EHM The Blue Line

Attention. This is not an EHM bash thread. Just looking for some advice.

I'm always getting a ton of penalties in the last two minutes of games. If I'm trailing by one and if I'm trying to protect a lead, I usually get a player sent to the box. I've been trying to adjust some details, like puck pressure and gap control, but nothing has helped.

Any advice?

Maybe you just happen to have your 4th line and 3rd d pair out against their top line at that time.
Did you check that ?

I was having the same kind of problem, but I then went ahead and did line matching and that helped me out. I don't know that it would help you much, but it cut down on the last minute penalties that I was recieving game after game.

I usually just bench my worse players as the clock runs out. When I'm trying to score, obviously I use my best offensive players and when I'm trying to protect a lead, I ice my best defensive players.

You also need to view maybe their personal tactics as well. You know, the player by player stuff.

You can easily set some of your high penalty guys to maybe not take costly penalties late in the game by just switching their tempo in the game, maybe make them more defensive, or just changing a few other things.

I don't know exactly what you could do, but just work with things and see what happens with it.

Systemfel wrote:When I'm trying to score, obviously I use my best offensive players and when I'm trying to protect a lead, I ice my best defensive players.

I'm sure you're aware of that, but def.-minded players are not always your best checkers. Probably, personal players' settings, a 'Discipline' attribute of your coaches or 'Neutral Zone Trap' tactics will help you with the latest. IMHO, pokecheck, backchecking and speed are more useful in the last two minutes to protect a lead. Also, on the tactics screen, try to set your orders to 'only two lines', clearing all the current ones and putting there certain players you want to protect a lead. Thus, you'll be guaranteed that benched players won't play in the final minute.

CrockerNHL wrote:I'm sure you're aware of that, but def.-minded players are not always your best checkers. Probably, personal players' settings, a 'Discipline' attribute of your coaches or 'Neutral Zone Trap' tactics will help you with the latest. IMHO, pokecheck, backchecking and speed are more useful in the last two minutes to protect a lead.

Yup, best defensive players = players with good positioning, speed, bravery etc.

CrockerNHL wrote:Also, on the tactics screen, try to set your orders to 'only two lines', clearing all the current ones and putting there certain players you want to protect a lead. Thus, you'll be guaranteed that benched players won't play in the final minute.

Yep, that's what I meant when I said 'bench'.

Just a minor thing, I don't think bravery falls really into the defensive skills category, I always thought of it as something that determines whether the player is more willing to do risky plays or stand up for teammates etc

Also could you be more specific as far as the amount of those penalties is concerned ? "A ton" doesn't really give much away. Is it in every game, or every second game, or every 10th game ?

What kind of penalties, which players ? Is there a certain pattern, like it's usually player X with hooking/holding minors ?

Maybe "benching" a part of the team thus giving others too much icetime is the problem here, too long shifts, or not enough breaks in between shifts

Bravery makes players block shots. Blocked shots = defense

I'm getting at least one penalty in the final minutes of every game. Perhaps my teams just have too many physical players.

Systemfel wrote:Bravery makes players block shots. Blocked shots = defense

I'm getting at least one penalty in the final minutes of every game. Perhaps my teams just have too many physical players.

Probably, this is it. I had such a problem with Dingman and Hollweg. Now i'm leaning to go to final minutes with Hagman's or Ortmeyer's type of player. Agree with you about positioning, it's really very important for a good defense. BTW, did you check your referee's attributes?

Bravery is directly related to shot blocking.

If you check the league leaders in SB every year, they will always have a high Bravery.