While I agree teams only need to be up by a single goal to win and thus don't absolutely need the puck in the opposing zone at all times, I can't believe how many people are OK with just letting the other side have the puck when they don't need to. The series is far from being a full hockey sim - one random shot is enough to do devestating damage to a team so the less they have the puck the better.
You prevent the other team from getting a takeaway but allow them to try and set up their own plays and recover stamina? That just doesn't sit well with me personally; my team has played some of its best D in years since switching back to Grinder builds but that doesn't mean we enjoy being forced into it.
A dedicated team against other humans allows for dumps to be successful but you'd be hard pressed to see it work when you mainly play against bots; the chase part of dump and chase almost always leaves you at the disadvantage.
The game needs a wider array of strategies to utilize - only then will regular hockey plays begin to make sense.
The basic principle in hockey is this: the team that plays without the puck BETTER is the team that usually wins. In more simpler terms - Quality over Quantity.
When I coached I preached one simple thing: One man on the puck carrier, everybody else pick up your open man. Keep the players to the outside. Keep your body in between them and the net always. That way if they make a pass and their players are covered, your team recovers the puck. If the puck carrier hogs the puck, he eventually gets cornered and your team recovers the puck. And if they have nothing but a weak shot on net and take it, your team recovers the puck.
The puck goes to the player. The player NEVER goes to the puck. Worked out pretty well: we won all but 2 of our regular season games. We won our district championship. We won the Regionals and we won our district playoffs.
Sadly this video game isn't built with "hockey" in mind. But it does work to a certain degree if you can apply yourself to it. Just obviously doesn't reward you as easily as "wiggle, wiggle, shoot" or LT abusing.
I completely get what you're saying; its just hard when the game is in that awkward middleground trying to please everyone.
There are those that play hockey and those that play the game - My team consists of 1 friend that plays the meta game and the other full hockey while I'm stuck at a 50/50 mix.
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That's right. You work 'dem boys and keep 'em in check
The basic principle in hockey is this: the team that plays without the puck BETTER is the team that usually wins. In more simpler terms - Quality over Quantity.
When I coached I preached one simple thing: One man on the puck carrier, everybody else pick up your open man. Keep the players to the outside. Keep your body in between them and the net always. That way if they make a pass and their players are covered, your team recovers the puck. If the puck carrier hogs the puck, he eventually gets cornered and your team recovers the puck. And if they have nothing but a weak shot on net and take it, your team recovers the puck.
The puck goes to the player. The player NEVER goes to the puck. Worked out pretty well: we won all but 2 of our regular season games. We won our district championship. We won the Regionals and we won our district playoffs.
Sadly this video game isn't built with "hockey" in mind. But it does work to a certain degree if you can apply yourself to it. Just obviously doesn't reward you as easily as "wiggle, wiggle, shoot" or LT abusing.
There are those that play hockey and those that play the game - My team consists of 1 friend that plays the meta game and the other full hockey while I'm stuck at a 50/50 mix.