A Tale of the Norse GM

[petermc]

Game: EA Sports NHL 14 (PS3)
Roster: Second Roster Update with some tweaks to add the changes (EX. Brunner to Devils)
Tuner: Latest version
GM Skill Level: Hard
Skill Level: All Star
Game Style: Hardcore
Slider: My Own Tweaking to keep it evenish
GM Firing: On
Period Length: 7 minutes
Salary Cap: On
Trade Difficulty: Medium (Might go to hard unsure how big of a difference it will make)
Report Style: One indepth per ingame week
Play/Sim: Playing 1 per ingame week (sim preseason with rookies)
Olympics: I will be doing my own in game Olympics. Feel free to message me a Roster or who you feel should be on them.


This is Darren Dreger here to give you the latest info and it is that the ownership group of the Washington Capitals just before the start of the pre season has made a big change at the front of their organization they have fried GM George McPhee. McPhee joined the Capitals in 1997, the team was looking to turn around its long storied history of being a regular season juggernaut, only to fold in the playoffs. Things started off great, as McPhee engineered the club's first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season. The team has played well under the general management of McPhee, having won seven Southeast Division championships (1999–2000, 2000–01, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2012-2013), had eight 40-or-more win seasons (1997–98, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11, 2011-12) and a franchise record 121-point season (2009–10). Even after all that the Team is still one that does well in the regular season but folds in the playoffs. Ted Leonsis decided that a change was in order he even left the National Hockey League to find it. In fact he went to Norway to find it. Thats right Norway, i know what you must be thinking Norway what have they ever done with hockey but the man they got was born and raised in Canada his grandparents had come over from Norway. His name is Peter Norgard he has been in charge of the Norwegian National team for the last 2 years and since he has been there he has brought over a dozen young players to the CHL and there is hope by the Olympics after Sochi Norway will have a few more NHL players from Norway on the team. Now here is the clip from when the new General Manager addressed the media.

“Wow well this is going to take some getting use to in Norway my media address was 1 guy and I had to call him,” Peter said with a small chuckle, “So questions.”

“What are your plans for the upcoming season,” a reported shouted.

“Umm at first not a lot but I wont be accepting lackluster play if me and Coach Oats feel that any one of the team is not taking things serious I will not hesitate to trade anyone if they are not here to help us win I don't want them.” Peter answered.
A another reported asked, “Does that mean we'll be seeing lots of trades?”

“I wont be going to look to make trades but I wont be shy. I want to win our team is in the prime now so I will do what I can to win now.”

“Do you feel you will get bullied by the other GMs being new?”

“Well they can try and if they do they will quickly find out I am not intimidated easily. Now I am sure you all of a dozen more questions each but I do have to meet my new coaching staff.”

[petermc]

Team Strengths
Top end talent there is a strong group of forwards on this team the top 6 scorers lead by Ovechkin and Backstrom should have no trouble putting the puck into the back of the net. Top 3 defense in Carlson, Green and Alzner should put a nice battle to be the top 2 defense for this team. With this you can could on Ovi and Backstrom scoring and Green pitching in from the back end. Alzner will be the Defensive Rock getting all of the defensive duties with Carlson helping on Offense and Defense

Team Weakness
Big one is top 6 D we know who will be the top 4 pairings but the bottom 2 are a mystery. Center as well they currently have 3 centers on their club and we get the feeling they would love to replace Grabovski in the 3rd line spot to move him into the top 6.

The Answer?
Free Agency there are names there that could help. For centers there is Kyle Wellwood or Matthew Lombardi to fill the 3rd line Center Role there is also Tim Connolly Jason Arnott or Manny Malhotra that could fill the 4th line center or just give the team some more depth down the middle. None of these options are amazing but they could be just what the Capitals Ordered.

Defense
Adrian Aucoin, Hal Gill, Brett Clark, Roman Hamrlik could all do the fill out the Capitals D corps for this season or if you want to be a little riskier and take a chance on Ian White or Cam Barker.

But with under 2 million in cap space they might have to trade something away to gain depth or take a chance and hope they don't run into injuries as the Capitals do not have the depth to deal with that.

[HeroWorship]

You wouldn't dare trade Mike Green......would you?

[petermc]

Mike Green
2012/13 35 GP 12G 26P -3
Last Season was first time in a few years Green has played a whole year and put of decent amount of points. Could that have been a sign of a comeback or is Norgard counting on the fact it was a shorten season the reason Green made it thru or does he know something that we don’t.

Mike Weber
42 GP 1P 6A +3
Mike Weber is a bottom 6 kind of guy if I had to guess I would say this was a Salary dumb trade.

Steve OTT
48GP 9G 24P
Will most likely be taking over 3rd line Center duties.

This trade is down right highway robbery it must be just to be a salary dumb as the Sabers are the clear winners from where I am sitting, but time will tell if I am right. Norgard said he would not be afraid to make trades and so far he has not disappointed, after this trade lets see if he still has a job at the end of the season. We tried to reach Mike Green for a comment but all he had to say was no Comment.


Mike Green when asked about how he felt about the trade

We managed to get a word in with Norgard here is what he had to say about the trade.

"Honestly it was business his numbers have not been the same for the last few years and we needed some cap breathing room so here we are," Answered Peter.

He also released his preseason line up the notable absense being Captain Ovechkin.

Pre Season Roster
#	CENTERS	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
19	Nicklas Backstrom	25	6'1	210	Left	Sweden
90	Marcus Johnsson	22	6'1	205	Left	Sweden
9	Steve Ott	31	6'0	192	Left	Canada
83	Jay Beagle	27	6'3	215	Right	Canada
#	LEFT WINGS	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
12	Rom Wilson	19	6'4	210	Right	Canada
21	Brooks Laich	30	6'2	210	Left	Canada
17	Wojtek Wolski	27	6'3	215	Left	Canada
25	Jason Chimera	34	6'2	216	Left	Canda
#	RIGHT WINGS	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
13	Mikhail Grabovski	29	5'11	183	Left	Belarusian
10	Martin Erat	32	6'0	200	Left	Czech Republic
20	Troy Brouwer	28	6'2	214	Right	Canada
24	Aaron Volpatti	28	6'0	215	Left	Canada
#	DEFENSE	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
28	Dmitry Orlov	22	6'0	210	Left	Czech Republic
74	John Carlson	23	6'3	208	Right	USA
27	Karl Alzner	24	6'3	213	Left	Canda
38	Jack Hillen	27	5'10	190	Left	USA
4	John Erskine	33	6'4	220	Left	Canada
6	Mike Weber	25	6'2	211	Left	USA
#	GOALIES	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
70	Braden Holtby	23	6'1	203	Left	Canada
30	Michal Neuvrith	25	6'1	209	Left	Czech Republic

Preseason Story

-Norgard did not have Ovechkin suit up for any preseason games.
-Offseason signing Grabovski lead the team with 4 Goals
-N. Backstrom lead the team in points with 8
-Recent draft pick T. Wilson second in points with 7 but lead the team in +/- with + 7
-Ott finished preseason with 2 goals 1 assist and a -2 rating
-Weber had no points and -2 rating
- Holtby had majority of the starts was shaky finished with 6GP 3GAA 2W 4L
-Varlamov with his 1 game lead in save% with .956

Around the League
-Calgary Flames signed Ian White & Hal Gill
-Crosby lead in goals with 6
-Henrique lead in assists with 9 & in points with 13
-Nabokov had most withs with 5
-Pavelec lead GAA with 1.3

General Manager Peter Norgod comments on the choices made, "Even with Wilsons strong showing we have decided he could benefit more from 1 more year of seasoning in juniors. Dmitry Orlov has also been sent back down to minors for another season there are a few holes in his game that he needs to iron out. To help fill some of the holes in our team we have Signed Jason Arnott who will center our 4th line to start and Cam Barker who will be on our second D pairing. And another thing you guys might enjoy hearing we have looked to unload some more salary so we have traded RW Joel Ward to Calgary for a 4th and 6th round pick, again I am sure I will hear about this on TSN about how foolish of a move this was but now if I need to make a move I have the cap space to be able to. As for our regular season rosters for now they are game to game based on how a few Free Agent discussions."

[petermc]

I did trade him lol I didn't want to because I tend to play heavy from the point but man the caps are hard on the salary and at least in the game had no depth 1 injury (eps to center) I would have been screwed and this game loves its injuries. So I got worse to get better? :P

[bthomp05]

Quote: Originally Posted by petermc

I did trade him lol I didn't want to because I tend to play heavy from the point but man the caps are hard on the salary and at least in the game had no depth 1 injury (eps to center) I would have been screwed and this game loves its injuries. So I got worse to get better? :P

These are the types of moves that make GMs heros, I hope it pans out.

[seb170455]

Good luck with your Capitals. Daring start with the Green trade. Hope you do well.

[HeroWorship]

Quote: Originally Posted by petermc

Mike Weber 42 GP 1P 6A +3 Mike Weber is a bottom 6 kind of guy if I had to guess I would say this was a Salary dumb trade.

Not nice of you to say he's a salary dumb. Sure, he has come into camp out of shape after a few too many Molson Canadian's in the off-season, but he's a top 6 defenseman.....just very mean of you to say.

Ott and Weber for Green? Good deal by the Sabres.

Also, good luck with the Capitals. Even though the Verizon Center is a mediocre place to watch a game, they do have a Chick-Fli-A, and I can support that.