EHM The Blue Line

I dunno about everyone else, but I seem to have a LOT of trouble with players I put on the 3rd and 4th line. I put the likely people, like Mike Sillinger, Dallas Drake, Jed Ortmeyer, Tyson Nash, etc etc etc...I even try scorers down there, like Alexander Perezhogin (well, he's more offensive minded, at least), and nothin doin. Now the majority of my seasons, I end up out of the playoffs (except this past one), and it's usually my first two lines performing awesome, with the 3rd and 4th liners finished the season with -20 or -30 +/- and not even a total of 20 points, which is pretty sorry if you ask me.

More often than not, they have low moral b/c they are not playing well, and end up being a detriment to my team. Actually, it seems like I end up trying to trade for an all new bottom two lines every season I play, because the same things happen...and it's like I trade just to get someone who has a higher morale...

Anyway...have you guys run into this? How do I get my bottom 2 lines to play good defense and a little bit of offense so they're not -20 or so every season? I have guys with decent speed and high positioning/checking/pokechecking stats, but it seems like they're the ones who are always letting in goals. Suggestions?

My teams pretty much live/die by their third and fourth lines pretty much... but that's because I probably focus more on that than my scoring lines. It seems that chemistry and often luck factor in quit a bit especially season to season. Some guys are rocks one year and then can't pull together more than a 6 no matter what they do the next

Check out the "Standard Signings" thread in the Game Knowledge Forum for some of the guys I like to target for my third/fourth. I at one point wrote my whole system/appoach out maybe I should work that up into a Guide... I think I have that post in a text file somewhere

The basics are that I play both lines as defensive, man to man, and set up linematching in team orders to send my fourth line vs their first and my third vs their second. For each game I set up players' "Checking" assignments in their individual orders. I have my fourth as my big checking line though some people like to use their third instead. Whatever the case you set that line's center to match up with their 1st line center, your RW on their LW and LW on their RW. Then your secondary line matches up with their second line the same way.

The RW/LW thing is due to how your players line up on the ice against the opposing team; their RW is on the right side of their center on their side of center and your RW is on the right side of your center on your side of the ice, and since the lines are facing each other your right is their left; like stage directions.

Example: on their tactics screen they list their first line as:

Larry Moe Curly

You have your options set so your fourth line matches up with their first line. On your tactics screen you see your fourth line:

Chico Groucho Zeppo

Set it up so that Chico checks Curly, Groucho checks Moe, Zeppo checks Larry.

If I forget to set them up that's when I end up getting blown out 8-4 It's not a cure-all but I had Hunter as my third line RW most of the season and he scored 26 while still making a difference defensively, so it's not like your players will just sit in their zone waiting for the team to come to them

I use almost the excat opposite strategy of Ministel .
I only dress 3 lines of forwards and 6 defensemen, tactics set forwards to just 3 and d-men normal. Generelly I like to employ solid 2 way players on my team, but I dont focus on pure defensive specialists all that much, but ofc for pk reasons they are nice. I tend to have solid scoring from all 3 lines, which is very important for me, however I dont/cant use line matching, so cant comment on how effective that is really.
If it aint broke dont fix is my filosofi and I have had tons of success, since I changed to only 3 lines. Your top 9 forwards get more icetime and hence better grades, but fatigue hasnt been a big problem for me mostly, thats playing in many many seasons with different teams.
Note I dont use this tactic to gain any cap advantage as that does not work, SI has prevented that, but I started using it in the old version and it works so well I am sticking by it .
Ofc alot depends on which kinda players you prefer and your other tactical choices, but thats what makes it fun, we all have different styles .