Ok sounds good. Thank you again for the tips and I'll let you know how it goes Chuck! :-)

Anthony

Someone generously messaged me, and helped give me some pointers.

Great community! 10/10, honestly!

Posted by remaster1981 on 2/4/2023 2:55:00 AM (view original):
Hello all! Some may or may not remember from when i was playing last year. I came back about 2 years ago from many years away. I thought that i'd check in with this place and see what was new. I played a bunch of leagues and struggled. I kind of figured out how to make the playoffs, but that is about it. I've had discussions privately with a few ppl on here, and tried to apply what was told to me with little improvement. I just got fed up with it and havent been on here since June or so of last year. I need to ''go back to school" so to speak and start from scratch with this game and figure out what exactly i'm doing wrong. I'm tired of trying so hard and getting no results.

I have so many questions. I know the basics that ppl have told me over, and over, and over again with the core of the team: High sh% C with high assist and 1.5 shots per game or less, High D rated checker with very low shots, then a high sh% scorer(at least 20%) that averages at least 3 shots per game.If that's correct cool, if not, what should I be doing?

My follow up with this is, how important are your D ratings with your scorer and C? Should they be over 50 or 60, or does it not matter? Can you pick someone other than Lemieux and Gretzky, and win, or is is absolutely necessary to have 1 or both? They are just so damn expensive that it makes it damn near impossible to get a decent scoring 3rd/4th line and I just don't know who to pick for my 3rd and 4th line who dont have D ratings in the single digits and it never seems to really do well for me. Is there certain players from certain seasons that always do well, other than the obvious Lemieux and Gretzky seasons? Then is there some secret to knowing who to pair with who? Should your highest assist guy automatically be matched with your highest goal guy or does that not make a difference? For example, say you pair the 90-91 Adam Oates(61 Games played 90 assists) with the 51 Goal Mike Bullard, instead of Lemieux's 85 Goal season, would Bullard over perform, or would it dud because of how different each season's were? I did a season where i paired that Oates season with the 85 goal Lemieux season and they did great together. Also, do your wingers have to be in their natural position of Left or Right in order to perform? Or does it not matter? Have you had success with certain checkers paired with certain scorers? I feel like i'm probably way off base with how to construct my lines. lol.

I also THINK i know what to do for my D men: usually go with 93 D rated Al Arbour, Ted Harris and Alex Smith. Then choose from from 80 D Faulk, 87 D Klingberg, 95 D Letang, 94 D Daughty, 90 D Byfuglien and the cheap 69 D Gostibere. I usually go with Faulk, Klingberg and Byfuglien. Is that fine or is there some other combo that seems to work? Then, is there some secret as to knowing who to pair with who? Including PP?

I won't ask any more Q's for now. I apologize for bombarding everyone with so much at once. I'm not doing good personally and having some success with this would give me something to be happy about. In 21 post-seasons, i've made the Finals just ONE time. ONE, and that was when I played the first time around. Since coming back, the farthest i've made it is the Conference finals. Twice. I'm clearly doing something wrong and i'm tired of trying so hard and failing. So if anybody wants to take me on as their "student", i am 100% all ears. Ready and eager to get serious and figure this thing out.

You have the foundation for the Dmen well in hand. Food for thought , try running with 4D/5D that have assists. If you think about it , Letang/Daughty at 94/95D can be your smith/harris type with a Byf/Faulk/Kling/Gost , heck a Byf/Kling pairing is a 88.5D per average(very solid IMO). my idea is, with 4/5D with assists , maybe your "assist man" only needs say 60+A , maybe you can find your stud sniper a assist man that has a 19sht%+ and grift off their huge assist totals?

Duggan/Langlois/Helman are your go to 1/2/3 line Drating fillers , guys like Godin/Gainor/Larouchelle make for a super cheap 4th checking line (i set them to checking) then get some guys like 67D woit, 71d Mcmanus ,74D Jim Krulicki as your cheap injury fillers for God/Dugg/Lang.

Funny thing is, i always draft the core of my team first and they tend to be the super cheap Draters and subs.

I'm actually trying a D set of 95D Letang/80D Faulk(87.5D average)--90D Byf/87D Kling(88.5D average)--94D Daughty/69DGost(81.5D average) ,,Leta/Daught are my PKrs and the other 4 my PP
with 6 forwards with 19%+ sht and(shots taken balanced) and useful assists. Time will tell how it works out.

Posted by chuckinrlp on 2/8/2023 2:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Bruno421 on 1/16/2023 1:19:00 PM (view original):

Posted by CFSportsClub on 8/26/2022 5:55:00 PM (view original):
I'm getting better at hockey... 1 wall I've run into and it's a little weird... I'll be killing it early on... and then towards the end stretch (even when players are at 100% - randomly start losing 3-4 game stretches and only winning 1 or 2 in between. Is it something in the sim that causes that? Some hidden trigger?

Some players claim the engine has built in losing streaks. I don't think so. You put enough quarters in the machine and you'll see it all.

IMHO, it does Bruno. This question was asked of one of the developers and it was not denied. This was YEARS ago when someone at WIS gave a rip about the hockey sim.

OH yes, there is a built in losing streak ,

Posted by ncmusician_7 on 4/21/2017 6:03:00 PM (view original):
Does anyone have a theory as to why 14-15 Justin Faulk is so cheap?

OH yes i have a theory ,

check this out
2014/15 Letang,,,14/15 Doughty,,14/15 Faulk,,,14/15 Klingberg ,,

IF i recall correctly, when we switched over to needing/using/valuing assists from players it was only forwards that produced them.
Did we get a stealth patch to make D assists useful somewhere in 2014? Did they do it to make Orr valued?
Did they intentionally gift us 4 Dmen to try out after the 2014/15 season ended and add 2 more in 2016/17 in Byf/Gost?

or are they just the perfect storm of variables in their algorithm?

I lean towards "they gifted them to us" seeing how no D with usable Drating + assists is priced worth using before those 4 in the 70ms opens.
i ask,,,,, whats the point of tweaking the algorithm if they offer no Dmen to try it out?

I don't really have anything much new to add, however I have had a bit more fun the past few months either entering or just drafting some open league teams that adhere to a certain basic structure, and then get as weird as I can with it. Its been fun, and its free to do in exhibition leagues. I got to have Orr really shine but only on as a heavily used fwd and double-shifted on both pp pairs (none shorthanded),also only time using an extra attacker seemed to work for me. The team with 5 Adam Oates years in action fizzled in the conference playoffs but I couldn't believe they did that well. I wish WIS would just regularly shake up base stats for open leagues at a minimum. I would think they could do it easily within minimum dev time. That being said, if you are new to WIS hockey, having trouble, and are just looking for a way to compete in open leagues I would simply start by drafting the following:

Goalies:
Starting goalie less than 5 million with very high gp% (everything here is broad guidance intentionally, could have thread on each)
Backup with a heart beat

Defense:
The SIM overvalues several dmen quite a bit (insanely so). Selecting them to fill out your core will save you a ton to put in offense. Just review this thread for the names, WIS never adjusted their salaries I don't believe (they did tweak forward numbers). If you are pushing 30m in total d spending, you are pushing too far. I'd be weary of going below a 20m spend. I've had success with a pretty cookie cutter d core but adding something different with one or two. You can utilize partial year players (not too low), you can double shift on the powerplay, and there are options. However, at the end of your open league season, view the rosters for the top 4 teams, who is on every teams dcore? Its limiting for sure, and frustrating, but pick 3+ of those repeat names and go.

Offense:
Have fun. Seriously, this is the biggest variety you will find in open leagues. Be creative and I have seen surprising things, but I think the key to opens is being efficient with your d-core. Way back (15 years or so) high s% ruled the SIM, WIS reworked the SIM for more variety, and then even upped the open cap (also great for variety). A lot of successful open teams will have a Gretzky or Lemieux (or more) at high spend (8m+) essential, but you can find a different way

I'm drafting a Canucks team in a theme league with players available in 2010-11 or another season from their careers.
RW choices are a bit limited so wondering if I use a LW on a line, will he perform not as well as if he was in a RW slot?
Thanks!

Stumbled on this from 5 years ago:
https://help.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014108112-Will-playing-a-player-out-of-his-natural-position-hurt-his-performance-

Playing a lw on rw, or vice versa, appears to not make any difference