im almost positive this game has a mind of its own... some games work ok, but most games i play especially online are completely broken and unplayable, players get tired wayy to fast now and cant seem to make checks no matter what you do or what angle you check from, hitting is useless now never seems to work you just slide off the players most times like there is an invisible force field between you or somthing.... passing is a complete joke as well good luck having it go where you want or having your ai player even attempt to recieve the pass most times...
The new player icon is at the feet now instead of on top where it should be so in close quarters you now can't tell wich player actually has the puck... sometimes shots are acurate and other times players cant even seem to hit the net from no matter where they shoot from.. so im pretty sure this game just decides when to work properly and when not to.... my gameplay is usually the ladder, id sacrifice the graffics and some decent updates for gameplay that is actually fun and works like old school nhl games. nowadays ea seems like they are actually trying to make a trash game, and boy did they succeed! so being skilled at this game no longer rewards players, its all about dumb luck and hoping your ai is actually somewhat coherent... this game has so much potential but is sadly not worth playing because of these issues!