EHM The Blue Line

Hello everyone, i've been reading these forums for a few weeks no but this is my first post and I have a few questions that i'm hoping you can help with!

I'll start by saying that I don't know that much about ice hockey to begin with and I am still playing EHM 2005, I say still I actually bought it years ago and have just decided to pick it up.

I have tried reading the guide but after a couple of games I couldn't make it work so I gave up and let the head coach deal with matchdays and training as I quite like the idea of just hiring and firing. I'm playing as the Coyotes and had a poor team for a few years meaning i've had some big draft picks, i'm now in 2011 and favourites to win the Stanley cup BUT my team isn't playing as well as predicted...

I wanted to ask people their thoughts on my centres I have Parise, Malkin, Tavares, Little, Hamill and Derek Roy and none of them are playing outstanding especially Tavares in the 3rd line and Bryan Little 4th who really seem to be suffering. I am tempted to offload Malkin and possibly even Parise (even though he is awesome) to move all the players up the lines?? What do people think??

Also I wondered if people could also tell me their thoughts on letting the head coach sort out the lines/tatics, my assistant GM says that Frolik is my best RW with Doan next and so on BUT the head coach plays Frolik in the 4th line and he is far from outstanding, I would also assume (maybe naively) that Frolik, Little and Corimer would be a pretty good young 4th line??

Anyway i'll stop now, sorry for the long post everyone!

Welcome to TBL!

It's hard for me to remember things from EHM 2005 because I've been playing 2007 for so long now (there wasn't a 2006). From looking at your players, I'm pretty sure they're not the problem unless you've got a terrible defense and goaltender. Those are all star players. I'd say it's your coach. I don't know what kind of skills your coach has but you'll usually get better results by at least setting up your own lines and tactics.

I would suggest you check out this guide. It was written by some folks here at TBL for either EHM 2004 or EHM 2005. It's relevant in all versions though, even 2007. That's really the best advice I could give you.

Thanks for the quick reply, I might give that guide a read at work tomorrow....!

My defence and keeper should be good I've got Luongo in goal who is obviously awesome but he has been slated by the press this year so maybe he is part of the problem and I've also got Pronger, but in fairness the rest of my defence are rookies but I think they should be future stars.

I'll stick with my coach until the end of this year because i've just sacked Gretzkey and hired Shayne Corson who on paper looks like a brilliant coach lowest mark is 12 for adaptability then 15 for determination everything else is 17 - 20, so i'll give the lad a chance.

Defence+Goaltending are key. You can always pair a mediocre winger with a good playmaker and get 30 goals out of him. You won't win much with Pronger and a bunch of kids on defence who might be great one day, but are not now. Well, you might get lucky in the playoffs like I did in our challenge , but I wouldn't rely on it.

Well Danny, you were right, I made the playoffs then got white washed by the Flames in the first round, but they did go on to win it.

I knew that I wasn't going to win anything, the team was too inconsistant, thing with my defence is I'm trying to play the youngsters now so in 2 years time I should hopefully have one of the best around and fairly cheap??

Does anyone know why I only ever get invited to vote in the Venizea (spelling!) trophy every year and no other awards?

Well, I would think if you're still in re-building mode and managed to at least make the playoffs that's something.
If you don't want to lose any of those youngsters but still have a shot at winning the Cup, you could send 2 of them down to your farm team and sign 2 veterans on D, short term deals, 1-2 years. Then pair each of the young guys with a veteran and go from there. You should also probably avoid pairing 2 offensive or 2 stay at home Dmen together if possible.

lufc wrote:Does anyone know why I only ever get invited to vote in the Venizea (spelling!) trophy every year and no other awards?

The only reason you get to vote for the "Vezina" trophy and nothing else is because that is the only award selected by general managers

I feel like having a team full of young superstar players isn't that bad of a thing to have right now. I started out with the Canadiens in my EHM 2007 game and I have won the Stanley Cup 3 years in a row now.

Not too bad if I say so myself and some of the players on my team are young, but I have hired great coaching to help them out and the team as well.

All in all, if you are going to have a team full of young players. Then find great coaches that will obviously coach that position well, but will work well with the youngsters as well.

You know what I mean?

You are playing EHM 2005, but I am sure that there isn't much difference from 2005 and 2007.

Now, I also find that having a certain kind of practice and tactics setup is going to do your team well. Having certain players in a role that they ask for will bring their potential to 100%, but if you don't do that... then they don't produce.

I'm in 2012, and i have just won the cup with a team with an average age of 24, i had giguere and bouwmeester over this, Getzlaf and Perry were too, but other than that, my team was filled with people from the 2007 Entry Draft, like Gagner, Alzner, Cherepanov, van Riemsdyk and Backlund. So i'm pretty set for the future too