Janikka

The game does feel slower to me, which I'm chalking up to one or more of three things: 1) the stamina recovering ability is gone (although not everyone used it in the first place), 2) attacks last longer because people aren't taking as many shots from less than ideal angles, leading to less neutral zone hustle, and 3) I'm imagining it. It could be just the third option too of course.

Having played a whole session without abilities now, I would say I prefer it over having the abilities. There are certain things you need to relearn because everyone is used to the abilities boosting the players in various situations. For example, now you need to pay more attention to your player's orientation when taking a shot to avoid a long pickup animation. Defenders need to be more deliberate with the R1. I feel like removing the abilities brought back the need to consider more of these little details, which is nice. Everything also feels more consistent overall, both on offense and defense. Sure, there are fewer "clean" goals from ability-boosted shots and more forced pass attempts in situations where players would previously spam the shooting abilities. But I think there is also more room for other type of goals now that the boosts are gone. Besides the usual passing plays to break through the tight slot area or create a decent chance from the outside, you need to utilize tip-ins (we conceded two tip-in goals last night now that I guess people are going for them again), rebounds, and just shooting the puck while having your guys crash the net.

To be clear, I am not suggesting the more skilled team doesn't usually beat the less skilled team in this game. The game just doesn't match my interpretation of a "pure competitive experience". I agree that the abilities brought NHL even further from games I hold up as examples of this (such as Rocket League or Counter-Strike). But to me, the core game itself still has various aspects outside the abilities that take away from that purity. Most of these are from EA trying to recreate actual hockey, with varying success. There are many changes I have always liked to see. On the defensive side, the poke check is one example and puck interceptions are another. I would like these features to be more manual and consistent at the same time. I would like to see a game where you truly had to control the poke check for yourself (whereas now it is always initially aimed at the puck on pressing R1, regardless of whether you leave the button held or not) and where you truly had to control the interceptions for yourself (whereas now you merely position and orient your player correctly for the best chance at an automatic interception). I am not saying poke checks or interceptions currently require no skill or awareness of game mechanics whatsoever. They certainly do. But in my ideal game, these things would require more skill than now while being more powerful than now whenever correctly executed. This would make them more difficult to use, but also more rewarding when used well. Of course, I'm straying rather far from the topic.

For what it's worth, I used to play goalie a lot more than now. I felt I was much better before EA introduced the abilities. It felt much easier to me, and there were far fewer goals where I felt like I was doing the right thing and still allowed a goal.

It really isn't, though. You need a game like Rocket League to get something like that or at least much closer to it. This is a tempting sentiment, right? Especially because people have teams or players they don't like so much, so obviously those teams or players will be bottom of the barrel once they can no longer rely on their beloved abilities. But we have both been around a long, long time. We have seen plenty of changes and their impact to the game, and I think we'll find history repeating itself. The players who were good using the traits will still be good going forward, and vice versa. Maybe there will be an adjustment period to get rid of certain bad habits from using the abilities. But eventually, I think we will simply have a different flavor of the game. Possibly a preferable one.

I understand what you mean, but I think this is the wrong game if you want to play for yourself anyway. Even without the abilities, a lot of games provide a substantially purer competitive experience. So I think the whole abilities vs no abilities debate is about different flavors of essentially the same thing. One way to optimize the experience is banning specific traits only, like we were doing until now. Banning more of the current abilities was another option on the table. I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I didn't like when the abilities were first introduced as they felt game-breaking to me at the time (specific ability bans have been a way to mitigate this). I think some of the opposition comes from players trying to do all the same things the abilities taught them they could do, such as getting off a good shot from an impossible position or punching a new hole in a goalie with a backhand shot.

Not sure about the decision (I don't really have enough data on zero-ability games yet), but thanks for getting it out early as we all hoped.

This is a very good idea. There's apparently ample time before the next tournament, so now would be a good time to try it out even before any announcements, seeing as there should also be plenty of time to return to using abilities if needed.

So first of all, really great article as expected from you. I've seen a lot of teams over the years, but I've only been captain once. Even then the C on my jersey was more of a facade behind which people with the appropriate personal qualities actually led the charge. So as someone who hasn't really led a team, it looks difficult for sure. You have all these different personalities and it's so common for some of them to clash. Interpersonal relations tend to correlate with the team's performance of course. I appreciate the article's perspective. Looks like leaving your ego at the door is the key to leading a team with some longevity.

I've definitely joined the ban them all camp recently. I don't think the abilities are well-designed or balanced at all. They are sort of tacked on top of the core mechanics, which they override and overpower a lot of the time, creating the sort of chaos and unpredictability that a competitive game should minimize. Look at games like Counter-Strike or Rocket League and how pure of a competitive experience they are. By introducing the abilities, the NHL series has moved further from that than ever. And in NHL 26, it's worse than it's ever been.

Good points. Lite has what, 64 teams? If they actually used the password for Lite teams, a Lite team finding another Lite team would be easier than any other way of matchmaking in the game.

I think the suggestion is identical to the current situation, only with a different password. The non-competitive teams would start using the new password as soon as they got wind of it, which would be soon enough. Also, the dodging team waiting before searching again is already the unwritten rule. Not everyone adheres to it though, as a lot of teams just dodge and search again right away. This would also not change. The public matchmaking system is definitely broken, but ECLPro was created by a Pro team for the purpose of practicing with other Pro teams. It was basically just a shortcut around Pro teams having to set up private games on Discord or wherever. Now it's rare for a Pro team to find another Pro team using the password. It's not on these teams to fix the matchmaking system. The reason it's next to impossible to find a decent competitive game without using this password is exactly because everyone is using it. Honestly, I don't mind the password games including any teams from the lower divisions that are actually good enough for the game not to be a complete waste of time. We all know these teams exist, and we all know Pro has teams that are worse than some in the lower divisions. The problem is that everyone thinks their team is good enough to compete with Pro teams, which is obviously not the case. This is why limiting each password to teams in its corresponding division would be the solution. It removes any ambiguity around who "deserves" to use a specific password. Enforcing the passwords is probably not realistic, so I agree with you and tbnantti on that point. My posts go back to all the wasted time against teams that any Pro team would beat with their hands tied behind their backs.

I understand both saaggssy and Karlzzzon's perspective for sure. And I've played countless good games against Nightbot and saaggssy (many of which my team lost). So it gets more complicated with teams that could compete in Pro and are thus well matched against Pro teams. And as saaggssy pointed out, some Pro teams are actually worse than some Lite teams. I still support Saviinainen's idea of enforcing the passwords, however. This would make it clearer and fairer. If you make all these exceptions, even if they're based on teams' skill levels, the line gets blurred and people start asking why one team is supposedly good enough to use the password while another isn't. The slippery slope eventually returns us to this same situation. I'm personally not even in a Pro team now, I just like the idea based on a lot of experience with matchmaking using the ECLPro password.

This is a good idea. The ECLPro password has been abused for most of the time it's been around. Enforcement is the only way to make it work as intended. If your team is legitimately good enough to play against Pro teams, climb into Pro/Pro qualifiers with your team and then search with the password intended for those teams. If you don't enjoy playing against teams below that level, join a team that plays in Pro/Pro qualifiers.

I don't have an opinion on the specific bans, but good work making a clear decision and getting it out in time.