Montreal Canadiens Help

[madgangsta]

Ok well i have a problem, im using the Montreal Canadiens in my first season, and i dont know why, but i cant win. I mean, i have a very good roster (I havent made any trades yet), so i should be up there winning my games, but for some reason, i cant win any!!!

Amy help or strategies please?

[Mike_The_Strike]

The first thing you have to do is to trade Kovalev, Aebischer and any prospect with 2-3 stars to Tampa for Vincent Lecavalier. If this don't work, try Koivu and Aebischer...

[CatchUp]

Ok well i have a problem, im using the Montreal Canadiens in my first season, and i dont know why, but i cant win. I mean, i have a very good roster (I havent made any trades yet), so i should be up there winning my games, but for some reason, i cant win any!!!

Amy help or strategies please?

I always do a major overhaul when I first get my hands on the Habs. For one, your coach, Guy Carbanneau is very defensive minded, which doesn't really fit with the players on the roster. I would fire him and hire someone who prefers an attacking style of play.

As far as trades, the Habs have quite a few players that you can deal for good returns. I can usually unload Rivet, Dandenault, Boullion, et al. and good solid players in return.

I usually play an all out attacking style. Meaning I pretty much base my tactics on the run and gun pre-set. I set my 3rd line to be my shut down line and play them very defensively, usually matched against my opponents top line. This really cuts down on the shots on goal against I find.

Players you have on the Habs roster will excel in this play style. Specifically in the first season, a top line of Samsonov-Koivu-Kovalev should light it up. I've had Koivu win the Art Ross 3 years in the row in one of my games. Samsonov can also score enough to win awards. Kovalev is awesome in clutch games, although he definitely drops off a bit before the 2nd season starts, so I would deal him at the deadline or in the offseason if you can afford to do it.

I hope that helps a little! Best of luck!

Cheers.

[madgangsta]

Well, i have a new problem now. My team (Still in 1st season) is leading the league in PP categories, Goals for categories etc.. So im not having problems scoring goals. Its that im last in the league in PK categories, Goals Against etc...so my defense basically sucks.

I have acquired d-men like Vaanenen, Robyn Regehr and Visnovsky for Dandenault, Rivet and Komisarek. So i dont know why my D sucks so badly, any help?

[CatchUp]

Well, i have a new problem now. My team (Still in 1st season) is leading the league in PP categories, Goals for categories etc.. So im not having problems scoring goals. Its that im last in the league in PK categories, Goals Against etc...so my defense basically sucks.

I have acquired d-men like Vaanenen, Robyn Regehr and Visnovsky for Dandenault, Rivet and Komisarek. So i dont know why my D sucks so badly, any help?

D problems eh? Well, I'll tell you up front that the AI in the game is not exactly defensive minded. In general, it is much harder to play a defensive style than it is an offensive one. That being said, there are some tactics out there that will help you out on the back end. If you want to play a more defensive style overall, search these boards and the boards at the main EHM site for 'defensive tactics'. That should find you something you can use.

If you're just looking to tweak your existing style to cut down on the goals against, I would suggest adjusting:

Set your forwards to Hard or even Very Hard Backchecking. This will get them back in the play to help out the D, but will lead to less offensive chances.

Go through your Defensmen individually and set their tactics as follows:

If they are slow, set Gap Control to more Relaxed and Tight if they are fast.
Unless they have an awesome slapshot, set them to Pass
Set their Passing to Safe unless they are above 12-13 in that skill.
Make sure that Join Rush is UNCHECKED
You can try setting them to Defensive-minded as well.

Hope this helps you out!

Cheers and Happy 2007!

[madgangsta]

Hey, thanks, im gonna go try these out soon. They look like the solution!

[CatchUp]

Hey, thanks, im gonna go try these out soon. They look like the solution!

Any time! I'd be interested to hear how it turns out.

Cheers.

[madgangsta]

hmm, how do i go through each defensemens tactics?

[CatchUp]

hmm, how do i go through each defensemens tactics?

In your tactics screen you've got 4 options on the left side--->Set Lines--->Team Tacitcs--->Unit Tactics--->Personal Tactics.

You're looking for Personal.

Cheers!

[madgangsta]

Alright, so here is how it went down. I did all the things you said.

I managed to nab the 7th spot, which meant i was the underdog in the 1st round of the playoffs. I was going up against the 2nd seeded New Jersey Devils, in the season series, i was 3-1 against them, so i knew i had good chances of winning.

First 3 games went great, David Aebischer provided stellar goaltending (Huet backup cause hes terrible) finishing those 3 games with .971 SV% and a 1.43 GAA. Sergei Samsonov led the way with 5 goals and 4 assists. So i won the first 3 games. After that, i lost the next 3, my team just started going back to the old ways and playing terrible. I won game 7 by a close margin of 4-3.

In the 2nd round, i was up against the Buffalo Sabres, they pounded me in just about each game and won the series easily 4 games to 1.

Thing is, in all my playoff games, my PK% was 66.2%....my average shots against was 3.83.....and my goals against per game was 3.50

Putting me last in these 3 sections in the whole league. So obviously, something went wrong even though i changed all my tactics etc...

[CatchUp]

hm, well, sounds to me like you just ran into a really good Sabres team.

Seriously though, changing those settings should have solidified your defense. Now that being said, unless you've made some significant trades, defense is NOT the strongpoint of the 06-07 Habs.

Souray is good for his point shot and little else.
Rivet I usually package with some picks and prospects to land a solid D-man (ie. Morris, Regehr, etc)
Markov is an awesome 2nd pairing d-man and will do as your top line LD if you don't have better options.
Streit is next to useless except on the PP
Same with Dandenault
Boullion I generally also trade away (I usually grab Ossi Vaananen from COL to take his spot)

So that leaves you with....Markov as a decent defensive d-man.

I would first make some trades to make sure you have the players in place to cut down on your goals against. If you acquire some top-notch D-men and you've still got problems...well...I'm out of answers.

Cheers!

[Shadd666]

For your PK issue, you should also try spend more practice time on PK, as your team struggle in this area. Instead of the initial 20% practice time spend on PK, you should try to spend 30% during a month or two and see if things are going better or not.

I've done it for my PP and there has been some results. Started this while my PP was only 11% after january, and finished the regular season at 15%, which means around 18% in the last monthes of the regular season. Then i had a good 21% in the playoffs...

[Minstrel]

I tend to do more general in the offseason, like up 75% but during the year I usually go with 40% general and switch off 25/35 percent in special teams depending on how things are going. If I forget to change things back I quickly notice because I can't score on the PP or get a kill on the PK to save my skin... I do it this way because of results but also because I figure at an NHL team people should have the basics pretty much down and spending too much time on it is wasted, also during the year often times beyond basic "keeping sharp" drills for skills etc teams often will only practice their special teams schemes not much else when the schedule compresses and there isn't much time for practices, so I feel a 40/35/25 split is fairly well in line with what real teams do.