By design

[JCarson 730]

The drawbacks by design 

 

When I first decided to build Felicia Hardy the plan was to build a defensively minded defender who focuses on puck handling, skating, physical play, and strong play in the defensive zone. I feel that I have stuck with that plan so far.  I am currently in my second season in the VHL, taking up a constant position on the second defensive line for HC Davos Dynamo. Currently my player statistics are as follows: 

 

Checking 67, Skating 89, Strength 57, Puck Handling 88, Passing 88, Scoring 62, and Defense 93. 

 

At this point, the build is getting more difficult to advance.  Instead of taking 1 or 2 TPE to move forward it is taking 3, 5, 8 and even 10 TPE just to advance one position, and multiple advancements to move up one full point in any category.  AS I know I will have some additional growth, but it will be limited.  I want to suggest that I am reasonably happy with how my player is integrating with the team. 

 

To be honest I am finding it hard to evaluate pure defensive play within the Sim reporting structure. Stats like +/-, hits and blocked shots can provide some basis for evaluation, but it doesn’t provide any relevance for things like puck retrieval, steals, pass interception and defensive zone clearing.  Potentially we have an issue in that the system is focused on offensive output and so is not designed to provide an adequate measure of defensive effectiveness.  Potentially one day we will get some additional statistics but until then I may need to just accept what is available. 

 

Now I also find that I am surprised by the outcome that I have had. In my first season I was tied for second among rookies in offensive performance with 65 points.  This season I am running slightly ahead of a point per game pace with 33 points in 31 games.  I will admit that level of production is beyond anything that I was expecting given the focus away from the scoring statistic.  The fact that I am being involved in the offensive side of the game is a huge plus to the team. 

 

Now all this said I must wonder how Felicia Hardy would be doing if they got the opportunity to play on the top line with the higher offense players on the team.  Would Felicia’s offensive output be even higher is they got more time with the likes of Antonia Bucatini and Grimgor Ironhide. At this point I don’t expect that we will find out, but it is something to ponder. 

 

For now, I keep earning TPE, keep training, and keep preparing for the day that Felicia takes the reigns of the top defensive pairing.  I expect that it will happen in the next couple seasons as it gets exceedingly difficult for a GM to not have an above 1000TPE player not playing top minutes, but I plan on making it difficult for it not to happen sooner. In the meantime, I continue putting everything into the decisions I have made, even if they have drawback in the present. 

[VattghernCZ 983]

Imo, we don't really have a way to  measure defense. 

 

+/- is a team/line stat. I'd only put stock in it if the player in question is either significantly above or significantly below team average.

 

Hits - are they always a defensive play? Irl, an ill-timed hit is an irresponsible play. Sure, physicality is an important part of defending, but really a hit is a good defensjve play only if your team gains possession after the hit. But this stat isn't tracked here. In STHS, if you hit the opponent and another opponent gets to the loose puck first, did the hit really matter apart from your individual stats?

 

Shots blocked - well, you can only block a shot if you allow an opponent to control the puck in your defensive zone...how about playing better defense? Pushing them along the boards, to the corners, limiting their chances?

 

Until we have a shot map, there's no way to really evaluate individual defensive impact imo. You know I'm building a defense-first D-man as well. The way I'll be evaluating if he's doing good will be looking at team defense stats - mostly shots against and puck time in defensive zone.