The game currently is all offense. Even back skating is slow and sluggish. The only penalty I see in hut is tripping because hits are dead unless you count hip check spamming.
It's like whoever made this game forgot about defense. I agree the new skating LT stuff is cheesy/arcade like. What's frustrating is when you play other sport games like FC 25 or 2k25 the basic mechanics of those games actually work and then there is NHL 25.
The current state of NHL 25 right now would be equivalent to if pressing B to tackle didn't work properly on FC 25.
I just hope they are aware of that cheesy skating LT speed boost because I hate having to use it just to compete with others in hut.