Help a Hockey noob save his season - and beat his roomates

[underdog13]

Hey All,

Not sure where to start, but I'm in a NHL24 season, fantasy draft with my roommates. I've new to hockey, but I've been putting in a lot of time trying to learn both the sticks and strategy. The season started off well, I was like 6-0-0 to start and I beat both roommates in our first versus games. But after some difficulty increases and now playing with more realistic and slower game speed sliders, I am starting to falter. I've lost both my last 2 division match ups against my roommates, and I'm on a bad skid overall against the CPU. We are now on All Star difficulty with 1/6 on the extra difficulty slider.

Hopefully, others find the post interesting because I need advice both from NHL the video game and the sport of Hockey perspective. I think I made a few mistakes on draft night (too much speed), that at the time I thought worked with the gameplay. However the slower speed means hitting, and balance is more important.

Details



Standings so far - I am the New York Islanders

I went 2-2 versus the Capitals in division play, and 1-2 versus the Hurricanes. (I started 3-0 vs Users, and now have dropped 4 straight).

I've made a few trades, but I think I need to make 1 or 2 more before the trade deadline. I also know I need to adjust tactics, and just play better.

Due to the season mode nature, our team OVR's are slightly higher than most CPU teams due to the A.I drafting for potential as well even though there will be no second season.

Current Roster

Injured Currently: Jack Hughes (he will be back in a few games)










My Thoughts:

So tactics wise I have mostly been running with:

Forecheck: 2-3 (tried 1-2-2 aggressive for a bit, got killed with it against the trap)

Neutral Zone: 1-2-2 Red (My roomates run 1-3-1 and 1-4, I really struggle against the trap, not sure if I should join them with the trap or not)

Defensive Pressure: Gone from contain puck, normal, and puck side attack often

Usually I am normal on trap/forecheck, but I have been playing one notch up on the forecheck more recently.

Offensive Formation: Around the Net, I've tried all three and started with Overload, but Around the Net seems to work the best. Lost the last two games on crash the net.

Offensive Pressure: Conservative/Normal (Thinking I may need to increase this to aggressive due to my offensive defensemen. Dumb idea? )

Defensive Zone: Collapsing (I play staggered vs Users).

My personal strengths and weaknesses

My Strengths: Skating with puck, dancing/avoiding defenders, poke checking, faceoffs, hitting (mostly)

My Weaknesses: Shooting, anything infront of the net, getting players to do what I expect, passing.

Potential Trades

I have already made a few, the most recent being trading J. Gaudreau for J. Tavares. That move allowed me to move Hughes to the wing and Tavares took over the first line center. (Trying to address my weakness infront of the net).

We have trades on hard and they do need to be reasonably fair with the CPU. I was thinking about trading two guys, Zuccarello and Soros. With Zucc, he is just another smaller, not super fast or great shooter. He is a great skater and passer, I just think I need a bigger forward to pair with Hughes on the first line. I also think I need one more good defensemen, like a defensive defensemen.

In an ideal world.... Trading 87ovr Zuccarello for two 85's? (Defensemen and FWD)

The other trade with Soros is more controversial in my mind. Soros just doesn't seemt to play up to his 89OVR. He has low (83) endurance, and 87 rating on high shots. If I could trade down with him and get an 86-87 OVR goalie, that had better endurance and high glove, and high stick save ratings. Paired, with an 83-84 ovr FWD to help give more depth to compete against my roomates teams. Any thoughts on that or is that a backwards move? Right now his save% is exactly 90%


Would love to hear everyone's thoughts, I can post more details and screengrabs, etc.