NHL26 matchmaking region restricted?

Oh I completely understand that the population here basically doesn't exist  When I moved here from Canada I pretty much thought I would only be able to play offline. But in 21,22,23, 24 I was playing games all day everyday, maybe worst case I would need to search for a game twice before finding a game and the ping would be 175 in every game but games were plentiful.    Now I'm lucky to play 3 games in legitimately 15+ hours of searching.  In 26 it is basically impossible to find games which was never the case before.  It seems like it's only possible to play people in Asia now whereas in previous games I was playing people from NA and Europe quite often.  I was Div 1 since HUT came out until I moved here and because of the ping was hardstuck in Div 3 because of the ping but I could play which was to me a significantly better situation.  

Any update you have is greatly appreciated.  Thanks for the response either way.