EASHL: How to make playing defense better. Lets brainstorm some ideas

The purpose of this thread is to improve the user experience playing defense in EASHL. I have played defense in EASHL since 2009 when the mode debuted. I normally have more takeaways than giveaways. I am a fairly experienced player and I think a lot of defensemen will agree with me when I say that our position has repeatedly drawn the short end of the stick for quite some time. This topic is created because I want to brainstorm some ideas on how to make playing the position more enjoyable and balanced. As of now I wouldn’t be far off in saying that the game seems 75 to 25 balanced toward offense. On defense you have to be pinpoint perfect otherwise you are punished hard. On offense you can make a multitude of errors and mistakes and still not be punished. Now I don’t know about you but when I watch a hockey game in real life or on tv I don’t care who the forward is… if they make a bad decision they will lose the puck and be punished. Sadly in EA hockey this is not always the case.

Make it so I can skate up to a player and take the puck if I have high defensive awareness.

I think the issue here is how hard it is to separate the puck from the other player. For example, take a player with high puck control at the blue line and try having that player stand still. Now try skating up and taking the puck or poke it away. Eventually you can but it should be an instant thing to take the puck ESPECIALLY if the opponent is doing nothing to protect the puck or shield the puck in any way. I feel like simply taking the puck is way harder than it should be.

The solution: Remove the stickiness from a forwards stick and make the defensive awareness attribute more effective. Add a way to simply “take” the puck instead of having to do a poke/lift/hit etc. Now if the opposing team protects the puck or does a nice deke to avoid me then more power to them. If you simply skate into the other team my player should simply take the puck though.

Make it harder to “skate in circles” and play run and gun

So this one is infuriating to me. There are teams that all they do is take the puck into the corner and literally skate from side to side and in circles without losing any energy and then you can poke the puck 2-5 times off their stick, nudge them, etc etc.. and it will either barely nudge the puck or poke it right back to the other team. Then the other team can also force cross crease passes through traffic if they have the right x factor. There are also too many times where you can skate into traffic in front of the net and not lose the puck as a forward. Also there are teams that try to play run and gun and skate full speed up and down the ice.. You can poke the puck but half the time it doesn’t work so there are times where the puck will go right back to the opposing team instead of being forced out at the blue line. There are too many times where it is 1 on 1 and the forward skates into the D without pressing any dekes and too many times the forward can keep the puck. (this leads to another bolded topic further into the thread)

The solution: Players need to lose energy dramatically when they start “figure skating” You have a pressure system that favors the offense but how about level the playing field where if the forward is getting multiple pokes and is skating left and right like this then they start to slow down and have a higher chance of losing the puck. If you are going to punish the defense on full pressure then you need to reward the defense when they pressure the offense too. Have a pressure bar for the defensive team. Also punish teams that do not use their energy efficiently. In real hockey you don’t go full speed all the time because you would tire yourself out VERY quickly and be GASSED.

Make it harder to skate into traffic and keep the puck. Also tone down the tripping penalties

More solutions: Remove tripping penalties when the player is in good position to poke the puck (i.e parallel to the opposing players stick and in front of the opposing player. The problem here is you can position yourself well and the game will automatically aim into the players skates instead of the puck that is directly in front of your own player. I don’t care what xfactor is on the ice. If you position yourself well the game should reward you and punish the player who left themselves vulnerable to a takeaway. The game makes no sense because literally I have seen skaters poke the puck from way behind through skates and knock the puck flying but then I see more tripping penalties from being in good position and the game decide to poke behind instead of the puck that is right in front of them. Those situations I should either just take the puck and start skating with it (high D aware) or the puck should be jarred loose pretty far since the forward isn’t pressing any buttons to protect the puck

Give defenseman more ways to clear the puck

Currently clearing the puck is NOTHING like how it should be compared to actual hockey. Clearing the puck should be easy, quick, and POWERFUL!

We NEED

• desperation clears

• If you have high defensive awareness and you clear it by the boards the game should automatically clear it high and hard off the glass OR you should be able to quickly shoot it the length of the ice just like real teams do in the NHL.

• Make it so you can clear the puck high up in the air and quickly (right now it is just a weak little clear unless you waste time powering it up) in real hockey you can clear it high in the air very quickly.

Lastly lets make it easier to intercept the puck in front of the net, harder to force passes through traffic, and make it harder to shoot through bodies/traffic etc. 

If you have any other thoughts on these matters or you want to add more ideas on how to make playing defense better let me know! Also feel free to agree or disagree with me. In general I feel like if the game was more balanced then we would see a lot more realistic hockey plays. I don’t want defense to be easy but I do want this to be more balanced and FAIR. Right now I don’t think this is the case. I am not a developer so I do not know the ins and outs of making a game BUT I do know what issues I am seeing.. So I hope there are ways to make the game BETTER. Thank you for anyone who cared to read and to anyone who cares about the game in general.

Also feel free to add any more ideas to make playing defense better. Thank you for your time.