EHM The Blue Line

Yeah funnel for me too, and occasionally (very 5-10 games) I switch to OVERLOAD SLOT.

I think Funnel spreads the D out a bit, and then overload brings em back in. But they don't come back in right away

Depending on the make up of my team, I go with funnel (most often) and overload as well.

harmonica wrote:Depending on the make up of my team, I go with funnel (most often) and overload as well.

For all of us who aren't very clued up.............How would the makeup of your team make you choose certain powerplay systems? What makes you decide?

Mainly size. Can they take a beating in front of the net, or are the Martin Gerbre or Mason Raymond.

I was using diamond because I saw someone else say it was good with good shooters. My PP was down to 8.2% at one point so I changed from diamond to 2-1-2, set my playmaker on the opposite side of my shooting dd-man and saw little increase. Then I changed my tempo from low to high, then started scoring at least 1 pp goal a game.

When I started the major PP change from diamond to 2-1-2 I was at 8.2%, 22 games later I'm at 14.3% and rising. Should I try another PP system or just not worry about it as my PP is doing better?

Just some quick info about my team for something else to think about. I used fantasy draft and draft all but 2 player over 6' and 200lbs. Begin and Higgins are my 2 smallest players, but Begin is a workhorse and fits well with Roberts and Laraque, while Higgins is taking up a spot on my 4th line and PP. I wanted a big team and as a bonus alot of my forwards and defensemen have a workrate rating of 15+. As a result my board battle per game are alwas 60+%. My record half way through the seasons is 30-9-3, think I picked my team well and I'm leading the league in goals for and goals against, 3rd in PK%. Ovechkin was ranked near 50th in points in the first 20 games and now has a 4 point lead in the top spot in points and a 2 goal lead in top spot in goals, he turned his game around right about when my PP turned around. SO should I try to tweak more or just don't mess with the flow I have going?

While I'm posting for advise, I don't have line matching setup. Should I try to match Begin, Roberts and Laraque/Bertuzzi against the other team's #1 line or not? Bertuzzi might not make a good shutdown guy, but if he didn't have a no trade clause I'd probably have him shipped out due to him taking so many penalties when he's on the 2nd line.

People who have problems with PK....

Get a couple of defenseman with 15+ in stamina, workrate and pokecheck.

Set them to play very defensive, easy backchecking, easy hitting, slow tempo, dump very often.

the key setting...........

VERY SAFE PASSING, and make sure your goalie is set to very safe passing also.

It will help alot - have one forward set to normal play and the other a similar setup to your defensemen, i usually tone it up a bit, like defensive and normal tempo.

No. On PK you DO NOT have easy backcheck. Period. That means they don't care about coming back into their own zone. If you are doing well with the pk with that strategy....you are lucky, and it will end.

Yup. Easy backchek = Pavel Bure. Not exactly the best prototype of a penalty killer...

And regarding the important attributes, you should mention positionning and checking... it never hurts defensively

Very safe passing? Why not... But making sure your PK guys are all able to make a good pass to avoid a brutal giveaway in your own zone may be something more important to think about...

Easy hitting means you let the opposition work as much as they want along the boards. You're already a man down, so needless to allow more room to manoeuver to your opponents.

In fact, i really wonder how you have a good PK with your settings... Unless of course you've got a top goalie covering all the mistakes...

I'd add two things:
- short shifts for both PK lines. PK work is exhausting, so you don't want your guys to make a costly mistake due to fatigue.
- different type of box for each PK line. If your guys are always positionned the same way, it will be very easy for the opposition to get used to it and find a way to solve your PK. Especially since they have one more guy on the ice...

What are your thoughts on mentality/backchecking for the power play?

I put my forwards on very offensive and easy/very easy backchecking depending on the player.

The guys on the blueline I'm not sure about. What I've been doing lately is getting them to join the rush, mentality is normal, with very hard backchecking. Idea being they'll jump into the play to make things happen, but bust their asses to get back if there's a turnover.

Of course, my PP is godawful so I could be completely backwards.

My answer to that is..don't ask me. My pp sucks.

What would you guys recommend for a Maple Leafs team in the second season that is getting hammered much like the first.

I have very few superstar players if any at all and was wondering what tactical methods you guys employ when you have a mid level team talent wise.

Here is my team:

With that team, you should at least be competitive

Are you having pk or pp problems?

A nice article on NHL PK stuff

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3901808

Hope this gives people some ideas on what makes an effective PK unit

I have huge issues with the PK unit.

I am at 80% which is some of the worst in the league. My team usually goes up 2 or 3 nil and then the computer scores a barrage of powerplay goals and i end up losing 5-4, 4-3 or just get utterly blown out of the water.

CCman29 wrote:I have huge issues with the PK unit.

I am at 80% which is some of the worst in the league. My team usually goes up 2 or 3 nil and then the computer scores a barrage of powerplay goals and i end up losing 5-4, 4-3 or just get utterly blown out of the water.

When it comes to PK - you want a couple of defensemen with high stamina, work rate and pokecheck.

Forwards, speed, anticipation, work rate and positioning.

I use, very defensive, high pressure, dump often.and VERY safe passing.

I also do not allow anyone to join the rush, and have my best skater/stickhandler carry the puck.

My PK is usually very good, at least 89%

To help this get back on topic:

Peterman5000 thanks for the great PK tips as now my team is much more stable and went on a great run after the All star break. Went from 8th in the East to first with 105 pts and finished 1pt behind Calgary for the President's Trophy plus now i am going into the finals.

I have split the Official Tactics Questions Thread into two as it was getting large and difficult to find information. This thread will now be used for general PP and PK questions/discussion and the other one is for general / even strength situations discussion. Hopefully this will make it a little easier to find relevant information.

Terva wrote:Use the diamond in yout PP. The key is to have only one or two shooters and the should be placed on each side of the point man and those are the LW and the RD. If you have a good right handed shooter you should place him as a LW and his shooting on barrage. The RD should be a left shooter and also on barrage. Notice that you don´t have to place a D-man as a RD in this system. Anyone with a good shot and the right handeness is the proper man for the job. The point man should be a good passer and also a strong defensive D-man and his settings should be more defensive. As I said earlier, set your LW and RD on shooting and barrage and the rest of the guys on passing. If you don´t have any right handed shooters to plya as a LW you can place a playmaker on that position. Otherwise you can use ure center as a playmaker (carrying the puck) but you shouldn´t have more than one playmaker. A strong center and RW with good deflection skill is also an asset in this system.

Depending on the material my PP has been as high as 24% over an whole season and never below 19.

This is working great for Ottawa;

Alfredsson - Spezza - Neil
Kuba - Heatley

Alfredsson and Heatley are both set to barrage shooting while Spezza and Kuba are very selective. Neil goes straight to the net, while Spezza and Kuba get the puck to one of the shooters. Kinda surprised Neil is working out, but he's a strong dude with decent deflection, he's great in front of the net.

Currently about halfway through my first season, and the PP is running at 24%, whereas it's normally somewhere around 13%.

my teams only problem is playing offence. we are very defenceive.

we have 2nd best PK but 20th in PP

Some PP keys

Have someone on the blue line with 16+ for their slapshot rating. Have them set to shoot a lot if not at barrage level. This will lead to rebounds a lot of the time.

Don't have everyone on the PP set to shoot. Having 3 passers and 2 shooters is a good mix.

Try to have everyone's stick hands pointing inward towards the goal.

The formations for the diamond and umbrella appear reversed in my game, not sure if this is true for everyone or not. Either way, the diamond is a 1-3-1 set with 1 player at the blue line and another in front of the goal. The umbrella has 1 man at the blueline, two guys right above the faceoff circles, and two men at the level of the goal. Check your tactics to make sure the formation you are using matches what you wanting to use.

The diamond (1-3-1) needs good shooters on the outside and the man in front of the goal should be good with deflections. The lone defenseman near the blueline should have a good slapshot, but must be capable defensively to stop short handed rushes.

Hope this helps.

I'm using the umbrella for my 5 on 4 PP and the diamond for my 5 on 3. My PP was good for 4th in the league. That's the best I've ever had. Thanks guys.

PP (5vs4)

Tactical Settings
-----------------
Mentality Very Offensive
Aggressiveness Normal
Backchecking Normal
Gap Control Very Tight
Puck Pressure Very Heavy
Hitting Normal
Tempo High
Passing Normal
Shooting Selective
Dumping the Puck Normal

Tactical Systems
----------------
Breakouts Free Flowing
Neutral Zone Offensive Grouped
Offensive Zone Umbrella
Forcheck Positional High
Neutral Zone Defensive 1-2-2
Defensive Zone Positional
Offensive Faceoffs Point Shot
Defensive Faceoffs Basic

PP (5vs3)

Everything is the same except my Offensive zone is set to Diamond

1st unit
Alfredsson - Spezza - Heatley
Kuba - Picard

2nd unit
Clark - Fisher - Friesen
Rachunek - Campoli

On the 1st unit on the 5vs4 both Kuba and Alfredsson are set to Barrage with Heatley standing in front of the net because his deflection stat is high. I have Picard and Heatley set to shoot as well, but his is Normal. My playmaker on this line is Kuba and Spezza is set to pass.

On the 5vs3 everything stays the same, but because it's a diamond formation, both Spezza and Heatley are standing on either side of the net with shots coming from 3 different angles. Both Spezza and Heatley are very strong in their deflections and both sticks are pointed towards the net.

The 2nd unit is pretty much the same with Rachunek and Clark set to barrage, Campoli and Friesen set to shoot and Fisher set to pass. Friesen is standing in front of the net because of his high deflection stat.

On the 5vs3, again the same diamond formation with both Fisher and Friesen standing on either side of the net with their sticks pointed inwards.

I finished off the regular season, my second with the Sens, ranked #2 on the PP. That's the best I've ever done.

Not sure if this is the best thread for this info, but Versus has some good intro videos for hockey -

http://www.versus.com/nhl101

Some of the strategy stuff is pretty interesting.

I'm in the second season of my Detroit game. The PP is tops in the league, but the PK is floating the around 15th-18th.

PK1

Kronwall-Morris-Draper-Ortmeyer

Off - ***
Def - ****
Spd - ****
Skl - **
Tgh - ****
F/O - Draper
PM -
Sht - 30
Def Cov - Zone

PK2

Fischer-Rafalski-Zetterberg-Maltby

Off - ***
Def - ****
Spd - *****
Skl - ***
Tgh - ***
F/O - Zetterberg
PM -
Sht - 30
Def Cov - Zone

Unit Tactics

Ment - Very Def
Aggr - Norm
Back - Very Hard
Gap - Norm
PPrs - Norm
Hit - Norm
Temp - Norm
Pass - norm
Shot - Selec
Dump - very often
Breakouts - Pos
Neu. Zone Off - Pos
Off Zone - Pos
Forechk - 0-4
Neu. Zone Def - 0-4
Def Zone - wide box
Off F/O - Basic
Def F/O - Basic

I don't use personal tactics on special teams so the unit tactics are what the players use. Can anyone tweak these any to get the PK back into the top 10? I'm at a loss.

Wide box? Oh please no. Unless you have an Ovechkin on the penalty killing this is not gonna work. You have to decide what you want your players to do. If you like the wide box, you'd have to use a lot of skill to make it work.. that means tight gap control, high speed and lesser backchecking and no Ortmeyer. If you want to stay them close to the net guarding the goalie and blocking shots do the opposite.

I think you can manage a PK percentage of about 88% without using personal tactics. But the key to penalty killing is the personal tactics really. I had a pk% of 95.5% in one season that was my absolute best pk value. And I had a lot of different personal tactics there, especially for forwards compared to the defensemen.