So what I am hearing from this is "I was a good player, and now I am struggling so the game is the problem when really I just haven't taken the time to adapt to the changes". I'm sorry to be blunt here but this is why I say this.
Your entire statement below is due to ignorance and a lack of understanding of the games changes.
First off it is Total Control not absolute control, which did replace hybrid at first but because of a lot of feedback from the community was re-added into the game.
Second, Puck protect was not taken away. Puck protect has been moved to the Hustle button to be used with holding the stick out to the left or right side which actually makes it easier to use than the A/X button because your right thumb doesn't need to come off the stick anymore.
Third, They added a reverse hit button to give smaller forwards a chance to survive an oncoming hit. The reverse hit is not nearly as strong though without the use of Back at ya.
Fourth, You are able to hold speed boost while shooting, but are not able to bring it to the forehand or backhand as you are hustling with one hand on the stick. You need to first let go of speed boost in order to have two hands and control on the stick to then move the stick left and right accordingly. This added a bit of a new skill to managing when to hustle and when to skate with both hands on stick.
Fifth, I don't even know how you got this idea of a fake shot with speed bursting but to do the fake shot you have to hold the L2/LT and press down on the RS. They added the L2/LT press to avoid overlap with the reverse hit.
Finally and this response is personal preference, you change the controls to make room for the new systems and you should absolutely mess with button layouts constantly. The game needs to constantly change for new engines, layouts, gameplay mechanics. Personally I think the changes need to go more along the route of being a much more competitive and skill based game because right now the skill ceiling for this game is awfully low. Now pair that with the fact that hockey in general is a very random sport where pucks just bounce in the net from all kinds of garbage things like deflections/riccochets/weird hops and it just adds on that low skill ceiling. Take a game like Rocket League and even if you took the 3rd dimension out of it, you still have a game where you are aiming your shots and passes manually and really needing perfect accuracy for. This game is just shoot at a corner or five hole and press up on RS to let the game do it for you. A game I would like to see this more like is a game called Slapshot rebound on PC. Passing and Shooting is all manually aimed by where the puck is on your stick when you shoot, how fast you flick the stick, if you tilt your stick with the modifier. Hopefully this gets my point across.
I am glad you enjoy the gameplay and all, but as far as the controls, its all about adapting and that only comes with experience and just playing games to get used to the new controls. It takes some getting used to but it can be done and if you are a top player, you should have no problems adapting to it with time.
