WOC Defense

mikeq67 wrote:

Here I am perfectly in the passing lane with blue quick pick. No steal and he somehow gets the shot off. 

Here's the thing: Some of you need to understand that not every defensive play should result in you gaining possession.

In NHL 26, there is a HUGE emphasis on body positioning and allowing your player to utilize automated actions such as stick lift (there's an automated stick lift and a manual stick lift this year!) and other automated animations to battle for a loose puck. You can win a battle for a loose puck by simply getting better body positioning. This means no body checking, no smashing poke check - just try to skate directly into the battle let your player's abilities, x factors etc do the work. Only execute a manual action like a poke check or stick lift when you are absolutely certain it will be successful. This means there's an ever-growing skill gap where people who learn how to use their automated actions in conjunction with manual actions are going to have a superior advantage over players who are still trying to manually obtain possession.

In  your clip, your defender DOES disrupt the play due to your good and solid positioning. 

However, after you disrupt the play, the puck becomes loose. Your opponent appears to have either No Contest or Big Rig - both of which would result in them getting the higher probability in the subsequent puck battle (which you could negate with superior body positioning) . During this puck battle, your player is hitting poke check. This negates any automated action (and there are a lot of them!) from taking place that would allow your player to put up a bigger fight for the loose puck. 

You were in great position to disrupt the one timer (which you did) but you made the mistake of smashing poke check while the opponent utilized their Xfactors and player attributes to get the better outcome. 

mikeq67 wrote:

Here I am perfectly in the passing lane with blue quick pick. No steal and he somehow gets the shot off and scores.

In this example, yes - once again you're in great position and you successfully disrupt the play. However, after disrupting the play, rather than be diligent on your Left Stick movement in order to obtain the loose puck, you begin skating away from it and actually smash poke check again - negating any ability for your player to enter the pickup animation.

(skating away from the loose puck)

(Hitting poke check after realizing you were skating away)

mikeq67 wrote:

Heres my teammate in the passing lane perfectly, no dice, we give up a goal. The winger and I didnt cover that great but it shouldnt have mattered.

Once again - your teammate makes a great play and disrupts the one-timer. 

However, after disrupting the play, they skate AWAY from the puck 

Then, the defender who was in a great position to execute a poke check is instead running around with body check held down:

mikeq67 wrote:

Hey look at me in the passing lane with blue quick pick again, Im not allowed the puck and the guy scores again.

Once again, you're in great position to disrupt the play:

 but because you're not paying attention to the speed your player is generating while skating backwards, you put your player out of reach of any possibility of obtaining the loose puck:

mikeq67 wrote:

This time the situation called for some stick checking, I poke through the puck and the guys stick. I also had some other stick checking clips but for some reason they got shortened when I uploaded them to youtube. Peep that score at the top, sick goalies.

You hit poke check much too far away from the puck carrier:

And because you hit poke check subsequent times, its effectiveness and probability of causing a turnover goes down (to stop people from mindlessly spamming it)

You should've executed a hit after missing that poke check:

 but because you hit poke check again, it is not as affective and the opponent seemingly 'walks through' you. The point here is that you're throwing inputs at your player and causing them to be a step behind.

mikeq67 wrote:

Heres my favorite clip of the night, did I mention that all this clips were from the 90 minutes we played last night? This dude just decided to turn around and lay me out despite the puck being gone for 2-3 seconds and me taking 3-4 strides without the puck.

Yup, this is ridiculous and needs to be fixed.

mikeq67 wrote:

Anyways, please make stick checking work, and intercepting passes work so I can at least casually play this game for a hockey fix.

They do work. But some of you think a poke check should mean instant possession swap. The puck is far more 'live' this year than previous years and I think some of us are still adjusting to that.