Assistance on offense vs. assistance on defense

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@Jagavekov wrote:

So to varying degrees, passing is assisted (unless aim assist is set to zero which probably no-one does online), shooting is assisted (you can't mis-aim and shoot high or wide), skating is assisted (you can't fall, stumble, or lose an edge no matter what you do, including figure skating at high speeds), one-timers are completely assisted (no timing required, the game will put you into the perfect animation no matter your orientation and/or reaction time), stick handling is completely assisted (you can't lose the puck by stick handling too much or too fast).

Meanwhile, on defense, you have to perfectly orient yourself towards the puck, time your move perfectly, and perfectly aim it, and even then, you may be unsuccessful.

Take this play for example:

We all know if LIndgren was facing 15 degrees to the left it would have been a slash/high stick, but apparently he was facing too far to the right to make contact on the stick lift to prevent the one-timer.

And i'm not even questioning the questionable "stick physics" on this play, that is a separate issue.

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Something I didn't even think about until after posting this and looking at it - look how I completely overcommit to playing the pass, allowing the puck carrier to basically have a one-on-one with my goaltender, yet my opponent still chooses (apparently correctly) to force a pass across.  It looks ridiculous if you have any knowledge of hockey whatsoever.  I would never play this play that way in real life, but that is what this game has done.

The fact that this seemed normal to me at first is evidence of just how badly EA has messed up portraying hockey the past few years.

@Jagavekov

Yeah people have much more reliance in onetimers then 1vs1 against the goalie.

Even clear breakaways, I've seen people wait for booth opponent defenders and his own teammates, just so he gets the chance for a 1timer insteed of going up against the goalie.

Definitely not a healthy sign. And no direct fear to face defence in this game. 

I do not like assistance, I eat my own food. In this game, nothing is a free-meal for defence, meanwhile the FW's is cashing in on every play. 

Wish it could be much more 'normal' to see more errors in this game, everything is way too 'perfect', looks fake.

@Jagavekov So this is where the age old Arcade vs Simulation topic comes in.

I wouldn't say there is a lot to the assistance.

1. You still miss wide on shots in this game, and with how hard it is to snipe goalies, its not a big deal.
2. Skating assistance I think is okay since they limit, based on attributes, how quickly you can turn, stop, etc. Your player base would lower even further if you added a thing like stumbling or losing an edge into the game when creating space is already difficult enough.
3. Stick Handles are based on attributes where you cannot move fully to the left and right as fast with the stick the lower it is.   
4. Passing Assistance was lowered for 22 requiring softer and more accurate passing and did you see how much hate people were giving for passes that bounced off their stick because it was thrown too hard at them by the passer? Practically created a riot. 

Then you have the One-Timers assistance. This is where I will HEAVILY agree that something needs to be done. The meta is force force force and this is an example of that. Hitting up 100x/Holding up as the puck comes to you is not skillful for One Timers. Players often in the NHL fan on one timers because of their difficulty. Now I am not saying it should be random because this is after all, a game but why not have it be manual timing. They already have a manual one timer in the game but no one ever uses it because why on Earth would you use something requiring such precise timing that doesn't even give you a boost to accuracy and power like it used to and even if it did, OneTee would just mirror that ability. This at the very least, would make those super charged passes across the crease call for a difficult action of hitting proper timing to swing the stick. Swing too early or too late and you miss. But get in that right "timing window" and then you are rewarded with a tough shot for the goalie to save. All you have to do right now is hold up AT ANY POINT during the pass and your guy will try to one time the puck. You can pretty much do it blindfolded and that is why the forced cross creases are so strong in this game. 

Having said that, Defense does need some tracking improvements. Too often does the puck go through their player, off the skate, etc. and end up in the back of the net as a result. Just last night I tested a Def Dman with a 98 Def awareness with quick pick and watched a pass go between my legs to the players stick on the other side with OneTee and score. I feel there is zero reason that should have happened.  

The game needs to be balanced, and right now it favors way more heavily on the One Timers and cross creases vs the defense playing solid positioning only to get hurt by the game in the end.

FYI I didn't mention this in the above but deking assistance is non-existent. Your guy will make the right deke against a body checker only to have the puck hit his skate or stick as he goes by because the angle at which he slid the puck wasn't sharp enough. Should be some sort of tracking to assist with pucks getting around players when deking.