Penalties need more adjusting (and broken glass)
I'm grinding some SB for PUC's and I'm noticing that SB has a ton more AI penalties than Rivals. I've noticed that there aren't as many AI penalties in Rivals, they are still present, but they are still plentiful in SB. And can we also talk about boarding, charging and elbowing? First off, the logic at which the game calls a boarding penalty is broken, just because a hit is at the half boards, doesn't mean that it is boarding. To me its more if you hit someone into the boards from a distance or from behind, rather than just checking their shoulder. Secondly, I feel that the game too often calls a hard hit a charge, which just simply isn't what a charge is. Charges are meant to be violent hits, but the game seems to have a soft definition for what that is. Thirdly, I would like to talk about the elbowing penalties, for which the player has no control over. You line up a guy, you think there's no way its a penalty and then it is a penalty and you're just left with your mouth gaping open, wondering what you could have possibly have done differently to avoid it. Either elbowing penalties are removed or significantly tuned down, but something has to be done because it is completely random.
And lastly, the broken glass mechanic needs to be removed. The NHL specifically removed breaking glass from NHL rinks because it was a hazard to audience members. That is why the plexiglass is now far more flexible and has way more give with hits, meaning that the glass has an extremely low chance of breaking (or should I say shattering) and more often the glass may dislodge, though I don't remember the last time I watched a game where that happened. Whether its a hit or a shot, I think glass breaking should simply be removed because it is no longer a thing in the real NHL and it also just simply causes unnecessary stoppages that can kill momentum.