EHM The Blue Line

In my first season with Coyotes I managed to land PJ Axelsson. For the first 15 games I played him on the checking line with Trent Hunter & Mark Smith, where he did dreadfully, getting mainly 5's with a couple of 7's (but only a couple!).

I then moved him up to the 2nd line with Kaigorodov & Vrbata and he's still only getting 5's...........

Any ideas or should I just get rid? lol

Noone but yourself can make a call on a specific player. But if he is not working for you, and you cannot figure out why, my guess is:

1. He sucks
2. You are not using him correctly.


Now...we do not need 1000 threads on individual players, so I am going to make this an all encompassing category entitled

THE OFFICIAL TBL INDIVIDUAL PLAYER ADVICE/Disccussion thread.


So..with Axelsson...defensive forward. Usually needs to play pk #1 and play third line, with occasional 2nd line to succeed. Defense first kind of guy. iF YOU HAVE him set tactically you would want to make sure he was responsible for checking someone, and was matched. This is when he works best IMO.
If you are doing all of that...boot his arse cause he is not getting it done.

That being said, it is all up to you.

(I say all this fully expecting matt44 to respond with:Well, thanks I already dumped him. Or thanks, I already decided to keep him)

lol, thanks.

He was being matched up and on 1st PK but sucked. He did marginally better on the 2nd line and got a couple of 6's!! lol

Just offered him in a trade with Hagman so am awaiting a reply..............

matt44 wrote:Just offered him in a trade with Hagman so am awaiting a reply..............

Good idea! Get rid of the dirty Swedes and get yourself a good Finn instead.

Hey!

Whats wrong with Swedes?

LOL

I was just testing how much you actually read these forums

Swedes are the best!

P.J. is doing great for my Nashville in the third line and PK#1. It maybe varies from game to game.

Matt44, without seeing your whole lineup, it sounds to me like you're mis-using guys. You've got Trent Hunter on your 3rd line? He's easily a 2nd line guy, if not a 1st line player. Others have already mentioned how to use Axelsson properly. I'd take a good long look at what roles you have players in and what their skills are. After that, it sounds like you might need to work on your tactics.

bruins72 wrote:Matt44, without seeing your whole lineup, it sounds to me like you're mis-using guys. You've got Trent Hunter on your 3rd line? He's easily a 2nd line guy, if not a 1st line player. Others have already mentioned how to use Axelsson properly. I'd take a good long look at what roles you have players in and what their skills are. After that, it sounds like you might need to work on your tactics.

It does depend on who he has on his top two lines though, maybe their playing better than Hunter. If so maybe he should be the one traded for a better checking forward.

bruins72 wrote:Matt44, without seeing your whole lineup, it sounds to me like you're mis-using guys. You've got Trent Hunter on your 3rd line? He's easily a 2nd line guy, if not a 1st line player. Others have already mentioned how to use Axelsson properly. I'd take a good long look at what roles you have players in and what their skills are. After that, it sounds like you might need to work on your tactics.

Hi, yeah I know Hunter is undervalued ont he 3rd line but he's the best person for that role at the moment, I am searching for a replacement so dont worry. He will go on the 2nd line asap.

My line up is:

York - Handzus - Doan
Ling - Kaigorodov - Vrbata
Axelsson - Steckel - Hunter
Hanzal - Zigomanis - Parker

Hanzal is only there until I find a decent LW for the 4th line, then he's going back down. He's also on 2nd PP to get him some decent ice time and he's started picking up some points.

Defense:
Jovanovski - Morris
Gauthier - Boynton
Murray - Seidenberg

I will probably replace Axelsson with Hagman and start the search for a 3rd line shutdown RW.

Any other glaring errors you can see please let me know! I am only a rookie so any advice would be great.

Well, I'd mos def slam Ling right off the team. Or move Hunter to 2lw parker to 3rd rw and move ling to 4th rw or as I said. off the team.

But i dont think Parker would be fast enough to be an effective shut down guy - although as a pemporary measure he may be ok.

Ling is a RW/C playing on the left wing but he is putting up decent numbers and has a 7.50(ish) rating. That 2nd line is starting to work well.

Have traded Axelsson for Hagman so he will sit on the 3rd line.

May try Ling on as the 3rd line RW but not sure how it will work.

Thats the thing about this game, what makes it so darn addictive! lol

Why not put Vrbata on the LW for the 2nd line and Hunter on the RW? I don't think replacing Axelsson is as big a priority as replacing a lot of these other guys. The way I look at it, you've got the makings of 2 good lines and 2 really bad ones.

Yeah, putting Vrbata on 2nd LW, Hunter on RW, Ling back to 4th line. Try to acquire good 3rd line RW, and maybe a C (don't know Steckel's play/attributes). Marchant from Ducks, or Halpern from Dallas are guys who went through my mind.

B72 is right! Did I just say that? Although I am not a fan of Trent Hunter in his game on any line. He annoys me. Just never figured out what made him tick.

Ling should go..there are way better players just as cheap out there. Man with that lineup..York should be 2nd line and Vrbata 1st on the left side. And you are in deperate need of a center iceman. Handzus is good, but the rest....no offense...SUCK! Play York as 2nd line center.

Then play with your tactics.

I'm using Trent Hunter in my current Bruins game and he's doing okay. I've got him alternating between 1st and 2nd line RW. He had 46 goals this season. I had about 4 guys in the 40 goal range though.

This has been a good week for me, batdad. First I get you to post something saying you love the Bruins. Now you're posting that I'm right. Are you feeling well?

Don't worry, I do not really like the BRuins, and three is no way you could be right. At least, not unless I am right too.

since this is the player advice thread i got a bit of a dilema

Right now i got a fairly young D and fairly good at Offense on D. The problem is i can't quite decide who should be the PK line guys on D.

i've got: Shaonne Morrisonn, Derek Morris, Alexi Semenov, Marc Methot, Tuomas Eskelinen, and Jyri Marttinen

I'm thinking first line of Morrisonn (str:17, check: 19, hit: 18, poke: 19, pos: 18, Stam: 17) and Morris (17, 18, 17, 18, 15, 17)
and second line of: Semenov (20, 17, 18, 18, 16, 17) and maybe methot? (19, 15, 15, 16, 10, 16)

Jyri is 15, 16, 16, 11, 14, 18
and Tuomas is 17, 16, 20, 15, 12, 17)

Without reading the numbers, positioning is the most important thing on the PK to me...so whoever has the top 4 positioning ratings should be on the PK to me. I use 1-4, 2-3. Unless of course one of those 4 is absolutely horrid in some other important area (skating, anticipation, pokecheck, checking, teamwork)

okay, well my fouth rated in positioning just came over from finland this year, so should i wait a year before putting him on the PK? (since he'll need to adjust this year before playing his best more then likely)

gibson41 wrote:Yeah, putting Vrbata on 2nd LW, Hunter on RW, Ling back to 4th line. Try to acquire good 3rd line RW, and maybe a C (don't know Steckel's play/attributes). Marchant from Ducks, or Halpern from Dallas are guys who went through my mind.

Picked up Marchant for a couple of unsigned prospects who stood no chance so am quite happy. He's slotted in well.

Coyote of the Sea wrote:okay, well my fouth rated in positioning just came over from finland this year, so should i wait a year before putting him on the PK? (since he'll need to adjust this year before playing his best more then likely)

Depends on whether he can handle the ice time. If your numbre 1 guy is Morris...play him with Derek and see how it goes. I think Derek should be able to help him out. I say Morris because he is older and more experience than Morrissonn. So should work well. Good leaders do that. But if he falters, pull him off. Tis that simple.

I have been offered Orpik from Pittsburgh in a trade for Hunter................. should I or shouldnt I?

Hunter is currently 2nd line LW and Orpik would be 2nd RD behind Morris.

I'd want more than just Orpik in return for Hunter. If Pittsburgh won't sweeten the pot, look around for a better deal.