My EASHL Defensive Builds

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@Deeboo_91 wrote:

Hello, fellow D-men. I wanted to make a new thread because I didn't want this to be buried in my other D-rant thread. I know people were asking about builds, so I'm going to share mine. I've been primarily a 5v5/6v6 player and will play drop in 3's. My record as of now is 42-12-3 (almost identical to my club's but I didn't play all club games) when I'm on the ice and I average about a point a game. Here are the builds I've found to be mostly useful to combat how pathetically one-sided offense vs defense is for yet another year of NHL where the defense has to do the most adapting while the offense pirouettes all over the ice.

Right Click + Open as Image to see a bigger version of the pics below

Here's my 3's build. 

Fast, maneuverable, and can hit. Blue-line challenging and protecting the cross-crease is key here. There are people here that will say using Truck is a crutch. My response? Playing defense is a crutch. Get over it. Even making big hits with Truck puts you out of position enough that you need to trust your teammates to use it effectively. As with last year, you're sacrificing scoring goals for setting up your teammates if you choose to jump into the play. I'd stay away from pokes if you're not sure how it's going to go, but I've been getting good bumps with this build. Beware though, Power Forwards wearing Truck AND Unstoppable will be your worst enemy.

 5's and 6's build.

This build is a beast and will make forwards suffer to the point of making mistakes in the O-zone and start forcing cross-creases like their life depended on it. Gold Truck trumps all. Beware of charging and board hitting (auto penalties), do board play if you get that close. Stick lift at your peril. This is the only build where I've gotten a 5-minute major for slashing. This game has made speedy forwards even faster and they will get contained, bumped, and murdered. The speed on this guy is almost just as fast as my 3's PMD (I'll never go back to PMD in 5's and 6's). You trade some bulk for speed, but Truck + Shutdown makes up for it. The height gives you a better reach for pokes. Also, plan on staying home a lot. I wanted the wrist and slap power high (didn't care about accuracy) because my center wears big tipper which is extremely OP this year. Once I get it, I will trade my silver stick 'em up for silver elite edges. With EE, you will be able to stay in front of the left trigger ballerinas as well as teams that can actually pass the puck. Well-timed hits and bumps will be rewarded. Another good plus is this build seems to pick up pucks better in loose puck battles. Also, do not use DSS. It is as useless as stick lift and you'll get burned by forwards and quick passes alike. The slow-down is just too much.

Late edit: Something I've been testing is Elite Edges cutting. If you are using EE and skating with speed (with the puck per say), when you are trying to move around someone, your instinct is to pull the right stick, skill stick, left/right. However, if you do this with EE, your player goes into a glide and you only only lose speed but it increases the angle of your turns. If you lay off the right stick while, let's just say you want to go at full speed for a 90 degree side cut, not using the right stick will give you that EE cut while also maintaining both angle and speed. If you absolutely need to use right stick to get around a player, make sure that its a tap and not a hold if you want to maximize EE.

As always, defense is a team game and one, not even two D alone will win games. It's a shared responsibility by the whole team and is second to playing Goalie with respect to the skill needed to succeed in a game that is designed for you to fail even if your positioning is perfect, your poke is perfect, or your hitting is perfect.

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can you post your builds again? Pictures seem to be gone ☹️