EHM The Blue Line

In team tactics I have forward usage set to normal, but my fourth liners average almost 20 minutes every game; where my much more skilled 3rd line averages only about 10-11 minutes. I'm the flyers in year 3, and my fourth liners are getting more ice time then Jake Voracek. The only forward who constantly gets more time then them is Giroux. Do I have to set forward usage to only 3? My fourth liners are my weakest part of my team, and I assumed "hey, they're my fourth line they can't be out for long, so they can't impact the game much." I looked into it when after about 20 games they were all around -20, and saw they had ridiculous ice time! I'm wondering what settings I have to change to get ice time as such: 1st line has most, then 2nd, then 3rd. My fourth line is set to 20 second shifts as well.

Do you match lines?

Peter_Doherty wrote:Do you match lines?

I have line matching set to none.

Can you break down their Power Play and Penalty kill time? Sometimes that's where the minutes pile up.

My only guess would be that your 4th liners play on the PK and you take alot of penalties.

Peter_Doherty wrote:My only guess would be that your 4th liners play on the PK and you take alot of penalties.

Yeah, I guess, just thought it was weird that being on the second PK unit plus fourth line ice time got Boyd Gordon 18+ minutes a game where Jake Voracek (1st line and 1st line PP) got 13 minutes a game. I'll check how many penalties we took last season.

Peter_Doherty wrote:My only guess would be that your 4th liners play on the PK and you take alot of penalties.

Yeah, you were right, that was the case, I'll turn down the fighting and aggression on my team. Thanks for the help.

Happy to help

Also if it still seems like the 4th line still gets too many minutes you can change the shift lenght in the unit tactics

Or play the 1st liners in the 4th line and viceversa