My god if that unrealistic speedboost hitting is still in nhl 25..

The biggest issues for me regarding hitting were:

-Hitter often took longer to recover from the hit than the player being hit

-Hits often never registered due to broken contact mechanics(hitter does the animation, player being hit doesn't even react)

-Truculence once again carried bad defenders who got burned because of the massive "contact/hitbox" it created. You could blow by a defenseman and he clips the loose thread on your number stitching and knocks you over

-Two different hitting buttons was a terrible idea, especially because of how the stick defaults to completing a hit as opposed to just whiffing on the shot attempt.   The input was entered in a shot situation, it should NOT change to a hit without any further controls input.

-Hip checking being one button(common theme) was a terrible idea, it was also OP'd because both the hitter and player being hit could be practically standing still and it would cartwheel the player