Chel team parity issues

This is a tough one because everyone plays different, but see if you can prioritize defense first. All five players. Play patiently, don't chase, and try to take the lanes away. If you have to, let the other team have the perimeter, but don't give them the inside. Collapse when there's a shot because it's going to come from the point or the one tee and tips that are ALWAYS on goal are a big cop out. If you can go up by one then lock it down more. What's going to happen is that these sweat teams (I admit I'm on a few of them) will tend to push a little harder if you're D-ing them up and the game is close. They'll also try to get you on the rush. That's when you can capitalize on their mistakes during their push. Been there plenty of times when you make a great play and the goalie rob-saves the other team time after time while your own goalie gives up a flub.

Was told by EA_Aljo​ in a post I made you can check it out if you like .. rank is not taken into consideration when match making .. Sad for the EA community.. it would be nice if a rank/ skill based match making system 

The player pool is supposed to be left open to help players find matches faster but I can see how it can get super frustrating super fast.
There was a point a few years ago my buddy and I were top 30, rank 1 elites and while we usually were matching up with other close teams, I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many silvers and bronze we faced off against too. Heck, there was one instance of us facing off against a team who were down so many points they didn't even have bronze; I want to say it was wood rank or something -- I'll happily add wins to my official stats but it gets to a point where everyone is negatively impacted by this. 

Competitive teams can't advance and other teams (i don't care about any perceived "skill"; sometimes people just want to wind down and relax with buddies or maybe something is going on in the background etc.), just get stomped which ruins the whole experience. All players need better tools to help them both stay competitive and get the types of games they want

A big issue is that the game has stagnated. Every game is 2 steps forward 2 steps back. It has become very arcade like. Most new players are not interested, or worse.. they play the rest of the community that is left and then quit. A large portion of the community (especially online players) are people who have played this game for several years. People who likely only play this game. Huge hockey fans or fans of this game. This means the majority of players are going to be skilled to very skilled. You will run into bad/ unskilled teams but it's not as common as you will see in other games. If I jump on a popular game like 2K I'll find casual players or people who are playing for the first time or whom aren't good but play because its popular or their friends play. 2K has a much larger population but also far more unskilled players/ players across all skill levels. When NHL goes on sale or is free on EA play you get a surge of casuals.. they play for a week or so.. probably get crushed by the entire community of good players, find no help as far as figuring the game out, no progression and never want to play again. The game lacks good matchmaking, good training system, and any progression within EASHL.. these will all lead to new/ not extremely skilled players losing interest. EA either needs to fix some gameplay issues like pokechecks and broken Xfactors, and add features into EASHL to get people to play. Better matchmaking, a return of hockey training camp/ extended club practice options, player / club progression systems.. if not, the pool is going to stay about the same size/ get smaller and you're gonna see the same big fish/ sometimes some new one's.. maybe a HUT player switches to EASHL maybe an EASHL player switches to HUT.. every year it seems there are just a bit less easy games.