EHM The Blue Line

I have Pavel Kubina, Michael Peca, and Chris Clark on my team, and they all have low morale. I don't quite get why their morale would be low, they all play regularly and on special teams. The team has a winning record. I don't see what the problem is. Is there any way to get their morale up?

Low morale can result from a lack of icetime, bad results, bad individual results, bad locker room atmosphere (at least not a good one), an unfair treatment, or just no reason at all! as you sometimes have lower morale without any specific reason (it passes with time, like IRL )

The game calls it "morale" but I like to think of it as "confidence" and mood instead: as really that's basically how it works. It's another indicator you can use to see how your team's players are doing.

For example a goal scorer that hasn't been scoring can start slipping in mood even if you are winning every game. It can get worse each game he doesn't score and eventually it can become a real issue that affects his ability to play his best game, even if it just started as a mental thing. So it started as "Man pucks just aren't going in" nagitively affecting his mood, but as it goes on it gets to the point of a confidence problem "I swear I'm never going to score again!".

This also can happen with your players that play every game, no matter how well they are doing the grind of playing every game can get to players after a while. Usually when I see any of my players fall to just 'Ok' when most others are higher I give them a game off.

This often happens with new additions that don't have immediate success and/or find themselves in a role different than what they were looking for. If you bring in Teemu and put him on a checking line his morale will suffer.

It can be a sign that young players could use some time in the AHL for example to get their confidence back instead of posting a string of 5's and 6's with the "big club". It can be better for a player to be a rock star in the AHL putting up multiple points every game than being at the NHL on a defensive minded third line getting 10 minutes a night. Once he does build up that confidence the chances of him repeating it at the NHL level increase.

A great real-life example of this is Wojtek Wolksi last year who just tore it up all year but didn't play with Colorado until after his season was over and he ended up being one of their most productive players later on and in the playoffs. This year he picked it up where he left off at the NHL level and hasn't looked back.

Hypnotist asked:

Batdad, I searched about 10 different ways and couldn't find a similar thread so I started a new one.

I like to use specialists for specific jobs. Typically my top offensive players will not see regular PK duty (unless they are demi-gods like Simon Gagne). My checking line guys rarely see PP time. This is just how I set up my teams, makes it easier to identify and fill holes in the roster, plus keep players fresher.

So the question is when you use players in a strickly defensive posture (like shadowing) on a regular basis, and their game ratings are regularly in the 5-6 range, how do you keep the press off their back and their morale up? My checkers tend to get significant minutes and PK time. Guys like Ortmeyer, Sutherby and Draper excel as shutdown guys but don't put the points up and none of them are big fighters (like Dingman) thus the low ratings. I personally acknowledge their contribututions and tell the press to take off but their morale still seems to drop badly by mid season. I wish the game had a "praise" option instead of just discipline. Any help is greatly appreciated.

batdad responded:

Hypnotist--Not sure but

1. Have you got 3.04? Because some of the 3rd liners had that problem in the past, and it was fixed in some ways for some players.

2. If you do have 3.04 it just may be that the players in question are players who WANT to do more than what you are giving them, or it could be they are just playing naff, getting them down, or they want more ice time, or they are not getting what they need in practice, or the team sucks, or they are not happy with players on the team, referees, coaches, you, their wife, cat, dog, choice for desert selection in the hotel, or kids....There are a kazillion things that could be affecting them.




Anyway, in a blowout one way or another, I give low morale guys (Jeff Hamilton is one for me) significant pp time, bump him up in the lines and try and get him going)...the more you do this the better they feel. If Hamilton has a 7 rating, and my 3rd line centre or RW (Lapointe or Arkhipov say) have a 6...Hamilton goes up and plays 3rd line..and gets more ice, and replaces Lapointe on the pk etc. If he continues to play well there, I leave him there. Put out or sit out. That is the motto.


Praise option was discussed a thousand times, just something that was on the drawing board that the SI guys could never get in the game due to lack of time, and more important things to get in or fix.


Oh and I just did a search for "low morale" and came up with this as my first choice:


http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... ght=morale

so I have copied our posts and quoted them in that thread

I find that even if you sometimes give the player what they want or expect, the still might have low morale.

Overall, I believe it helps with what coaches you have on your team as well. But ultimately, you have to have a great team in general to keep everyone happy.

I have always really like the morale in the game, as it adds a lot of micro managing to try and keep everyone happy. However, the sad reality is that it won't. I think it should also be based on players hidden stats. If a player has a high defensive rating, then doing well defensively should have a better effect on his morale.

One thing that I have found, is making your third and forth line players check more often and it will help a lot. You need to play around with each of their unit tactics, but eventually you can find a pretty good 'sweet spot' that will give them many hits, takeaways while also limiting their penalties. You can really take advantage of this when your game's ref isn't a tight @$$. Be sure to also make sure their line has defensive tactics.

The number of minutes they play also make a huge difference. This is why it is important to not load your team up with potential first line talent, because players will be upset and not perform to their best.

I had the same problem as Hypnotist, my top 2 lines were strictly offensive, the 3rd and 4th defensive.
Although my defensive lines were doing a good job, the odd point here and there, good +/-, good PK, they always ended up with ratings around 6.
I changed my approach for the Blackhawks challenge, for example I have Blake playing the 2nd line and PK so he gets less PP time, I have Blunden and Bolland on the 3rd and 4th line so I give them some more PP time and it seems to be working better.

Guys you know what? The game should have a better "morale-meter" maybe...but it does not. The game is not in production, so we make do with what we have. Talking about how the game should be better that way, at this point will do us absolutely no good.

We need to keep this to how to make the morale of a plyer better, not make it about that the game's way of deciding morale for a player sucks. So let's stop that area of discussion shall we?

Player morale is dependent upon the millions of things Minstrel mentions way above...and possibly some of the things I mentioned. Unfortunately, defensive players get ripped a bit, as they always have. We just have to learn ways to help these guys feel better about themselves.

There are hockey players all over the world who dream of being the goal scorer and are upset that they are not...however...they still perform the role they have to to survive.

If a guy is doing the job (ie a penalty killer is helping your team kill of penalties)and not messing up...then really how much does the morale rating matter? If he is not doing his job...then the morale is an issue. Sit him out a game, put him back in and things get better most of the time. Sometimes, they need a day off. I have done this hundreds of times. Works well too.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to morale is the player's role. If you tell him he's a key or core player, he's more likely to expect to be putting up some points. I think "hot prospects" get similar expectations. If guys are told they're a regular player or a fringe player (and most 3rd or 4th liners should fit into these categories), he's not as likely to drop in morale so much when he's not scoring.

bruins72 wrote:Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to morale is the player's role. If you tell him he's a key or core player, he's more likely to expect to be putting up some points. I think "hot prospects" get similar expectations. If guys are told they're a regular player or a fringe player (and most 3rd or 4th liners should fit into these categories), he's not as likely to drop in morale so much when he's not scoring.

Yup, just like telling them they are trade bait is likely to lower it. However if they request to be moved and you put them on the block and they start to play well and cheer up removing them from the block can be good for their morale.

I have Wade Belak on my Coyotes team. He's playing 3rd defensive line and is 2nd line PK. He has had 7 fights and won 4. His Morale has been low all season.

He is not better than a 3rd line D-man so he can't expect more minutes there and is doing well on the PK. Also in 40 games he has 88 hits and 49 blocked shots and a AVR of 6.87 which I don't think is too bad.

Anyoen any ideas?

6.87 is actually a really good number for somebody like Belak. Having a low rating for bottom 6 players, grinders and bottom 2 dmen is something that is almost impossible to avoid.

For player who fit into that roll on my teams, I try and get them to stay above 6.5 (preferably 6.70) and I scratch guys that consistently are below.

How about +/-? I prefer to win with defence and I'm leading the league in Goals Against. I'd like to say it has to do with a dominant checking line but my 3rd line are -13, -15 and -12 and have low morale. It's like my offensive guys come on and score and my 3rd line guys just come on the ice to concede. My top lines, I'm sure everyone else is the same, has very high +/- hence high morale. I was wondering if anyone has had success keeping a high 3rd line +/- and morale?

Sounds like you have the wrong guys or wrong tactics for the guys on your third line to me. But I find the third liners just do not score as much, and they may want to score.Try one of them on the pp a(if he has any offensive skills) and see what happens. I know with Kesler when his morale drops I move him to RW with Danny and Henny and boom....he does something on the pp

Thanks for the reply, it's funny you should mention that cos I have Laperriere on my 2nd unit. He's not the best offensively I know but has decent faceoffs which is the main reason he's there. He has 26pts in 59games which is ok, it's the -17 which is bothering me. I just don't think I figured out how to make my 3rd line balanced enough not to concede all the teams goals. If I go very defensive they just seem to get outshot brutally and if I go a little more offensive(but still defensive overall) the computer teams seems to exploit the fact they're a little more offensive. Just need to find that balance I guess. Saying that recently I changed my practice schedule to General 60(was50) PP 10(was 20) and PK 30 and since my last post he's only dropped from -15 to -17 guess thats progress:)

Winning faceoffs probably won't be very helpful and could easily backfire. If you have your 2nd line set on offensive or normal tactics they will try to create an offensive play after winning the faceoff. But with an offensive untalented player in the lineup they will probably make a bad pass or a mistake, leading to a giveaway or interference (i don't know if this term is used in hockey the way it's used in football). And that often ends up in "one on one" situation.

I think Lappy should be used on a defensive/energy line. I had him in a game a while back and he did great on the left side of a checking line. Good hits, a few fights and put up a decent AVR.

Regarding checking lines I think the only way to ensure they get a good AVR is if they either put up a good amount of hits, drop the gloves alot or score a fair few points, which is unlikely. Scott Parker for me fights, puts up well over 200 hits a season and scores over 20 points a season and finishes up with an AVR of in the mid to late 7's. And best of all his +/- has not been more than -7 in 3 season which I think is good for a 3rd line matched up against the oppositions 1st line.

There are more talented defensive players I could put on my 3rd line than Parker and Fedoruk who is my right winger, but they both do their jobs so why change them?

One question about Morale though........... I have 3 guys in my AHL team who are unhappy due do to them "expecting to be called up". The thing is they have no chance as all 3's stats arent good enough and they are not doing well in the AHL team. Any ideas?