EA_Aljo wrote:It comes down to how each team is defending.
On a large enough sample size this is definitely true. If you're constantly in games where it seems like the other goalie is playing better than yours, it's not an issue with the game, it's an issue with your play. Like you said, the AI goalies are the same.
The AI goalies are capable of making unreal desperation saves. They're also capable of letting in the weakest of goals. For the most part this happens pretty evenly on both sides. Sometimes it's lopsided one way or the other. The majority of the time, it's not a huge factor and the better team will still win. There are games where one goalie seems to let all the squeakers in or makes all the highlight reel saves, and those can be incredibly frustrating. It happens, but in my experience those games are incredibly rare.
Most of the time when I see a team "dominate" the other team in TOA and shots but still lose it's because that TOA is all moving the puck around the perimeter combined with high-volume but low-danger shots. Conversely, most games where a goalie gives up a bunch of goals on a low number of shots it's a situation where a team gives up a couple of early goals and starts pressing too hard too early which just gives their opponents better opportunities for more goals and things just snowball.