PULL THEHOW TO PLAY
Every day you take over a real NHL bench late in a game that was played last night. Your team is chasing. You make the calls. The real game shows you what happened next.
1. BUILD YOUR SIX
Before the first call, pick the six skaters you want on the ice once the goalie comes out. You see the real roster with each player's numbers as of the moment you take over: goals, assists, faceoffs and time on ice so far tonight. No peeking at what they did later.
Each skater has a legs meter. It comes from ice time: the more a player has skated tonight, the less gas he has left. Your stars are probably your best options and also your most tired ones. That tension is the whole puzzle.
Tap the i next to any player for his card. Not sure? AUTO-PICK TOP TOI fills the six with the players the real coach leaned on most.
2. MAKE THE CALLS
Then the clock starts. At each real decision point the game stops and gives you a call to make, like:
- When does the goalie come out?
- Who takes this faceoff?
- Does the goalie go back in for a risky draw?
- Who is out there for the final shift?
Each call has three options, A, B and C. Here's how to read the option table:
| KEY | WHAT IT MEANS |
|---|---|
| A | Headline: the call itself, like PULL HIM NOW or a player's name. |
| Line under it: the short case for it, like FO 7/13 TONIGHT or PROTECT THE BLUE LINE. | |
| WIN | Shown after you pick: each option's win probability and how far it sits behind the best one, like WIN 6.5% (-0.28), plus the share of today's players who picked it. |
| REAL | The REAL CALL tag marks what the actual coach did. |
The options come in the same order for everyone on a given day, and the best answer isn't always A.
3. SEE THE PLAY
Once you lock in a call, the real play-by-play runs on the rink: every faceoff, shot, whistle and goalie change, with the real players and real times. Your call doesn't rewrite history. It gets judged against it.
Tap any player on the rink for his card. The ticker under the rink calls the action.
4. GET GRADED
After the play, every option is revealed with its win probability and how far it sits behind the best one, plus the share of today's players who picked it. Your pick gets one of four grades, and you see what the real coach did and how his call grades.
✓ GOOD CALL
The best option, or so close it doesn't matter.
≈ FAIR
A reasonable call that gave up a little.
! A BIT COSTLY
A noticeable slice of your team's chances left on the table.
✗ COSTLY
A real chunk of your chances, gone.
A few calls aren't graded yet (gray square) because three seasons of data can't tell the options apart. Matching the real coach doesn't earn a good grade on its own. Coaches get these wrong too, and the grade says so. For the exact thresholds, see What It Tracks.
DECISION QUALITY
Each game also gets one number from 0 to 100. Pick the best option every time and it reads 100. It uses the same yardstick as the grades: a good call scores 93 or better, fair 80 to 93, a bit costly 50 to 80, and costly under 50. Big calls count for more than small ones. At the final horn you see your number next to the real coach's, where you rank among today's players, and where you'd rank among simulated callers and real NHL coaches in the same spots this season.
5. SHARE YOUR SQUARES
At the final horn you get a row of squares, one per call, and a result you can copy and paste anywhere. It looks like this:
PULL THE GOALIE #002 LAK @ CHI 🟩🟨🟧 QUALITY 71 ยท COACH 64 STREAK 4 pullthegoalie.app/play
No spoilers: it shows how you coached, not how the game ended. Finished early? Try a practice run of the same game. Practice runs never change your saved result.