The VHL needs you, underappreciated and relatively boring Shutdown forwards!

[Shindigs 1,771]

Meta = Dead, Meta Mentality = Alive

So with the meta not being a thing anymore, what most clicker(esque) earners seem to have decided to do, is try and still build scoring forwards. Like we're still in S82. Because you know that stuff worked back then, slap 99 SC on that bad boy. Slap 99 DF on that bad boy! Slap some amount of SK and PH and let's call it a day and still score like 130 points in your rookie season or something. Why not?

 

Well that doesn't really work anymore. I haven't looked at it much this season, but last season I compiled all forwards in the VHL and looked at how their scoring related to their SC and PA. Mostly to see if the few and far between pass first forwards like Mason Jones (who had an amazing rookie season) could possibly be onto something. Well that was very much inconclusive, but what it did highlight instead was that outside of Shane Lazeski being blessed by Simon for whatever reason, building low TPE scorers just doesn't work. Because at its core what you are trying to do is the exact same thing the 800+ TPE scoring forwards are doing, but with less TPE.

 

Get Gapped On!

In a nutshell in STHS you are trying to gap people. You are trying to have MORE SC than the next guy has DF. So your shot doesn't get blocked, more SK/ST/PH than that guy has CK so that you absorb his check. More PA than DF so at least some passes actually connect. More DF than the next guy so you can be the superior puck Black Hole, rather than him. That's not even a STHS thing, that's just a game system thing in general. It's pretty universal. So then it makes quite a lot of sense that if it is your goal is to gap people. But all you're doing is the exact same thing the "star" forwards are doing. All you are really doing is "letting" them gap you. Because if you have 78 SC. They have 85 SC. If you have 72 DF. They have 85 DF. And so on and so forth, as long as you're trying to build the same player they are doing with less TPE. You are setting yourself up to lose at their game.

 

Rise up and overcome the shackles of our Scoring overlords

So what is an enterprising clicker with a heart of gold, set on being a positive impact in the VHL, to do? Well, make a Shutdown forward. With how much DF drives offense in STHS, you'll likely get about as many points as you are now, by trying to to force scoring at the cost of DF. Since you'll actually get to touch the puck a lot more. So cast off the shackles of SC and embrace our lord and savior DF. If you don't have 80 DF in the VHL, you are doing yourself a disservice. You are letting everyone else gap you on DF, which means they get to touch the puck...but you don't. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, no matter how high your SC is, and if you don't get to touch the puck. You sure won't be taking many shots.

 

So build yourself a nice Shutdown forward and your VHL GM will probably love you for it. Besides, building the only SDF when everyone else is building a scorer is the Hipster move. And who doesn't love hipsters? Don't answer that.

[jacobcarson877 2,578]

This is objectively correct and I will die on this hill. You deserve both a reaction and a comment for this.

[dlamb 1,328]

DF > SC gang

[Anthique 227]

Well that an interresting view. 

Might not be a defensive Lord, but Defense is something I will definitely get better.

[der meister 3,259]

I agree. That's why my player is what he is.

[BOOM 8,844]

So I shouldn't have put all my tpe into Grit? 

 

FFS.