When the poll has ended I will create the team. I will also make a new blog for our team (so those of you who wanting tips don't have to read posts like this anymore).

What we do have to decide is who's going to play where. So far these guys have made a choice:

Zuperzulan - playmaker (C or Winger?)

thndrchckn - dangler (Winger or C?)

Ante_Potter - Defensive D

But Rook25 and sisyphus18 need to make a choice too. A defender and a winger (sniper or powerforward perhaps?) would be nice!

On offense, if you play as a centre, the slot or behind goal is where you should be most of the time. Of course you need to leave your zone from time to time to help your teammates, or to draw defenders away from your area, but try to return to your zone as fast as possible.

Low wrist shots from the point, or just inside the blue line, often forces the goalie to give up rebounds. Also, since a wrister isn't as hard as a slap shot, the puck will be easier to reach for your teammates.

Note that if you want to force rebounds, that your teammates easily can pick up and score on, you should take the shots from the sides, so that the rebounds end up on the other side from where the net often is wide open.

AI players will move in on loose pucks, but if there are a lot of CPU players in the slot they may have a hard time getting to them. Can't say that I've had more luck with "crash the net" than "overload" or "behind the net", but in theory I think crash the net should work better. What you have to do is to time your shots. You want team mates moving in on goal but you don't want them to close either, cause then the rebound will end up behind or under them instead of a stick length ahead of them. If your coing in from the side on the rusn and you take a low shot towards the centre or far side of the goal, when you have a team mate entering the face off cirlce on the other side, I'd say you got a good chance at picking up the rebound (if the goalie leaves one).

What it's really all about is evaluating the situations. Where's the opening and what kind of opening is it? Should you go for a one-timer, try to deke your way through, take a low shot for a possible rebound, or a high shot in an effort to score directly?

Here's a photo of a situation screaming for a low rebound shot. There's an opening in the middle that will guarantee a low shot getting through and at the same time, the left winger is skating towards the slot and there are no defenders on his side of the ice.

Let's look at the video as well to see the result.

Of course your opponents defensive strategy also affect how successful you´ll be getting to the rebounds. If they play High Pressure and Tight Point, you will get chances to pick up rebounds when the leave the slot to put pressure on your players. But If they're playing Contain Puck and Collapsing, you will find it hard to get to the rebounds. On the other hand they will block their goalies view, so a puck that goes through their human wall might just end up in net.