EHM The Blue Line

I normally focus on defense, so I have a very defensive team. But no matter what I do, I can't cut down on my goals against.

My lineup us;

Zetterberg - McDonald - Boyes
Fisher - Leino - Dvorak
Hagman - Gaustad - Dingman
Stempniak - Downie - Kahnberg

Redden - Brewer
McKee - Johnson
Kulyash/Mezei - Jackman

Norrena
Chiodo

Mcdonald, Kahnberg and Kulyash are lousy defensively, everyone else is somewhere between decent and great.

Norenna, while obviously not a star, has pretty good attributes. His goaltending attributes are all between 16 - 18.

My PK is terrible. I use;

Gaustad - Dingman
Fisher - Hagman/Boyes

McKee - Brewer
Redden/Mezei - Jackman

I've slowly been increasing how much PK practice I do, up to 40% now, and I've been playing with tactics, but its not working out. Its gone up to an abysmal 77% from a purely godawful 74%.

I give up a league worst 4.06 goals per game. Over 4 freaking goals a game!

The only glaring weakness I can see is the terrible goaltending displays. Norenna's GAA is 3.59, his SV% is 0.867.

Is this really all just due to my starting goalie playing himself into the AHL? I drafted the Hask regen in this past draft, will bringing him up in a few years when he's ready completely turn it around, or is there something else I have to address?

Not sure...but I think this could have gone in the shutouts section, since it is pretty much the same thing. Or the tactics question section.

Anyway, to be blunt since that is my M/O Your goaltending sucks. Norrena has decent attributes, but I have used him several times and he never ever amounts to anything more than a decent back up.

There is also a thread on Penalty killing issues...so many places to put things....so little time.

Feel free to move this, sorry about that.

So how long does it take Hasek to develop? Should I sit tight for a couple years, and find someone else to hold down the fort until he's ready?

SV% is one thing, but doesn't bring it all. If he faces 60 shots a game, it would mostly be a defense problem rather than a goalie one. How many shots do you allow per game? Should be an indication.

Then, when you try new things, like changing tactics or lines, give it time!!! Things can be horrible at the beginning and turn out good if you let the guys time enough to have some cohesion (count something around 10-20 games).

Hagman should be on your top PK unit IMO, Dingman may be out. Not good enough in positionning (12 or 13 if i remember well), and too aggressive (and so more potential 3v5 situations).

Even if your team isn't really impressive, i think you should have better results with those players. So my bet is the problem comes from tactics or coaches, especially tactics and def.skills coaches. Can you give more infos about those things please?

Wish I could move. I don't have the power in this forum.

Anyway..it depends on his workrate, determination stats. If they suck, he may never develop. I have him in one game, and it is 4 years in...he struggles big time even as an NHL backup, and in the AHL as a starter/backup because his mental attributes are ... well...Hasek like.

Why don't we close this topic and continue it in a thread with the same discussion? I've renamed the new thread so that the title is more descriptive.

http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... php?t=2833