New Net Battles?
It seems we are allowed to talk about the games playtest but we are just not allowed to post to any places videos of it since I have been seeing it all over social media from the content creators. In that case, I have to inquire about something that I was only able to test out a small amount as it took me until the second to last day of the playtest to find out about this.
People have been talking about how the new hitting system is terrible design and that it should be removed. I think part of the reason is due to our ignorance in its uses.
Obviously you have the hip check which has been altered since the playtest so lets just ignore that for now. You also have the (slapshot) hitting which I think will take some getting used to, but all in all I don't think it is terrible. In fact from a dangler stand point, this is great as now you don't have to worry about deking someone trying to big body check only to have it hit their stick blade as they fly at you. Its a high risk body check which will knock them down when connected or leave them hanging out to dry when missed so overall good decision. Rewarded when successful and penalized when missed.
Now I want to talk about THE MAIN REASON I am writing about this, the shove. People are so convinced that the shove is so useless and I think they couldn't be more wrong. I am saying this because I found out during my gameplay time, that you can shove people who are not in possession of the puck. I only was able to do small testing and found two great spots for this to be used.
1. Using it in the slot to stop people who do "cut plays" right at you. I was able to use the shove to knock them off balance.
2. Using it in the slot to stop people who are trying to sit in the middle to tip the puck. Again you can do the same thing and skate up to them (low speeds) and push them out of your slot.
What I found playing was that their was an actual battle in front of the net that feels much more authentic to what you see in real hockey with two guys jostling with one another for control of the slot.
Now here is the kicker to all of this. The options listed were uses for the defenseman but YOU CAN DO THIS AS THE OFFENSE TOO!
I did VERY little testing of this due to playing mostly D but there was one instance at least that I played Center and shoved their Dman out of the way leaving me wide open. Sadly the winger didn't see me open and the opportunity was missed. The point is that if this is allowed in front of the net without penalties, who is to say it is allowed in other locations? The best place I can think of is skating side by side with another person for a loose puck that was dumped into the corner. Maybe you can shove him and then have control? Again I haven't tested this so I don't know what is possible.
The big thing that I want to know from the EA guys like Aljo and what not is, was this intentional that it doesn't cause penalties now? If so why wasn't this talked about in the gameplay trailer for the shove mechanics? This is a direct counter to two very often used playstyles of the cut plays and shots from the point and yet it was completely looked over. Anyways maybe someone else did some testing of this and can chime in on if it was used or how you utilized it?
