EHM The Blue Line

Hello all,

I'm in my 2nd season in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and I've improved our attack dramatically from the end of last year. Unfortunately, the two goalies I have from Edmonton (Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers) and Pittsburgh (Andy Franck) are simply not getting it done. I tried to sign a goalie from the LNAH and he wasn't the answer either.

We are now losing games 6-4 and 7-4. Does anybody have a set of tactics they revert to when saddled with poor goaltending?

-Bob

I have similar problem with my Espoo Blues game, good thing my offense is efficient enough to keep me from slipping below the playoff line.

Instead of tactics, I just hope I can sign someone good the next year. For you ofcourse, being farm team, the solution is not that easy. Perhaps you should try strenthening your defense or playing more defensively.

You should check and see if any goalies are offered out on loan. If you are an AHL team, you should be able to take players on loan, and this can often be the source of some decent players.

If you're looking for a goalie, try the ECHL, CHL and UHL. There are often some decent goalies here. You could be to scour the AHL for teams that have a goalie signed (signed to an AHL contract, not sent to them from their NHL Affiliate) and try to either trade or buy this player.

The last tip, I've noticed that at about January, some of the NHL teams release decent players (in my game, the Carolina Hurricanes just released Andrew Ference and Chris Mason), and they are open to signing AHL deals.

Sometimes, I've gone and watched the various national tournaments, and tried to sign players from there that performed well.

"A good goalie can make a bad team good; a bad goalie can make a good team bad".

I don't remember who told that, but it's the truth. And i doubt that tactical modifications will have any real impact on your goaltending issue. Option 1 is to hire solid and experienced defensemen. In the AHL, those will end with tons of takeaways and blocked shots. So if your goalies face less shots, maybe they'll allow less goals... Option 2 is to run full-offense. You allow 6-7 goals per game? Well, try to score 8 goals per game and you'll be fine!

But the best bet is to hire a real goalie that will do at least a decent job for your team. ECHL, CHL and UHL are good places to scout, like Iceman90 mentionned. You should also look for some overagers in Canadian major juniors; sometimes there's one or two who are AHL ready. Around January/February, NHL teams release interesting AHL players (also mentionne by Iceman90). At the same period, some long time free agents may accept to sign with an AHL team. You should also try to buy players from Europe, although it may be more difficult... plus, i think you'll have to wait the international transfer window to see them coming, but i'm not sure on this one.

By the way, as an AHL GM, you should ALWAYS have a solid goalie signed with your team. Even if your NHL affiliate teams send you solid goalies. They can deal them at any time during the season, so you'd better have someone on your own who's ready to take the job. As you have 2 NHL affiliations, you should easily have enough players to fill all defensive and forwards spots with some decent quality every year. So if your budget is limited and you can sign just one big guy on your own, always go for a goalie. If you have extra-cash, a top defenseman and a top center are next on your list (at least, top-AHL guys... )

Hope it helps

Thanks guys. Those are good tips.

Since I posted this a couple days ago, I've played 5 games. I know this isn't the sample size necessary to make an assesment, but let me touch on what I've done so far.

I lowered my offensive shot frequency from Barrage to Heavy to try and be just a tad more selective in setting up scoring chances. Yeah we've been outshooting everybody, but many aren't great shots.

I changed my powerplay offensive zone scheme to diamond. What I had been seeing on the powerplay was a lot of bunching in the high and low slots and not allowing point shots to get through all the traffic. We also weren't setting up any side to side passing at the hashes.

Seemingly most importantly, I changed defensive play from zonal to man. It seems to have the effect that getting better defensemen would. I am holding opponents to the same 19-24 shots per game, but there is a lot less criss-cross passing and open scoring chances for the opponent near the net. Drouin-Deslauriers has good looking goaltending attributes, the reason he plays bad is his unexplicable 3 rating in speed. He also has low agility/balance I believe (not on the computer w EHM).

On the first shot of the 3rd of those 5 games, Franck was lost for 8 months with a torn MCL, so it's the J D-D show from here on out. In the 4 games he played, he stopped 83 of 92 shots (90.22%, an improvement) and in the 5 total, we've allowed exactly 10 goals. I suppose it remains to be seen if it was schedule related as I played Binghamton, Hartford, Toronto, Hershey, and Toronto, though Toronto has put 6+ goals on me 2 or 3 times this year I believe. Hershey is 2nd in our division, 1 point ahead of me.

I am just a hair over budget for this season, but its a very interesting point the both of you made about scanning the NHL release pool. What I'd really like to do is sign Jocelyn Thibault who Pittsburgh assigned to me last year. He has been unemployed all year. Until now he has said he has no interest in playing in the AHL. My board will only approve $42K for him at this point anyway, but it bears watching to see who else is out on the open market.

Thanks for the ideas!

-Bob

rjw8625 wrote:I am just a hair over budget for this season, but its a very interesting point the both of you made about scanning the NHL release pool. What I'd really like to do is sign Jocelyn Thibault who Pittsburgh assigned to me last year. He has been unemployed all year. Until now he has said he has no interest in playing in the AHL. My board will only approve $42K for him at this point anyway, but it bears watching to see who else is out on the open market.

You could try to ask your board for more money. If you're doing well, they might be willing to give you some. Also, if you have some players who you've signed, you could release (or sell them to another team) to free up some budget.

Nice that you changed your shooting from barrage to heavy. Sure, you need to take shoots to score, but a nice set-up pass will always give better results than an anonymous shot from someone who doesn't know how to shoot the puck correctly. I usually go for normal shooting though, but i have many guys who are making good passes, so they can wait a bit and try to create a good play before shooting the puck.

About your goalie stuff, if the change from zonal to man coverage results in less dangerous shots on your keeper, it's normal that he is able to do a better job Therefore, maybe that goalies weren't your real issue, but more a defensive issue. If your goalies were facing tons of very dangerous shots, there's nothing wrong that they allow tons of goals. You just can't expect a young and inexperimented goalie to stop breakaways like a Brodeur Young goalies are "allowed" to allow goals on this kind of situations. They are learning. But they have to no longer allow bad goals and softies, or at least not too often, if they want to go to the upper level someday. Never forget that they are only kids. And goalies have the longest way to devellop. Guys like Kiprusoff or Huet became NHL forces in their late 20's, early 30's. So be patient with young goalies, and try to protect them from dangerous shots that they can't handle yet.

You should also consider to have an experimented goalie in your squad, who will teach things to the kids. So when you go to select a goalie on the FA market, try to grab an experimented one with solid mental attributes. A strong influence is of course something good, as he'll have a real (and hopefully posititve) influence on the young keepers.

Tom Askey
Marc Magliardti(sp?)

are two off the top of my head I've used in the A to decent success.