Personally I'd say they routinely take a step forward and 1-2 steps back. If you prefer arcade/video game hockey then this team is probably doing a good job (for the most part) and if you're looking for a game that replicates what you see in the NHL then it's probably not progressing well.
The team shamelessly gives almost all advantage to the offense, routinely making things easier. I believe some of these advantages make sense and I can understand, others go too far imo. I can understand wanting to have more puck control than we see in real life, as hockey is a pretty messy game and I think more people would be upset if the puck was as loose as we see in real life.. that being said I think if we did see puck control matter more at the expense of speed it would be one more reason to not max speed. One button dekes, button passes, auto timed 1Ts, LOTS of offensive xfactors all make the game feel very offensively leaning. I think defense wouldn't feel so bad if offense had the same lack of assistance. If 1T had to be timed the same way a poke check or stick lift needed to be aimed and timed it would create more of a skill gap. We also wouldn't NEED to have goalies make crazy saves on them, as there could be poorly timed shots leading to poorly aimed/ slower shots. Button passes are also an issue imo, I know a lot of people use them, in the NHL we see missed passes all the time. I think we should have to aim all our passes, but I know people complained about this a lot in the past.
The next biggest issue is A.i. I think everyone is upset about them. I personally don't like the A.i. being good but I also don't like them to be a full on hindrance. I wish they could be a walking stick rather than a crutch or perhaps worse, a thorn. I wish they could defend better (smarter) but lose their a.i. superhuman abilities. They don't play anything like a human, they win 50/50 battles, can't be hit the same, perfectly tack pucks, intercept any pass near them, make passes most humans can't.. but then their programming is AWFUL. So depending on the game they can win you or lose you the game, they are either a crutch or a thorn almost every time. Personally I just wish we never had to deal with them and every club used all humans, but I digress.. I think a big step would be giving clubs tools to create their cpu teammates to include behaviors. Maybe even building them as you progress through divisions (but then match making would have to return)
Goalies are perhaps the biggest issue we have in the game. The system feels as poor and old as the fighting system. The cpu goalies will make saves that they shouldn't (a point blank 1T) then let in one that slides slowly across the ice from the point. This leads people to believe in things that we can't mention here. Not to suggest I believe in it, I think there are games my goalie feels way better than he should or far worse than he should, and same about the opponent. I'm not sure what to make of it but it doesn't feel consistent at all. I think human goalies should have boosted stats in WoC to make up for user input delay (just my opinion) but the whole system needs redone. It doesn't help that the offense has perfect puck control and can go forehand/backhand as fast as you can push your thumb. The offensive boosts really make the whole goalie system extremely difficult to balance, couple that with xfactors that can stun them, increased speed on shots, etc. Just a very arcade system, but kids today likely don't care as much about defense and want lots of goals. This is likely who EA is making the game for despite most of their audience being older, those people will buy the game (more than likely) reguardless.
Random events (not sure what to call them) are also really annoying. Broken sticks, broken glass, being forced into a fight (i should never be forced into a fight, some people choose to play as a female just to avoid this) after a good hit. These random events are cool when I'm not playing competitively but they just give people more reason to believe this game favors one team over another when they experience far more random events. I know there are a couple other random events that I'm failing to remember, too tired after training in GA this past week.
The bugs in the game also seem to be added onto every game, those that get fixed find their way back after a year or two.
All that being said.. I also think they've made good changes too.. I think they've finally got interceptions into a good place. Poke checks could use a boost but aren't in an awful place (I think we either get rid of the speed penalty altogether or give the poke more power/ create a window where the offensive player can't regain possession) hitting is too good again, they got rid of auto targeting but over the course of a few games theyve brought it back, then also gave a much bigger window for hits after a pass or shot. Stick lifts could use a boost but aren't in an awful spot. The L2 stuff needs another nerf but it seems every year they nerf it a little bit more.
The pressure system could use some more updates, it seems better this year I think. I think the pressure should not just begin or end like it does but build through the game during sustained pressure, almost like the momentum meter in the old NCAA football games. I also think throwing shots on the goalie from the point needs to create much less pressure. If they made a lot of small changes it COULD be a good system. I like that it nerfed the ability to rag the puck.. I think the idea was to also lessen the # of games we see teams lose when out shooting their opponent by 3 times, now it has pushed and rewarded some teams to just throw shots on to start building pressure.
Overall I think the arcade and high offensive abilities just outshine the good they've done with the defense so it gives you the 1 step forward but 2 steps back feeling. I think a little work in the right direction and this could be a much better game.
