Hitting acceleration reverted today 2/5

@rsandersr47 So here is my take on this...

I do think that if you want the hitting advantage, you are indeed looking for a more arcade based game. Hitting numbers are way higher than the average game of hockey. As I stated in a different topic (Here ). Summarizing what I wrote the number of hits for my last 5 games before and after the nerf to hitting decreased by 30% (98-67) for Away and almost 50% (116-60) for home. When I took the games right before the allstar break (14 sample size) it was on average 18.5 for Away and 18.2 for Home so hitting for a 60 min hockey game was on average 36.7 hits for that night. If you divide that by 5, the TOTAL number of hits we should be having per 12 min game is roughly 7-8. Anyways its not supposed to be 30 per side. So yes Hitting is quite arcadey and should be not often seen in my opinion.

Personally I think the poke check gets most stuff done in the game right now. The stick can poke the puck away most times and I rarely have those moments where I poke the puck away from the carrier and they pick it right back up and skate past me. As long as you are skating backwards and maintaining good gap control, you can control what that skater does. Now the WoC statement I can totally agree with, majority of the player base is offensive and wants to play forward because scoring goals is fun and there have been certain things (spamming up on stick for one timers for example) that I have adamantly been against for awhile in these forums. That being said, you say that...

"The easier and smaller the window of skill gap you have in this game the less fun and rewarding defense is gonna feel."

But didn't reverting the hits like you want reduce said skill gap?!? If everyone can hit again, does that not mean that it takes less skill?  the hitting nerf did create a skill gap in that you had to be much more precise with your hitting. Again stated elsewhere, I had no problems with hitting after about 10 or so games of play. It required an adjustment where you couldn't go for those big ice hits every time, and instead had to as I call it "tell a story" to set up the hits along the boards or in the middle of the ice but it was possible and still happening. What you couldn't do is blindly charge at someone who then tries to deke you only for the checking assist to hit said player when he and the puck have past by you and the game auto corrected the hit to be to the side of them to push the carrier off of the puck. 

"Icon passing seemed REALLY uneeded. Lacrosse goals being so easy? Passes directly in front of the goalie being so easy? All uneeded."

Icon passing unneeded sure, but also ineffective. Most players are not using the icon passing as there is a delay and its not even 100% accurate since it is based on attribute rating so it doesn't even matter. I personally think it should get buffed to allow for easier one touch passing plays but another topic for a different day. I have maybe been scored on a lacrosse goal twice this year, and one I remember was completely my fault. It is very easy to defend against despite it being one button and they nerfed it so only the upper level danglers can really keep it on their stick the whole time. Passes directly in front is the only one I can agree with here as a defenseman as it is infuriating but in the end, it is the "path of least resistance" which humans will always seek out. It requires way less skill to just "send" something across the ice 100 times over because as long as it gets through one time, its a good chance to be a goal and that is the mindset of the people that play this way and their reasoning behind doing it. I would know since someone told me one day when I finally asked them why force so much. "The defense is never gonna be in perfect position and all it takes is that one pass to go through for a goal to get scored". He also stated that the game has a lot of randomness to it that it may just go in anyways. I was baffled by these statements from an above average skilled forward. I remember one game I played a team whose winger tried to do that to me the whole game just force it across to the other winger and also try to straight line over the blue. That person was shut down so hard I got a message from him calling me a pain in the * (former Teammate in a previous season of league hockey so it was in good fun but still). This was also a top guy that played in esports and who's team does place well, not enough for brackets but still solid.

" So offensive players are just min/ maxing what matters (speed) and able to do almost everything haha."

Yes they are indeed because that's the only way they can get separation in this game and speed is king. Part of that reason is because of how strong hitting currently is. That is why many people kiss the boards and use EE to ballerina skate back and forth, because the ice is so restricted in what you can do with the puck along the boards. Deking is barely an option as any time you deke you are stuck in the animation and therefore cannot do anything until it is completed (exception being toe drags). This allows the defender to get close up to you and knock you off the puck before you are able to pass or shoot. Deking also doesn't have an "assist" feature like hitting where it recognizes and adjust how to send the puck around the checker resulting in the stick blocking some dekes that should have been effective against your missed hit. Everything on the offense side is just as rough at times in fairness.

"The game also has an issue with attributes."

I couldn't agree more with this. The two biggest problems IMO is that we are playing NHL but have the attributes of a mid 70s player. The other issue I was going to mention in the speed comment but felt it applied more here. The categories that these attributes are grouped in make for only one play style to work. Now I may be in the minority on this one but having Speed and acceleration on separate categories makes it easy to create all builds. Max out speed, max out accel, max out agil, bring down all balance and shooting stats because they don't really have a point to them in comparison. I would love to see next year the grouping of them like it is in HUT. Accel/Balance/Agil/Spd/End all in one category and Wrist and Slap power/accuracy in its own. Than you can make up more choices. Do I sacrifice a little End for Accel? do I drop Bal for Spd? Am I going to be a wrist shot or a slap shot, or an even balance of them?

Anyways I am getting off topic here.

Just like you say "most play forward because SCORING GOALS is fun", I counter with "and others play defense because HITTING is fun".

Many people claim they want a "sim based" hockey game until they get it and then are immediately calling for the developers to be executed. When the stick check was so often causing penalties in the beginning of 19 or 20 people were outraged because they "cant poke anymore" meanwhile, we had been so programmed for years to close our eyes and poke the puck away with ease that we were not ready for such a change and didn't want to adapt to it. Many people claim they want a bigger skill ceiling but when something is implemented

Passing in 23  - made charged passing less effective and so you had to light pass when closer and charge when further... Community riots.

New shoving mechanic - Allows for opportunities to push players off the puck while maintaining your position when a hit is not the right option... People still want it removed completely.

One timers - Being more skill based by forcing players to wait for the puck to touch their stick, rather than up spamming... Again look here and see the anger despite the LT change to help. 

Goalies Tether control scheme - requiring constant attention from the goalies to stay steady on the thumbstick while players cycled or be sniped on when caught... Goalie discords uproar.

Body checking being nerfed - requiring a more methodical attack to it and less of just full sending into a player.... topic of discussion right now.

These above are all changes to improve the skill ceiling of the game which I want nothing more than to see and it was met with nothing but constant criticism from the community. It's sad really because the community has made it impossible for a developer of this game to do any types of changes and it makes me wonder if the previous developers were right in not making any changes to their game. It makes me understand why the NHL24 discord has been scrubbed entirely. In the end you cannot please everyone so maybe the idea is to come out with a game and stick to it. Make it more arcade or more sim, pick one and stick to it because again you can't make everyone happy.