NHL 23: A D-man perspective
I've been playing NHL as a D-man as far back as I can remember. I play mostly 5v5 and 6v6. I've been lucky to be on Top 10 teams for the last four years with experience in LG, XHL, and 6HL. I've also...
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I play D exclusively and personally I'd rather have weak tools than OP ones. My biggest gripe though is the inconsistency. The game should pretty much always reward you for clearly playing a situation better than your opponent, but for a defenseman this is often not the case especially with some of the traits we've had since NHL 22 (I'm looking at you Close Quarters). The worst is conceding a goal where I'm on both the opponent's body and clipping through his stick when the pass gets to his tape and he still manages a shot off a forced pass that goes in. I've been watching the replays scratching my head because I really didn't know what I could've done better, and still don't.
I've played a ton of 6s every year since NHL 09 when EASHL was introduced. Based on my time with NHL 23 so far, I would say this is the worst year in terms of inconsistency as far as I can recall. Of course various mechanics didn't even exist back in the day (incidental contact, for example, was introduced in NHL 14), but what we had was consistent in that you knew if you played a situation a certain way relative to your opponent, you'd come out on top. That's no longer the case, yet to me that's the most important thing in a competitive game. That's ultimately what makes it rewarding.
Oh, I wanted to add something positive. You're now allowed to shove people in front of the net again as long as you just flick the right stick. I missed this mechanic and net battles are more fun as a defenseman now. Also, the triangle button to initiate a body tie-up seems to be more useful and seems to activate more consistently as long as you time it correctly. Stick tie-ups also feel somewhat more consistent to me so far.
To me, these tools are important for game balance now that deflections and rebounds are more effective. On the other hand, if the forward outplays me by moving into a deflection or rebound at the right time and I fail to cover him at that moment, he absolutely should get rewarded for it. This seems to be the case right now, so good job on that EA!
On the other hand, hitting penalties seem too toned down all over the ice. I've made some hits that were clearly charging, some that were clearly interference and some that should've been boarding but which weren't called at all. I thought hitting penalties were in a pretty good place in 22 except when you cranked the discipline attribute all the way up which made you practically immune to charging penalties.
