Your Playing Philosophy
The tactics page is your command center. Here you decide how your team performs. The settings directly influence the match simulation — every decision has consequences on the ice.
Mentality — Defensive, Balanced or Aggressive?
Play defensively and your goalie stands safer while you take fewer penalties — but your offense suffers. Aggressive brings more shots on goal, but also more penalty minutes. The golden middle is balanced. Your choice depends on the opponent: against an offensive top team, a defensive setup can be clever.
Forechecking — Hunting the Puck
With high forechecking you hunt the opponent in their own zone — that brings puck recoveries and chances, but costs energy. Deep forechecking is more conservative: you pull back, wait for counters, and keep penalties low.
Neutral Zone — The Control Center
Three variants: Standard (solid middle ground), Trap (you build a wall — few chances of your own, but the opponent barely gets through), and Pressing (early attacking, high risk). The neutral zone is the switch point between offense and defense — here you win or lose the transition.
Physicality — How Rough Should It Be?
Controlled: few penalties, few injuries — your players stay healthy. Physical: your team checks anything that moves. That intimidates the opponent, but the penalty box fills up and injury risk rises sharply.
| Play Style | Penalty Risk | Injury Risk | When to use? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🧊 Controlled | Very low | Very low | Against aggressive teams, with a thin roster |
| ⚖️ Balanced | Normal | Normal | Standard for most games |
| 💥 Physical | High | High | In decisive games, with a deep roster |
Rock-Paper-Scissors — Tactic Counters
Tactics have built-in counters: Defensive catches aggressive — the opponent runs into a wall. High forechecking against a trap defense bounces off. Pressing in the neutral zone breaks through deep forechecking. Watch your opponent and adjust to them!
In the match analysis, you can see after each game which tactic counters were effective. Use this info for the return leg!
Power Play and Penalty Kill
Your power play style (man advantage) and penalty kill style (short-handed) are separate tactical decisions. Aggressive penalty kill provokes more opponent errors — but if the opponent breaks through, it gets dangerous. A safe box PK minimizes goals against but generates hardly any chances of its own.
Pulling the Goalie
In the final minutes when you're trailing, you can automatically pull the goalie for an extra skater. That brings more pressure forward — but an empty-net goal against is then just a formality. High risk, sometimes the last chance.