The issue with the shot chart, from my experience, is that it does not show where the puck went past the goalie. But rather one of the following:lemming3k wrote:I don't think the targeting works properly - If you check the shot chart in a game, virtually every goal is in the middle of the net anyway. It's like all goalies have a bigger 5-hole than Courtney Love. But they cover the corners exceptionally well.saberhagen83 wrote:I have started to wonder. Do you guys feel like shot targeting is actually functional? I tell my guys to shoot low, all shots seem to go high or high-ish.My players can't shoot low/follow instructions...or is it broken? I don't know...at the same time I feel it has worked when I have targeted certain side (glove/blocker), but low/high feels odd to me.
If a goalie has low rebound control, am I right in thinking about shooting low? I feel like that would be harder to control or am I wrong and should target one of his weak sides?
- Where the puck passes into the net.
- Where the puck hits the back of the net.
Since like 60% of all goals in EHM (in my limited experience) is from the cross-crease one-timer onto a randomly unmarked player, cause all defenders have the "play like you're in peewee" option ticked. And this means the shot will come in at an angle, so when it passes the goalie it might very well be low/5hole/something else. But due to the angle of the shot, by the time it actually "registers" on the shot chart the puck will be in the middle of the goal.
The second most common canned goal that makes absolutely no sense is what I like to call the "hax goal", which is when there is an offensive zone face off that goes to the board side defenseman who (completely regardless of if he has 3 slapshot) will one-time it at the spead of light along the ice and score. Again, due to the angle the shot comes in at it will always (almost) register as being dead center in the goal, even though it probably wasn't when it actually passed the goalie.
Since these two goals are (at least in Swedish HockeyAllsvenskan, and lower english leagues) about 80-90% of all goals you will get a very misleading result from the shot chart.
P.S. In response to the guy asking how to make your players not suck the last 2 minutes of a game. The answer is: You probably can't.
Let me explain; when there are 2 minutes left, due to incompetence in either programming, or planning of the match engine. Both teams will go into "kill the clock"-mode. It will not check who is leading/tied/anything. It just automatically does, causing all players to just waste as much time as humanly possible. Your only real hope to catch up if you're behind is to wait for your team to hopefully dump the puck onto their goalie and force an offensive face off, then you pull your goalie. The extra attacker won't actually do anything most of the time. But it seems like you get some kind of hidden boost to your players' offensive performance when you do. Cause the amount of previously mentioned "hax goals" gets just stupid. I've gotten back from 2 goals behind in 30 seconds from nothing but those dumbass face off goals that no goalie with a working set of eyes, under the age of about 85, would actually concede.
P.S2 On another note, has anyone found a way to stop your defensemen from being your opponents best playmakers? I swear to god the only way the "85% pass completion" my team has could be true is if you count the amount of flawless, on the tape, passes my defensemen give the opposition in the middle of the slot. Putting them on "very safe passing" obviously does absolutely nothing. Much like how changing the "dump the puck" setting has inverse scaling. As in they will actually dump the puck MORE in the situations where they shouldn't on "very rarely" than on "very often", they will however dump the puck less when they should dump it (boxplay). Actually apart from tempo/puck pressure/gap/shooting the settings don't seem to work, or at least not work as advertised.
P.S3 Has anyone else noticed how sometimes there will be an icing call even when your player dumps the puck AFTER going over the red line? Since dumping the puck is something your players will do completely regardless of your settings, and the leagues I play have automatic Icing (meaning you never ever want to dump the puck at ES) the fact that they keep getting automatic icings when they have crossed the red line with some margin, about half the time, makes it so you will concede so many of the aformentioned "hax goals" due to the game engine ignoring rulesets and tactical settings like it's going out of style. I've actually put the game on only showing key highlights because between the incorrect icing calls, my defenders passing the opponent and all the other nonsense in the 2D engine I was getting dangerously close to a rage induced stroke. And when you see all your players playing like they are completely incompetent it becomes so hard to judge their performance in the terms that the game recognizes. Cause when all defenders play horrendously on D in the 2D engine, how can you tell which one is actually doing poorly?
I have, what I feel, a decent mix of offense and defense on that line currently. 1 strong 2 way guy, 1 very good playmaker and 1 insane finisher. They are horrible and the cause of like 90% of goals against. I've tried everything, playing a offensive minded game for that line, going all defense and like now with a good balance of everything really. How do you guys go about setting up that line? Are you setting instructions based on players strenghts, offensive, defensive...? Or is it just a cursed line in this game? 
so i think tactics made a big difference!