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- NOTES ON HOCKEY
-
-
- CONTENTS
-
- 1. Hockey Today
- a. Page 2
- b. Page 3
- c. Page 4
-
- 2. Head Coach
- a. Training
- b. Lines
- c. Preferences
- d. Position Switches
-
-
- 1. Hockey Today
-
- Hockey Today is the online sports section, where you can get all the stats
- for the league. The front page lists interesting game scores, either because
- of upsets or huge wins. Human-controlled teams are more likely to be listed
- than computer-controlled teams. Hockey today is organized like a newspaper,
- and has three inside pages. It is important to understand them all in order to
- play Hockey well.
-
- a. Page 2
-
- Standings. Lists the overall record, points (2*wins+ties), goals scored,
- and goals against for every team. Teams are ranked by points, with ties
- broken first by goals for, second by goals against, and lastly by rankings.
-
- Human Box Scores. A quick way to get your team's box scores. See "Team
- Stats" below for a description.
-
- Players of Day. Offensive and defensive stars from that day.
-
- Leaders. Lists league leaders in thirteen categories:
- -Goals
- -Assists
- -Points
- -Shooting percentage
- -Shots
- -Faceoff win percentage
- -Fight win percentage
- -Hits made per 60 minutes on the ice
- -Blocks made per 60 minutes on the ice
- -Goals against per 60 minutes (goalies)
- -Save percentage (goalies)
- -Wins (goalies)
- -Shutouts (goalies)
-
-
- b. Page 3
-
- Scores. A listing of all the scores from the current game day.
-
- Box Scores. All box scores. See "Team Stats" below for a description
-
- Team Stats. Asks for a team to select, and shows team stats and player
- stats and attributes. Player stats are as follows:
- -Player stats:
- -Games played
- -Minutes per game
- -Goals
- -Assists
- -Points
- -Shots
- -Faceoffs
- -Faceoffs won
- -Loose puck fights
- -Loose puck fights won
- -Hits made
- -Blocks attempted
- -Blocks made
- -Shooting percentage
- -Position
- -Goalie stats:
- -Games played
- -Minutes per game
- -Goals against
- -Shots against
- -Wins
- -Losses
- -Ties
- -Shutouts
- -Save percentage
- -Position
- -Abilities:
- -Shooting
- -Aggression
- -Intelligence
- -Checking
- -Skating
- -Passing
- -Puck control
- -Training level
- -Penalty minutes
- -Plus-minus
- -Plus-minus per 60 minutes
- -Rest level (100%=fully rested)
- -Position
- -Age
- -Injury: estimated days until recovered, severity (A=least, P=most severe),
- type of injury (A=leg, B=arm, C=both, D=concussion)
- -Play injured: Maximum injury serverity that the player will play under
-
- A note about the terminology here. A "hit" is a successful check (one that
- separates the person from the puck). A "fight" is when two players are
- both going for the puck, as opposed to a fist fight. A block can happen if
- a player tries to block a shot on goal or break up a pass.
-
- Also worth noting is that the goalie abilities, while displayed the same as
- those of other players, are somewhat different. Shooting for a goalie is
- shot defense, aggression is how often the goalie comes out of the goal,
- skating is how well he moves around the net, and puck control is how likely
- he is to control rebounds.
-
- Analysis. This gives an overview of the performance of each position in a
- team, looking at various aspects of the game. For each, two numbers are
- given: the actual value and the rating compared to other teams, from 1 to
- 10. The statistical categories are as follows:
- -Players
- -Goals per 60 minutes
- -Assists per 60 minutes
- -Shooting percentage
- -Faceoffs won per 60 minutes
- -Hits per 60 minutes
- -Blocks per 60 minutes
- -Goalies
- -Goals against per 60 minutes
- -Save percentage
-
-
- c. Page 4
-
- Schedules. Schedules and past scores for all teams.
-
- Rankings. A computer ranking, listing all teams from best to worst. The
- ranking system is only important in the game as a remote tiebreaker (after
- games won, goals scored, and goal differential).
-
- Lines. Projected favorites and spreads for the coming game, based on the
- rankings. Even if the spread is 0, the team listed first is the favorite.
-
- Info. You can get a listing of past champions, player and coaching
- awards, league records, the hall of fame, and draft pick trading.
-
-
- 2. Duties of the coach
-
- The coach takes care of the day-to-day preparations for coming games. He
- does nothing at all during the offseason except for running the training
- camps.
-
-
- a. Training
-
- During training camps, and before each game, you get the option to train
- your team. The training options are shooting, passing, defense, and
- conditioning. In training camps you get 10 days, which should all be used.
- Before the games, however, you get up to 6 points of training but do not
- need to use them all. In fact, the more you train, the more fatigued your
- team will start the game. Game training selections are made from the
- preferences menu of the coaching screen.
-
- The benefits your players get from training are dependant on the training
- skills of the assistant coaches.
-
-
- b. Setting lines
-
- Hockey has seven sets of lines. The first three are used in five-man
- situations (other than power play). Scoring lines are used if trailing
- in the third period, or if trailing by more than two in the second.
- Defensive lines are used in the opposite cases, namely ahead in the third
- or ahead by more than two in the second. Otherwise, the plain five-man
- lines are used. Every team has three of each type of line, plus a
- fourth set of players used as reserves in case of injury. The final type
- of five-man line is the power play line, used in 5-on-4 situations, of
- which there are two lines plus reserves. In five-man lines, there should
- be one player from each position on the line.
-
- The fifth and sixth line types are the 4-man penalty-killing lines, used
- in 4-on-5 situations, and the standard 4-man lines, used at other times
- (principally during overtime). There are two penalty-killing lines and
- three normal 4-man lines, plus a set of reserves for each. In four-man
- lines, centers can play in either forward spot.
-
- Finally, every team has two three-man lines (plus the reserve line), which
- are used whenever your team has three skaters. There should be a single
- forward and two defensemen (one LD, one RD).
-
- To change the players assigned to a line, select lines from the main
- coaching menu, the type of line, and one of the positions. You are given
- a menu listing all of the eligible players for that line, of which the
- top two or three (depending on line type) are assigned to lines, and the
- third or fourth (again depending on line type) is the reserve. Players
- below that will not be used.
-
- You can also control the way that each line plays. Again from the line
- menu (after selecting line type), you may select "options" to set how the
- line plays defensively and offensively. There are eight play settings,
- which can be set from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).
- -Aggression: Hit more, get more penalties. A fairly safe option on a
- penalty kill line, since it's tough to get a second penalty.
- -Neutral zone trap: try to force the opponent to dump & chase on their
- attack. Forces your team to play more conservative offense.
- -Backchecking: Bring the wings down low on defense to play tougher
- defense near the net. Makes breakaways harder and gives more breathing
- room at the points.
- -Wing Breakaway Attempt: Try to send the wings ahead to get breakaway
- chances. Weakens point defense.
- -Long NZ Passes: Try to get the puck ahead quickly; opposite is short,
- safer passes.
- -Neutral Zone Regroup: Pass backward if the attack isn't working well.
- Opposite is to press on regardless.
- -Dump & Chase: Knock the puck into the neutral zone if the attack isn't
- working well. Opposite is to try to bring the puck in under control.
- -Patient Passing: Pass around until a good shot opens up. Opposite is
- to force a shot quickly.
- Each player on a line may also be given one or more assignments:
- -Shooter: Try to get the puck to him and let him shoot.
- -Passer: Try to use him in passing the puck, both in the neutral zone and
- offensive zone.
- -Handler: Try to use him to advance the puck himself in the neutral zone.
- -Forechecker: Generally a wing, use him to forecheck on defense.
- -Screen/Rebound: Try to get him in front of the net to screen or
- deflect shots, and to try to get rebounds.
-
- You can also change the amount that each line is used. All twelve lines (four
- sets of three lines each) have a number from one to five, with five being the
- most used line.
-
-
- c. Game preferences
-
- In addition to the play settings for each line, there are a handful of
- global preferences that can be set. First are the backup goalkeeper
- settings. The "backup" setting determines how likely the backup keeper
- is to start if the starter is tired. The higher (5 is the highest), the
- more likely. Second is "pull GK", which sets if and when you pull your
- goalie at the end of a game to try to get a score. Finally is "sub GK",
- which replaces your starting goalie if the game is getting out of hand,
- in order to hopefully have him rested the next night.
-
- Normally, if a player is injured he will not play. But you can override that
- to make them play. Note that an injured player is more likely to get
- injured than a healthy player, so you are taking a risk by doing this. If
- a player is injured, his attributes will get diminished according to the
- injury level. An injury level of A is a 6.25% penalty, B is 12.5%, three
- is 18.75%, and so on. Level P is a 100% penalty, meaning the player would
- be useless. You can set the maximum leg injury and maximum arm injury
- the player will play with. A player with both an arm and leg injury or
- a concussion will not play unless his injury level is lower than both
- settings you have given him.
-
-
- d. Position switches
-
- This is a good tool if you have players who are ineffective in their given
- position, but would be much better in a different one. The drawback is
- that the players switched will take some time to adjust to the move, during
- which time their abilities are reduced. There are no limitations on player
- position changes, except that continual changes will keep decreasing the
- player's attributes.
-
-
- copyright (c) 1993-2000 by Andy Dolphin
-