Enough With the Lefties Already!

This was by far the most entertaining game I have ever played during my short career in The League. It had everything: fights, hits, posts, and decades-old rivalry. The one gripe I have is that I simply cannot score with lefties in the shootout. I don't understand why I'm just so much better with righties (Ari feels the same way so I know it's not only me). It probably stems from doing All-Star shootouts with my friend during my off season training and using Ovechkin, Kovalchuck and Malkin as my first three. So, of course, all three of my shooters are left handed. Good game all around though.

Sam

I Don't Wanna Talk About It

Needless to say, there won't be any pucks at practice tomorrow.

Note: This is in response to the second game.

Fourth Game

@CHI (A): 3 (SO)

MTL (S): 2

The first league match up between Ari and Sam, a showdown of two storied Original Six teams, proved to be a thriller. A wild third period was capped by a a snipe from Kris Versteeg with 7.5 seconds left to send the game into overtime. Overtime did not disappoint either, as both teams rang several shots off the post, bringing the raucous capacity crowd of 20,531 to their feet. Jonathan Toews scored the lone goal in the shoot out on Chicago's first attempt for the game winner.

Note: This is the first League game to go into overtime and/or shootout.

We should move game speed up two notches

So, this is my first game over here in the league and I'm not chill with the settings. Overall, I think it was a solid outing. I've beaten Jesse before, so this was a fluke. I think we should put game speed and pass speed up and hitting power down. That's how I play it with my friends and I like it.

- Ari

Close, but good

This was a really good game. I scored off a kind of stupid goal for the first goal of the game but Ari came back anyway and scored off of a juicy rebound.

I always look forward to games with Ari. Ari and I always have really close games. We've been pretty much equal in skill since NHL '07. I was pretty happy when I got Ottawa because I play really well as them. The thing is, Ari knows pretty much everything about the NHL and as such, can play as any team. My knowledge is limited and I only really know the superstars of each team, but I do know the warriors of most teams.

Welcome to the league, Ari.

Third Game

@OTT (J): 2

COL (A): 1

Mike Fisher and Shean Donovan scored for the Senators and Wojtek Wolski scored the lone goal for the Avalanche.

This was Ari's first career game in The League.

New Player

We would like to welcome our new player Ari. Ari has established himself as a proven player in the minor leagues.

Management

Snipes

Hahahahahahahahaha...


....oh wow.

Second Game

NJD (J): 8
@ MIN (S): 2

Brian Gionta had the game-winning goal for New Jersey. Travis Zajac had a hat trick and Johnny Oduya had 2 goals and was +5.

Official Rules

League Rules:

1. All games must be played at the superstar difficulty level.
2. All teams must be in the same league.
3. No jinxing the Caps.
• No playing as the Caps or their opponents on gameday.
• During the playoffs, the entire series will be treated as gameday.

Note: These are not the official rules yet, they are simply "filler text".

Update: Seems like my late-night magic paid off, basic Google Docs integration seems to be up and running.

Management

Stupid, Stupid Turnovers

Honestly, I thought I had this game in the bag. I was doing everything right (aside from taking a ridiculous amount of tripping penalties). I wasn't relying on my trademarked "one-timer pass from the left corner to the slot" offense and I was making Jesse pay for his mistakes. Not that they were necessarily his mistakes, I got ALOT of help from the computer in the beginning. It was interesting to see how Jesse would react when the computer was continuously screwing him over. All in all, I'm glad we continued our streak of thrilling games decided in the last minute.

Integration With Google Docs

To me, it is quite obvious that we will be heavily relying on integration with Google Docs to do all the fun number crunching and collaboration that we do here on NHLAR. The problem is that, at the moment, Blogger is not co-operating well, and Google Sites is. But Google Sites is downright terrible for a blogging format, although it has awesome integration with all types of media (Youtube videos, Pisca photos, etc). As of now it looks like we'll be staying with Blogger and the current stats/records will be at the bottom of the page.

Management

Breakaway...wow

Wow, I had so many breakaways that game. I had at least 5 breakaways and I missed the net on all of them except my final one. Thanks Tkachuk! I gotta work on my breakaway moves some more, I miss all the time.
Also, the game did not want me to have a power play chance this entire game. Every time Sam would get a penalty, nine seconds in there would be a cross checking or slashing call on my team. I say my team because most of the time it was the AI controlled players that got the penalty.

My one timer snipe with Backes was pretty sweet though, clean snipe, no post hit, right above Brodeur's blocker. Sam wont talk about it, he's pretty angry at the way I got the puck to set up that goal. Something to do with pressing pass but instead it saucer passed it into the boards. Whatever, a giveaway is a giveaway.

Nail biter to the end.

First Game

STL (J): 2
@NJD (S): 1

After falling behind 1-0 in the first period on a goal by Dainius Zubrus, the Blues came back on a breakaway goal by Keith Tkachuk midway through the third. David Backes scored the game winner with 1:23 to go. Patrick Elias and Keith Tkachuk both left the game late in the third with undisclosed injuries.

Scoring Summary:
1st Period:
Dainius Zubrus (A Greene, J. Pandolfo), 18:55
3rd Period:
Keith Tkachuck (B.Boyes, A. McDonald), 10:44
David Backes (J. McClement, J. McKee), 18:37