Help with underachieving team

This area should be used by GMs from different leagues to share their experiences about things such as line combinations, which skills are good etc. / Ce forum devrait être utilisé par les DG de diffèrentes ligues pour partager leur expèrience à propos des combinaisons alignement, quel sont les attributs d'un joueurs les plus utilises etc.
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ericdaoust
New in Town / Le Ptit Nouveau
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:37 pm

Help with underachieving team

Post by ericdaoust »

Good day everyone,

I'm a long time FHL guy that recently converted to STHS. The sim and portal combo has been fantastic, and I want to thank everyone that contributed to the software. Team success within the sim has been a learning process for most, as expected. A team with a top line of Kariya-Cogliano-Havlat is challenging for 1st place although he has a sick DEF pair of Chara-Pronger which probably makes all the difference in this sim.

My question relates to finding success with my own team (http://bthlhockey.com/WCHF/team.php?team=1). It's a 20 team league. I've been a contender the last two seasons in FHL and made very little change when we converted to STHS. Here's been my preferred lineup with associated strategies and ice time:

Kovalchuk-Thornton-Holmstrom 1/0/4 40%
Sharp-Backstrom-Marleau 0/2/3 40%
Umberger-Fiddler-Franzen 2/2/1 10-15% *Franzen down here to protect his low DU
Umberger-McClement-Ward 1/4/0 5-10%

Timonen-Kubina 1/2/2 40%
Hejda-Wisniewski 2/2/1 35%
Greene-Giordano 1/2/2 20%
Timonen-O'Donnell 1/3/1 5%

Note 1: Team strategy is primarily 1/2/2
Note 2: Our Overall formula reflects FHL (internal reasons) so don't get confused with that.

My questions:
-I'm dead last in shots for and 3rd last in goals scored. I'm 5th last in shots allowed. I feel my team should be winning this battle more consistently considering I have Thornton, Backstrom, Kovalchuk, Marleau etc. Do you feel putting more emphasis on defensive strategy would help? Or more OFF strategy? I'm getting beat at both ends so I'm confused as to how to get out of this.
-Backstrom leads my team with 91 hits in 52 games even though his checking is only 74 and his line has 0/2/3 strategy. Meanwhile my 80+ checkers like Wisniewski and Hejda only have 53 and 61 hits respectively. What's going on here?
-Ratings-wise my defence is above-average but not top quality. It has a good mix though. Should I look for a top #1 dman or can I win with a balanced defence such as the one I have currently?

Overall I feel like I could turn my team's fortunes if I can start winning the shots battle. I've checked other similar threads and most people say be patient and try things. I've been tweaking a lot this season and the strategies shown here are the ones that have produced the best results (although not great results).

Any advice is greatly appreicated.

Thanks in advance,
Eric
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