Offical Tactics Thread: Powerplay & Penalty Kill

daft · Post by **daft** » Thu Apr 02, 2015 5:39 pm

batdad wrote:I have never trusted the in game graphics to the point that each individual play that it shows is correct. So it may look on screen that dman made a horrid pass, but it was because the sim engine decided that your opponent would score from the slot, while that dman had the puck....so the visual is dman turning it over with a Luca Sbisa style pass...but in reality the dman may have shot it up the wall, and the winger could not control it...and boom ended up in slot.

This is what I'm thinking too. I see it way too often. Also it seems a bit suspect that my guys sometimes just hold on to the puck in a corner when I'm on a PP. Just standing there for way too long. Probably a match engine thing, but hopefully one that can be made a bit more realistic.

SimplyMonkey · Post by **SimplyMonkey** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 5:51 pm

Can anyone give me some tips on the powerplay? I'm currently playing as Tampa Bay and have an awful powerplay conversion rate. One game we had 8 chances and managed to convert a grand total of 0.

On my two man advantage pp lines I've got the tactics set up as:

Code: Select all

Breakout: Positional
Neutral Zone Off: Positional
Offensive zone: Umbrella
Forecheck: Positional High
Neutral Zone Def: 1-2-2
Defensive Zone: Positional
Offensive Faceoffs: Point Shot
Defensive Faceoffs: Basic

Mentality: Very Off.
Agg: Berserk
Backcheck: Very Hard
Gap Control: V. Tight
Puck Pressure: V. Heavy
Hitting: V. Hard
Tempo: V. High
Passsing: Creative
Shooting: Barrage
Dump: Normal

Any help would be really appreciated!

lemming3k · Post by **lemming3k** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:06 am

I'm finding the same, penalty kill and powerplay are terrible for my team. We're not too bad elsewhere considering but any tips on how to set up the special teams?

Post by **batdad** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:29 am

You guys just have work to do. Patience.

1. Read tactics thread.
2. Poke through the challenge discussion thread.
3. PATIENCE

It will come. I have a PP that always is not so great, but I have had runs of 25% over 10 game periods, and my PK has always been over 90%. So it can be done.

Francois Tremblay · Post by **Francois Tremblay** » Sun May 10, 2015 9:16 am

Why did you set your double PP lines to go berserk aggro, dump the puck and otherwise try to get rid of it? That doesn't make much sense. On double PP you should try to stay in control of the puck until you've got a good opportunity. At least that's what makes sense to me...

Lawrence97 · Post by **Lawrence97** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 8:19 pm

I've always struggled with my pp, and no matter what combination i tried i could never go past 20%, even with a lineup of nash, crosby, fowler etc etc.However i then turned the wick down, and put the team on normal for mentality and since then i've been going at a rate of almost 30%! the rest of the tactics are easy for everything except tempo high and passing creative. I'm going to try on some older saved games to see if it has the same effect

Post by **visualdarkness** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 3:17 am

Yes, I have read every guide out there and the whole thread but my PP% is abysmal at best. I did okay at 2007 but with the new game it is so frustrating as nothing works.

Just look at my challenge season history.

Now:

2007:

Post by **visualdarkness** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 3:41 am

Last season in the Rangers challenge at 12.3%. I cant be this bad?

batdad wrote:You guys just have work to do. Patience.

1. Read tactics thread.
2. Poke through the challenge discussion thread.
3. PATIENCE

It will come. I have a PP that always is not so great, but I have had runs of 25% over 10 game periods, and my PK has always been over 90%. So it can be done.

I call bull on that one since I´ve read and used everything ever posted here about PP and nothing has ever worked. 1500h later in EHM:EA It is just as bad.

Post by **Tasku** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:26 am

Isn't the Challenge restricting the talent you can use? You can't expect to work wonders if you're restricted to only US born players. My PP is usually around 15-20% (at 18% in my current game). Not awesome, but not "abysmal" either.

Post by **jesterx7769** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:15 am

Its about talent. If you have a rubbish team you will rubbish PP/PK. No matter how good your tactics are.

PP/PK are also tied to how many opportunities you get. If you get PP's a game, you aren't going to convert on 3 each game, its just a fact in coding. The game balances itself out.

WIth that being said proper tactics are still super important. In the challenge I did 17% PP Season 1 and 17% Season 2. Not amazing but consistent at least.

I suggest trying different tactics for a solid 20 games at a time at least.

Post by **visualdarkness** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:27 am

Tasku wrote:Isn't the Challenge restricting the talent you can use? You can't expect to work wonders if you're restricted to only US born players. My PP is usually around 15-20% (at 18% in my current game). Not awesome, but not "abysmal" either.

Of course I can, as I comparing my results with people using exactly the same team.
http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/ch ... =1&sort=pp

Post by **Tasku** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:30 am

Maybe you're trying too hard, making too many changes, not letting the players play - so to say.

tjackie · Post by **tjackie** » Wed Feb 17, 2016 5:27 am

I have 21.2% highest for me like ever anyway. I've tried this one out with arizona and a really pants team or well atleast it's not one of the better in the league I use Diamond on PP first 2 lines 5v1 and 5v3 and then Overload on the second PP and I have them play equally much. NHL -> http://imgur.com/a/Fdx3m
AHL http://imgur.com/fsoqQKM

"The key is to have only one or two shooters and the should be placed on each side of the point man and those are the LW and the RD. If you have a good right handed shooter you should place him as a LW and his shooting on barrage. The RD should be a left shooter and also on barrage. Notice that you don´t have to place a D-man as a RD in this system. Anyone with a good shot and the right handeness is the proper man for the job. The point man should be a good passer and also a strong defensive D-man and his settings should be more defensive. As I said earlier, set your LW and RD on shooting and barrage and the rest of the guys on passing."

Good luck trying it out if u wanna see how it works for you. But yeah, my PK.

Shindigs · Post by **Shindigs** » Thu Feb 16, 2017 1:18 pm

If you have all the right settings that your PP should perform and it doesn't. This is pretty much the check-list:
1. Your coach may have a poor powerplay rating in the db (if you don't think checking up players/coaches in a current save is cheating, check that)
2. Your training % set to powerplay is too low (for your coach' power play rating...or something). This was what did my powerplay in. I normally run 50/30/20 ES/PP/BP, I changed it to 40/40/20 and we salvaged 14% in November to 22% by the all-star break, after that everyone's special teams start tailing off.
3. It's a "poor special teams"-season. There seems to be a table of flavors rolled every season. (good goalies, bad goalies, high injury, low injury, upset, runaway, etc.) and a few seasons ago both my PP and BP mysteriously tanked for 1 season. I figured it was just a season event and left it alone. Next season it was back to normal, with no manpower change or tactics change.

Also long-shots are really, really weak in EHM since the game is allergic to goalie screening. I find focusing on your netfront players in a diamond as scorers has a lot more consistency than trying to score from point/winger one-timers. Goalie lateral movement in EHM is all but instant, so one-timers from "the Ovi spot" are comparably weak to real life hockey in my experience. So rather than trying to make my wings score I just play big, tough, scoring/power forward types that can cut in on their forehand/cross-crease one-time from point blank and have them be the more consistent and imposing scoring threats from the netfront positions.

I favor having my playmaking wings with off-flank handedness set to calm, low tempo, creative passing, selective shooting, favoring passing. That way they try and play smart, slow and methodical to find the right passes and not freak out. These players will generally have the relaxed trait on my team, so they are playing to their strengths.

My point guy is normally the only dman on the PP. He's on Calm, Backcheck Hard, low tempo, creative passing, barrage shooting, favor shooting. Pointshots do not score in EHM. You'll be happy to have your point guy over 7% shooting, whereas an equally impressive performance from your netfront guys will be around 20% shooting. The reason our pointman shoots a lot is to force rebounds or faceoffs. Since rebounds into the corner don't exist in EHM, a point shot is either a)scoring b)a rebound in the slot or c)a faceoff. And since faceoffs are about the only way the game can get a good offensive shape going. That's a good thing.

Our netfront guys are obviously the superstars of this PP tactic. You want someone like Blake Wheeler, he's pretty much the prototypical guy I look for in that position. You obviously need 2 righties and 2 lefties for both PP lines to be complete though. These guys will be set to aggressive, high tempo, safe/normal passing, Heavy shooting, favor passing. Why favor passing? I've yet to ever have a player score more goals with favor shooting than favor passing. I probably shouldn't even have it on my pointman. But on the off-chance that it actually does something I do keep it on for him.

The way you expect your point spread to work out here is something like this:
Pointman G:2-3, A:15-20, P:17-23
Wingers G:1-2, A:15-20, P:16-22
Netfront G:10-20, A:5-15, P:20*-35

*the only ones with the ~5 assists are essentially quaranteed high end goals

So you essentially play 3½ playmakers and 1½ scorer, because one netfront guy will sometimes favor the cross-crease over the short side snapshot giving him somewhat of a hybrid role, and because longshots are poor, my wingers will only take them when they have a really good shot, since normally it's more beneficial for them to cycle to the point or the netfront guy looking to cut in. (the pointman can't really find the netfront guys with a pass, that's why he shoots to get it to them)

To give an idea of who fits where, here are some good players for each position using the 15-16 Jets as an example.
Wings: Scheifele, Ehlers, Myers
Point: Byfuglien, Trouba
Netfront: Wheeler, Little

The one real downside to this is that it's a bit prone to Shorties, but you're scoring enough that it really shouldn't matter. It also has quite strict manpower requirements, so you do need to plan ahead with your drafting/trading to make sure you actually have 2 lefty playmakers, 2 righty playmakers, 2 lefty scoring/power forward, 2 righty scoring/power forwards, and a good 2-way pointman with solid mentals. I have whichever center is on the line set to take the faceoffs, and the pointman set as the playmaker. If you set either winger as the playmaker, despite them being the 2 biggest playmakers, it leaves the other winger very stranded. If you miss the manpower to run the right guy on one wing, you can purposefully use the other winger as playmaker to minimize the impact of the hole in your manpower on the efficiency of your power play. Keep in mind that the 3(6) playmakers don't have to be forwards. Good Off/2way dmen work just as well. I had Tyler Myers pick up 2 Norris' scoring over 60 points a season playing the winger role on PP, and that was before I refined the PP tactic to this current state.

watts555 · Post by **watts555** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 4:40 am

@Shindigs , I am using your tactics from the other thread for even strength play, do you have pictures and visuals for Power Play and PK unit tactics?

Shindigs · Post by **Shindigs** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 2:18 pm

watts555 wrote:@Shindigs , I am using your tactics from the other thread for even strength play, do you have pictures and visuals for Power Play and PK unit tactics?

Not yet, but I can make them. Just a moment. It has to be said that our PP has been less than stellar as of late though, but when you have over 90% Pct it doesn't bother me too much. It seems like the opponents goalie becomes a tiny bit superhuman at killing off PPs when your win rate is "too high".

Here's the PP:

My BP is really, really basic. I just turn off all personal tactics for everyone on it except the Aggression, and I set their BP aggression to "easy".

And I use these line setups:

You won't have the best BP% in the league, nor will you have the best PP% in the league. But you will have the least conceded PP goals and the most scored PP goals (almost every season). Because on average I'm awarded about 80-100 more PP opportunities than the 2nd highest opponent per season, as well as being short-handed about 100 times less than the 2nd lowest opposition. Because the ES tactics in tandem with how I draft means that we just won't take any penalties, and our offensive chokehold will force penalties from the opposition at a fairly rapid rate. My total PP goals conceded over the last 2 seasons combined is 32 (14, 18). And we tend to have a fair few players in the running for most PP points each season. Everyone on our PP1 line has had a PPATOI of over 5 minutes for the last few seasons, on PP2 that's closer to ~2-3 minutes. This year only a single player had a BPATOI over 1 minute (1.02 to be precise) so we don't really ever play box play.

If you want player suggestions like the ones in the ES thread I could toss those together, but most roles are pretty self-explanatory. It should be noted that quick finesse players are way better at PK than you'd think. They just go all Denis Savard and skate around in circles until the PP is over, more or less. Since I use Overload about 90% of the time for my forwards these days I've opted to use more defensive depth players together with my top 2 C on the BP to try and avoid fatigue on the likes of Ehlers, who already play close to 20 minutes a game due to having 5 minutes worth of PP per game. On the other end of the spectrum my 4th line BP specialist plays about an average of 4 minutes per game, and 1 of those minutes is BP. If we have more PP than usual it's a somewhat common to have our 4th liners not play a single shift. We just go PP1->PP2->ES1->ES2->ES3->PP1 all game long, due to drawing so many penalties. It's a bit weird when that happens.

Oh btw, almost forgot. Let me know how it goes using the tactics Watts, would be great to get some feedback on how it works when used by someone other than myself.

Gab_3232 · Post by **Gab_3232** » Sat Apr 08, 2017 8:15 pm

Hey guys I'v been playing this game for a couple of months now but I can't find a tactics or whatever that give my PP a chance to score. I'm writing this topic because I just blow 8 chances (one of 5 minutes) and lost the game by one so I really want to know if you guys know more about that aspect of the game. Thanks

Shindigs · Post by **Shindigs** » Tue Apr 25, 2017 12:41 pm

Gab_3232 wrote:Hey guys I'v been playing this game for a couple of months now but I can't find a tactics or whatever that give my PP a chance to score. I'm writing this topic because I just blow 8 chances (one of 5 minutes) and lost the game by one so I really want to know if you guys know more about that aspect of the game. Thanks

Generally speaking your PP will be very unrealiable, some games they just refuse to score. I've had over 10 PPs in the same game with no goals with a 20+% on the season, so don't expect it to be too reliable. I recently compiled my PP% over the course of my last save using the tactics I posted above and the PP% just pingpongs like mad even when I have the exact same people on it from year to year with the same tactics.

As you can see there is a lot of variance, especially on the BP. This is with a very consistent team too.

A lot of it stems from the fact that you are very reliant on the opposing goalie's SV% as well as your defencemen's shot% to get really good powerplay numbers, and those are two of the highest variance factors in EHM. Defencemant shot conversion and Goalie save% both have a standard deviation of 10% which is pretty massive compared to the 4% for Forwards (hence why I rely so heavily on my netfront guys to score).

mush · Post by **mush** » Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:37 pm

how come in the user manual it doesnt say what the powerplay offensive zone tactics mean or the penalty kill defensive zone tactics ? the manual does explain even strength tactics but not specail teams . does anyone have the explainations for pp offensive zone and pk defensive zone ? for example funnel , diamond ect.

Shindigs · Post by **Shindigs** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:21 am

mush wrote:how come in the user manual it doesnt say what the powerplay offensive zone tactics mean or the penalty kill defensive zone tactics ? the manual does explain even strength tactics but not specail teams . does anyone have the explainations for pp offensive zone and pk defensive zone ? for example funnel , diamond ect.

If you click the "show positions" tickbox and right-click inside the offensive zone on the miniature rink that shows in the "unit tactics" tab you can see exactly how each tactic sets up in the offensive zone. That should give you a decent idea of how they all work.

Word · Post by **Word** » Fri Nov 16, 2018 7:44 pm

One thing I've found that carries over from EHM07 to EHM1 is the tactics ES/PP/PK of 40-10-50 always results in me having an amazing PP, so long as I have "decent" guys for the jobs. I don't mess too much with the actual PP tactics but I find this seems to be like a cheat code for it.

With EHM1 I'm having a brutal time getting my PK above 80% though. Going to be doing some reading through this thread.

Carnicero · Post by **Carnicero** » Tue May 21, 2019 10:33 am

I'm on my 14th season on my first save with the Preds. I've always struggled with PP. After reading this forum I made some much needed changes to my PP (diamond formation, more focus on PP training). That took my team from 18% to roughly 23% pp goal scoring rate.

In my save, great right hand shooters are few and hard to come by. I have always had two with around 15 in wristshot and slapshot. But my great goalscorers have always been left hand shooters.

In 2032, after a rebuild and some injuries, I found myself with a team with no decent right shooters. I have 6 players with +18 in both slapshot and wristshot. But they're all lefties. So I decided to simply use the lefties where there should be right hand shooters. The result is amazing!

I am now up to 34,8% in pp after half the season. Needless to say, no other team compares to that in the NHL. Plus, it is my shooters (RD & LW positions) that are scoring the majority of my pp goals (65% of all pp goals come from the LW and RD positions)

So the moral of the story seems to be - always use your best shooters in the RD and LW positions when playing the diamond formation during power play. Never mind if the shoot left of right.

TurboJ · Post by **TurboJ** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 1:52 pm

I'm not sure if this has been covered before. Perhaps it has, just can't find it right now.

Do the player positions behave differently when on powerplay and/or penalty killing. When playing even strength players always get a skill penalty when you play them on the 'wrong' position, i.e. one that they aren't trained for.
But if you put players on different spots on PP/PK, does the same still apply, or does the game handle special teams differently. For instance, playing forwards as D on PP. Or even having a D as a forward on PK. etc.

What about the stamina effect - as we know, defensemen can play a lot more minutes without getting tired than forwards can. But is this phenomenon connected to the player being classified as a D, or is it simply connected to which position you play him on?

....furthermore (sorry for borderline OT), is it actually possible to retrain forwards to defensemen and vice versa? I mean when they don't have 'any' skill playing that position when you start to retrain them. Is it even possible to get a 'competent' out of someone who's not even listed as 'awkward' ?

Word · Post by **Word** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 4:13 pm

visualdarkness wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2016 3:41 am Last season in the Rangers challenge at 12.3%. I cant be this bad?
batdad wrote:
You guys just have work to do. Patience.

1. Read tactics thread.
2. Poke through the challenge discussion thread.
3. PATIENCE

It will come. I have a PP that always is not so great, but I have had runs of 25% over 10 game periods, and my PK has always been over 90%. So it can be done.
I call bull on that one since I´ve read and used everything ever posted here about PP and nothing has ever worked. 1500h later in EHM:EA

One secret I read somewhere in here years ago is setting your practice to be something like 40-10-50 for ES-PP-PK and if you have the talent, your PP will do well. Never fails me. Plus it helps the PK do better.

lukkhe · Post by **lukkhe** » Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:41 pm

Is there a benefit from playing guys on their off wing on the PP to open them up for one timers?
Wondering if this would have an affect or if they would be 'out of position'