Change a whole line in one tap (ice hockey)

Before the game: set up the lines

Lines belong to the team: you set them up once and they stay from game to game.

1. Open your ice hockey team's page: the "Lines" card is there. If the team has no players yet, add them first (the card tells you).
2. In each line, tap "Add a player". Paak offers four forward lines, three defence pairs, two goalies, two power play units, two penalty kill units and the extra attacker. "Add your own unit" creates a line of your own, for example "Last minute".
3. A player can be in several lines: a forward line and the power play, for example. The card reminds you ("Also in...").
4. To save time, "Fill from positions" proposes a first set: forwards by three, defence by pairs, one goalie per line, in shirt order. Nothing is saved until you press "Save lines": you can change everything first.

Coaches and club admins can see and edit the lines. A line holds at most 12 players, and a team 24 units.

During the game: tap the line

1. Open the match session and start live tracking (Paak Pro).
2. The "Lines" bar sits above the "On the ice" tab, one pill per line, grouped: forwards, defence, goalies, special. It works in the browser of a phone or a tablet as on a computer.
3. Tap the line: its players come on and the ones they replace go off, in one tap. A notice says so ("Forward line 2 on the ice...").
4. A mistake? "Undo" in the notice, the tracker's undo or the match journal reverses the whole line at once.

"Edit lines" in the bar opens the lines without leaving the game, to correct a line-up during a break.

What the bar shows

• "On the ice for 0:42": the line is on the ice, with its current shift.
• "Off the ice for 1:15": the line is resting, with its rest time.
• "Not played yet": the line has not come on yet.
• "2 of 3 on the ice": the line only partly came on; tapping it completes it if a player is missing.
• "Next": among the forward lines (or the defence pairs), the one that has rested the longest. It is a cue: you decide.
• A small counter says how many players of the line are in the penalty box or not available (absent tonight).

What Paak does by itself

When you tap a line, Paak works out the change, in this order:

• The "extra attacker" unit takes the goalie off first; the goalie coming back replaces the skater who came on last.
• Each player coming on replaces a player of the same position on the ice, the one who has been there the longest first: a forward replaces a forward, a defenceman a defenceman, a goalie a goalie. A forward line or a defence pair never takes the other position off.
• A player in the penalty box is never taken off or replaced: the line comes on without him, and the pill says so.
• A player absent tonight (not in the game squad) is skipped, and the line says so; it is not an error.
• The strength allowed on the ice is the tracker's: during a minor or major penalty, one player fewer. A line that is too big comes on short, and the message says how many players stay on the bench.
• Hockey has no cap on substitutions: the line change uses none.

Ice time

Each line shows its shift or its rest. Each player has his own:

• in the "On the ice" list, the current shift next to the position;
• in the team table, a "Time on ice" column with the total, the number of shifts and a bar (the goalie does not set the bar's scale);
• on the player's profile, "Points/game" and "Ice time / game (min)", worked out over the tracked sessions.

These times come from the shifts the tracker already keeps for minutes played: nothing is typed in, and a line that never played shows a dash, not an invented zero.

What does not exist yet

• No lines editor on the phone. Lines are set up on the web. In the Android and iPhone app, the line change arrives with the next version published on the stores; it will read the lines set up on the web.
• No statistics per line (a line's +/-), and no minimum ice time warning: the ice time fairness rules of youth categories are your federation's, Paak does not enforce them.
• Paak does not enforce your competition's change procedure: time allowed, no change after icing, the blocks and horn of youth categories stay the federation's.
• No live tracking for age groups of 12 and under (U9, U11...): Paak does not rate children (see "And children?"). The line change is therefore absent there.
• No shootout: a game left tied ends tied.

FAQ