My Issues With Net Battles in the NHL Series

[@greathoonta3461]

You are right, this entire thing really sucks. It’s not even about how finicky it is, it’s just how useless it is because you are much better off going with blocking shots or using the standard push to keep players away from your net and knock them off balance so they can’t tip it. Even the stick lift is practically useless because you have to time it very accurately, and odds are no one will just stand there next to you long enough to let you do it. Not to mention, you need bouncer to make the net battles actually have an effect on your opponents and that ability is practically useless because so rarely will it ever help. Not to mention no contest, unstoppable, big tipper, seeing eye, and crease crasher could care less about your stupid net battles and do whatever they do right through it. No contest will beat you to any puck in front of the net or not, unstoppable makes your pushes and shoves irrelevant, big tipper is gonna tip the puck anyways unless you get a well timed stick lift which probably won’t happen because half the time you will get a hooking penalty if they move at all, seeing eye is just gonna use the screen you create by typing up not just the opposing player but you as well in front of your goalie, and crease crasher somehow lets the opposing players jump right through your net battle and get the rebound. Everything about net battles makes net battles suck. Especially since screen shots are one of the best ways to score, and doing a net battle just hands the other team a great screen shot opportunity.

[@llamapenNHL]

You nailed it. Agree with everything here.

[@rowjoe2409]

I think this video sums up my nightly experience playing nhl23. I'm sure I'm the minority, but I enjoy the defensive battles in front of the net when it works. Key is ,when it works, which isn't often.

[@BHallz99]

not the minority. nhl23 blows in so many ways but as a dedicated D man not being allowed to battle or getting bogus penalty calls on hits that shouldn’t be penalties it reaaaally pisses me off

[@RickyLaFlor]

Great video Llama, thanks for tackling this issue! I don't think the Behind player and Front player refer to the position of your skaters, I think they refer to who is defending and who is attacking. "Behind player" refers to the defensive player and the "Front player" refers to the offensive player. If you notice the Behind player is given all the defensive "tie the player up" options and the Front player is given all the offensive "try to get open" options. Hope this makes sense. You're right back in 360/PS3, you can hit stick all day in the slot to keep players out of position and the current gen definitely needs an overhaul. I would like to see the LT/L2 be treated as an "engage net battle" button for defensive players in the slot. As long as that button is held, everything else will work as normal without an initial penalty being called. Hit stick pushes players, Stick lift ties players up, etc.

[@llamapenNHL]

Yea it still doesn’t make sense. Why is stick tie not listed for both and holding triangle to engage net battle? You can do both of these things on offense and defense but they are only listed under one. Even just a short tutorial in-game would have helped a ton.

[@UnDoneDg]

Yeah I agree. Stick tie-up is basically the only iteration of this I engage in willingly. This game is really annoying with what is and what isn’t an interference call; you can just skate into someone with the left stick and hold them back from skating and it’s no penalty but you barely touch the right stick? Instant penalty. My biggest complaint is the stick lifts tho. Unless you’re in the literal perfect position, you get a slashing penalty. I wish so badly that poke checks were worse than stick lifts because I feel like stick lifts happen so often in real hockey but NHL it’s only useful in like 2 scenarios and that’s it.

[@greathoonta3461]

There are times I can bulldoze people who haven’t touched the puck, and there are other times I skate past somehow going into a puck pickup and get a penalty. Like yesterday. Loose puck in the crease, my player bumps into the opposing player knocking them down, I get the puck and score… and I now have to fight because I shot after the whistle that didn’t blow until I already scored…

[@kevinrouth8082]

Thank you for this video, defensive ability are getting more and more frustrating every year, playing NHL 25 it seems to be completely broken for defense.

[@Saviorcomplex-j]

The in front of the player means when the defender is at your back and you are in front so an offensive net battle. When you are at their back it’s in the defensive area

[@ProductNorth]

I completely agree with this. Removing the ability to shove a player in front of the net regardless of them being engaged in a net battle ruined defense for me. I enjoyed playing 6s with a DD and just pushing people away from the net. Also I believe when they say “front player” they are referring to the offensive player in a net battle. Having the engage as L2 and LS tells me the offensive player is back skating into the defender who then also “engages”. The fact that both players need to engage a net battle makes this system broken.

[@llamapenNHL]

Yea it still doesn’t make sense. Why is stick tie not listed for both and holding triangle to engage net battle? You can do both of these things on offense and defense but they are only listed under one. Even just a short tutorial in-game would have helped a ton.

[@dingbatjack1234]

Any advice on how to engage the stick lift consistently? It seems so hit and miss.

[@llamapenNHL]

Yea skating directly into them face to face seems to work the best- or if your paths cross into each other. If they are moving away from you it is harder to engage. Also being bigger and stronger helps.

[@brelanarchy8023]

If you have the bouncer zone ability or superstar ability, the amount of time and the ease of initiating these net battles changes. I've played around with it, but ultimately I just ditched the bouncer in favor of other things like shutdown. The stick lift is the only one I use as well, as I have prevented so many backdoor plays and rebound opportunities by tying up sticks. As for the "front player" I think that means if you are the player being tied up. Like if you are the one parked in front of the net on offense, and some annoying d-man like me comes up and ties up your stick or hits Y/Triangle to net battle, those are the controls for you to respond to me. Maybe.

[@llamapenNHL]

Your guess is as good as mine lol! And yea I forgot to mention the traits like bouncer but ultimately my take is that it minimally helps, but is ultimately nowhere near worth using a trait slot on over other wildly more useful traits.

[@brelanarchy8023]

@llamapen NHL Just my experience using bouncer, it felt like it was easier to tie people up that were trying to evade, like a magnet effect that would suck them into a tie up from distances and angles that you wouldn't be able to do without it, and also provided an extra second or two of tie up time before they could break free. I'm not sure how much strength plays a role either, as I would typically use it on def d build, which has one of the higher starting strength attributes behind the enforcer builds. Never tried on, say, a PMD or TWD. And PMD only can use as superstar ability which has a reduced effect. Anyway, good stuff. Hope they make it more useful in the future. As someone that spends a lot of time playing defense, it is underutilized even in its current limited state. It should be a bigger part of protecting your goalie.

[@PrelectXBL]

So from what I've gathered, behind player is referring to the defenseman, and the front player is referring to the team with possession of the puck.

[@kobehofame81]

Finaly after 4 years playing NHL on ps5 I finaly understand and how to execute net battles super thanks Pi x Pi

[@mattyjanjarri111]

Maybe front player and back player refer to your position in relation to the goal? Front player is closest to net rear is furthest or vice versa

[@joeylemieux2105]

This mechanic is trash and so useless. You are right. They nerf defense this year by making the pokecheck slow down people and adding more speed to builds that can go up to 95 speed now. They should remake alot of mecanics actualy the game is broken all over the place. What i would sugest they do: -get rid of any kind of momemtum added to the game -redo the skating animation/mecanics -redo the physic mecanics/collision -get rid of every perk -add more stats customisation instead like nhl14 -redo goalie animations -redo puck physic. -add custom camera angles -balance pokechek and puck pickups. -bring back stick lift without 90% chance to cause a penalty Bring back nhl14 but with a little 2023 tune up 😁

[@philippebien5429]

2014 was a overrated game. 2015-17 was a pretty cool little era.

[@K9riya]

Fix the stick lifts. It’s a guaranteed penalty now, even if it’s clean