SnakeswithLasers said:
Anyway, once again (and forever more), fuck this game for not having a team-practice option. Fuck it real good and hard. Fuck it so good and hard that even Peterb0y won't be tempted to rape it later because of how good and hard it was fucked.
:lol :lol
I think the defensive zone positioning is something we REALLY need to work on. Too often it seems like there are 3 or 4 of us bunched up in one spot chasing the puck, allowing the other team to move the puck around too easily in the zone. This leads to us never getting the puck and the opponent dominating our zone.
This is how we should be.
NO ONE should be beyond the blue line. Play defense. If you're a wing and positioned correctly, you're automatically going to be in good position for a rush the other way. If you're cherry picking, it's like a constant penalty kill for anyone who IS playing defense.
Dmen, if the puck is on your side play your man aggressive and if it is on the other side, stay in front of your net and clear anyone that comes near you.
Doing both of these properly will cut down on rebound goals and especially cross crease goals. If someone is in front of the net, beat the shit out of them. You can practically kill someone if they're out front, and even if you do get the occasional interference call, it's still better than letting the other team stand there and get those easy ass goals all day.
Keep pucks in the offensive zone, cover your side boards
This. Too often, we lose the offensive zone because the Dmen(AI included) aren't covering the boards. Dmen need to focus more on keeping the puck in and watching for cherry pickers.
Another thing we ALL need to work on is pinning. I've played over 200 games and I'll easily admit that it's still hard to get used to after not having the mechanic in hockey games for the last 20 years. But we need to be pinning opposing puck carriers and even guys right next to the puck(yes, you can get away with this). We have to do this especially when they're breaking out down the side boards. It's painfully obvious you can't check anyone against the boards in this game, so pinning them is about the only option. It slows down their momentum and lets the rest of our team get caught back up on defense, preventing any odd man rushes. We get beat on rushes far too often and I think with pinning and proper defensive positioning, we could cut down on a ton of it.
We also need to dump the puck in more. Too often we try to carry the puck in and either get checked or get stick lifted and lose the puck. We're all guilty of this. Dumping the puck in at least gets the puck deep in the zone. It may just give the puck to the other team at times, but we're really good at forechecking and I think we can create a lot of chances this way.
I think overall we're playing a hell of a lot better than we were when we started out. If we get better at incorporating these strategies into our game as a team, pretty soon we're gonna be eating lightning and crapping thunder!