NHL 24 and beyond (Goalie Overhaul, Presentation, IRL goals, New WoC, etc.)

I’m thankful EA NHL developers have listened to me, in a small way, and have added in goalies moving around screens to see the puck, but I’m so sick of the lazy state of the game and how broken gameplay is.  There are many great hockey games out there from the past.  ESPN NHL 2K5.  NHL Hitz 20-03.  NHL 2004.  NHL 14.  But there’s only one takes the cake---

NHL ‘94 is the greatest sports game of all-time.  Why is that?  It’s simple, really; it’s simple.  The gameplay is easy to pick up and play, yet hard to master against powerful players.  There’s enough modes to go around, and there’s great couch play.  NHL 94 is the best.

Unfortunately, the EA NHL series hasn’t been great in a long while.  It’s been nothing but people exploiting the game since 2015; glitch goals of pulling your stick back and slamming forward opposite glove side, turning off auto back-skate and spamming LT, lots of sprinting towards the goalie and right past AI defensemen with zero play development.  I don’t know if the gameplay is like this because EA listens to the streamers or “gamechangers” but there’s no defense in this game… at all.  And NHL 23 is worse because poke checking (and DSS) has been nerfed to where if you try it, your avatar slows down when IRL that doesn’t happen.  EA NHL doesn’t play like hockey anymore.  Hockey is chaos.  Hockey is turnovers.  Loose puck battles.  Dump and chase.  Random goals from all over the ice.  Now it’s who can out exploit the other…

What I’m asking for is EA to change their mindset on how to make a hockey game.  Why does Johnny Gaudreau get a HUT card with his Blue Jackets jersey before the season even starts, but his roster profile photo is last year’s version with his Calgary jersey on?  Where is Owen Power’s profile picture and this is his second season playing?  The Madden team photoshops everyone into a generic white jersey (mostly for Franchise Mode team amassment) so why can’t the NHL team do the same?  Why is the NHL 15 Stanley Cup Finals introduction better than the NHL 23 Stanley Cup Finals introduction?

IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE - this is what I’m asking for in EA NHL for the next interactions of the franchise----

GOALIE OVERHAUL

This is the most important item; we need all new goaltending for EA NHL.  If you had hundreds of animations of last-chance shots, there needs to be hundreds of new goaltending animations.  Half-butterfly, shoulder saves, 6 and 7 hole saves, windmill glove, against momentum falling down saves, more scorpion leg kicks, doing the splits, desperation dive animations to the post a la Hasek or Brian Boucher, an attempt to stop the Datsyuk flip like a behind the back stick dive, more two pad stacks and windmills from CPU goalies, chained two pad stack into a poke check, the list could go on.  I want to see goalie pads move independently from the goalie’s legs. Have ability to pass out in any save animation rather than keep the canned save animations where the goalie cannot pass out.  Overhand puckhandling for newer aged goalies and underhand for the alumni.  Have new goalie role designations----

STAND UP should be for alumni goalies and have kick save and stand up style animations tied to that style and that style only.  

HYBRID could be late 70s to early 90s goalies like Brodeur with half butterflies.

NEW - BLOCKING BUTTERFLY -  have those animations for that style be very Hellebuyck and not athletic.

NEW - REACTING BUTTERFLY - more athletic saves like Jonathan Quick or Bob.

Animation added for dump-in to stop high glass dump-in’s, including settling down or cannot handle it and puck stays there.  (Also, User Goalie Mode needs to be faster as an input.  Goalies move quickly IRL and it shouldn’t take half a second to a full second of lag to move from side to side when playing in goalie mode.  If I can get in position but my button press recognition is slow to the computer pounding in a one-timer or rebound attempt, how would I have any fun playing this game?)

GOALIE GEAR

EA NHL (2023) still has goalie masks from NHL 07 (TBL).  Is that worse, or is having the clear throat protector available for goalies, but only one goalie on the default EA roster has it; MAF?  Goalies who have had gobblers their whole lives like Mike Smith, John Gibson and Cam Talbot, or the other remaining 38% of other goalies that wear them don’t have them in the default EA roster.  Puck marks option for goalie gear.  Zero, light, medium, or heavy.  A guy like Ilya Sorokin has heavy puck marks as a look.  Represent and have some fun.  Also, goalie skates?  70% of goalies use TRUE skates, which are cowling-less.  Yet, every goalie in the game wears an old CCM style skate with a cowling.  Not many goalies wear cowling skates.  Would love to see goalie skate styles different, too!

HAVE AN OPTION WHERE YOU CAN CUSTOMIZE THE GOALIE MASK

2K had a goalie mask customizer.  Let us choose the base color.  You can either have a randomize button for designs, or let us choose logos and make them bigger or smaller and move them around.  Have striping options, and have wire color choices.  That or actually use the contact you signed DaveArt for and use his masks.

FIX GLITCH GOALS

Glitch goals in CHEL have existed since NHL 2004, a la “the circle goal”.  NHL 2005 combated this, and made the CPU defenders literally impossible in those areas around the low slot and made the area almost impenetrable.  Current exploitors of CHEL have their avatar skate almost parallel to the crease, or get in tight against the goaltender and shoot high after holding the right stick behind their back to their forehand produces goals nearly 100% of the time.  A way to fix this is either have (A) Not have the goalies drift out of position that causes them to get scored on, (B ) Decrease the accuracy of the shot when players do this, or (C) have the goalie save it more, with new animations.  If you’re doing an overhaul, get new save animations for those close-up dekes that increase the chances of the goalies making the save on a glitch goal.

NEW MICRO PUCK BATTLES

Battle it out for the puck with boxing out your opponent.  Use the right stick as you get in position against the opposition when going for a loose puck.  Hockey, defensively, is 1/3 about boxing out your opponent, the other two are hitting, and stick checking/lifting.

SCORE FROM ALL OVER THE RINK

Hockey is chaotic and I’m actually quite happy that goals are scored from all over the ice in NHL 23 and the cross crease meta is nearing the end.  EA NHL needs more above shoulder goals, more six and seven hole goals as well as more deflections and tip-ins.  There’s more chaos this year, but it needs to be more.  Look up heat maps for NHL goals and see how many goals are scored in how many areas and make that the meta.

REMOVE LT

Make auto back skating permanent.  Sorry, spammers, you’ve ruined the game.  Nobody skates like that in the NHL.

NEW WORLD OF CHEL

Remove the current rinks.  Delete all the music.  Get all new music.  Get all new rinks.. Here are my ideas--- ROLLER HOCKEY.  FIFA has VOLTA …I want Roller Hockey, aka NHL STREET.  Voiced also by the Spittin’ Chiclets bunch.  World of Chel rinks include Stanley Cup champion or finalists the past decade and original six.  For Roller - Dallas (The Edge), Nashville (Hendersonville), Los Angeles (The Cage), Pittsburgh (Marmaduke Park), San Jose (Roosevelt Park), Tampa (Tom Oliver), Vegas (Henderson) and Washington (Alexandria).  New outdoor ice rinks. Boston (Fallon), Chicago (Rosemont), Colorado (Lake Tahoe), Detroit (Clark Park), New York (LeFrak), St. Louis (The ROC), Toronto (Trinity Bellwoods).

NEW WORLD OF CHEL HOCKEY STORE

A la 2K’s the crib, browse the stick rack, look at the wall of skates or try on some goalie pads in the all-new World of Chel Hockey Store.  Customize the goalie gear to see how it would look with your EASHL team

NEW WORLD OF CHEL LEVELING UP

New prestiges of juniors like the OHL, to the minor leagues of the ECHL, to AHL to NHL to the NHL Hall of Fame for the final level.  Better than the current system.

NEW WORLD OF CHEL RATING SYSTEM

Kind of like how FIFA has a point out of ten system that rewards you for great play, that a number is displayed during the game at the bottom of how well you are playing and everyone can see it at the end of the game to tell who wasn’t playing defense, etc.

ALL NEW TNT PRESENTATION

A new pre-game, intermission and post-game with Liam McHugh, Paul Bissonette, Anson Carter, and announce team of Kenny Albert, Eddie Olczyk and Keith Jones in between the glass.  The current announce team is the worst in EA NHL history.  Nobody wants to hear about Ray Ferraro’s 400 whatever career goals.  It’s awful.  Have Paul Bissonette, Ryan Whitney and RA call the action in Threes and Ones Modes.  For gameplay wise, having a skate around warm-up would be pretty sick (like FIFA), then the national anthems play.  If you’re complaining about not having enough budget, why not get real-life sponsors like Enterprise or Dunkin’ Donuts to allow board ads and have them give you a few dollars to include them in the game? Double win because there’s only so much “CCM” you can put on the dashers when in real-life no NHL team has CCM on there. (Odd considering NHL 13 had Honda, Verizon and Enterprise board ads. What happened to those?).  Have the three stars of the game.  Have the players give a stick to a kid in the crowd like the Red Wings or throw a shirt like the Predators do in real life.  Have team scouting reports in the loading screen.  In the other loading screens have trivia like the old hockey games had.  Have a heat map of on-ice shots/goals in the Augmented Reality displays.  Nobody cares about X-factor vs. X-factor.  Give us stats!

FIX THE AI

NHL 23’s AI is a LOT better than years past.  There’s less of the CPU drawing in a defender in a spot on the ice, then going a different way; kind of like a soccer game or something a computer would do, rather than what a human IRL would do, which would be to create open ice by moving the play forward.  I’ve literally seen in CHEL an CPU AI skate head first into the boards, then blindly pass backwards to a teammate tape to tape on his stick; I’m glad this is being fazed out almost completely.  The AI needs to do more dump and chase and get blocked on zone entries from the D.  I asked for both of these changes and it’s good that they’re listening, but it’s still not enough.  A huge problem that still exists is if you turn down CPU Pass accuracy in the sliders, the CPU still passes 80% or better.  That’s insane and needs to be fixed.  Also, the tic-tac passing from the CPU needs to die.  There needs to be a half second delay added and it would be far better and more realistic instead of playing against SkyNet.  Your CPU defensemen on the powerplay need to be smarter and hold the line better, or add in the ability for them to pinch.  Also have the forwards use the defensemen to regroup and pass to them before trying to enter the zone or breaking out.

ALL-NEW FACEOFF ENGINE

Line up your body to the left or right of the dot with the left stick for positioning.  Kick people out of faceoffs; 2K hockey did it.  Have maybe two pre-drop fake swipes and they are kicked out.

NEW SHIMMY SHOULDER JUKE

Fake your opponent by clicking R3 (or another button) and juke them out of their skates by performing a shimmy shoulder juke.

NEW DEFENSE ANIMATION - STOP THE DEKES BETWEEN THE LEGS  

Have an animation where defenders put their feet together or kick a puck that tries to go through their feet would be beneficial to the defensive side of the game. This happens in real life, let it be in EA NHL, too.

ATTRIBUTE SYSTEM

MADDEN and MLB THE SHOW have players at 99 overall as well as 99 or higher in some categories.  EA NHL has zero players at 99 overall, and I agree they shouldn’t be, because hockey is a two-way sport.  But EA NHL has zero players with a rating of 99 in any category.  McDavid has a 96 speed; how is that possible?  Ever since HUT arrived, the ratings have been in the tank.  With the default EA rosters, there’s not enough distance from great players to mediocre players.  I made a custom roster using analytics from the past three years and curved them to be a better OVR (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnNammuwP3s).  It’s not perfect, but there’s a nice range and players play more like themselves, thanks to the range.  The roster ratings need to be tweaked; having Sean Walker better than Matt Roy is hilarious. 

MINI GAMES

FIFA has party games, NHL deserves them too!  NHL HITZ had them in 2003, lets get some fun back with hockey!  Skills competition, whatever!  Heck driving the zamboni in between periods was great with 2K. 

NHL ALWAYS CONNECTED

Play your favorite team in PLAY NOW mode against their upcoming opponent, a feature already implemented; however, it’s complete with in-game stats from real life.

OUTDOOR STADIUMS

All previous winter classic and stadium series stadiums are included.

OLD FEATURES RETURN

Like glass breaking, net physics.

ONLINE FRANCHISE 

A la MADDEN.  Everyone is asking for GM connected mode; just bring it back, already.

SKATE WITH THE CUP

EA’s new ‘interactive’ skate with the cup is a joke.  2K’s skate with the cup in the late 2000s was amazing and EA needs to replicate it.

THE MENU

The menu’s gotta be like FIFA, as well. I want to see my Be-A-Pro avatar there, representing me.  Madden NFL is like this, too.  The main menu is just one page with buttons at the bottom.  If you go into other menus, those could have tabs with other pages.  But the main menu’s gotta be just one page.  In the past, EA NHL has had a picture of McDavid at Rogers Place from 2016, in NHL 18, 19, 20, and 21 in the roster section.  Four years in a row EA didn’t change a JPG of a player in a jersey he never wore during this timespan.  The World of Chel menu from NHL 20 to NHL 21 didn’t change at all, it was just desaturated.  NHL 22 to 23’s World of Chel was the exact same.  NHL 22 to 23 was the same main menu outside of using footage screenshots instead of IRL pictures.  The menu is important and shows that you’re putting in the work.  It’s been so lazy the past several years…

THE OPENING - MAKE IT LIKE FIFA 22

FIFA starts off with a “My Player” type of intro for FIFA 22.  It’s kind of like a story mode.  You create your player, you’re driven into a tutorial of some sorts in the streets of Paris… It's just super creative and super immersive with cutscenes with your player in between.  I want to see this in NHL 24 and beyond.  Create your player from the get-go.  The player works in both Be-A-Pro and in World of Chel.  The ‘My Player’ modes on NBA 2K series are probably the most popular game mode out there, so why not invest in something like this?  (This isn’t that important, however; there are many more here listed that I’d rather have first.)

FREE TO PLAY

This game needs to be like FIFA.  (I wish it was more like FORTNITE, honestly.  What do I mean by that?… let me go into quick details----)  You can title EA NHL, NHL NEXT (someone on reddit I believe made up this name) and make it non-annual and free-to-play for certain modes and have a battle pass; just like FORTNITE.

THE FREE-TO-PLAY MODES

• PLAY NOW

• PRACTICE MODE

• WORLD OF CHEL PRO AM

• WORLD OF CHEL ONES

• WORLD OF CHEL THREES

• EASHL DROP-IN

THE BATTLE PASS - $10 EVERY 45 DAYS

• WORLD OF CHEL ITEMS (EQUIPMENT/CLOTHES)

• ROSTER UPDATES

• ROSTER SHARING

ITEM STORE (OTHER PAY TO OWN FEATURES EVERY OCTOBER 1)

• ONLINE AND OFFLINE FRANCHISE MODE - $20

• EASHL CLUBS - $10

• ONLINE VERSUS - $10

• HUT - $20

You can brand it around the ‘next’ name and have “I got next” be the slogan.  I believe this type of business model would REALLY boost sales, and more importantly boost interest in the game of hockey as a whole by having it free to play in some areas.  As a person who plays FORTNITE, I have spent probably $60 just on skins and battle passes and I would say it’s worth it because the game is fun to play with friends, it’s a well made game and I don’t have any qualms handing over cash to support something that’s given me joy.

However, I believe it’s an understanding that EA needs to pay a license each year to keep the hockey game an annual release.

Anyways, that’s enough to keep the developers occupied.  I like some of the direction CHEL is going in, and I hope this is enough for the next several years to have as a fan and make the game better.

TLDR;

NHL 23 REVIEW

+AI improved breakouts and penalty shot goals

+Cool new ways to score with Zegras flip and last chance puck movements

+Cross crease is no longer the meta 

+Improved crowd noise and atmosphere

+Crossplay, albeit not fully

-AI still needs work

-Poke checking is nerfed

-Body checking is nerfed

-Stick lifts are broken and are auto penalties

-Goalies give up everything in tight

-Nearly the same game, including menus

-Commentary is the worst in all of sports games

-Glitch goals, while tuned down since NHL 22, still exist and ruin the game

-LT spam still exists

-Priorities are wrong when HUT gets Johnny Gauderau CBJ pictures and not the play now profile picture