Do I have the worst luck ever in this game?

[st67]

10 games into the season with the Leafs and I'm 4-6; each game so far has ended with me going "the hell was that?".

Of all 10 games I've noticed several patterns repeating, which are leading me to believe I have really crappy luck with this game.

1 - almost every time I score a goal after my first, the AI just comes back with some ridiculous goal to either tie it up or come within one goal. My last two games were a great example of this. I go up by 1 in each game. That lasts for a while, then the other team either scores to tie it or I go up 2-0. At that point, if it's tied the game seems fine until I score again and within a minute the AI has put another one in the net, or if I'm up 2-0, they score within about a minute. The last game, each time I went up the AI scored to tie it - they scored 3 goals where the player was literally standing on the goal line about half way between the net and the boards. And each time I just sort of expected it. This has happened in every single game so far in the 10 I've played. I did win 2-0 in one game, actually.

2 - my goalie... Wowzers. He's stopping breakaways, big one-timers, screens, tips, etc... But then he allows 2-3 goals from a ridiculous angle or position. Like the game he let in 3 goals from shots on the goal line... But that was only when I went up by a goal - any other time, he made huge saves. I end up losing most of my games on ugly, ugly goals; he's almost never let in a "damn, nice shot" type of goal. It's almost always a "What the hell was that?"

3 - my goals are almost all the same. I feel like I can't score to save my life, even though I'm getting screened shots, deflections, rebounds, one-timers, breakaways, and all the good stuff. I'm getting 35-40 shots a game, and a lot of them are really, really good shots... Yet those shots never seem to go in. It's always the strange angle goals that make me wonder how the hell that went in. When I've won games on these goals, I've never felt satisfied. Usually I get ahead at the last minute and manage to just stave the AI off before the time runs out, and I'm always left feeling like the goals I scored were kind of ugly and shouldn't have gone it - because I never score on the truly great scoring chances (well, almost never. I've scored a handful of goals that I really thought were just well timed and placed).

4 - whenever I get a guy open for a breakaway pass, the pass almost always goes to the one defender who's in the area. For the most part, my passes go where I want... But it seems like every time I've got a guy who's wide open for a breakaway, my player passes it way off and to a defender instead. When I do get a breakaway it's because I poked the puck away from a player and beat them to the puck when no one else was around to block me. Why can't my guys ever pass it to the wide open guys up ice...? But when there's 4 people in front of the net blocking one guy, that pass goes through all the defenders for a one-timer shot (which never goes in).

5 - my dump ins go the wrong way at the most inconvenient times; especially on the back hand... Instead of dumping into the offensive zone, my players like to shoot it back into their own zone and give up a big chance to the other team... But then when I think maybe I'm just confused by the controls and direction and try to alter the direction I press, they still pass it down into my zone. This mostly happens on back-hand dump in attempts from around the center line.

6 - my teammates never set up where they should, and often skate away from the puck. Can't tell you how many times I've gotten into a 2 on 1 where my second teammate doesn't skate across from me to the net, but instead skates to behind the one defender in the area, so that he's completely out of the play... Or when they should crash the net and fight for position because I'm setting up to get a nice pass in, they just kind of skate away from the net. I also get players who skate away from the puck when I poke it away from the AI, or when the puck gets loose. I have to control them and make them skate towards it. It's like they're scared of the thing.

There's more - but this is becoming a kind of long post.

So far, it just feels like everything that can go wrong does - and when something goes right, it often feels empty; like the things that should have gone right didn't, and the dumbest plays turn out to be the ones that get it done.

I wouldn't feel like that if it happened once in a while - but it's every single game so far (aside from my 2-0 win, which shocked me). I feel like I've just got the worst luck with this game, and I don't get it. The scoring every time I managed to go up a goal thing is what really gets me. Like I'll be playing some great defense and my goalie will be doing great, but as soon as I score that second goal, I just feel the AI suddenly skating around my players, going through sticks and checks, and scoring from the ugliest angles possible.

[bwiggy33]

Hahaha that's no bad luck at all. Welcome to EA NHL!

It may sound harsh but everything you experienced is this game in a nutshell. There is nothing wrong with what you are doing, it's just the way the game is programmed. The problems you have are something people who have bought this game year in and year out have struggled with.

[TjJunior]

EA Sports, Its in the Game. It seems that the approach with the NHL titles is play online with complete strangers or friends. Never mind if you're a hockey fan in Texas surrounded by people that don't know the difference between Pavel Datsyuk and Pavel Bure. The replicated manufactured scoring makes the game unplayable online and the horrible AI makes it unplayable offline. Folks are paying 65 bucks to play online team up, if your not there for that, then why do you have NHL? Thats the feeling I get from the game makers.

[onac22]

Welcome to the NHL series. One thing that I have a theory as far as those late goals are concerned
has to do with that pesky poise rating. Think of it like an impact stat. This gives higher rated players super powers at the end of the game. So once again thanks EA.

[Tsuki]

Have you tried sliders? http://www.operationsports.com/forum...3-sliders.html

[st67]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tsuki

Have you tried sliders? http://www.operationsports.com/forum...3-sliders.html

Those are actually the ones I'm playing with, yes. I played half the games without the patch and then decided to install the patch; so I've had sort of 50/50 play with each version of the game, too.

[gamerk2]

Quote:

2 - my goalie... Wowzers. He's stopping breakaways, big one-timers, screens, tips, etc... But then he allows 2-3 goals from a ridiculous angle or position. Like the game he let in 3 goals from shots on the goal line... But that was only when I went up by a goal - any other time, he made huge saves. I end up losing most of my games on ugly, ugly goals; he's almost never let in a "damn, nice shot" type of goal. It's almost always a "What the hell was that?"

Sounds perfectly normal. Goalies in this game make most of the head-on saves, no matter how hard, but can't stop the easy stuff. Try doing some backhanders from the blue-line against the boards to see what I mean.

[18 eighty 5]

I know what you mean OP, I was incredulous at some of the weak goals. I had to laugh and shake my head after one replay where the shot was taken side on to the net, as the puck approached my goalie who was hard against the post conveniently opens up a gap, let's the puck go through the gap and then goes back and covers the post. It was all so beautifully synchronized and captured frame by frame on the replay.

If it was real life there would be a serious case against my goalie for match fixing.