More Issues With NHL
What are we at now, part 14? 15? I dunno. My team's interest (and hope) is at an all time low and that twinkle in our eye has dulled but I'll still continue to make these for the foreseeable future. ...
Forum Discussion
Back with another one EA_Aljo
1. We like to pretend our coach is really just a cardboard cutout but regardless of what he's made of, I wish they'd show even a modicum of enthusiasm out there. Teammates have similar animation issues as the crowd - way too much of the exact thing happening at once; it would be nice if they celebrated like real human beings.
2. So I kill this guy twice in a row with high strength and body checking and Truculence Xfactor and he scores on this useless goalie like nothing was wrong. He just skated right away too - didn't even try to gain back any stamina because he knew there'd be no point.
3. Tons of examples in real NHL where I'd call this a 50/50 for interference but it bugs me that the puck always just shoots straight up to the opposing team and the goalie doesn't even attempt to regain composure and make a save.
4.
- In typical fashion, "Action" Jackson decides it'd be better to just go forehand and push the puck out instead curling back to keep the play alive
- My arm gets broken behind the opposing player, completely killing any possible defense on my part. (FIX THIS ALREADY HOLY COW)
- Dumb pass to nowhere by the idiot AI
5. Another lame goal. No energy, 0 defense by the AI, goalie who can't stop anything - might as well just not have one. Honorable mention to the seizure screen at the end of the clip - a very common occurrence going into a faceoff by the way
6. Again, we need more faceoff options so we don't win but also lose at the same time.
7. Wanted to play this clip in it's entirety because it's a little funny, a little sad, and I want to add salt in the wound.
This is not a realistic hit by any means and he just stands back up like nothing happened. He needs to be in one of those body casts you'd see in a cartoon when someone takes a giant bomb to the face. Truculence is still insane.
Little rope-a-dope, a razzle-dazzle... a dipsy doodle if you will... to end it nice and sweet. mwah 
Hair is too wild, celebrations are stale and too robotic at times (other than when they start pecking at your nipples like a chicken: that's a little too unique)
8. Our drop-in D man takes a vicious knee and no penalty is called. Their guy and then our guy get stripped in such a weird way where the puck just loses all it's momentum and then the guy somewhere blows past him? He has 96 speed and acceleration and got burned this bad? Please, I'd for someone to explain this one - you can see he was still at like 85% stamina.
Absolutely embarrassing goalie.
9. Immediately after - Guy is able to just snag the puck back after getting hit and the goalie just poops the bed, as per usual. So frustrating.
** These guys, 2 diamond ranks were able to get an ELITE 2 drop-in to play with them and we were stuck with a silver 2 shmuck? Tell me how that makes sense, please. Trying to be constructive here because I don't want to get banned for what I want to say so... your matchmaking needs work...
10. So this guy completely tanks the game and finally has the decency to leave but I guess his ghost still has part control because like - HELLOOOOO WHERE ARE YOU AI!? Just dogs it, man...
11. Guy gets pincered and somehow survives two Truculences? You HAVE to make Warrior make sense; This Xfactor is definitely one of the most inconsistent to date. Useless AI just gives him a path and to the even more useless **bleep** in net like *shrug
Nice video. I don't agree with all your assessments, and still some misunderstandings of how the logic in this game works but well done putting the effort in!
Little rope-a-dope, a razzle-dazzle... a dipsy doodle if you will... to end it nice and sweet. mwah
😂😂😂 LMAO
Our drop-in D man takes a vicious knee and no penalty is called.
There is no 'kneeing' mechanic in NHL 26. The player executed a very late hit into the rear-right shoulder of the player. Considering you seem to implore the same abuse of Truculence, you got a taste of your own medicine:
Their guy and then our guy get stripped in such a weird way where the puck just loses all it's momentum
The fact you think this is a 'weird way' demonstrates a bit of a lack of understanding of what's happening in some of these scenarios causing you grief.
This was a loose puck battle. "Their" guy doesn't "get stripped in such a weird way". Their guy stick lifts, 'your' guy responds with a stick lift - which means the loose puck is still loose. Nobody was stripped of anything. In the subsequent battle for body positioning, 'your' guy comes out with the puck because the pickup animation interacted with the loose puck first. 'Their' guy appears to be trying to skate into the boards while 'your guy' is allowing his pickup animation to win:
'Your' guy again, doesn't "get stripped in a weird way" - he literally skates the puck directly into the skates of the defender:
This isn't a "sudden loss in momentum" due to some inferior puck logic - it's literally a puck reacting to being driven directly into a skate
Please, I'd for someone to explain this one - you can see he was still at like 85% stamina.
There is no way for you to know this. The chasing defender does not have his stamina displayed:
There's actually a brief moment your RW - who is now playing defense - has increased ACCEL and gains an opportunity to quickly angle this puck carrier - eliminating their straight-line speed and thus limiting their acceleration. However, the player instead decides to skate directly down, allowing straight line speed to increase for the puck carrier:
Guy is able to just snag the puck back after getting hit
Do you just not see that your guy's momentum after a hit took him away from the puck while the puck carrier, who's Warrior X Factor resulted in not experiencing a full knockdown - simply continued his trajectory which just happened to be match the continued trajectory of the puck?
What do you expect in this scenario? You expect Truculence to be an instant possession changer every single time? And against the one XFactor meant to combat it? And do you want static puck reactions where the puck magically flows to you after you lay a body check? That's unrealistic. Another misunderstanding of how the logic works.
the goalie just poops the bed, as per usual. So frustrating.
Again - do you just refuse to see how your teams defending left the goalie all by himself? All three of you are actively skating away from defending the slot while the other team has possession. The rebound is soft and big, should be fixed - but I find it funny that you insist this is all the fault of the goalie
Guy gets pincered and somehow survives two Truculences? You HAVE to make Warrior make sense; This Xfactor is definitely one of the most inconsistent to date. Useless AI just gives him a path and to the even more useless **bleep** in net like *shrug
My dude - neither of you actually even threw a hit here :
and 'Jeffrey' threw a shove after he skated away
You need to have more whimsy here mate, I don't care if its a knee, a shoulder check, him tomahawking him in the face with the stick, the main issue his how he just crumples because of the awful hit mechanics and just stays down like he's been shot when I've shown people getting up right away from a lot worse.
I have shown numerous examples of how truculence can affect both sides, this has nothing to do with tasting my own medicine - the mechanic blows chunks and I don't know why you want to defend it.
Him stumbling into the boards and my guy just phasing his whole stick through the body to get the puck isn't weird to you? You get locked into animations where you need to just hope you snag the puck - thats not good.
All that momentum for the puck to stop completely in the skates? It doesn't work like that and players don't just plant like a tree in the NHL. People bring up numerous examples of inferior collision all the time, this is just a small taste. Brush it off all you want but we've needed better geometry for ages.
Your own gif right above your response shows his stamina bar, the fact he stops for a split second there shows he'd have even more stamina. We have mics too, its not like we can't communicate where our "health" is at any given time. You want a screenshot of his build too?
OK there Mr. -50, that's all well and good in a perfect scenario but this guy always wanted you to take the angle so he could use his dekes to clear away. What happened to them making the puck carrier slower? There was no backskate and caught flat footed, no temporary stat buff to this guy. So what is he's playing defense now? I keep saying in 3v3 you need to play all positions - the whole point is to keep circling and switching as a unit.
This is just an example of how much faster and easier it is for the offense to resnag the puck than it is to hit/make a defensive play and come out the victor; he even got it before his teammate rushing is. The came caters to offense, its fine, I just wish that making any sort of defensive play felt more rewarding than it currently is. It'sn ot like he isn't allowed to get the puck back at all, but he certainly shouldn't have many options in this scenario and deserved a follow up crushing. Could blame the drop-in d man you claim was such a great idea but it's not like that would have made a difference anyway - You can shrug off all the hits you want with Warrior, Truculence is still devastating even when not used to it's fullest potential - guy should have such low stamina at this point there he's more susceptible to a follow up.
"Rebound should be fixed" Well there ya go , so yes, I will blame the goalie on this. Everything else in that scenario doesn't matter and you know full well I'm right that the goalies are horrendous. "Just defend better" - If that one screenshot of your +- is anything to go off of, you should probably slide off that high horse and we can all just agree the goalies need work, regardless of anything else.
My guy, you don't even need to flick the sticks to lay people out, you should know this. CHOOO CHOOOOO pain train coming through, you can just cosplay as Mr. Slam and knock people down. I did initiate a hit though and you can clearly see my arm getting broken on his back which bungles everything up - yet another issue they don't want to fix. You can still destroy people with shoves as well (again, you should know this); the shove was attempted a little late but still well within the over generous hit window (which also needs to be addressed)
For once I would appreciate if you could just not blindly defend the 1's and 0's of the game - Just because that how it is, doesn't mean that's how it 'should" be.the main issue his how he just crumples because of the awful hit mechanics and just stays down like he's been shot when I've shown people getting up right away from a lot worse.
Truculence is known to be completely OP. This absolutely should be fixed. My reasoning for pointing out there was no 'kneeing' is because the fact you claim the player was hit with a 'knee' shows you're not paying attention to the close details that would give you a better understanding of the nuance.
the mechanic blows chunks and I don't know why you want to defend it.
I'm not defending it at all. Pay closer attention.
Him stumbling into the boards and my guy just phasing his whole stick through the body to get the puck isn't weird to you?
We’ve talked about stick-through-body clipping countless times, so this shouldn’t be surprising. The short version is: videogames sometimes have to bend reality to maintain fluid gameplay and consistent outcomes.
When the natural trajectory of your stick would make contact with another player’s body, the engine has a choice: either animate a full physical collision—which is extremely costly to compute in real time and often produces janky or unintended results—or allow the stick to pass through the model. In many cases, the game intentionally opts for the latter.
It’s not that the stick shouldn’t hit the player; it’s that the engine doesn’t have the physical animation bandwidth to resolve that contact properly without causing unrealistic knock-ons. So instead, the stick is momentarily treated as non-physical to avoid a collision that would disrupt the intended outcome of the play. Essentially, the clipping is a controlled compromise to keep gameplay smooth, readable, and fair—rather than adding chaotic, unintended interactions every time two animations overlap.
All that momentum for the puck to stop completely in the skates? It doesn't work like that and players don't just plant like a tree in the NHL.
I'm sorry, are we watching different scenarios?
Tell me how the puck should react to being skated directly into a skate...
Your own gif right above your response shows his stamina bar, the fact he stops for a split second there shows he'd have even more stamina. We have mics too, its not like we can't communicate where our "health" is at any given time. You want a screenshot of his build too?
He doesn't stop. He glides for like 5 frames and gets beat because rather than close the gap and angle out, he chooses to skate in a straight line to match speed. Doing this allowed the carrier to generate straight-line speed. Rookie mistake.
OK there Mr. -50,
Let's maybe leave the personal attacks out of this eh? We've been doing well in that regard, no reason to derail it now.
this guy always wanted you to take the angle so he could use his dekes to clear away.
That’s exactly what you want to accomplish as a defender in this situation: slow down the puck carrier and force them into a lateral move directly in front of you. This achieves two key things: it buys time for your backchecking forwards to recover and support, and it creates an ideal moment for you to use DSS or a poke check to disrupt possession as the puck carrier crosses your center plane.
This is just an example of how much faster and easier it is for the offense to resnag the puck than it is to hit/make a defensive play and come out the victor
But you are conveniently omitting how your player skated directly into a defender and caused a turnover at a time in which your defender was incapacitated. That same forward was then forced to backskate and as I've mentioned - actually had a small window of opportunity to close the gap and angle out, chose rather to try and match speed and got burned. Welcome to hockey.
I just wish that making any sort of defensive play felt more rewarding than it currently is
It's insanely rewarding playing defence if you're dedicated to the position, read and anticipate plays properly. Many of the people who claim defending is so difficult is because they're busy reacting to plays rather than reading them and anticipating them.
Could blame the drop-in d man you claim was such a great idea but it's not like that would have made a difference anyway
It was a great idea. Judging by your clips, your team leans on truculence abuse and constantly driving the net with your two forwards, leaving the DMan all alone. That's poor 3v3 play.
"Rebound should be fixed" Well there ya go , so yes, I will blame the goalie on this.
You're blaming the goalie for letting in a goal where your opponent had 2 players, all alone with all the time and space in the world while all 3 of you were actively skating away from that danger. Make it make sense.
Everything else in that scenario doesn't matter and you know full well I'm right that the goalies are horrendous
Goalies being left alone to face repeated odd-man rushes should never be expected to perform like brick walls. In real hockey, even elite goaltenders have low odds in those situations because the attacking team has time, space, and multiple passing/shooting options. When your defense is out of position, you’re essentially handing the opposition a high-danger scoring chance before the goalie even has a chance to react.
Strong defensive positioning is what prevents those situations from happening in the first place—closing gaps, angling attackers wide, eliminating passing lanes, and forcing low-percentage shots. When that structure breaks down, the goalie is at an immediate and unavoidable disadvantage.
It sounds as though you’re asking for the goalie to act as a bailout mechanic, erasing the consequences of poor defensive play and turning every 2-on-1 or 3-on-1 into a routine save. That wouldn’t be realistic, and it would undermine the entire defensive side of the game. If the goalie were expected to stop an endless stream of odd-man rushes, there’d be no incentive for anyone to play proper defense.
CHOOO CHOOOOO pain train coming through, you can just cosplay as Mr. Slam and knock people down.
I did initiate a hit though and you can clearly see my arm getting broken on his back which bungles everything up
Because, as evidenced in your other clips - you have a habit of skating directly into players and then trying to execute a mechanic.
Tell me this - should a real life NHL player be able to execute a top-tier body check while their positioning currently has one of their arms stuck on an opponent who they are on top of?
For once I would appreciate if you could just not blindly defend the 1's and 0's of the game -
Posting GIFs, highlighting issues in clips you've posted is literally the exact opposite of 'blindly' defending something.
A knee on knee would make more sense in a real life scenario but fine, I didn't properly describe it because I honestly didn't think i needed to - It doesn't matter at the end of the day anyway what it is in the game because the whole point is to show another example of hitting not being in a good spot.
I understand the clipping helps the spaghetti code out, I just want more polish added to the game. Most of these scenarios are unpolished and even real NHLers are stunned, on camera (in official videos, mind you), with what goes on on. You say fluid gameplay but it's not fluid visually, and realistically speaking, completely changes the play at hand.
His attempt to poke just goes right through my friend? Reality and immersion breaking - It could have led to a penalty which would have stopped the entire sequence, and it looks bad
You then have my guy's stick go through him without even pushing the skate or tangling their player up which again, would happen normally and the game does have the code/animations for.
You needa run straight lines to maintain and gain speed yeah? Trying that hard to immediately cut in to a guy when you realize what happened will undoubtedly cause you to lose more speed. Again, he should have more than enough in the speed+accel stats (and i've shown stamina) to keep up down the middle and yet he can still blow by with plenty of energy of his own without the apparent use of xfactors - There was 100% no way to fully stop that once it started so I have no choice to call shenanigans on that; best he'd manage with a perfect stretch straight down would be blocking the attempt to go to the right but of course all you need to do is just deke left.
You claim to want him to deke past but that is exactly what we wouldn't want since it plays into his style and gives him more speed (which obviously you can't determine from just these vids alone); he wants to cut over to the other side for his bread and butter with a quick release. By using all that stamina to get down, our guy would need to immediately stop and hold out the stick for a dangerous poke which would take him further out of position - Goalies tend to drop down as soon as you pass their center vision so it'd be a massive disadvantage either way.
Your 6v6 plays differently than 3v3 and most of your defensive strategies aren't as easy on paper since we need jack of all trades builds and can't just dedicate ourselves to a single position. The AI will crash the net no matter what setting you have them on so yeah, you might (definitely) have to cover for them at some point - Drop ins are either spectacular or absolute garbage and eventually leave anyway - It's much easier to just pretend like the AI and goalies don't even exist. Literally every type of shot, no matter the speed or angle, is dangerous to AI goalies and human G's are laughably bad; I can wholeheartedly say I have never once seen a good human G.
So what if the defenseman was blocked? He shouldn't have been there in the first place and this is the reason why allowing drop-ins for your club is a stupid idea - Leave the "let's see what he's got" bs to practice or unranked. Again, what does any of that play matter but the goalie itself? Heck, I'll just give the opposing player the puck and we'll all just sit down with popcorn and watch, hang that nasty goalie out to dry -- He just poofs it and the goalie attempts a pad save? Why on earth would it do that? 0 awareness to, I don't know, cover the puck up? I'll call that out every time, especially when he can a clear view of it.
You keep making comments like that but when teams want the game to be harder, it should mean something. I don't want the AI to play like superstars all the time (don't keep trying to twist my words on this subject, you know exactly what I want) but I also don't want to babysit special needs players. My buddy is literally autistic and mocking these brain dead plays, it makes me angry just how bad they usually are when they can, from time to time, show moments of sheer brilliance. You can tell us to just "play better" all you want but I would like the game's core issues to actually be fixed. Again, i'm a ones global champ, the Chef is top 100 in HUT (which has it's own myriad problems), and "Atem" basically owns the VS betting market - we know how the game works and top whatever leaderboard if we truly wanted to dedicate the time, but the game just makes itself difficult to enjoy and that makes it not worth it.
Strong defensive play will only give you a 50/50 chance on these goalies - go back and look at my other videos; I'm sure there are a few examples. This is what I don't like about the moving mountains style of defensive hockey compared to offense.
A habit of running into players, yeah that's how hitting works - it's basically the only fun thing left in the game. My broken arm that completely hinders control shouldn't even be a thing so maybe the devs can actually fix that hm? This isn't real hockey though, it's a video game where yes, you definitely can dole out massive blackhole-esque hits from nothing. We need a mix of both arcade and realism and the game is failing on both fronts.
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- EA_Aljo4 months ago
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