leads series 3-0

"I guess I'll leave Bryzgalov in for game 4, I really don't see how it's going to make a difference, both our goalies are allowing horrible goals and our offence isn't doing anything, we've already lost this series, all that's left is making it official..."

Game 4:
Goals:
Hossa (SVK)
Kopecky (SVK)
Bitz (RUS)
Malkin (RUS)
Kovalev (SVK)
Hossa (SVK)
Final:
Russia: 2
Slovakia: 4
Slovakia sweeps series 4-0

"This series was just absolutely unacceptable for every single player on our team. Absolutely ridiculous. Not much more I can say about that. I don't even know how to feel about the fact that the winning goal that eliminated our team Russia from the playoffs was scored by a Russian player, it's just absurd. Congratulations to Halak and the rest of team Slovakia on their win, it's no surprise that he leads the playoffs in save percentage after that series against us, I wish him luck in the rest of the playoffs, it's not so humiliating to lose if you lose to the team that goes on to win the Cup."


Playoff Series Results:

Slovakia over Russia 4-0
Finland over Moscow 4-2
USA over Quebec City 4-0
Moncton over Sweden 4-3

Round 3 Playoff Matchups:

Finland (3) vs Slovakia (4)
USA (1) vs Moncton (2)

Everybody still around at this point has a good chance to win the Stanley Cup now.

Round 3 Playoff Results:

Finland over Slovakia 4-1
USA over Moncton 4-1

Stanley Cup Finals are between Finland and USA now, there's no clear favorite to win this, as their usually isn't in the finals of the playoffs, both teams have won surprisingly easily in their third round to get here.

"If I had to guess, I'd pick USA to win it because they appear to have more talent on their team in general, but guessing really doesn't make a lot of sense in these playoffs, nobody would have expected half of the outcomes so far..."

Stanley Cup Finals:
Finland over USA 4-2 to win the Stanley Cup


(Russia sent a lot of its players down to play in the AHL playoffs, they got there just before the start of the second round, they would overcome a 3-1 series deficit to Canada's AHL team to advance to round 3, they won round 3 in 7 games, and would go on to beat USA's nearly unbeatable AHL team in just 5 games to win the championship)

Notable Retirements:

Marc Savard (Weisswasser)
Alex Kovalev (Slovakia)
Nicklas Lidstrom (Sweden)
Daniel Alfredsson (Sweden)
Saku Koivu (Finland)
Sergei Fedorov (Russia)
Vyacheslav Kozlov (Russia)
Aleksey Morozov (Russia)
Nolan Baumgartner (Russia)
Cristobal Huet (Ukraine)
Ty Conklin (France)
Martin Brodeur (Canada)

Awards:
Stanley Cup: Team Finland
Calder Cup: Chicago Wolves
Presidents' Trophy: Team Russia
Clarence S. Campbell Bowl: Team Finland
Prince of Wales Trophy: Team USA
Art Ross Trophy: Steven Stamkos
Hart Memorial Trophy: Steven Stamkos
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Sergei Gonchar
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy: Steven Stamkos
Calder Memorial Trophy: Maksim Mayorov
Conn Smythe Trophy: Miikka Kiprusoff
Vezina Trophy: Jaroslav Halak
William M. Jennings Trophy: Evgeni Nabokov/Ilya Bryzgalov
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: Matt Smaby
Frank J. Selke Trophy: Wayne Gretzky
Ted Lindsay Award: Steven Stamkos
Maurice Richard Trophy: Mario Lemieux (Game is obviously glitched, Malkin deserved this trophy, it's for most goals in a season, Lemieux had 61, Malkin had 63... Because Malkin was supposed to win this, I'll bold it and pretend he did)

Aww. Ah well, there's always next season.

2012 Draft Day:

Trade:
To Russia:
Latvia 1st round pick (7 overall)
Latvia 3rd round pick
Latvia 1st round pick (next year)
2 worthless players only added to make trade legal

To Latvia:
Russia 1st round pick (26 overall)
Russia 2nd round pick (next year)
Slovakia 5th round pick
Sergei Gonchar
Eddie Lack

Russia Draft:
1st round:
Dimitri Shirokov

2nd round:
Matt Finn

3rd round:
Nail Yakupov
Ryan Murray

4th round:
Patrik Edlund

5th round:
Beau Schmitz

6th round:
Connor Jarvis

7th round:
Michael Hasson

A look at Russia's draft picks this year:

Dimitri Shirokov: Possibly only gone after by Russia because he's actually from Russia, he's a 19 year old power forward, only 68 overall, so he won't be NHL ready soon, he has A offensive potential, B- defensive potential, and C athletic potential, so if he ever earns an NHL spot, he would be a good scorer of a power forward.

Matt Finn: 72 overall, may be NHL ready sometime soon if Russia can't fill its defensive holes in the offseason, he's a two-way defenseman with B potential for offense and athleticism, but only B- for defense, it will likely need to improve for him to earn a permanent role as a defenseman.

Nail Yakupov: 74 overall Russian playmaker, but he has only a C for offensive potential, despite having a B for defensive potential and B- for athleticism, a playmaker is generally not very useful without offensive talent, so he may not ever make the NHL team.

Ryan Murray: 72 overall two-way defenseman, B potential for offense, C for defense, B- for athleticism, that C in defensive potential will probably hold him back.

Patrik Edlund: 70 overall defensive defenseman, no potential aside from a B- for offense, probably won't ever be useful.

Beau Schmitz: 21 year old offensive defenseman, 71 overall, B offensive potential, B- in defense and athleticism, may find use, not very likely though.

Connor Jarvis: 64 overall, B- in offense and defense, C in athleticism, useless.

Michael Hasson: 67 overall, no potential, in fact, his offensive skills are already declining at 20 years old, completely useless.

"I have high hopes for Shirokov and Finn, but I doubt anyone else really even has a chance at making our team, maybe I can trade some of their rights away for prospects with more potential."

Contract Resigning/Free Agency Months:

Players not resigned:
Steven Reinprecht
Matt Climie
Mark Mancari
Victor Oreskovich

Newly Signed:
Mikael Granlund
Samuel Pahlsson
Pavel Kubina
Shane Doan

"Overall I think our team is improved by last year, if only slightly. I did try to make a trade with Switzerland for one of their drafted prospects, but they overvalued him way too much, enough to be insulted by fair offers."

2012/2013 season opening roster:

Ovechkin (92) - Malkin (94) - Kovalchuk (89)
Doan (85) - Datsyuk (94) - Radulov (86)
Semin (85) - Granlund (80) - Palmieri (80)
Gordon (75) - Pahlsson (83) - Bitz (79)

Volchenkov (87) - Markov (87)
Tyutin (82) - Kubina (85)
Parent (81) - Grebeshkov (81)

Bryzgalov (87)
Nabokov (89)

Offence: 100
Defence: 97
Goaltending: 94
Overall: 97

"I will probably wind up trading Nabokov at the trade deadline this year, before that, I'll be testing out how well Bryzgalov can manage to do on his own, because I don't think Varlamov is going to be NHL ready for another few seasons, well, he's probably NHL ready now for a mediocre team, just not ours, I'm sure team Japan or something would love to have him as their starter."

October Game Results:

Kazakhstan at Russia: 2-3 win
Kazakhstan at Russia: 1-6 win (our 4th line scored 3 goals)
Springfield at Russia: 1-4 win
Russia at Denmark: 2-1 win
Russia at Slovakia: 4-1 win
Russia at Boston: 4-3 OT win (blew a 3-0 lead in the 3rd period...)
Russia at USA: 1-5 loss (Bryzgalov sucked, obviously)
Russia at Quebec City: 5-2 win
Russia at Kazakhstan: 4-1 win
Russia at Springfield: 3-0 win
Russia at France: 3-1 win
Slovakia at Russia: 2-6 win

Russia started the season about as well as they started the last season, they went 11-1, and lead the NHL by 1 point.

"I left Bryzgalov in net for all of our games this month to test him out, overall, he had a pretty good month, about as good as you can expect, he had a few bad games, but that was expected as well."

Aw, my Canadians lost. They're the center of hockey, right? Then how did they lose!?

November Game Results:

Detroit at Russia: 4-1 loss
Japan at Russia: 4-3 loss (and now I'm almost certain I have to get rid of Bryzgalov, a bad game is excusable, a 4 goal loss to Japan never will be...)
Boston at Detroit: 2-0 loss
France at Russia: 1-6 win
Italy at Russia: 5-3 loss (the trade deadline can't come soon enough, Bryzgalov is gone, just gone... I don't care how little I manage to get for him as long as I get him the hell out of here)
Italy at Russia: 1-2 win
Russia at Moncton: 3-0 win
Russia at Sweden: 4-7 loss
Russia at Canada: 1-3 loss
Russia at Belarus: 2-1 win
Russia at Denmark: 3-4 loss
Russia at Slovakia: 2-1 win
Russia at Latvia: 8-1 win
Russia at Italy: 3-2 shootout loss
Russia at Great Britain: 4-3 win

Team Russia went 7-7-1 in what was easily the worst month in their Franchise history, including multiple losses to Italy, as well as losses to Japan and Denmark, a couple of the worst teams in the NHL.

"I'd really rather never think of that month again, we're supposed to be one of the best teams in the league, but if we keep up a trend like that we might not even be a playoff team..."

I don't know much about hockey, but having a good goalie sounds like a key point.

December Game Results:

Ukraine at Russia: 1-4 win
Moscow at Russia: 1-5 win
Springfield at Russia: 1-3 win
Denmark at Russia: 0-6 win
Great Britain at Russia: 4-3 loss (all 4 goals were on shots taken nowhere near the net)
Weisswasser at Russia: 2-3 win
Stockholm at Russia: 1-2 win
Canada at Russia: 5-6 win
Slovakia at Russia: 1-4 win
Austria at Russia: 2-3 win
Latvia at Russia: 1-5 win
Latvia at Russia: 0-4 win
Russia at Denmark: 1-4 win

Russia only had one loss in the month overall, but it was to a weak team, they went 12-1 and are among the top 2 or 3 teams in the NHL.