Wednesday, October 21, 2009

State your case: An Oilers Refinery's Edmonton Oilers

In fake alternate universe hockey, you don't have to deal with messy divorces.

As they trickle in, we'll post "state your case" arguments for the fake GMs in the League Re-Draft. I'll also occasionally make awful pun names for the fake teams. You're welcome.

Previous "State Your Case" Posts



(Make sure to check out An Oilers Refinery, which along with having great Oilers analysis, also has one of the coolest banners of any hockey blog. Ever.)

An Oilers Refinery's Edmonton Phoilers

Parise-Zajac-Ruutu
Bertuzzi-Horcoff-Kotalik
Moreau-Brind'amour-Chipchura
Reddox-Nichol-Lisin
Gillies

Rivet-Souray
Gilbert-Witt
Eminger-McKee
Delmore
Peckham

DiPietro-Emery

It's pretty hard if you're trying to reinvent the wheel and perfecting something that's already an art was quite a task. Trying to build a better NHL team than NHL GMs can is a lot easier in a video game that it is when you're up against other inquiring minds and pseudo-GMs in my follow CLS quasi-bloggers. But, nonetheless, one cannot go into a draft without a strategy of their own.

In my draft strategy, it was simple: I would take the best player available with the first pick.

After that, I picked according to ranking of importance.

I tried to take centers who could win faceoffs and defenseman that had great dollar worth, foot speed, and either great passing or great hitting ability. By loading up on these commodities, it was easy to trade from a position of strength to acquire the other things I needed, such as goaltending and wingers.

Also, it was important (in my opinion) to push hard for the players I thought would define the kind of hockey I wanted to see played. This would ensure that a certain leadership core was represented on this team and that a certain team culture could emanate from the players on the team. Exciting but responsible hockey.

For me, it was important to build a team that was not just about scoring goals, or being tough.

I needed a team that was a hybrid, something that could roll four lines and hound the other team.

Faceoffs, hitting and speed are key to this strategy.

I may not score a lot of goals with a team like the one I built, but I will be annoying to play against.

And that, in itself, is a joy of its own.

1 comment:

raventalon40 said...

Btw, I don't think I'll lose a faceoff ever again.

Unless I play Detroit.