NHL 13 Goalie Mode Tips?

[Revan30]

Hey everyone--so I've been playing the NHL 13 demo a lot since yesterday, and one of the things that I've been doing is playing a lot of goalie mode locked as Jonathan Quick in the Play Now feature. The goalie mode this year seems to be WAY harder than it has been in years past. One thing that I've been noticing so far is that if a puck is shot to, say, your glove side, and you don't have the right stick held in the appropriate direction before the shot is being taken, your guy will almost never actually move quick enough to catch the puck. Reactionary play as a goalie this year seems way more important and also way more difficult this year than ever.

If any of you guys so far have been experimenting with the goalie mode this year, how have you been doing with it and if you've been having success so far, what are some tips that you like to utilize to achieve said success?

[peter21]

I played once as Quick with goalie lock on and it was fun, didn't surrender a goal, but I didn't see a ton of shots either.

I haven't read anything about it, so I don't know much about what they tweaked with goalie this year, but I noticed less movement possiblities. I couldn't stack the pads or make the flailing save attempt at all.

Basically, the cover puck, pokecheck and butterfly options seemed to be all that I could do. Now, when i was in position, automatic animation was making some nice stops for me, but I didn't see how to take total control of the goalie. I may have missed something though.

[vejiita]

I hope I am wrong but in all the games I played locked as the goalie (about 12 periods) my team was unable to score a single goal... this seems bad... I hope slider tweaking will fix this...

[Kadgo]

Yes they dont score hope it will be different in Bap.

personnaly i found the new system way easyest you have to anticipate where the ia gonna shoot and you goalie will make the save. generaly its easy to understand where he is gonna fired.

i hope the shot will be like that in bap 6to10shot per period its really good. Playing goalie is really fun in the demo you really move and act like a real goalie. you cant see different between you and the IA goalie. past years it was weird.

[vejiita]

In the pas years I had stopped playing my PAB in disgust of the moves my goalie was using, especially on cross-crease passes.

Seems indeed better now.

[DjFaze3]

Observations so far...

**Keep in mind that when the game is released, sliders will change among other attributes for net-minding (example: game speed which would affect speed in crease, etc.)**

1) I think this is the biggest and most difficult change: Angles are harder. It's hard to stay square when the puck is in deep, along the boards. Hugging posts/changing body positioning as the puck travels behind the net and along the boards is going to be an art form. For example, timing from the standing position to the standing-post hug position to the crouching-post hug position and visa-versa. Add to this that the hug-post controls are very choppy and not immediate which only adds to the frustration. I feel less confident about making the save when the puck is shot from hard angles than in the slot.

2) Big rebounds. This means playing deeper in the net and foregoing challenging the shot. Watch the A.I. goalies, they rarely leave the crease to challenge shots.

3) Slower cross-crease movement. Again, playing deeper in net alleviates this.

4) Slower shot recovery. Position is important for this and when combined w/more rebounds and slow cross-crease movement... challenging. Another reason to stay deep in the net.

I realize and agree #2, #3, & #4 take away some freedom and fun from the position but I think of it like this: In '12, goalies were fast and agile but so were the skaters. It was difficult to keep up w/the fast pace of the shooters, trying to cover every possible scoring opportunity. In the '13 demo, agility and speed are reduced for both the skater and goalie, switching the focus to positioning and angles. Like I said earlier, positioning will be an art form because of the increased difficulty this year. Please chime-in, I would like to hear your views on this.

5) Hugging posts and moving side-to-side doesn't require releasing R2+L2, you can now just keep the triggers held and move left/right.

6) Quickest way to un-hug the posts: move from crouched hug to standing hug to standing. Don't go from crouched hug directly to standing.

7) In '12, when you were screened and a shot was taken, the goalie would drop down into butterfly. This is still the case, however, now you can't simply hold down L2 to remain in butterfly. The player will make the save, return to standing, then after a delay, will go back into butterfly... which sucks.

8) The "danger zone" seems to be realistic in that the deeper the shooter is in the slot, the more likely he will score. This applies from the top of the face-off circle on down. I know this sounds obvious, but in '12 this wasn't always the case.

9) The goalie "pops to life" when the puck enters the neutral zone (coming from the offensive zone). I know it's petty but I don't like it. I would prefer to be ever-ready for dumps on the PP.

10) This is a bit of an "out there" observation but nonetheless: If the opposing team dumps the puck and a defender goes to collect, followed by an opposition fore-checker it is possible to skate-out and get in the way of the fore-checker, giving your d more time to collect the puck w/o incident. I wouldn't recommend this in just any situation (per the risk-factor) but it seems to be effective in certain situations.

**If anyone has had any effectiveness using the anticipation stick, I would greatly appreciate where and when to use this feature... Thanks** I've had some luck mirroring anticipation with movement. For example, when I move right, I also move the anticipation stick right (except for obvious situations like a 2 on 1).

Please comment, I would like to hear your insights.

[DjFaze3]

Quote: Originally Posted by vejiita

In the pas years I had stopped playing my PAB in disgust of the moves my goalie was using, especially on cross-crease passes. Seems indeed better now.

I agree completely.

[SGMRock]

I never tried BAP Goalie in previous years. I always played a skater of some type since it came out every year. So this year I decided to try goalie and though its fun at times, other times i keep getting my butt kicked and its sooo frustrating. I am only playing on Pro level and I even set the CPU accuracy sliders all to zero but still I find it hard to stop certain shots. They constantly place perfect shots on my in the top corners and just inside the post even with zero accuracy.

I am using Pick a Team so I can play my team though, maybe my goalie is just not good enough for the NHL a this point. I got the Hybrid booster pack to get me up to a 72 overall, but I feel this is probably just not good enough. I really don't want to play in the minors though.

Also so many games I am doing very well in and then the last period they score a ton on me when the cpu ups the pressure when they are behind.