Cowardice: The Name of the Game
It is way too easy to play like a coward and get away with it. The constant resets, the lack of hitting, especially in tight, and the inability to bump anyone has led to a game with less passing than ever before, and a game where going end to end is the best way to score. It's a travesty to the sport of hockey. T
he defensive AI act like cowards too, and it's very clear that the reason is they don't know what to do. they don't help cut off lanes, even if you manually move them there, and they skate backwards from loose pucks that you knock away. Doesn't help that the player switching is broken and has been since NHL 23.
First clip is an example of a player who is able to skate in circles with no skating debuffs whatsoever. Skate face first into the boards and explode off it with all momentum kept? sure. when I bring malar down to cut off the wall and switch so I can double team, Makar just backs off and lets the guy walk in.
Second clip is an example of BS going both ways. For me and against me. He brings the puck in with Caufield and holds it on his forehand. I, with 6'4", 225lb Tom Wilson, attempt to bump him from the FRONT, and he STILL holds onto the puck. Cole Caufield is 5'7" 160lbs. That alone is a joke.
Then, as I go up the ice with Byfield, i execute a kick deke into traffic. after multiple attempts by the AI to pick up a puck that should have been easily obtainable, a player on the other side of the dogpile retrieves it and scores. As long as you keep skating north you will generate chances and goals, even if you lack any understanding of hockey strategy. Compared to last year in HUT Champs, pass attempts per game have dropped ~35% by my count. I assume this is because the normal passes stop all of your players momentum, and for the first part of the year saucer passes were broken, meaning it was easier to just go end to end every rush and score. There is almost 0 incentive to pass the puck unless its a cross crease, and that's only amplified by the fact pass targeting ALSO broke in 23 (Attachment 3. notice how my vision is towards the point man but the pass targeting is trying to drag it to the far left guy)
If you play a game notice how passing percentages are threw the roof. That's not because people are getting better at passing, its because they only pass in the most open instances possible and are passing less as a result.
There's a reason why everyone's leading point scorers are their defensemen (usually Coffey/Makar) and its because they get their momentum and even if you play a perfect poke or hit there is a decent chance they'll either slip off the hit and or end up with the puck on the other side of the poke (because poke checking slows you don't, lessening your momentum and therefore the strength of the poke relative to their speed). Also, the fact that players REFUSE to get off the ice when tired leads to poor line changes that create these man advantage breaks.
Defensively? Even worse. Because player switching is bad, no one player switches, and the AI is too intimidated by a tight defensive box that they refuse to skate through checks to open up near and around the slot.
I am fairly convinced that the ONLY reason why these things are issues is because the people who make this game aren't good enough at the game to figure out the problems with it. That's not intended to be an insult, but rather the reality of a company as big as EA, where people aren't always working on games where the sport is their passion.
I just think it's sad that in a game like hockey our 1v1 experience has been relegated to a game where everything LITERALLY feels likes its 1v1, with 10 spectators
