Team Strategy

[bonvie]

I have now been with the club for just over a week, most of the time under another user jekyl I have created the bonvie55 account for playing with this club. I think that the club has alot of potential, and the guys I have met have all showed they can play the game, but with very different roles. I think good defensive play is a strong point in general for the club, but when we do get the lead we should be able to really lock it down making very simple smart plays and erring on the side of defense this is especially important when we have leads on good teams. That is where a player like Blackhawk can be very important playing in the forward position, who plays a more defensive style. It's important however that forwards still pressure the puck carrier in the neutral zone and do not collapse into their own zone before the play is in their zone, stacking the blueline is a must meaning Defense should not be waiting deep in their own zone but should already have a very small gap between themselves and the puck carrier by the time they hit their own blue line, and the forwards should also strategicaly stack at the blue line, while still pressuring the puck carrier, forcing the puck carrier into the D where a poke check or hit can be made to force a turnover, also this forces a lot of offsides which are momentum killers for the opposing teams offense. This will force teams to dump and with speedy defense no problem, closest man to the puck retrieves and the other partner will run the gauntlet(get in the way of the forward) by making him skate around you causing him extra distance to skate he will then get himself either in front of the net if forwards are crashing the net to protect in case or a turnover, or preferably go behind the net on the opposite side , but close to his other D partner, so he can make a safe and quick outlet pass to his D partner, just beware that this is the common way for D to move the puck out of the zone, so smart forecheckers will try to go behind the net just in front of the D partner to anticipate this pass. A quick look for outlets just before retreiving the puck, followed by a quick pass once the decision is made should prevent this from happening

Center responsibilities in front of the net, a good defensive center will make up for a lot of mistakes made by D especially when a CPU D is involved. I have noticed with human D usually when I make a mistake I have a good partner like Optical who makes everything all right, but every mistake I make with the CPU makes me look like an ass lol. The center is usually the forward who helps the D prevent the cross crease and or wraparounds and can also look for wrists shot glitch before the circles, so especially in abscence of two D-men a good defensive center is the cats-ass for a good d-man

Wings can pinch down low to help the defense especially on the puck carrier side, but need to be conscious that it is still their responsibility to stop the D from slapping it at the point or pinching down low for a shot from the top of circles.

I would post another post on setting up offensive plays, but i don't know much about the offensive side of the game. Hopefully DSO or Cody will post since they both seem to really be able to run an offense. I will post about running the show with a two man team, using two D-men.

[blkhwk21]

WOW!! Great Post!! We need to keep this up. Man you got me right - I am by no means a Cody or DSO and never have been - I used to always play D, so now in the power forward role I do tend to play a defensive forward position - Great when leading, but need that go to guy. I feed off this type of advice / comments - DSO is also very good at giving advice after a game or before a game, and most of the time he is spot on! The other night we had a killer team - Doug was a face off stud, Cody was our winger - Ant our D man - and I at left wing, we should have dominated all teams. I decided to have a terrible night, holding the puck trying to get fancy - blowing break aways - not getting the puck back to the point, and sure enough I broke the chemestry. I didnt keep it simple, didnt move the puck and definately did not get the puck deep or use my pointmen. Post like this need to happen more often - I played hockey and baseball my whole life and I never stopped learning or taking advice from the coachs - players, team mates, etc. Team mates should not be afraid to talk after a bad game and say "hey black, that point was open allot" - or "use the computer players they are our friends" (right DSO and ANT). Trust me, on my end I would never be offended - I love that stuff, just simple reminders. And I hope guys would take it the same way when it comes from me - I have been playing this game for a long time as well - and definately would love to help out when I can.

DSO - CODY, waiting on the offensive post.........

[dso67]

well i know that sometimes we all tend to try to make something happen offensively and usually it leads to a turnover. and we all know what turnovers lead to. I think when we get the puck in our zone we need to make quick SMART passes. look for open guys, don't go for those cross rink passes in the neutral zone, they rarely work. try to keep everything north south as far as quick breakouts are concerned. a big problem area i seem to see is when some of our less experienced guys try to go right at the opposing d. and they always lose the puck. if we don't see an opening, throw the puck back to our d or look for an open player. once we're in the zone and HAVE control of the puck, i think (and cody chime in on this) having one guy go to the net is a must, and another player trying to get open. usually we'll have one guy with the puck looking at creating some sort of play, whether it be a pass to the point or pass to the slot or some other play, but looking for an opening. Point guys need to be sneaky with shots, we have an awful lot of shots that are blocked or just get deflected away from the net. using a fake slap pass to the oppostite d works well and wristing the puck seems to find it's way to the net better. but most of all we need to to be patient and smart with the way we pass. get rid of the puck if you see your about to be hit, forwards need to pin guys against the boards more, but when pinned, release and dig for the puck (cody your a whiz at this) we can win alot of battles because alot of guys try to exploit the board play to get away from players. just pin him, and keep it short because you will get a holding penalty. also when the opposing team is rushing up the ice, and it's something i'm guilty of and all of us are, try to keep away from stick lifting if there are d back. try use it only if their on a breakaway. but skate back into a position where you can make a better play with the stick lift. i find when your out of position, the stick lift just leads to high sticking and hooking penalties.

Above all, like bonvie and blkhwk have said... use your cpu players. this will only help us win games.

[Cody]

I really don't know what to add on the offensive side of the game. I try to exploit human dmen by anticipating turnovers and taking off early to get the breakaway pass. Sometimes this is very effective, and I think I have a pretty high success rate on breakaways. This is a strategy that I do not recommend we all get accustomed to using because we will start to see out GA rise, I'm sure. But it certainly is a play that our d can look for when I'm on the right wing

As for a general offensive strategy, it's pretty simple in my opinion. If we find that the other team is really strong at defending their blueline then we need to work together to gain the zone, and not have one guy attempt to carry it in. For me having the centermen skate closely beside me helps as once I see the defender break for me, usually right as I cross the blueline, I'll take the hit and just slide a quick short pass to the middle (and I mean real short pass) and boom, we've gained the zone.

If I have room to gain the zone myself, I will often turn back and pass it back to the point. I love using this as a break in because I'm not a fan of going for the cross crease every time, turning the puck over and them coming back down in our end. I like setting up pressure in their end.

dso mentioned setting up a guy in front of their net, and one thing I've noticed that we are VERY guilty of, which I am trying to change, is that we have 3 guys in front of the net when our point has the puck. I think two should be the max and one of the forwards needs to be on the sidewall in case the shooting lanes are closed off. I have been forcing myself to go to the sidewall at times, and I know it's tough because I too want to be in on the garbage in front!

Board play is something everyone should really practice. If you are quick on your man it can really cause havoc in their end. If their puck carrying is in their end and along the boards you should almost NEVER use the hit control. Try using board play, at the least it will take your man out of the play, and if applied quick enough it will slow down their entire break out.

I really don't know what else to mention. if I think of anything I will add it, but I really don't think of myself as an offensive whiz or anything

later booooeeyz.

[dso67]

absolutely Cody! Board play is huge and i agree with the men in front of the net. it's something easy we all can control, if you see two guys in front, stay the side. and be ready to backcheck in case we lose posession.

[blkhwk21]

It would be great if more guys could get headsets as well. When they work, the communication is so much better.

[Cody]

I've noticed lately on the Power Play that I am getting tons of time to hang on to the puck on the side wall, which is great, but we haven't been able to generate much of anything. One of the biggest problems, which is out of our hands, is that the camera angle zooms in (which I will try to remember to turn off) and it turns slightly which makes passing very tricky. But what we can do is try to make something happen.

What I would like to see is that the dmen stay on the blueline. Maybe in the future we can try pinching dmen to the backdoor, but for now it's a very nice support option to have them on the point. But the forwards without the puck are the critical players in this situation. I've noticed them standing still in front which has been easy to defend. Either I pass it away, or try to walk into the slot and get checked. So let's try some movement. Have some guy circle the high slot, and another maybe circle in behind the net and then back in front. I have tons of time it seems, so don't worry about that, I will pass when the time is right (or walk and shoot). Just let's try some movement because standing still in the slot isn't working in that situation.

Sorry so long.

[bonvie]

I am not sure what camera angle you use Cody, but most forwards I know use Classic, I use the one that is the default on defense but I switch to classic if and when i ever play forward, when I pinch down on defense the world is spinning for me lol, its a terrible camera down low. I was leaving my point a few times the last time I played to pinch in for the one timer. I think its all about balance, and I have been guilty of trying to be too offensive on the blue line or shooting too many low quality chances away. I haven't really figured out how to score with my slap shot and I have a very heavy shot back there, but I think I am going to start one timing some shots to the blocker side(far side) while stationary, and I will often be passing it straight back to the right winger or center at the halfboard. Up to this point I have been shooting for rebounds and deflections, but I think in the last several games we have not had many goals off of those rebounds. I think right now we need to develope a game down low, the hardest thing to defend as a defenseman is the cross-crease pass, if you have a good cross crease game, the wingers will start collapsing and it will open up our point men again, and vice versa, if I do get some good slappers or wrist shots away from the point it will force the wingers to pay more attention to the defense, leaving the defenseman in a one on one battle with the puck carrier. I guess what I am trying to say is a good team offense will take what the opposing defense gives you and create scoring chances accordingly.

[bonvie]

Also if on the half boards if they really collapse to the middle and don't pressure you can skate into the top of circle with a charged up wrister to the far side blocker, it is a very high percentage shot beyond the top of circle, as the goalie is slow to move over I think because your stick is kinda behind u, basically the curve shot from last year I don't think of it as a glitch its merely high quality scoring chance when executed from certain areas of the ice. I think Cody made this point already about spreading out the offense but the winger without the puck should be about 5 to 10 feet wide of the far post just before the crease area
1. that is where the goalie kicks out his rebounds, from al the low shots the defense shoots
2. The defenseman can't really see you if you stay at least five feet wide so it is harder for them to cover you to prevent the cross crease, and they can risk getting a penalty for hitting you in that area, and if they do follow you over they are no longer protecting the front of the net.

[dso67]

Awesome observations bonvie, definitely something I will be working on.