Player form and happiness

Every player carries three readings: Confidence, Fitness and Happiness. You find them on the Overview of his player page and in his player panel. Confidence is his form, his belief in his own game; happiness is how he feels about his situation at the club. Both change how well he plays. Fitness is covered on training and development.

Confidence

Confidence is a player’s belief in his own game. It reads, from worst to best, Anxious, Uncomfortable, Ok, Good and Perfect. On the roster’s Table, the Condition column shows it for everyone as an arrow, which takes a color, with the word on a wider screen, when he drops below Ok. It follows how he plays, a small step at a time, so a run of games builds it or breaks it.

If a player keeps losing confidence, read “What we ask of him” in his game reports: if his nights keep falling short of what his role asks, a role he fits better asks for things his game is built for. See player roles.

On the ice

A confident player plays above his ratings and a doubting one below them, in everything he does on the ice; for a goalie, that includes stopping the puck. Confidence is weighed together with his happiness and, for a skater, the dressing room, and together they can only lift or sink him so far. Ratings still decide more.

During a game his confidence moves with every play, and his play follows it, so a player who starts well can grow into the game.

• It lifts when he wins a faceoff, creates a chance, scores or sets one up, stops a chance, wins a loose puck, takes the puck away, lands a hit, wins a fight or carries out his line’s focus. A goal lifts everyone on the ice, and the game-winning goal lifts the scorer most of all.
• It dents when he loses a faceoff in either end, gives the puck away, is on the ice for a goal against, misses a chance, takes a hit, loses a fight, fails his line’s focus or is rattled by a checking line.
• A goalie gains with his saves and loses with the goals he lets in. The goalie who is pulled loses confidence, and the one who comes in gains.

After the game

After a regular-season or playoff game, his confidence takes one small step toward where the game left it. A big night and a decent one move it by the same step, so a single game never swings it far. A player low on confidence climbs back to the usual level faster than a confident player climbs above it.

Where the game left it includes how his game measured up to his role. Each skater who played measures his game against what his role asks of him: a game that meets it pushes the step up, and one that falls short pulls it down, together with everything else he did on the ice. What each role looks for is on player roles and defenseman roles. A goalie is judged on his save percentage and the goals he allowed, and a shutout counts most. The game report shows how each player measured up under “What we ask of him”.

A few things move it outside his own play:

• Sitting out. A healthy scratch loses a little confidence for each regular-season or playoff game he sits out. An injured player does not.
• The three stars. Being named one of the game’s three stars lifts a player whose confidence reads Uncomfortable or Anxious, the first star most. A player already at Ok or better gets no lift from it.
• The preseason. Every skater who plays in a preseason game gains confidence, whatever the result, and preseason games never cost confidence; a goalie’s stays where it was. See friendly games.
• A new season. Confidence is reset when a season begins. A player who finished the last season strongly starts at Ok; everyone else starts at Uncomfortable, and those who finished poorly a little lower.
• The trade block. A player whose personality leans hard toward Cocky, Follower and Nervy takes being put on the trade block badly: while he is on it, his confidence never counts for more than Uncomfortable on the ice, and each regular-season or playoff game brings a higher reading back down to Uncomfortable. Preseason games and the new-season reset can still leave it reading higher.

Form arrows

An arrow next to a player shows his confidence at a glance: ↑ for Perfect, ↗ for Ok or Good, → for Uncomfortable, ↘ for Anxious. The first two are green, the third gray and the last orange. You see it beside Confidence on the Overview of his player page, in the roster Table’s Condition column and under Your players here on an affiliate’s page.

The arrow shows where his confidence stands now, not which way it is moving. To see where it is heading, compare it from game to game, or read “What we ask of him” in the game report.

Happiness

Happiness is how content a player is with his situation. It reads, from worst to best, Miserable, Unhappy, Frustrated, Concerned and Happy. A player is Happy unless something weighs on him. To find out what, look under Morale in the Transfer section of his player page, then fix what you can.

Where you see it

• His player page and panel: Happiness, on the Overview of his page and in his panel.
• Morale, in the Transfer section of his player page: his general happiness and a list of what is on his mind, worries first. “No standing concerns.” means nothing is.
• The roster: the Happiness column shows the word. On a phone it is a dot: red for Unhappy or Miserable, orange for Frustrated, blue for Concerned, green for Happy.
• Role assignments: an orange dot marks a player who wants another role. See player roles.
• The game report: “What we ask of him” says what he signed for or wants, how he takes his ice time and role, and whether he is happy with how he has played.

What weighs on a player

The labels below are the ones Morale shows.

• Role and ice time (Unhappy with role, Very unhappy with role, Happy with role). From a little way into the regular season until it ends, he weighs his recent games, his minutes and the role he played, against what he signed for, or against what he wants if he does not hold to his contract. A scratch counts against him, and the bigger the role he expects, the more it counts. A goalie weighs his share of the starts. A player at the Loyal end of his personality (his greed reads Modest or Easy-going) never minds his role or his ice time.
• His own form (Unhappy with own form, Happy with own form). The same measure of his night against his role that moves his confidence after a game also weighs on his happiness. A run of recent games that falls short leaves him unhappy with his own form, and a run that lives up to it leaves him happy with it.
• His contract (Concerned about contract, Unhappy with contract, Very unhappy with contract). Only in the last year of his deal, never on an entry-level contract and not once a new one is agreed: he would no longer sign the deal he has today. See player contracts.
• The club (Doubtful about the club, Low interest in the club, No interest in the club). From the second year of his contract, unless he has agreed a new one. He rates the club on its league against the level he has been playing at, on how the team is doing, and on the league’s and the club’s reputation.
• Outside interest (Flattered by outside interest). An ambitious player wanted by a club in a higher league.
• His assignment (Unhappy with assignment). He is assigned to an affiliate whose league is well below his level.
• The room (Struggling to settle in, Settled at the club). How well his personality fits his teammates’. A player with a big reputation can also single out one teammate (Clashes with a teammate, Enjoys a teammate).
• A national call-up (Proud of national call-up).

The game checks every few days, and right after a trade or a signing. Each check reads his situation as it is now, so when the cause is gone, so is the worry. Good things on his mind offset his worries, but he never reads better than Happy.

If he shows Unhappy with role, read “What we ask of him” in his latest game report: it says what he signed for or wants. Give him that role and those minutes, or weigh what it costs to keep him without them. If he shows Unhappy with assignment, he is too good for your affiliate’s league: recall him, or weigh the cost the same way.

What unhappiness costs

• On the ice. A Happy player plays at his level. Anything less costs him, and the unhappier he is, the more. Happiness never lifts a player above his level.
• Development. When he grows unhappy with his own form, his current form can drop; when he grows happy with it, it can rise. Current form speeds or slows his development, and it shows as Current form under Development on his player page. See training and development.
• The dressing room. When a share of your roster grows unhappy, teamwork and winner instinct drop, and contract worries pull winner instinct down further. See team spirit and focus.
• His career. An unhappy player retires sooner, and the unhappier he is, the sooner. A veteran who is both unhappy and short of confidence starts to decline sooner; one who is content and confident holds his level a little longer.

Worth knowing

• The form arrow shows where a player’s confidence stands, not which way it is moving.
• After a game, a big night and a decent one move a player’s confidence by the same small step.
• Being named one of the three stars lifts only a player whose confidence reads Uncomfortable or Anxious.
• A healthy scratch loses a little confidence for each regular-season or playoff game he sits out.
• A player at the Loyal end of his personality never grows unhappy with his role or his ice time.