Didn't buy

These are so spot on. I couldn’t have said it better myself 

Thanks again for continuing to be constructive.

Well, as I previously said the offense does not have to look at the puck to recieve it on their stick while defense generally does. Offense typically has preference in puck retrieval. Offense has 1 button dekes, button passing (so that they can't miss now.) On defense we now have to aim our hits (I don't mind this change but if we give Offense 1 button dekes and perfect passing why do we make things harder for defense??) We give the offense more tools and dekes in nearly every game. The defense got boosted hip checks (which I hate, as they felt broken and looked absolutely silly)

One button dekes are only affective if defense isn't good at stopping them. Defense also gets 1 button hipchecks. I don't use them myself, I use skill stick controls and I agree they need to be balanced better.

I haven't noticed any difference between offense and defense when it comes to receiving no look passes. If you have video comparing the 2, feel free to post it.

Passing was always one button. Granted, you had to aim. Regardless, passing is more than hitting a button and aiming. Good defense is going to anticipate passing options and cut those off. I'm not saying defense is easy by any means, but they have the tools to stop forwards and their bag of tricks.

I would say we also have the issue of unclear direction. The devs went from creating a competitive environment and trying to create a game with skill gap. They got rid of things like broken sticks.. to now having broken sticks and broken glass that stops the gameplay for no reason. Changes like these and button passing makes the skill gap smaller and luck more of a factor and it's uneeded. I'm fine with these being in the game but not in competitive modes. 

Broken sticks I'm ok with. Glass breaking is something that was pretty often requested. This was for a few years after it was removed. Personally, I'd like to see it gone. I don't think it adds much to the game. Icon passing was also frequently requested and with it being bugged briefly, many people were upset about it. So, it is a popular feature. Not one I use personally. I also don't have any real issues with it because as I mentioned, someone bad at passing is going to be bad regardless of not having to aim them. The skill gap lies more in anticipating what your opponent is doing rather than removing the need to aim. 

It seems like ANY realism that could benefit the offense is in the game and ANY realism that could benefit the defense is overlooked. For instance, I understand why the offense has really good puck control in a video game and making the game feel and look less sloppy than the real sport. However, as a defenseman why is it so hard to program the ability to knock a pass if you're in the lane? We either pick it or it goes right through us.. why does a defenseman who hits someone often times take longer to recover than the guy they hit? Why does the guy they hit so often get the puck back so easily? How come when we poke the puck is the offensive player able to regather the puck before the defenseman can move again/ get control of his own stick? The game isn't close to balanced.. defense is an incredibly unrewarding experience. You're often better hitting no buttons at all and just being in the way of the play. 

This again is part of the skill gap. A good defender is going to break up those passes. Just getting in the lane works when there's enough reaction time to intercept the pass. Otherwise, you're going to have to block, poke or sweep it away with DSS. I'm not saying there are no improvements to be made here. Defense is tough and this is one of the most challenging parts of the position. You're asking for a wider skill gap, but you're also asking to make it easier to defend so it would be good to hear how you'd balance this.

Can you show me when it's taking longer for a defender to recover than the player they hit? I'm not a big hitter, but when I do and lay someone out, I'm recovering before they're up. I'll watch out more for this, but video examples would help.

The puck going back to the carrier when being poked is due to positioning and player ratings. If you get just a piece of the puck, it doesn't get poked far enough away and is often easier for the forward to pick up. A good defender is going to time their pokes better so they get more of the puck and create better separation. Using DSS can help a lot as well so you can sweep it away.

We'll have to agree to disagree on defense being unrewarding. It's been my primary position since EASHL first started. Yeah, there are frustrating moments for sure, but there's also a lot of satisfaction in shutting down offense. 

If I code the game I am creating a recovery window for guys who get poked. They would be unable to retrieve the puck for maybe a second their hand-eye/ strength could shrink the recovery window or something. We also see the puck that gets poked go in super unnatural directions and always seems to "find" another winger skating up. The game should feel a bit more sloppy making perfect control and perfect passes for 5'7 160lb snipers makes the game really irritating for anyone who wants to try to play a hockey game that mimics real life. If a sniper/ PMD poor puck handling/ strength played a part in the sim we could maybe see a bit more creative builds.. we see the same builds in top tier EASHL every year because they (and often times me, when I played) max everything that matters and min everything that doesn't.. not enough is done every year to balance this game. 

I get what you're saying about the recovery window. That is also handled already by ratings and positioning. Also, when you watch elite players, they're able to recover the puck quickly. 

Can you get some video showing the puck getting poked in unnatural directions? It would be good to zoom in on the puck so we can see how the blade is contacting it.

I don't think we should force sloppy passes. If someone is good at passing, they should be rewarded. I also don't see how smaller players should be forced to play bad. Again, that takes away from the skill gap you're asking for. There already is some error with pretty much anything you do. Too much of this is going to make the game slow and frustrating as people fight for control of the puck more than being able to set up scoring chances with good passing. NHL players are extremely skilled at passing. I really don't see a big difference in error between real life and the video game.

I don't think we'll ever get away from min/maxxing. That's something you will find any pretty much any game with attributes you can edit. We had these removed for a few years and it wasn't well received. Even though, I think this created a more even playing field where skill was more defining. Regardless, this doesn't define how good a player is. Those stats don't mean anything if you don't have the skill to back them up.

As far as goalies go idk what the problem is. I do feel sometimes everything goes in and sometimes nothing does. I've been on both ends of this. Even the biggest streamers like Nasher brings this up. It's a major issue and it's why you guys had to make a rule about not mentioning something that was often brought up. There have been games where we put on 20 high danger 1T's and their goalie just makes WILD athletic saves and then they have a guy alenter the offensive zone and hit a slap shot from the wall, at the blue line, w/o any teammates in the zone to screen or anything and it zips by the goalie.. it's sometimes a very frustrating experience. I can't say what causes this or how to fix it..  that being said.. lemme try.. 

Goalies need to be better at staying in position. I think they drop, flop and flail too much. This also is an incredibly complex position to get perfect so that they're not back to being Spider-Man goalies, but also not allowing so many soft goals or knocking them into their own net. Regardless, games are more often decided by the rest of the players. It's not only the goalie out there. Any shot on net is a threat. It's up to the rest of the team to make sure as few of them reach the goalie. There also are real world games where one goalie stands on his head and the other is letting in unscreened shots. In our game, there are different variables for this. Most often it's down to player ratings, screens and energy. 

You've created a full pressure system. I wasnt a fan, its a bit better now.. that being said If it was altered to create an advantage through the game that would be nice. I think it should only boost advantages with "high danger shots" I don't like seeing full pressure meter boosting because someone enters the offensive zone and slaps a shot on goal that had almost 0 chance. This would help create more of an advantage for teams that are absolutely dominating but getting goalied and feeling cheated so bad that we feel the game is against us. I'm not suggesting goalies should be Flopping around.. but maybe the goalie endurance starts dropping a bit and their reactions slow down a bit after they see so many shots or they've gone post 2 post to make 1T saves multiple times in a game. Teams DO get goalied in real life, I'm fine with it happening in the game but it feels too often and there are systems created that could help lower the chances of that happening. 

If you're losing, you're going to feel the game is against you. It's not though. It never is. The game doesn't have a bone to pick with you. It's not forcing you to get scored on. If you watch video of a goal and go back far enough, you'll see where there was a defensive breakdown or a bad turnover, some kind of mistake that got play going in the other direction. When people ignore this and blame the game, they don't learn anything from it. The best players are the ones that recognize mistakes and learn from them.

It would be good to see the pressure system improved. There are teams it seems to gain too fast. Overall, I haven't really had any issues with it since the improvements from 24. I'm still seeing a lot of good saves, even when they're in the red. If a team is hemmed in their own end, it makes sense they're going to be tired and at a disadvantage. I'd rather see less flopping around as that should tire someone out more, but there times it's just too much. I'd like to see them stay upright more.

Thanks again for continuing to be constructive. I can't overstate that.