Any love or changes to Defence players?

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

What changes would you all make to defense? Besides improving tying up players in front of the net as well as decreasing penalties for stick lifting.

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- Faster lateral movement while DSS is engaged

- No slowdown while backskating with DSS engaged. I believe right now, you suffer a small speed penalty when initiating DSS which I feel is unrealistic. A player skating backwards shouldn't lose speed by simply changing the placement of their stick. While in DSS, their feet are still moving and there's no change in upper body momentum as there is with a regular poke check so a speed incursion shouldn't be applied.

- Better tools for quickly chipping a puck off the glass without having to engage R1 and upping the risk for delay of game, although the trailer showcased this may actually be resolved.

- Ability to execute a high dump that doesn't go the length of the ice (this would be key when considering the new exhaustion engine)

- The ability to tie-up or otherwise inhibit the stick of a moving player. I'm not advocating that a moving player get stuck in a tie-up, however as a d-man, I should be able to limit their stick movement even when their feet are moving and they're in close proximity to me. Additionally, this mechanic shouldn't be limited to just the defensive zone. 

- Remove interference penalties from small shoves in front of the net

- A player who gets shoved in front and stumbles should not have their deflection animation suddenly 'snap' them out of the stumble animation. The stumble should finish to completion, giving D-men another tool to stopping Big Tipper.

- We need some smoother (better) animations for skating backwards and controlling a puck, skating backwards while passing a puck and skating backwards while receiving a puck. It feels clunky right now to receive a pass while skating backwards as you need to let a transitionary animation play out before you're able to pass again. But maybe one-touch-passing will resolve this as well.

- I'm concerned the removal of Vision control while controlling the puck will inhibit our ability to maintain vision control while in control of the puck in Powerplay scenarios or other offensive scenarios that involve D-to-D passing.