URGENT: CPU aggression & hitting needs to be toned down

Good to see I'm not the only one with this issue.  I've spent more time adjusting slider than I have playing the game.  It's wild. 

But with that said, I've had to adjust the way I play and figure out other ways to be creative at zone entries and puck movement.  It's kind of helped, but I still think the aggression is astronomically higher than years past and in fact makes it hard to really enjoy the game.  

In the All Star hut moments, even my big boys get thrown around. Even if my player and the AI hitting me are standing still, I get trucked and thrown to the ice. Another thing is that if you're hugging a wing for the zone entry and fully 180 to create space, defenders have perfect reaction time and will stick right on top of you. It's insane lol

I've played only SB in single player, and it's fairly noticeable. I think it has more to do with the game difficulty than actual AI player qualities.  AI is super aggressive on defence. Theyre super fast even backskating, and they hit hard and often. They almost always win board play even if you have 2 against 1 (and like previous years, they suck you in it, whether you want it or not). The AI team has 30 odd hits per game logged, their passing percentage is 90%+. They almost always intercept your passes when you try some on the offensive zone, if you try to deke they just maul you as soon as you try it, or the puck just leaps from your stick to them. Might not bother really. They read your new L2 movement pretty well, it's doesn't really work against them, because they're so fast and aggressive. I could go on, but you know how it goes.

Fun times, I only play one or two SB game for practice, that's it. Oh and your goalies cant' catch anything and the AI goalie is a god. And all AI teams have Tkachuk🙃

Try lowering the hitting sliders,  I have it set at 25 and the game plats much better,  averaging 25 hits per team in franchise mode,  7 mins periods 

I 110% agree with you on this one. I remember years back in the games when the CPU barely ever hit, you'd be lucky to see five hits throughout the game from them. Now the moment you touch, pass, or take a shot your player is getting absolutely laid out by the CPU. The hitting animation is still absolutely God awful looking in this game. I've never seen a hit in hockey where a player goes down almost on one knee to make a hit with their shoulder. All the hitting animation clips you seen in the trailers for the game just aren't there when you play the actual game. It's the same with passing, the pass you make are these long, stiff, fully extended, straight armed passes. Nothing like what you see in trailers where there quick, short, snappy passes. 

The AI doesn’t play defensively, they only thinks about constantly hitting you, like it’s too arcade-style.

Should mention  i have attributes set to 9. Which may cause some difference