"Rubber band" momentum
I know this is a hot topic, however we've all been there, leading by 2 at the end of the period and all of a sudden everything is going in your net or your passes aren't connecting, sticks are breaking, easy interceptions aren't being made. Its hard to sit there and say "its just bad luck" when game after game it happens over and over. I'd love to see the statistics for how many goals happen in the last minute of a period. It leads me to one conclusion, that the EA team hates decisive games, that they believe giving the lesser team "a chance" is bad for business, but this is meant to be a simulation based game, its not made for the weaker teams to be given a boost, its meant to tell them "hey, you're gonna have to practice to get to that level". People who put in the time shouldn't have their experience watered down to keep games competitive if the teams aren't competitive.
This is tied into a better match making system being needed as well, you cant sit there and place silvers and golds against diamonds and elites and expect teams to play out 3 periods. The game loses its fun for both sides.