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?
I agree with this! Instead of nerfing it like they did you maintain their precious pressure system, they should have left in room for error on the delay of game clears. It made you think of how to clear, instead of just nerfing the strength of the clear. It's going to be way harder to clear pucks now since your fatigue will drain x2 and now the offensive team will regain their fatigue x2. I bet EA didn't even think to give x2 fatigue back to both the players and the goalie on successful clears of the zone and pressure. Of course not.
Instead of nerfing the clearing mechanics, it would have been better if they had maintained the pressure system but allowed for some margin of error on delays of game clears. This would have encouraged strategic thinking on how to clear the puck effectively. It’s frustrating that now, with the increased fatigue drain and the offensive team regaining fatigue faster, it seems like the balance is off. It would have made more sense to adjust fatigue more fairly for both teams and the goalie after successful clears, rather than just making it harder to clear the zone. Hopefully, EA takes these concerns into account for future updates.
