WOC Defense

I've got a few dozen more games under my belt and came back to add some stuff. 

I dislike Elite Edges even more than I dislike Wheels. The "dance in the corner until I get pressured, then spin and force the cross crease pass" game is getting old fast. You add in the auto-saucer/blind pass X-factor and your defense might as well not even be on the ice. I'd almost rather see X-factors gone completely, but since I imagine that's not a possibility, it seems like offensive and defensive X-factors ought to cancel each other out better than they are currently doing. 

Positioning/defensive awareness tied to positioning is in a bad spot. If a player can blind saucer pass it backward out of the corner for a fast break, I have to be able to intercept or deflect a pass I can reach pretty much every time. It feels like too much defensively is tied to which way you're facing (or not enough offensively is tied to which way you're facing). I don't mean blind interceptions if you're completely out of the play, but it's way too easy to pass through the slot with three guys in defensive position right now. NHL teams cycle all game looking an opening and finish 2-1; people are quitting EASHL games 45 seconds in when it's 3-0 because cross crease passes are still way too easy to force. Positioning has to mean something; it would eliminate the feel of those "nothing you can do" goals where the puck goes right through you. Maybe also need a boost to defensive puck pickups and/or to reduce the accuracy of shots off rolling or loose pucks. There's a lot of plays down the boards where I take it away from a guy 2, 3, 4 times and he just keeps skating and picking it back up. There's no button for puck pickups, it's passive and I have to rely on numbers behind the scenes, so it needs to feel like I have a chance. It creates a scenario where all he has to do is skate full speed toward the net, whereas I have to stay with him and every action I do slows me down. I need some more payoff for those actions i.e. separation of puck from player or slower offensive pickup time.