Defensive Absurdity Still Abound
Why are we still stuck with absurdist devs who purposefully make all defensive tools clunky and terrible?
Poke checks - painfully slow, wildly inaccurate, and results in huge speed penalty. We know this is purposeful since all this did not used to be true. Why is it that the devs think that, when hockey players have possession of a puck to control, they have MORE agility and control over their stick? Heck yeah, offense Bro!
DSS - similar to poke checks, why do the devs think that the same player on offense who can dangle the puck on a string has zero ability to use the stick AND skate at the same time on defense? Do they think defensive players lose nerve endings in their legs when they use their stick? Yes, let’s heavily discourage all types of stick use on defense!
Hitting - despite the advertising, hitting has been nerfed to the point of largely being useless (and indeed discouraged). It is far too easy as the puck carrier to avoid a square hit. But in what world does the body not disrupt the puck-carrier unless and until a hit is perfectly square and timed. That’s just obviously not how hockey works, yet here we are yet again. Silly season. I’ve seen some posts saying to also nerf hip-checks. DO NOT, unless you are going to SUBSTANTIALLY buff normal hitting and shoves. If we’re going to keep purposefully clunkifying all other defensive tools to the point of idiocy, at least leave this one, as unrealistic as it is, to act as SOME counterweight.
Bottom line, this is a pretty absurd feeling and looking game when you don’t have the puck. But hey, yeah, one-button MICHIGAN goal attempts for the puck carrier—thank heavens this super routine part of the game has been realistically accounted for this year. Totally logical and glad you spent time on that.
P.S. The canned tunnel celebrations are just terrible. Anytime your decision is to take control away from us on something like celebrations, that is almost always going to be wrong. But you know that by now.
