Lineup

Your lineup is the team you send out: who dresses, who plays with whom, how much each line and pair plays and what job it has. Set it once and it stands for every game until you change it.

Setting the lineup

Open Edit lineup from the Actions menu on your team page, pick a spot on the rink, and press Insert on the player you want there. When every spot is filled, press Save lineup.

The screen has your roster on one side and the rink on the other: four forward lines, three defense pairs, two power-play units, two penalty-kill units, the shootout and your goalies. You also reach Edit lineup from the button above your roster and from the game page before a game.

To place a player:

1. Pick a spot on the rink. The roster panel shows what you are picking for — the spot and its focus, or its power-play or penalty-kill tactic.
2. Press Insert on the player you want. He takes the spot.

Pick the same spot again to let it go. On a computer you can also drag a player onto a spot, from the roster or from another spot. Moving a player to a spot in the same group as his current one swaps him with whoever is there; a player from the bench takes the spot, and the player who held it loses it.

Lines and pairs count as one group, so a player skates on only one of them. Each power-play and penalty-kill unit is its own group, so a player can skate a line and also work on special teams. Goalies only go in goalie spots, and an injured player can’t be dressed.

What the screen tells you:

• Each filled spot shows the player’s Overall and the role he plays. “Auto” before the role means no role is assigned and he plays his natural one. Roles are explained on player roles.
• Each unit card shows its Familiarity — how well these players know each other from games together. See lineup chemistry.
• On the roster, each row shows the spots a player holds, and a scratched marker for anyone not dressed. Click a name to open the player’s panel without leaving the lineup.
• An orange dot marks a spot that Auto set or that has changed since you last saved.

Saving. The save bar keeps count: Dressed must read 20/20 (18 skaters and 2 goalies), and Lines and Pairs must each read 100% ice time. Then press Save lineup and confirm. Everyone you did not dress is scratched. A scratched player sits out and rests. To look over your lineup without opening Edit lineup, choose the Depth layout beside Table and Cards on your roster; see roster.

Ice time

Each line and pair gets a share of the shifts. Give the most to your best units, and spread the minutes when players start to tire.

The share decides how the shifts are dealt out in every period: the next shift goes to the line or pair with the most of its share left. Power plays and penalty kills are played by the special-teams units and fall outside this rotation, so a game with many penalties moves the real minutes around.

Ice time has a cost. The more a player plays, the harder the game is on his fitness, and a player with a better Endurance rating carries more. A tired or exhausted player plays worse and is more likely to get hurt. If a player shows Tired, give his line less ice time or scratch him for a game; light minutes and a night off both let him recover.

Line focus

Each forward line has a job at even strength, and you choose it. Match the job to the players: if your top line holds your snipers and playmakers, a Scoring focus suits it; a line of grinders or enforcers suits Checking or Energy.

Every shift (a scoring line only when it has the puck), each player on the line tries to do that job. When the line pulls it off, the team gains momentum; when it falls short, the team loses some. A player who does his job gains confidence, and one who fails loses some. The focus you set plays no part on the power play or penalty kill.

How well a player does the job depends on his game and on his role: the focus asks for certain things, and his role either suits it or not. How well he plays that role matters too.

Focus	Its job	What it does well	What it costs
Scoring	Create chances and finish them	Builds offensive momentum when it attacks; more chances and better finishing	Weaker in its own end
Two-way	Play both ends	Builds momentum at whichever end the play is	No edge either way
Checking	Shut down and wear down the other side	Stronger defending; a successful shift lifts your defense, dents the opponent’s attack and can rattle the line it faces	Fewer chances and weaker finishing, and it keeps chipping away at your offensive momentum
Energy	Play physical and lift the bench	A successful shift lifts momentum at both ends and takes it from the opponent, more so when your team’s momentum is low; a failed shift costs the team no momentum	Fewer chances and weaker finishing

A checking line leans on defending, body checking and a dirty streak, and it raises the injury risk for the players it faces; a scoring line lowers it. An energy line leans on body checking, spirit and skating.

At home you have the last change: when the visitors send out a scoring line, your coach answers with a rested checking line if you have one. If you have a checking line, keep it fresh: at home it goes out against the visitors’ scoring line.

Pair focus

Each defense pair has a job too. If a pair has an offensive defenseman, Support offense suits him; a stay-at-home defenseman suits Stay at home; a two-way defenseman suits any focus.

It works the same way as a line’s focus: tried every shift at even strength (a support-offense pair only when it has the puck), and momentum and confidence follow success or failure.

Focus	Its job	What it does well	What it costs
Support offense	Join the attack	Builds offensive momentum when it attacks; more chances	Gives up more in its own end
Stay at home	Protect the net	Stronger defending; a successful shift also dents the opponent’s attack	Fewer chances and weaker finishing
Match line	Follow the forwards	Takes on the strengths of the line it is out with	Takes on that line’s weaknesses too
Dynamic	Play both ends	Builds momentum at whichever end the play is	No edge either way

Defenseman roles are on defenseman roles.

Slot fit

When you pick a spot, the roster tells you who suits it and lists the best fits first. If you are unsure who belongs there, Suggested is a fair start: it weighs his Overall and his fit.

• Ideal fit, Good fit, Fair fit, Poor fit — on a line or pair, how his role suits that unit’s focus. Change the focus and the words change with it.
• Off position — a center on the wing, or a winger at center. He plays a little weaker there, and his fit word drops a step.
• A forward on defense or a defenseman up front gets no fit word. He plays clearly weaker there at even strength.
• Suggested — the best pick for the spot among players who can play and are not exhausted, weighing his Overall and his fit (on special teams, his fit alone).

While a spot is picked, the roster rows show the three ratings that count most there. The rest of the time they show the ratings you chose in the Show menu above the roster.

Special teams

You fill two power-play units and two penalty-kill units; the first unit plays most of the special-teams time. Here the fit word tells you how a player’s ratings suit your power-play or penalty-kill tactic, and you don’t set a focus.

A power-play unit has three forwards and two defensemen; a penalty-kill unit has a center, a forward and two defensemen. The forwards and the defense pair are sent out separately, so the two units mix. Position counts for nothing on special teams, so a forward can play the point on the power play. When fewer skaters are on the ice, one spot of the unit sits out for that shift: the right wing on a four-on-three power play; the forward, not the center, on a three-man penalty kill.

Shootout

Pick up to five shooters in the order you want them to shoot. Each must be dressed on a line or a pair.

The shootout card has five spots, and the number is the shooting order. An empty spot goes to your best remaining shooter, and the card shows who that is. Auto never picks your shooters, but a shooter it moves off the lines and pairs loses his shootout spot.

Goalies

Name a Starter and a Backup. The starter plays the game; the backup comes in if the starter is pulled or hurt.

A starter is pulled only when you are behind and he is having a bad night — how readily is your Switch goalie choice in tactics.

Auto

Auto builds the lineup for you, and nothing is saved until you press Save lineup. If you only lost a player or two, Fill gaps keeps the rest of your work; if you want a fresh start, Start over. It has three choices:

• Fill gaps — fills the empty spots. Everyone you placed stays, unless he can’t play.
• Rebuild lines — places everyone again. Your focus and ice time per line stay.
• Start over — the standard focus and ice time, and everyone placed again. The standard setup runs from a scoring first line to an energy fourth line, with the most ice time for the top units.

Auto puts your best players on the lines and pairs with the most ice time, then picks the player whose role suits each unit’s focus. It skips anyone who can’t play or is exhausted. Look the lineup over, change what you like, and save as usual. Undo Auto puts the lineup back as it was.

If spots are still empty and your affiliate has players who could fill them, Auto offers to recall them. Nothing happens unless you press Recall and fill, and each recall needs room under your cap. See affiliate teams.

On a phone, Auto and Saved lineups sit behind Lineup options.

Saved lineups

Saved lineups keep lineups you want to come back to, such as one for home games and one for a back-to-back. There are five slots: slot 1 for every manager, slots 2 to 5 with Premium.

• Save here stores the lineup on screen in that slot under a name you give it. It must meet the same rules as Save lineup, and it does not change the lineup your team plays.
• Load puts a saved lineup on screen, focus and ice time included, after asking first. It replaces what is on screen, and changes you haven’t saved are lost. Players who are injured or no longer with the club are left out, and their spots stay empty. Nothing is saved until you press Save lineup.

A default lineup saved on the old site shows as Default in slot 1. If Premium lapses, the lineups in slots 2 to 5 are kept and load again when Premium returns.

On game day

Your saved lineup is what the team plays. If a player can’t play by game time, the best available player at his position on your roster takes his spot; when you have no one there, the game looks further, as roster explains.

That stand-in stays in the spot after the game, so put your player back once he can play again. If your starter can’t play, the backup starts and another goalie backs him up. During the game, a player in the penalty box or hurt on the ice is covered shift by shift by the best player available.

Worth knowing

• At home you have the last change: when the visitors send out a scoring line, a rested checking line of yours goes out against it.
• A game-day stand-in keeps the spot after the game until you put your own player back.
• A checking line raises the injury risk for the players it faces; a scoring line lowers it.
• An energy line that fails its job costs the team no momentum, and it lifts the team more when your momentum is low.
• The fit word reads only how his role suits the focus; his own game and how well he plays that role decide the rest.