EHM The Blue Line

Ok, so I am the Calgary Flames. I have tweaked my tactics and am being moderately successful, albeit I am very early in my new career (patch 3.0.2).

I don't have my team set to play aggressive, yet I am getting about 20-35 minutes a game in penalties. What gives? Is it just that my players are dumb and slow? Or do I have to ask them to play like cupcakes?

Needless to say, my PK sucks.

On the bright side, my PP is running at 29.7%

Any advice is much appreciated.

I'd go with slow and dumb
If it's your D getting alot of hooking/holding type penalties try ease up on the gap control and/or set them to collapse to the net.

Heh... make that two votes for slow and dumb

But the question I find myself asking when you say 20-35 is are those a lot of 2 minute varieties or a lot of 10s and 5s?

Minstrel wrote:Heh... make that two votes for slow and dumb

But the question I find myself asking when you say 20-35 is are those a lot of 2 minute varieties or a lot of 10s and 5s?

mostly of the 2 minute variety.

@keithv: your pk is no better than mine

fifafan wrote: @keithv: your pk is no better than mine

It's more fun criticizing someone else's team. I tweaked my tactics a bit and who manned the PK. I've noticed, at least against some teams, that my blazingly quick wingers either swoop in on goal alot or draw alot of penalties in the process.

If you have players putting a lot of pressure on puck carries and playing right up on everyone in your gap control settings that can lead to a lot of hooking/holding/etc penalties because guys are getting beat by being too aggressive. As I've said in other tactics threads it's always a trade off and while a high pressure style can work it can also, especially if forced upon players without the skills to handle it, really blow up in your face.

My guess would be since you mention if slow and stupid is the problem then yeah it prolly is

Aggressivenes, puck pressure, gap control, and hitting are the settings that could lead to more penalties. Also, the aggression attribute of every player counts. The defensive attributes also have their importance, as a player who is weak at defending (i.e. Huselius) won't be able to put a high pressure on the opponents without taking penalties.

One more possibility to add to the list is also coaches with low "Level of Discipline" ratings as they won't preach to the boys to stay out of the box.