Glitch goals carrying over from 24?
Are we going to see the same scenarios over and over again like 24. We had the cross crease goals that tbf was mostly fixed. They still go in from time to time but they are easier to stop. One tha...
Forum Discussion
Your last paragraph is spot on. Doesn't matter how good you are at defending, the offence always has the upper hand due to the game being unbalanced.
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerI really don't think defense is unbalanced. I see why many feel that way though. Offense has a whole arsenal of dekes. Defense has poke checks, hitting, bumps, tie ups and just taking away time and space. Those skilled at defense know how to take advantage of good player switching and the defensive tools I mentioned to be successful.
It's not unbalanced in the number of tools per se, but it is unbalanced in the effectiveness of the tools.
Take for example, the defensive skill stick. Defensive skill stick is beyond useless. In real hockey, players are taught to keep their sticks on the ice and in the passing lanes to disrupt plays by the offense. In EA NHL, holding out your stick to disrupt plays doesn't do anything. You're WAY more likely to block or intercept a pass by NOT using dss. And, when you try to use dss, it causes your player to instantly slow down to an absolute crawl, meaning that you're just going to end up letting opposing players skate straight past you, effectively giving them MORE space.
Hitting? Hitting is nice at times, but I can't tell you how many times I've hit a player with an Ovi-esque bone-crushing hit only for the player to be back up on his skates and into the play BEFORE I AM. Then you consider that tiny, speedy forwards can hip check giant defensemen into next week, and the hitting component becomes a complete wash.
Poke checking suffers from the same slow down as dss, but with the added bonus of tripping players when you poke check them while they're facing you all because your player completely ignores the puck and pokes straight at their skates.
I would not, in any way, call that balanced. When defense (and goalies) have to be near perfect just to keep up with average forwards, that's not balanced. Giving one group of players a set of premium DeWalt tools while giving the other group a set from Harbor Freight's discount section is not balance.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
- EA_Aljo
I'm not saying that defense couldn't use an upgrade. My point is that many are able to use the available defensive tools very well. Personally, I use DSS heavily so I don't see how it's useless. I also don't have a high amount of tripping penalties. I would certainly like to see to pokes be more affective, but when used right, they're not causing undeserved tripping calls.
When it comes to players getting up from hits goes, that's normally an issue when the player falls between the defender and the puck and you're having a difficult time getting around them. Otherwise, I see hits happen very, very frequently, especially hip checks, where the player getting hit stays down while the hitter skates away to their next victim.
I will agree the defensive tools could be improved. I'd absolutely love that. I just think part of the idea that we cater to offense comes from the challenge of being a good defenders. It's absolutely not easy and requires a lot of reading of plays, anticipation and discipline. Things that are skill based rather than having a button to perform a defensive function for.
