Stick Lift pretty much automatic penalty

Yeah, this early release (expect patches later) is really cutting the wings of defence... stick lift again the 'get a penalty' button. I am sure you can stick lift without penalty in some situations, but the issue is more that you get a penalty from a position whihc was OK in NHL22. Also, they animations bear no relation to what's actually happening (ie. numbers working in the background).

And about poke, I don't mind that much how your player slows down when poking, I can adjust to that pretty quick. What's really bothering me is how short the range of the poke is, it's like it barely reaches out... and even if you hit opponents stick and/or puck the energy is so low, that the puck barely detaches from the stick, and very often the opponent just get's it back (especially if it is CPU player). So that's your reward for good poke??! It's like they kept everything that was not working with poke last year, and kept only the bad things. Well done. Why not justy take away the stick from the d-men while you're at it?

And even though hitting is pretty overboard in some situations (maybe due to too slight builds in CHEL), I think it's somehow easier to miss the hit altogether, even if you seem to be in contact with opponent. It's like sometimes they're slippery or something, and the hit won't stick? I didn't look carefully if the opponent was holding the right stick forehand or backhand to benefit from the 'tripod' support, but I suspect it was the case.

As it is now, for the offender it's a viable tactic to just use speed and skate fast towards the goal in straight line, because why not? All you can do is try to stand in their way or try to hit them. And with forwards maxing out their mobility, defence is really struggling because you took practically all the tools away. Well done.

I thought they tried to make big builds more viable this year, with upgraded values, but since you gave these upgrades cross the board, the forwards just keep on adding more to speed, accleration and agility. So it's only getting worse, more likely. And with hitting, even if you do land a hit, it takes you so out position that it's rarely worth it really, if you try to keep youself relevant in defence.

I guess this will change with patches some, and we'll eventually get closer to NHL22 likely, just as we always do. Still, I have to wonder what's the reasoning behind all this. The defence was OP last year? Really?