EHM The Blue Line

Agree with selne on the wide box. You are better off playing tight and forcing outside shots than spreading your team out and allowing people to get in close. Think of it like a zone in basketball. By filling the area near the goal with your defenders, you'll minimize the number of close shots the other team gets. If you've got shotblockers, then fewer shots will actually make it through to the goalie. You might give up a good number of shots, but they won't be nearly as effective as if the other team was getting in close.

Thanks for the input, but could you be a little more specific?

In my 2nd season with Columbus. PP is currently 11.2% and PK is 78.9%. Ouch! My Practice percentages are 55%,25%,and 20% respectively for General,PP,PK.

Here are my PP and PK Lines and Strategies.




I've tried the diamond with Nash and Tyutin on the LW and Right Point. Nothing. My main assets are the speed of Vermette, Huselius is pretty shifty, Nash has his shot and his physicality. Tyutin,Leopold,and Sopel can shoot decently well.

Any tips you guys can come up with for either would be appreciated. My team plays well even strengh, but some special teams that weren't completely dull would help.

You need to tick the "use unit tactics" box (in the advanced options). Then you can set up different tactical settings for every line. Because currently you order to play offensive and to pass creative on the PK. This has to be changed urgently.

selne wrote:You need to tick the "use unit tactics" box (in the advanced options). Then you can set up different tactical settings for every line. Because currently you order to play offensive and to pass creative on the PK. This has to be changed urgently.

Nah, I've been using my personal tactics and I have the guys on the PK and bottom lines changed to a defensive style of play with lots of dumping and normal passing.

But if I do check the use unit tactics, do I have to set tactics for every single line? or could I use it for my PP and PK only?

If you check "use unit tactics" you have to set your tactics for every single line... but that's a good thing. You shouldn't have your 4th line playing the same tactics as your 1st line. That's not playing to their strengths. Keep in mind, this does NOT affect your personal tactics.

bruins72 wrote:If you check "use unit tactics" you have to set your tactics for every single line... but that's a good thing. You shouldn't have your 4th line playing the same tactics as your 1st line. That's not playing to their strengths. Keep in mind, this does NOT affect your personal tactics.

Ok perhaps I've been taking the lazy way out. I'll go do this. But my PP and PK are still anemic, any suggestions?

I shouldn't be the one giving advice for PK because mine is usually bad. For the PP, I usually go with Free Flowing for Breakouts. And then I'll either go with Grouped for Neutral Zone Offensive and Funnel for Offensive Zone or I'll go with Crisscross for Neutral Zone Offensive and Umbrella for Offensive Zone. I also make sure to set my Offensive Faceoffs to Point Shot. When you do the Point Shot, be sure to set one defenseman to pass and the other to shoot. The one set to shoot should have a really good Slapshot attribute and his personal tactics should be set to Barrage for Shooting.

Alright, I have my unit tactics in effect and I'm trying your suggestions. Hopefully I'll see some improvement.

Make sure you give it at least 10 games to get a good feel for it. Also adjust your training so that you've got a high percentage set for PP and PK instead of General.

After adjusting my training, using your Umbrella-Free Flowing-Grouped/Crisscross technique with Tyutin (89SL), Nash (99,94 WS,SL), Leopold (86SL) as well as forwards like Filatov and Voracek set to shoot on the 2nd unit, I've got nothing. My training is now 30,35,35 respectively with General,PP,PK. My PK has also not improved. I've decided to move Filatov off the top unit and put Huselius up there to be the new playmaker.

I may switch to the funnel, see if that works. But I'm not sure how to fix this. Some games my PP will go 1/10 or 1/13. I should be winning those games. My team is barely in a playoff spot also.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Honestly, with those guys you should be able to get results using those tactics. I'm guessing it's the rest of your tactics that might be an issue. One thing I see as a problem right away. Why would you have your PP set to Dump Often? If you're dumping the puck so often it's hard to get your PP set up and cycling.

If you're interested in it, I did some explaining of my tactics in my Jets Challenge blog. Here is a link to the entry with the tactical info. It might help...

http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/we ... php?e=1073

I had dumping at normal in the unit tactics, but now have it down to rarely. I'll see if putting guys on certain wings due to their handedness adds anything at all.

Try using 3rd and 4th line players on the PK. Players who are more defensively responsible. Tone down your checking, gap control etc cause you are already down a man and someone getting out of position can cause problems. Try to find players with good leadership/bravery skills. Combine bravery with shot blocking and a tight box and let the other team fire away from the outside. Make sure you aren't being over aggressive on the fore check or neutral zone as if they slip through it could cause problems.

Also, a big help would be to watch your team on the PK and see where the other team is scoring from. Are they getting goals off of rushes or setting up shop in the slot and pounding away? If you can figure out where your team is getting hurt, then you can figure out how to cover for it.

On the PP, same sort of thing. Watch where your guys are shooting from. Are they heaving pucks at the net willy nilly or passing forever before getting off one shot? They might be too disciplined or not disciplined enough with their shooting. Also crank up your forecheck and neutral zone pressure. I LOVE the 3-2 and have had some great success with it, but you'll need some guys willing to play D and that can also score.

Watch your games and see where the breakdowns are happening. Plenty of people here willing to help you get on track with your game.

I made a few changes with the team and finally got some results. I traded Huselius and one of my overage Russian prospects who didn't want to come over to Tampa for Tanguay(Great past success with him, expecially on the PP). Joe Thornton came available so I offered Derick Brassard,Maksim Mayorov, and a 2nd for him. Somehow it worked.

Blake Wheeler then came back from his 7 month stint on the IR. I'm now having no issues at all on the PP or PK. Team is player very solid now that the full lineup is playing with those tactics. I also have a dominant playmaker in Thornton on the PP.

I'm having an issue with my penalty kill units. Whenever one of my usual penalty killers takes a penalty (and thus is not available to play his usual PK shift), the game always chooses Andy MacDonald to fill in for him on the PK. As you can imagine, AMac is a horrible choice for the PK. He is not selected as one of my teams 'extra attackers' so that is not the problem.

Is there any way to make my coach choose a decent defensive player as my PK fill-in?
I'm afraid that the only way is to micro-manage and change my PK lines anytime a regular PK'er goes to the box, but I reaaally don't want to do that.

Short of coaching yourself, I'm not sure there's a solution. I don't coach my team either but I've not really paid much attention to who is doing what or when.. Thats what the coach gets paid the big bucks for

I do coach the games myself, but zip through them fairly quickly with 'key only' highlights, this allows me to make a few simple adjustments based on game conditions. I feel like I do manage a better than typical percentage of comebacks this way, though I've about given up on switching to a defensive stance to protect a lead as it seems to backfire as often as not.
Anyways I wonder if there is a single attribute that determines what player will fill-in on a line. I noticed that MacDonald is my best (or tied for best) non-PK forward in Bravery and Pokecheck, and also has top-notch speed/acceleration, so perhaps he's not so bad for the job after all. I still don't think its wise to have a player with such low Strength, Balance and Checking on the PK but . I just really hate seeing that my 1st line Center is tired after one period due to killing penalties in addition to his usual duties.

Byrath wrote:I do coach the games myself, but zip through them fairly quickly with 'key only' highlights, this allows me to make a few simple adjustments based on game conditions. I feel like I do manage a better than typical percentage of comebacks this way, though I've about given up on switching to a defensive stance to protect a lead as it seems to backfire as often as not.
Anyways I wonder if there is a single attribute that determines what player will fill-in on a line. I noticed that MacDonald is my best (or tied for best) non-PK forward in Bravery and Pokecheck, and also has top-notch speed/acceleration, so perhaps he's not so bad for the job after all. I still don't think its wise to have a player with such low Strength, Balance and Checking on the PK but . I just really hate seeing that my 1st line Center is tired after one period due to killing penalties in addition to his usual duties.

It's just a waste of energy to use 1st and 2rd line players on the PK. Use 3rd and 4th lines for PK.

Wroom wrote:It's just a waste of energy to use 1st and 2rd line players on the PK. Use 3rd and 4th lines for PK.

What? That's absolutely false. You can't apply this rule in general. Always take into account players you have on roster.

Agreed. My second line has two pk'ers and one pp player and my third liner has a pk guy and two pp guys.

I agree. I often use a defensive forward on my second line who plays on the PK. I rarely match my top two lines with my top two PP lines.

I realize that this question is in the wrong tactics thread, but I asked this question without much response in the other thread. Thanks for your continued insight.

Anyone use a defense first tactic? Looks like many other people use a very offensive tactic (I use to as well) which is very effective and won me a lot of cups, but I'm looking for a more realistic tactic. Not something like the default trap tactic, a tactic that someone created.

Thanks a ton.

I tried to use the defensive mentality and work out an effective tactic with it especially in the beginning of my "ehm career". There are two main problems though.. one is to make your team skate into the offensive zone because you need to score some goals not only defend. The other problem is that playoffs seem to prefer normal and offensive over the defensive tactics.

If you want to use the defensive mentality you can make your team score goals by two ways, either using high puck pressure and/or playing a dump and chase game. In both cases you need many powerforwards (at least one on every line, better two of them on every line). I don't really remember all the settings and i stopped to use a defensive mentality because of the disadvantage in the playoffs.

There is another downside.. many powerforwards -> many hits -> high ratings -> huge salaries.

Toddpaul...

Please keep things in the proper threads. If you've got a question about even strength tactics, keep it there. Maybe after a couple days with no response you can "bump" the thread. Don't ask the question in the special teams tactics thread. All that does is confuse the issue. Do it again and I'll delete you post.