Deflections for the most part are in a good area imo. Trust me in the past they were like almost auto goals. They still have to stay semi effective to force people to challenge players with the puck if you are playing 1v1. Now if you playing 6v6 humans then you can shove players close to the net when a shot is coming.
I tend to get interference penalties when I shove players close to the net. EA_Aljo
So this is pretty much your safe shoving zone. But you can only shove once every real 3 seconds. Spamming it will get you penalties so you have to make sure you time these things properly. Also you don't use the back and forth hit for a windup. You just press in the direction of the player for what I consider a light hit.
Edit: Don't do it if your team picks up the puck
Does this 3 second rule apply to shove vs crosscheck as well?
Well what happens is you normally shove a player but if you go again too fast the chances are much higher you will be taking a penalty such as a crosscheck. It's most likely meant to be used as a timed thing when a shot is going to be incoming. Granted this doesn't equate in the 1v1 gameplay but more for full human team scenarios.
