Goalie fatigue needs to go in NHL 25
The fatigue system was a good idea, but very poorly implemented. Puck retrievals during fatigue as well as clearing the zone continue to be absolutely atrocious. An NHL player can lob a puck from the...
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The older, non-weak, flip dump came with the risk of icing or flipping it over the boards for a delay of game penalty. It wasn't necessarily easy to avoid both when you were under pressure from forecheckers. And as thebrazenhead75 said, it's a commonly used hockey play. I still don't understand the perceived need to nerf it. As you say, there are other ways of clearing the puck from your zone... why weren't they nerfed too if you want it to be super difficult to break pressure?
As I recall, the reason given for the high flip nerf was literally that it made the pressure system pointless. At the time, I pointed out that if the system was so easily defeated by such a rudimentary play, then maybe the system was poorly designed.
I see what you're saying about the reasoning behind nerfing the high flip to preserve the pressure system. However, I think it’s worth considering that if a basic play like the high flip could render the pressure system ineffective, it might indicate that the system itself needs a redesign. It’s not just about making things harder but also ensuring the game mechanics are balanced and realistic.
But the high flip doesn't make the pressure system pointless. As I pointed out, there was risk to the high flip. And frankly, if the offense wants to maintain pressure, they should maintain puck possession.
I forgot to mention in my earlier post my biggest pet-peeve about the weak puck flip. The AI wasn't retrained on how to clear the puck on the penalty kill. They still try to use the puck flip whenever they get possession on the PK and fail to clear it most times. Best case they get it out to center ice... they can never, ever clear it all the way down the ice without carrying down themselves. It also messes up their ability to execute dump-and-chase... they expect the old, more powerful dump in, but only get a weak flip part of the way to where they want the puck to go.
A big part of why the AI is so horrendous these days is because every year game mechanics are added/changed/removed, but the AI is rarely updated to understand the changes. The AI still only partially understands 3-on-3 overtime play, only partially know how to run the 1-3-1 PP, they only use a fraction of the dekes available to players, they rarely (if ever) use DSS, etc, and are generally dumbfounded when a human player uses those mechanics that they aren't aware of.
Sorry for the rant.
