The CPU AI needs help with the dump and chase.
Devs, the AI improvements have been great but I think this one area is particularly lacking. The CPU is terrible at dumping the puck and retrieving it. Now I know it's not a highly successful zone entry in real life but in this game it's essentially a guaranteed turnover. This is even with board stumble sliders being at 100, bouncing puck pickup at 0, pickup type at 60, nothing works. Saucer pass slider does nothing.
First, without acceleration slider being at least 20 they have no chance of actually getting to the end boards in time, why? They should be using the hustle feature to enter the zone with maximum momentum. Secondly even if they get there to initiate the puck battle they almost never successfully gain control of the puck. Partially because they don't handle the board battles well at all and also because they never send enough support beyond the one player who dumped it.
The solutions are simple and can be seen from the more successful rim around the boards move the AI does when pressured at the blue line which has been a great addition. The flip needs to be done to the opposite corner rather than the end boards or just dynamically decided. It should travel 3/4 of the way around the zone like board dump. The AI should prefer to do it with either the dump-er or a teammate already traveling with speed in the direction of the zone, ideally using the hustle feature. In fact, rarely, they do have some momentum and those are the times the flip is somewhat successful. Finally there needs to be more support to retrieve the puck when the chaser gets in a board battle with the defense. The AI needs to figure out how to win these board battles because it's rarely if ever the forechecking team.
It would really freshen up the zone entries if the AI could have more dump-in options rather than the flip to the end boards. Would be great if they could throw it hard around the glass or boards from anywhere at and past the red line. Right now it's very difficult for it to be an effective strategy even with the forechecking update.
