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FnoRespect · 03-29-2024, 09:26 PM

Hello everyone. I wanted to do some sort of World Jrs coverage, as the 2x media bonus is a huge motivator. I was thinking of just doing a recap of my team's performance, but decided doing the recap in diary fashion would be cooler. This "recap" will take you through the day-to-day tasks a World Jrs GM goes through and will explain my thought process through these decisions. I hope this is an article that can be used to convince others to try this out because it was a blast for me, and I don't regret taking GM for one second! I'm going to try and keep these entries as related to the games as possible rather than only talking about GM duties, but there will definitely be a mix of both. At the very bottom of this post, I added a section with some advice for anyone considering taking GM next juniors cycle. If you are and aren't interested in reading about UCORAL feel free to scroll for a while and read that.

Day 1- Preseason day 1- I feel like I should mention first that the team I am GMing is “UCORAL” which is Russia and Latvia. Now! The day I had been waiting for! As a first time GM, I had some trouble submitting my lines. Luckily, Blitz was able to help me get it sorted out before gametime. I was a little rushed and definitely didn't pay as close attention as I should have but, in the end, I think the team is looking really strong. Before this day, I had multiple people tell me they thought UCORAL was a favorite to win it. This left me both excited and nervous for the first sim. The sim was done late at night and not streamed and when I got to look at the results, I was just a little disappointed.

Game 1- The first preseason game saw UCORAL pull off a 4-1 win against the British Isles. This is a team we don't play at all during the round robin, but I still think it is important to set the tone early. This game saw UCORAL get outhit 40-14 but they got the edge in shots 42-41. I was very happy with first pairing dman Juan Tymer, who picked up 2 assists and played solid defensively. I am very unhappy with how the team performed at the faceoff dot in this game as we lost the battle 18-27. I made sure to put all of my highest rated faceoff players at the center position, so hopefully they turn it around. Lily Jin Morrow decided to go rough and play outside of her set role as a dangler, instead choosing to play sniper. This isn't a problem as this happens with all players at one point or another. I will be keeping an eye on it moving forward as well as other players who do the same.

Game 2- In our second preseason game, we went down 3-2 at the hands of USA White. This game saw us get outshot 39-29 which is slightly concerning. Unlike the Isles, we do play USA White in the round robin so this game will be important to look back on. Despite the outcome in the shots department, UCORAL had a better takeaway to giveaway ratio, meaning they were handling the puck well while forcing turnovers on the other end. When originally setting up lines, I planned for my top two centers to be Murdock and Banes. Through the first two games, they have not been playing up to my expectations, so I will most likely have to tweak that. Shevchenko, on the third line is playing well in his limited role. 9 for 12 on the dot is always solid! Once again Lily Jin decided to play as a sniper...

Game 3- The last preseason game of preseason day one would see UCORAL go down 5-1 to the newly formed Czechia. This game was relatively even across the board, with there only being a 3 shot differential in favor of Czechia. After the last two games it's hard to blame Stun Gun, so the team will have to step it up as a whole. Forward Squidwardo Tentacles had 7 shots on goal, really driving the offense. Sadly, none of these found the back of the net. Agate and Kirik are playing amazing on the third dpairing, I think I might give Agate a shot at 2nd pairing after a few subpar games from Bellona. Multiple players played outside of their assigned roles in this game including Lily Jin Morrow again. At this point I'm imagining her as a giant pit-bull that I can't keep control of. I will definitely be switching her over to sniper for tomorrow. Overall Czechia is looking like a solid squad, so I won't worry about this loss too much.

Overall Thoughts- For the first three preseason games things didn't go so bad. Even in the game we lost 5-1 we only gave up 3 more shots than we had. We this said I think there is plenty of room for improvement. Tomorrow I will be trying out some new line combos and player roles. Hopefully that will result in a better day than 1-2. I am very pleased with the way the defense is playing, and I will be switching up the pairings slightly for the remainder of the preseason. If I had to pick one area, I think the team can improve on it would be goal scoring. If there's one area, I think the team is already doing well in, I would say defense.

Day 2- Preseason day 2- Going into today I'm feeling almost the same as yesterday. I'm excited and also a little nervous to see how the team performs with the new changes. I decided to move up Olivija Agate to the second d pairing with Gingersnap III after her strong showing in yesterday's games. This leaves Bellona on the third pairing with Kirik, where I know they can shut down any opposing teams' top line. I made Lily Jin Morrow the sniper she so desperately wanted to be, and other minor tweaks.

Game 4- In the fourth game of the preseason we lost 4-1 to Canada Red. Similar to the Czechia game we got outshot by 3 shots (40-37). Overall, it was a pretty even game besides the score left on the board. I'm beginning to become a little concerned for the team's lack of finishing. Could it just be the sim giving us bad luck, or is it the tactics I set? Only time will tell, and I suppose that's what the preseason is for. The Bellona and Kirik D pairing struggled in this game and Agate had her worst game of the preseason so far on the second pair. I'm hoping this is just for the first game, but we'll see. I gave Sabage Cabage more minutes this game and changed his role to garbage collector. He did not disappoint in his new role, tallying up 6 shots on goal.

Game 5- In the fifth game of the preseason UCORAL decided to renew their scoring touch, winning against Team World 5-2. Just like the previous two games, the shots on goal were only separated by 3, but this time in favor of UCORAL. After this game I started to notice this team really hates taking penalties, which I'm a big fan of. So far in the tournament, UCORAL has taken less than 10 penalty minutes in each game. This game saw Lily Jin Morrow step into her new role as sniper and pick up a goal and an assist for two points. Agate and Gingersnap stepped it up this game, proving that they can be paired together successfully, but Bellona and Kirik continued to struggle. I've noticed as a whole, all of the Russians on this team have been playing phenomenal so far. If they can keep it up, they will all be earning more ice time.

Game 6- Game 6 of the preseason would have UCORAL narrowly losing to team North America 3-2 in regulation. In this game UCORAL outshot team NA 40-20 but just couldn't find the back of the net. As a GM I would much rather see losses like this in the preseason than when it really matters. This game would also see my master plan of loading up on faceoff heavy centers come to fruition, as UCORAL would win the faceoff battle 31-23. Juan Tymer, who had been pretty quiet the last few games, stepped it up, having a relatively solid performance. Bellona also stepped it up big time playing one of his best defensive games of the tournament. Russian center Fedorov had a great night on the dot going 7/10 on faceoffs. He has really been impressing me this preseason and is really close to getting more ice time. Rence Sykut has been playing well the last couple of games, but similar to Morrow is playing as a two way forward instead of his assigned role. This is something I might change before the next batch of games.

Game 7- The final game of the preseason would have UCORAL taking revenge on Czechia and winning 4-1. This time around we would be the ones outshooting Czechia by 3. In this game first line RW Bobby Tkachuky would step up and have a goal and assist. This is the type of production I was hoping to get from him at the start, but hopefully it can carry into round robin play. Scochnikov stays hot and scored a goal. Murdock turned things around and recorded two assists while also going 10 for 14 on the faceoff dot. Stun Gun had a huge game, posting a save% over 95. Overall, I think this was a great game to end the preseason on and it definitely gives me confidence going into the round robin tomorrow.

Overall Thoughts- Not the best way to start things out, especially considering UCORAL was slotted in as a contender by many. However, the preseason has taught me many things that I will use going into round robin play and hopefully making some changes will give the team the jolt it needs to reclaim its contender status. I'm not sure if switching up the d pairing was the best idea, but for now I think I'm going to roll with it until it doesn't work. I'm thinking the same about the forward lines. Some minor tweaks are definitely in order, but especially after that last game, I don't see why I would need to make any drastic changes.

Day 3- Round Robin Day 1- I'm both nervous and excited to see what today has in store for UCORAL. I made some last-minute role adjustments and strategy changes in hopes that UCORAL can pick up at least two wins on day 1. If we can get the scoring production up, I don't see many teams that will be able to contend with us.

Game 1- Well, the first game of the actual tournament was... Well... Disappointing. A 4-1 loss to Canada Red that was pretty much even in most departments other than the scoreboard. Overall, the team had a bad game. Many of the players ended the game as a -1 with the only -2 going to center Murdock. This game saw UCORAL play one of its worst defensive games so far and I definitely have a concern going into the next couple. The first day of the preseason, the defense was really strong, but I ended up tweaking it after viewing the other team's strategies, to be more offensive. Hopefully this trend of lackluster defense doesn't continue, because all of our dmen have incredible builds and deserve to be treated better by the sim. One shining star in this dark game was Saava Kirik. Kirik carried over his solid defensive play from the preseason into this first game and has been our go to penalty killing dman so far.

Game 2- Game two ended relatively similar to game 1. UCORAL went down 4-2 at the hands of USA White. USA White outshot UCORAL 33-30 and won the battle in the giveaway takeaway department. The faceoff dot was won by UCORAL 37-25, and I've been noticing the pattern that even when we dominate on the faceoff dot, it doesn't always translate into team success. Going into the tournament, being good on faceoffs was one of my main concerns, so to see it pay off, so little is slightly disappointing. This game would be the second in a row where centermen Banes and Murdock would struggle defensively. They are both really capable centers and have the potential to shine in this tournament, I just need to figure out how to best set them up. This game would also see our first line forwards get burned in the +- department. Despite the rough team performance, the third d pairing of Kirik and Agate stayed strong once again.

Game 3- Our second game of the day against team Canada Red would see similar results on the scoresheet. Although we outshot Canada Red 48-24 we still ended up losing by the score of 3-1. If you look at some of the underlying stats without looking at the final score, I'm sure many would think UCORAL won this game. However, this was simply not the case. 0-3 on the day without a single point puts us at the bottom of the standings, and with only 12 games in the round robin a 0-point night will be tough to overcome. Once again, we had a game where we dominated in the faceoff dot and got more shots, but sadly this didn't translate into goals. Its hard to blame anyone for this game as the forwards were generating plenty of chances and the defense and goalie only gave up 3 shots.

My overall thoughts- Well, this sucks. The tournament isn't over by any means, but with an underwhelming 0-3 start it will definitely be hard to get a playoff spot. After the first day UCORAL is dead last in goals scored and penalties drawn. We're getting plenty of shots, which is promising, but are having a rough time converting on them. Some big changes will be made before the next three games. The defense isn't playing terrible, but I think a few tweaks to some player roles could be beneficial. Juan Tymer and Gingersnap as quarterbacks didn't seem to give the offense the jolt I was hoping it would, so I will likely change them back to the two-way defenseman roles I had them play in preseason.

Day 4- Round Robin Day 2- Well, I think I've mentioned at the start of every day how I've been both excited and nervous... Today I'm mostly nervous. I've been hesitant to play Shevchenko on the top line, as I wanted a more defensive center like Murdock or Banes to have that number one spot. With that said, Shevchenko hasn't been a liability defensively, and the defensemen have been clicking so it's time to give him a shot at the C1 role. Joining him on the first line will be Squidwardo Tentacles, to play a two-way role and balance out the offensive focused Shevchenko and Morrow. Murdock and Banes will play the C2 and C3 roles, which I think will allow them to shine in their two-way games. I also moved Deep Thought into the second line LW role as he's been playing solidly. I want to see if he can start producing.

Game 4- LILY JIN MORROW MASTERCLASS! 3 Goals for Morrow and 3 assists for Shevchenko in a 5-2-win vs Canada Red! We outshot the opposition 47-29 and this time the difference in shots seemed to matter. The changes I made to help bolster the scoring production seem to be working and I couldn't be happier. A change I forgot to mention above was that I made Lily Jin Morrow play speedy forward. I thought this would be a good change up from sniper as it fits her playstyle just a little bit better. Squidwardo Tentacles also picked up two assists this game. It seems my move to change up the center landscape is working out as both Banes and Murdock had good games, especially defensively. I feel like I give a lot of attention to the top 3 centers, so I have to mention Fedot Fedorov has been a rock in the 4c spot so far this tournament.

Game 5- Yikes. Just when I thought we were turning it around we take a hard 1-0 loss to team ICE. This game would see UCORAL get severely overshot 43-16 and outhit 36-19 which paints the picture that ICE utterly dominated in most aspects of the game. Goalie Launchpad McQuack was a shining light this game as he posted an impressive 42 saves on 43 shots to keep the game respectable. Both Stun Gun and McQuack have been top goalies this tournament and I'm very lucky to be able to utilize them both. If the team can put this game behind them and find a way to win the next one, we'll still be in the playoff hunt.

Game 6- What a win! In the 6th game of the tournament, UCORAL faced their adversity perfectly and pulled out a win against the undefeated USA White team! UCORAL outshot the Americans 41-25 and were backstopped to a shutout by Stun Gun. Thats back-to-back games where the goalies played incredible. The defense has been on another level this tournament, and even though many of them aren't producing in the goals or points column, they are absolutely shutting down the opposition. Lily Jin Morrow stayed hot with her second power play goal of the night and Ivan Scochnikov got on the board with his first of the tournament. Rodrigo Banes was a defensive force this game which is what I was hoping he could do all tournament. Looks like UCORAL isn't going down without a fight. One thing I'm growing to accept these last few games is that even though Banes and Murdock are playing well defensively, the sim engine loves giving them terrible defensive ratings because I have them set to roles that prioritize defense. So when the sim gives them a good rating they really balled out.

My Overall Thoughts- Halfway through the round robin and only 3 points out of a playoff spot? Not too shabby considering we started off 0-3. The changes I made to the lineup for today were mostly to boost goal production and it seems it worked just how I wanted it to. I'm very proud of the team for bouncing back and I am definitely going to be nervous going into tomorrow.This team on paper is one of the best, if not the best in the tournament so if they can keep playing the way they are, it will be hard for a team to steal on from us come playoff time.

Day 4- Round Robin Day 3- I definitely feel levels better about the team than I did yesterday. The only changes I make today are going to be small compared to the huge rehaul I did to the lineup yesterday. I did a deeper dive into Demir Bellona's stats and figured ive probably been using him wrong as a crease clearing defenseman. I'm going to try him out as a quarterback, to see if that will generate some production. On the topic of generating production, Rence Sykut will be moved to the second line in an effort to get them scoring some more. The first line was stellar yesterday and if the second or third lines get hot as well, not many teams will be able to match the scoring production UCORAL is capable of. One thing I've learned to both accept and hate so far is that no matter what changes you make to your lines or strategies, your fate is in the hands of the sim. All I can do now is hope the sim god's favor UCORAL today.

Game 7- What a team performance! This game was slow simmed so I made sure to tune in. Roughly halfway through the first period, I was horrified to see UCORAL down 3-0 to Canada Red. “This is it” I thought. “This is where it all falls apart” Desperately needing a win to qualify for playoffs Team UCORAL fought back from down 3-0 to pull off a 6-4 win. Going into this game, goalie Stun Gun was tired from handling lots of workload in previous games. I think next time instead of forcing a tired goalie to play I will just give the backup the start. It also makes it easier to make this decision when your backup goalie is as stellar as McQuack has been. This game was relatively even, but saw UCORAL dominate in the hits department. The first line put the team on their back in the second period with both Shevchenko and Lily Jin Morrow recording a 3 point period. Squidwardo Tentacles also tallied 2 assists. Leo Roze stepped up on defense this game and made sure after the burst of three goals Canada Red was limited in their scoring opportunities. This is a great start to the night and I can't wait to see how we fare in our rematch vs ICE.

Game 8- Huge game by Launchpad McQuack! Despite getting outshot 33-27 UCORAL held on for a huge 2-0 win! This means both McQuack and Stun Gun have posted a shutout in the round robin. I would consider this a good feat for both of them. I am so happy with how Murdock and Banes have played the last couple of games. Having these two solid defensive minded centers has done wonders in limiting the opposition offense and I'm really glad they belong to UCORAL. As for ICE, this win slides them out of a playoff spot and us in. Based on the way both of our games have gone against them, I hope it stays this way. Playing ICE in a playoff game would be a nightmare. Their playstyle is suited perfectly for stealing a game against anyone so I have to give props to their GM for that. One note that I had down for this game was to give props to Sava Kirik. Kirik is the last defenseman I selected to be on this roster and it came down to either picking him or my own player (Who is ironically on ICE). I ultimately picked Kirik, as I wanted a solid defense first dman on the third pair. Kirik has been just that so far and has forced me to give both him and his dpartner, Olivija Agate, more ice time with every sim.

Game 9- Another huge win for Ratvia! I mean UCORAL… The last game of round robin day 3 ends in a 4-3 overtime win against Canada Black. This game would see the fourth line really step up as Average Dude would play a solid two-way game and Scochnikov scored the overtime winner. When I first set up the team, I put Scochnikov on the second overtime line, knowing his build was suited for scoring. My philosophy for making OT lines was completely focusing on offense and throwing defense out of the window. This could be completely wrong, but its 1 for 1 so i'll take some credit! Almost as if they could read my last entry, Agate and Kirik had another monster defensive showing. This game puts UCORAL 4 points clear of a playoff spot, which compared to where we were yesterday is a huge and needed improvement.

Overall Thoughts- This was a HUGE day for UCORAL. The first line stayed hot and the second line picked up some slack and started scoring as well. As for the defense, switching Bellona to quarterback did not yield any points, but led to a better performance overall. At the end of the third day, UCORAL is #1 in the goals against stat. This just goes to show how solid all of the defensemen on this team are. Can't forget about the goalies who have also been incredible throughout the round robin so far.

Day 5- Round Robin Day 4- The final day of the round robin! Going into today, two wins will clinch a playoff spot for UCORAL. After yesterday's games, I know there are still some tweaks I could make to the lineup, but I'm also worried that changing things now could mess up the hot streak the team is on. With that philosophy, I'm going to go with the lines and strategies that worked yesterday and just hope the sim likes us today. The last two games of the round robin are against Czechia, who was a part of our team last year. It would be an incredible storyline for Czechia if they went 2-0 against us today to knock us out, but i'll just have to trust the sim that it won't happen.

Game 10- Bang! That should do it. I didn't do the math, But with Team Ice losing their first game on the night, this 8-3 win over Canada Black should lock UCORAL in a playoff spot. As the score showed, we dominated this game, outshooting the Canadians 47-21. UCORAL also showed dominance defensively, picking up 16 takeaways compared to Canada's 4. Team Canada Black also did us a favor by taking 26 minutes in penalties. This was one of our best team games, as there was production from every single line and d pair. This game would see Kirik pick up his first goal of the tournament, but this performance would be overshadowed by another blueliner. Demir Bellona, after having 0 points in the teams first 9 games, potted 2 goals and also tacked on an assist. A huge game for Bellona, and I really hope this becomes a trend. So many good things to say about individual players in this game as Shevchenko had his 2nd 3 assist game and Lily Jin Morrow picked up two goals. Juan Tymer set the team record for ice time as well as power play ice time tallying almost 27 minutes total and over 11 minutes on the powerplay. Sorry Juan, get some rest.

Game 11- Game 11 would see UCORAL take a step back against Czechia. In a 5-1 loss, we didn't play terribly, but also not nearly well enough to pick up a win. Overall Czechia outshot us 27-21. If you only looked at the first 40 minutes of the game, we played great. The third is where it really fell apart. In the first 12 minutes of the period, Czechia scored 5 goals. In the period, they had a total of 11 shots meaning either they were getting really solid chances or we just had a bad game from our goalie. Either way this just shows how random the sim can be and is a reminder that no matter how much work you put in, there's a chance the sim will take it all away. A couple of positive takeaways from this game, were Agate and Kirik continue to be a top defensive d pairing and the fourth line continued their trend of production, as Scochnikov picked up the team's lone goal.

Game 12- Game 12 would see us get immediate revenge on Czechia. This 3-1 win against Czechia was a huge win, as it helped us leapfrog them in the standings and secure home ice advantage for the playoffs. This game would see the team defense step back on track led by Leo Roze and Juan Tymer. This game would see a considerable faceoff win margin for UCORAL as they won the battle on the dots 37-24. Out of those 37 wins Shevchenko won 18 out of his 24 draw attempts. This is the new faceoff record for UCORAL, and is the reason I checked the team records in the first place. On a funny side note, Shevchenko also lost 14 draws earlier in the round robin which is also a team record. Deep Thought would step up in the teams final round robin game recording a goal and assist. I think I mentioned earlier that I wanted Bellona's scoring to become a trend. Well luckily my wishes came true as he scored again this game. Finally, Stun Gun posted a 96.3 save percentage, which is huge as he’ll be our #1 goalie for the playoffs. I think I will have the setting to change goalies set to fast though as McQuack had the highest save percentage out of any goalie in his 4 games played.

Overall Thoughts- Overall Im super pleased with how this team played today. We won the game we were supposed to and split a two game series with a formidable opponent in Czechia. We secured the two seed in our conference, meaning we will have home ice advantage going into the playoffs. In a winner takes all series, this is a huge advantage. All lines were firing today, and after making absolutely 0 changes between the last two sims, it makes it hard to want to change anything. However, there were still some glaring issues today. One example being Juan Tymer’s 27 minutes of ice time.

Day 6- Break Day- Today I will be taking a break from making this diary and trying not to think about World Jrs as much as possible. I actually picked up an extra shift at work, so that makes that task much easier. On my way in though, I couldn't help but feel a little proud of how far this team has come after a horrific 0-3 start.

Day 7- Playoffs Round 1- Well, this is the biggest day of the tournament so far. Canada Red could easily steal a game from us regardless of how well I optimize the team. We definitely are the favorites going into this game, but you never know how the sim is going to treat you. I made very small changes to the lineup and strategies to try and make sure they couldn't get countered. Other than that, this team has proven to me they have what it takes to win against any opponent on any given night. If it ain’t broke don't fix it they say…

Playoffs Game 1- Well, all good things must come to an end. I am typing this a little over 24 hours after our 3-1 loss to Canada Red. In the game itself, UCORAL got off to a fast start, and got a quick power play goal from the captain, Morrow in the first. Later in the same period, they surrendered 2 quick goals. After the first, which saw UCORAL outshoot Canada 22-11, the game slowed down dramatically. The shots for the rest of the game were 18-9 Canada Red. To me, this just shows how ruthless the sim can be. I also have to give big credit to the opposition for locking it down after gaining the lead. Before the game, I thought of typing out a bunch of “keys to victory” but ultimately decided not to. On the flip side, I was also going to type some ways we could lose ourselves the game. One of those was a poor defensive showing from one of our top players. Squidwardo Tentacles, who had been one of our best defensive forwards, had by far, his worst defensive game of the season. Also, the fourth line, who had defensive forward of the tournament nominee Fedot Fedorov on it struggled as well. We at least dominated in the faceoff dot this game winning the battle 37-21. Unfortunately this did not lead to more than one goal, and as i've mentioned earlier the faceoffs seem to matter much less than I first expected.

My Overall Thoughts- GMing was a blast! Despite the result, managing a bunch of fantasy hockey players is right up my alley, so even with how frustrating the sim can be I ended up having fun. Canada Red was a well managed team and had every right to knock us out of the playoffs early. I'm pretty sure they'll be playing for the bronze tomorrow night, so good luck! If I could go back and resim the game, I don't think I would change a thing. Canada Red had a very solid gameplan, but so did we. I think out of 10 sims we win at least 6 of them.

My advice to future GMs- This tournament isn't the most important thing in the world, and many people don't pay much attention to it. With that said, have fun! There will be some players that will exceed your expectations and others that will play far below them. Don't fall into the trap of trying to follow the meta. I noticed at the start of the tournament, many teams had three centers playing the “Gretzky's office” role. I tried doing this in preseason and it didn't work in the slightest. Don't be afraid to use the preseason to test out different roles and find out what works best for your players running your tactics. One of the most cliche things that helped me was the old saying “if it ain’t broke don't fix it”. There were a couple times in the early stages of the tournament, where I had players playing well, but instead of being content, I tried to optimize their roles. This solemnly worked and I noticed when changing roles or lines DID work, it was because the player was underperforming heavily, not just a little. Speaking of player roles, roles play a big factor in player game rating both offensively and defensively. Murdock and Banes, who I basically mentioned exclusively together in this article, were two extremely solid defensive centers. Their DGR was brought down by the fact I had them playing roles that prioritized defense over offense. Obviously, if their DGR is low game after game, it could indicate a problem, but one or two low games aren't the end of the world, as they are still playing better defense than your third line sniper who has a higher DGR. I have so many more tips to give out, so if anyone reading this wants to ask me any questions feel free!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this! I hope you enjoyed as I did have fun writing this!

TheOPSquid · 03-29-2024, 11:59 PM

o7 it was fun

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