The National Strat-O-Matic Hockey League Newsletter League Established May 1, 1997 Volume #9, Issue #31 - August 10, 2006 Current League Officers: Commissioner: Doug Norris Vice-Commissioner: Eric Goodman Email the whole league: mailto:nshl at yahoogroups dot com NSHL Chat List: mailto:nshlchat at yahoogroups dot com Web Page Administrator: Brian Leahy League Web Site: http://www.geocities.com/nshlweb Files Adminstrator: Brian Leahy / Tom Vinacci League Files Site: http://www.highrantdistrict.com/SOM/NSHL ************************************************************************** Mostly administrative things in this issue. Thanks to Junu, Tom and Dan for their excellent contributions to this edition. Enjoy! ************************************************************************** MESSIER, MacINNIS, DAMPHOUSSE HEADLINE NEW RETIREES If a large bald man passes you on the golf course this fall, you may want to take a second look. Several veterans took advantage of the league's pre-draft cutdown day to announce their retirement from professional hockey, most notably vet Mark Messier. The 44-year-old spent the past six seasons with the Manayunk Bullies after earlier success in Woody Creek, West Coast and Buffalo. Messier averaged nearly a point per game in his NSHL career, with 240 goals and 392 assists in 638 regular-season games. Sadly, Messier never won the Farley Cup, although his pre-NSHL career is littered with Stanley Cup accolades. Also leaving the league is top defenseman Al MacInnis, retiring after an aborted comeback with the Pittsburgh Sound Chasers in the fall of 2004. MacInnis was a finalist for the Orr Trophy in 2004, playing in four league all-star games. Like Messier, he never won the Farley Cup. Vincent Damphousse rounds out the trio of stars leaving the game today. Last with the San Francisco Hedgehogs, the three-time all-star put up 506 points in his nine-year NSHL career, helping to lead the 1999 Montreal Wanderers to the Farley Cup. Also retiring today: Pittsburgh centre Cliff Ronning (306 points) Brooklyn defenseman Calle Johansson (264 points, one Farley Cup) North Calgary forward Steve Thomas (226 points) Manayunk defenseman Boris Mironov (151 points, one Farley Cup) Manayunk forward Steve Moore (2 points, retiring to pursue other opportunities) ************************************************************************** NSHL TEAMS CUT DOWN FOR 2006 DRAFT NSHL teams prepared for the entry draft this week by releasing marginal players from their rosters. The 2006 entry draft pool is now officially set and at the bottom of the roster listings (http://math.colorado.edu/~norrisdt/rosters.txt). By first count, there are 208 forwards, 95 defensemen, and 26 goaltenders eligible for the entry draft on September 9. I still need to cross-reference this list with my master list at home, and will do so at night. PLEASE DOUBLE-CHECK your roster to make sure that it is accurate. ************************************************************************** THUNDER ROLLS INTO LAS VEGAS Dan Irvine, Nevada owner Las Vegas, NV (AP) Dan Irvine the new part owner of the Nevada Thunder along with the Group U2, Anna Kournikova and Jennifer Love Hewitt our proud to relocate the franchise to sunny Nevada, the land that never sleeps. We also do not expect to get much sleep as we try to build a competitive team to help fill the new 25,000 seat Thunder Dome, a state of the art arena that includes 12 inch flat screen monitors for all of the premium seats along with a 2,500 slot machine area. Arena also has wireless hotspot for those inclined and we soon offer Nevada Thunder (The Thunder Phone) cell phones complete with the U2 cataloge of songs on it, and numerous Jennifer Love Hewitt and Anna Kournikova screen savers. And season ticket holders also get a free golf membership. Expect GM "Trader Dan" to make numerous moves to help built a competitive team. If players do not put out on the ice expect them to be shipped out. We look forward to a very special season here in Nevada, we are wide awake. Dan ************************************************************************** REMINDERS FOR YOU AND YOURS Extra thanks to Junu and Tom for their additions to this list. These are little refreshers and reminders that everyone probably should read before we start the season. Most of mine are refreshers on the league rules, while Junu and Tom have some interesting advice on Enjoy! ------------- HOW A TYPICAL NSHL BI-WEEK GOES: The NSHL bi-week begins with the newsletter, which lists news, notes and injuries from the preceding biweek's games. Strategy files are always due by the end of the first Thursday of the biweek, or thirty-six hours after the newsletter release (whichever is later). If you're going to take longer than that, advance notice is appreciated. If you're usually going to take longer than that, then you're unfairly taking advantage of the good graces of your co-owners. All games for the biweek need to be reported by the end of the second Monday after the newsletter. This gives you ten days or so to play four home games. If you need help finishing your games in a biweek, PLEASE ASK! As important is to ask with enough time left so that people can actually help you. ------------- HOW TO PLAY AN NSHL HOME GAME: In order, these are the steps necessary to play an official game in the National Strat-o-Matic Hockey League: * In the current newsletter, check the schedule for your club to see which games are available. Choose one. * Make sure that you've got the current set of league files loaded into your "DATA" subdirectory. * Download the computer manager for your opponent's team. Import it. * If you wish, you can view your opponent's instructions by highlighting the team, going to "Team / Display Reports / Computer Manager Reports". (As an aside, it is generally considered unethical to enter your opponent's computer manager - whether it is locked or not. Viewing the report, however, is fine and encouraged) * Create the computer manager for your team (if it's not your team, then you may need the team's lock code, which should be on file with the Commissioner). Make particular note of the special NSHL usage rules. * Play the game, observing the aforementioned usage rules. * At the conclusion of your game, send an e-mail to nshlgames@yahoogroups.com and your opponent containing the following: * The boxscore, attached as an uncompressed plain text file. * The export file (found in your "EXPORT" subdirectory), attached as a compressed file. * Any further details of the game you wish to provide (three stars, highlights, play-by-play, insults, etc.) in the body of the message. ------------- WHICH COMPUTER MANAGER TO USE: Each biweek, all teams are required to send their computer managers to their opponents, as well as the Commissioner. If you don't think you have received a computer manager yet, feel free to ask (either the owner or the Commissioner). If you're not sure which computer manager to import, the easiest thing to do is ASK! Most teams make it pretty clear which file is to be used against a particular opponent, but if you're not absolutely clear, it never hurts to ask. Usually these files are compressed, so you want to uncompress them into your main SOM directory, unless you like searching for them elsewhere. Then, simply highlight the team's name and "Import Computer Manager". Voila! One note when sending computer manager files: PLEASE do not put commas into the file names. It messes up the Commissioner's computer! ------------- THE 110% RULE: No matter what, players may play no more than 110% of their actual games played in the NHL. For example, Ed Jovanovski played forty-four (NHL) games during the 2005-06 campaign. Therefore, in the NSHL, he is allowed to play as many as 44*1.1 = 48.4 = 48 (rounded down) league games. These are always rounded down. The natural question is "why do we always round down"? Well, if you round up, then that will always lead to a percentage more than 110%. Consider the Jovanovski example above - if we rounded up to 49 games, that would be 111% ------------- WHO CAN PLAY IN A GAME: For each game, there may be players that are unable to play due to Commissioner-determined injuries. These can be found in the current NSHL newsletter until "Schedule and Injuries". Injured players are not eligible to play in these games. Penalties for violating this range from a replay at the other owner's discretion in addition to an extension of the injury, to more advanced penalties for repeat offenders. In addition to the injury rule, teams are allowed to dress either: * Twelve forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders, (or) * Eleven forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders. Teams usually choose the first option because it's easier. Players who are eligible to play both forward and defense will be considered to be at the position where they are primarily used in the Computer Manager, at the Commissioner's discretion. If it sounds restrictive, it's not that bad. And it was designed to prevent people from abusing the in-game restrictions listed later. ------------- HANDLING LINE ORDERS IN THE NSHL: These are the NSHL line order rules. In all of the following rules, a "shift" refers to a three Action Card sequence. * Forwards may be scheduled for NO MORE than four even-strength shifts per period. * In the first and second period, defenseman may be scheduled for a maximum of four even-strength shifts per period. * In the third period, defensemen may be scheduled for a maximum of six even-strength shifts per period. * All skaters (forwards and defensemen) must be scheduled for a minimum of four even-strength shifts per regulation game (not including overtime). These shifts must be scheduled within the first nine shifts of a period. (Why? Because special teams time usually eliminates the last few shifts of each period, and placing poor players there would be an attempt to get around this requirement) * No player may be scheduled for consecutive even-strength shifts. * A player may appear on (at most) one power-play unit and (at most) one short-handed unit per game. For instance, a player may be on PP1 or PP2, and SH1 or SH2. * A forward rated "POINT **" may play on either PP1 or PP2 (but not both). A forward rated "POINT *" may only play on PP2. * If a forward is playing the point on any power-play units, he may not appear as a forward on any power-play unit (and vice-versa). * Since the computer manager automatically reverts to PP1 and PK1 at the start of each period, the home team is allowed to do the same. This replaces the board game's "double-shifting power play units rule". As an aside, if the usage rules seem complicated, these line orders are perfectly legal: 1-2-3-4/1-2-3-4/1-2-3 for forwards, and 1-2-3/1-2-3/1-2 for defensemen. I will happily review prospective line orders for anyone who asks, IF you give me ample time to do so. Mahalo! ----------- ROTATING ANY PLAYER SHOTS: These shots must be given to the player on the ice with the highest "Offense" rating, usually a player with a "4" offense. If there is a tie (i.e., more than one person has the same highest offense rating), then "any player" shots must be rotated evenly amongst them. The game keeps track of this; when an "Any Player" shot is an option, the game will list all of your players. To the far right of each player is "AP Shots". Amongst the highest-rated offense players, you must choose the one with the fewest "AP Shots". Finally, the computer will not automatically do this for you, particularly in road games. To make this happen, in your road Computer Managers you must: under "Player Order", in "Shot Order", you must list all of your "Offense 4" players first, followed by your "Offense 3" players, etc. Amongst each category of players, you are free to order your players as you please. (This last part is subject to change, as I've been told that the computer might handle things correctly as of the current version. Stay tuned!) ----------- THE PENALTY KILL CLOCK (from Junu): If you didn't buy v5 of the hockey game, here's an important penalty killing reminder: It now takes 22 "ticks off the clock" to kill a 2-minute penalty. That's up from 19. The upshot: Because the penalty clock is longer -- and because there are a lot of players in the 2005-06 NHL deck who score a lot of power play goals -- you can arguably state that it makes more sense to be more conservative when killing penalties. That means: Ice more, skate less. Because action cards still flip at points 7, 13 and 19 on the penalty timer, that means some penalties may take three action cards and some may take four action cards. The cases where the latter happens is if the timer lands on 19, 20 or 21. (If the time "jumps" from 17 to 22, you only burn one more AC, not two). ----------- FOUR-ON-FOUR AND THE PENALTY TIMER (from Junu): One other related ramification: The penalty timer is still used to measure 4-on-4 penalties. I've seen that the penalty timer lands on 19, 20 and 21 a lot during 4-on-4 situations. As a result, if you set your lines to change every three cards, you frequently get this aggravating condition of having a lot of 1-card shifts at the end of a 4-on-4. In such situations, I would argue that the home team MUST change lines whenever the visitors CM does AND BRING OUT WHATEVER LINE IS SCHEDULED NEXT -- instead of throwing your fourth liners out there to play one card. (Doug's note - Junu is correct. Do not abuse the computer game in this fashion. Karma can be a bitch). ----------- PART-TIME PLAYERS (from Junu): Here's a tip for rebuilding teams that are planning to use a lot of part-season players (such as prospects) in your lineup: Because the injury system makes it harder to fully manage your player usage, expect that at least one of your players will not be able to play all the games that he's permitted to play. Say you're trying to split one lineup spot between two guys who have 40 real-life GP each (44 for the NSHL). Let's say you use Player A in your first 40 games (and let's assume he doesn't get injured) and plan on using Player B for your remaining 42 games. But did you know that Player B can get injured for up to 42 games? Which means that if Player B played in games #41-48 (biweek 11/12) but sustains a 42-game injury for that biweek, he's done for the year -- and you need to find someone else to fill that lineup spot. So how can you minimize losing the number of games available? It's not easy, but: (a) Try to conserve the number of minutes a part-season player is on the ice in any game. The more he's on the ice, the more chances he has of getting hurt. (b) Make a contingency plan to cover the "unrecoverable" games: If you run into a situation like the one above, who can you waive in order to make an emergency waiver pickup? (Though as Doug mentioned: "Players picked up as free agents during the season must play in at least six of the team's games in the following biweek") (c) Carefully balance who doesn't dress for each biweek. Referring to the situation above: If Player A is much better than Player B, maybe try dressing Player B every third biweek until Player A has no GP left. (d) Try to minimize the number of times a part-time player plays 1 or 2 games per biweek. If you're counting on a part-time player to dress for a decent chunk of the season, don't risk losing him to an injury by dressing him only once in a biweek to fill in for an injured player. Instead, try dressing someone who played only a couple of games. (e) To avoid player usage issues in goal, set your CM to NOT pull a goalie if he's fatigued. If you're losing 6-0 to Houston after one period, it's not worth switching goalies and burning a GP. What, you think you're gonna stage a comeback against them? ;-) ----------- PART-TIME PLAYERS (from Tom): If you have a good player with limited games played it is best to use him at the start of the season; if you save him for later in the season and he gets an injury, you may not be able to take advantage of as many games-played as you wanted. ----------- COMPUTER MANAGER MAINTENANCE (from Tom): After having any roster change made during the season be sure to rearrange your Any Player shooting and possession orders on the Player Orders tab of your CM. Be aware that your Any Player shooting order must have all offense-4's listed first, then all offense-3's and so on, and that this order can become jumbled when a new player is moved to your team. And while not quite as critical, take a look at the Goalies tab and make sure your Extra Skater order is in the order you want it. (Doug's note - the player order changes as mentioned here are subject to relaxation if it's indeed true that the computer game now functions as it should). ************************************************************************** 2004-05 REGULAR SEASON LEAGUE STANDINGS: NORTHEAST DIVISION GP W L T OL Pts Pct GF GA Home Road Long Island Berserkers 82 49 25 6 2 106 0.646 281 220 25-11- 4- 1 24-14- 2- 1 Corner Creek Green Cal 82 42 32 6 2 92 0.561 234 256 27- 9- 3- 2 15-23- 3- 0 Lyndonville Blades 82 41 31 10 0 92 0.561 230 179 16-18- 7- 0 25-13- 3- 0 Brooklyn Fourteenth 82 36 36 9 1 82 0.500 186 217 24-13- 3- 1 12-23- 6- 0 Buffalo Bulldogs 82 28 47 5 2 63 0.384 210 271 13-25- 3- 0 15-22- 2- 2 New York Lancers 82 17 52 9 4 47 0.287 174 272 10-25- 4- 2 7-27- 5- 2 ATLANTIC DIVISION GP W L T OL Pts Pct GF GA Home Road St. Michael's Privatee 82 46 18 14 4 110 0.671 272 202 26- 7- 7- 1 20-11- 7- 3 Quebec City Patriotes 82 48 21 9 4 109 0.665 324 217 27-11- 2- 1 21-10- 7- 3 Montreal Wanderers 82 41 25 10 6 98 0.598 231 198 22-12- 5- 2 19-13- 5- 4 Manayunk Bullies 82 30 37 12 3 75 0.457 222 239 18-18- 3- 2 12-19- 9- 1 Florida Hellcats 82 26 40 13 3 68 0.415 203 242 14-17- 8- 2 12-23- 5- 1 Stone Harbor Sound 82 18 52 11 1 48 0.293 159 276 10-23- 7- 1 8-29- 4- 0 NORTHWEST DIVISION GP W L T OL Pts Pct GF GA Home Road Fort Garry Fiddler Cra 82 48 22 11 1 108 0.659 254 180 27- 9- 5- 0 21-13- 6- 1 Seattle Rainiers 82 47 22 12 1 107 0.652 271 216 27-10- 4- 0 20-12- 8- 1 North Calgary Hawks 82 44 22 11 5 104 0.634 249 199 21-10- 6- 4 23-12- 5- 1 San Francisco Hedgehog 82 35 32 13 2 85 0.518 235 238 17-17- 5- 2 18-15- 8- 0 Seattle Sasquatch 82 35 37 7 3 80 0.488 230 236 19-17- 2- 3 16-20- 5- 0 Vancouver Whitecaps 82 19 56 5 2 45 0.274 194 321 8-29- 2- 2 11-27- 3- 0 CENTRAL DIVISION GP W L T OL Pts Pct GF GA Home Road Houston Outlaws 82 58 17 6 1 123 0.750 350 181 31- 7- 3- 0 27-10- 3- 1 Topeka Tarantulas 82 49 19 12 2 112 0.683 288 204 24- 8- 8- 1 25-11- 4- 1 Capital City Cougars 82 41 29 10 2 94 0.573 258 225 23-10- 6- 2 18-19- 4- 0 Pittsburgh Sound Chase 82 42 34 3 3 90 0.549 264 253 20-19- 1- 1 22-15- 2- 2 Hampton Roads Hounds 82 24 44 9 5 62 0.378 234 310 10-24- 6- 1 14-20- 3- 4 Minneapolis Massasauga 82 10 64 7 1 28 0.171 92 293 2-32- 6- 1 8-32- 1- 0 ************************************************************************** INCENTIVE POINTS: Incentive points are not discretionary, and are assigned strictly per formula, without respect to extenuating circumstances. Incentive points may be appealed through the Review Board. CUMULATIVE INCENTIVE POINTS: ************************************************************************** ASSOCIATE LIST: SINCE GP Larry Spencer April 27, 2004 0 Ryan Barckert May 17, 2003 0 Steve Kramer December 13, 2004 0 Greg Ralls December 14, 2004 0 Andrew Smith November 19, 2005 0 J.J. Schrems May 1, 2006 0 If you're still an active associate at and aren't on this list at please get in contact with me. Thanks! Doug ************************************************************************** TRANSACTIONS: BRK - TRADE BRK#6 to QCP for Shean Donovan. - TRADE CCC#9 to FLO for Jason Krog and Bryce Lampman. - Announce RETIREMENT of Calle Johansson. CGC - RELEASE Patrick Boileau. FLO - TRADE FLO07#3 to FGF for FGF#4. - TRADE Jason Krog and Bryce Lampman to BRK for CCC#9. - TRADE FLO#8 and FLO#9 to TPK for TPK07#7. - RELEASE Simon Gamache, Scott Barney, Brad Fast, Allan Rourke, Noah Clarke, Zdenek Kutlak, Ian Moran. FGF - TRADE FGF#4 to FLO for FLO07#3. - RELEASE Petr Schastlivy, Denis Shvidki. HRH - TRADE HRH#3 to MON for Chris Mason. HOU - RELEASE Jeff Taffe. LIB - RELEASE Eric Godard, Igor Korolev, Claude Lapointe, Aleksey Morozov, Burke Henry, Zac Bierk. LYN - TRADE LYN#6 to SHS for Jeff Jillson. - RELEASE Tomas Kloucek, Fedor Fedorov. MAN - Announce RETIREMENT of Mark Messier, Boris Mironov, Steve Moore. - RELEASE Marty Murray, Roman Cechmanek. MIN - RELEASE Niclas Wallin, Rastislav Stana. MON - TRADE Chris Mason to HRH for HRH#3. NEV - Announce RETIREMENT of Vincent Damphousse. - RELEASE Andreas Dackell. NYL - RELEASE Jesse Boulerice, Chris Dingman, Todd Harvey, Brian Holzinger, Josh Langfeld, Steve McKenna, Andrei Nazarov, Shaun Van Allen, Todd Rohloff, Milan Hnilicka, Fred Brathwaite. NCH - Announce RETIREMENT of Steve Thomas. - RELEASE Lynn Loyns, Martin Samuelsson, Maxim Kuznetsov, Tomi Pettinen. PIT - Announce RETIREMENT of Cliff Ronning, Al MacInnis. - RELEASE Eric Beaudoin, Mike Eastwood, Andrei Nikolishin, Stephen Peat, Stephane Quintal, Pavel Trnka, Tommy Salo, Trevor Kidd. QCP - TRADE Shean Donovan to BRK for BRK#6. - RELEASE Cory Cross, Mathieu Biron, Jaroslav Svoboda, Igor Ulanov, Brett Hull. SEA - RELEASE Tyler Wright. SES - RELEASE Richard Park. SHS - TRADE Jeff Jillson to LYN for LYN#6. - RELEASE Jiri Bicek, Jeff Heerema, Josh Holden, Jason Morgan, Christian Laflamme. TPK - TRADE TPK07#7 to FLO for FLO#8 and FLO#9. - RELEASE Kristian Kudroc, Jason Doig, Rem Murray. ************************************************************************** League Governing Boards Responsibilities of the following governing boards are outlined in the Constitution. Review Board Tom Vinacci, Buffalo Bulldogs Patrick Shea, Long Island Berserkers Mark McNeil, Lyndonville Blades Constitutional Council Head: Patrick Shea (patrickjshea at verizon dot net) Doug Norris, Commissioner Eric Goodman, Vice-Commissioner Andy Bartalone, St. Michael's owner (vacant) **************************************************************************