Official NHL 16 Discussion/CAG Team Thread - EASHL Is Back! Join The Hershey Nuggets!

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I've been a Blackhawks fan since '93 and I have to say that this years roster, especially after the pieces Bowman added at the Trade Deadline, is the best of all the rosters of the past 6 years, INCLUDING their Cup-winning rosters.

I don't see ANY team beating Chicago in a 7-game series. Period. The team is too deep from top to bottom, and when Weise makes his debut tonight, along with a returning Hossa this weekend, and then Kruger coming back from injury, this team is going to be a buzzsaw come Playoff time.

jza1218 said:
I've been to a handful of stars games this year and believe that they will never win a cup with those two in net. They both let in way too many soft goals and give up too many rebounds.
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Dallas' blue line is weak as shit, which is the first problem, and their goaltending tandem of Lehtapuckin and Niemi is god awful. Their Forwards are decent, and the addition of Sharp from Chicago was a good move, but Defense wins Championships. Oduya was a bottom 3 D-man in Chicago. Dallas can't expect to plug him in the top 3 and expect a huge improvement.

Sorry for going off on a tangent and hijacking the thread if I did lol. I got excited seeing people on here talking about hockey.

 
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SpraykwoN said:
I've been a Blackhawks fan since '93 and I have to say that this years roster, especially after the pieces Bowman added at the Trade Deadline, is the best of all the rosters of the past 6 years, INCLUDING their Cup-winning rosters.

I don't see ANY team beating Chicago in a 7-game series. Period. The team is too deep from top to bottom, and when Weise makes his debut tonight, along with a returning Hossa this weekend, and then Kruger coming back from injury, this team is going to be a buzzsaw come Playoff time.



Dallas' blue line is weak as shit, which is the first problem, and their goaltending tandem of Lehtapuckin and Niemi is god awful. Their Forwards are decent, and the addition of Sharp from Chicago was a good move, but Defense wins Championships. Oduya was a bottom 3 D-man in Chicago. Dallas can't expect to plug him in the top 3 and expect a huge improvement.

Sorry for going off on a tangent and hijacking the thread if I did lol. I got excited seeing people on here talking about hockey.
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So...who's been watching Fuller House? Jodie Sweetin's bewbs amirite? Have mercy. Cut. It. Out.

Wooooooooo...

 
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The goalies in HUT, man...

Just played a guy with a decent team who had some guy named Falter as his goalie. I outshoot him 11-4 after the first period. Naturally, he's leading 1-0. I put my headset on and just started talking (to myself...to him...doesn't matter, haha) saying what ridiculous crap it is that he's got a scrub goalie standing on his head while 88 OVR Corey Crawford is missing simple shots.

Finally, near the end of the 3rd, he puts his headset on and is like "Dude, you've been bitching the entire game." (I mean, there IS a mute feature). But I just asked him "Do you think this has been a fair game?" And he goes "Well, no...but it happens to me too." It's insane that that mindset has become acceptable. "Well...sometimes I get fucked...and other times I do the fucking." Why would EA try if that is good enough for people?

Anyway, I asked him who the hell his goalie was, and he told me he's from one of the Russian leagues...and he started using him because he was sick of the best goalies putting up horrible save percentages. He even keyed in on the thing we've talked about saying he believes the higher the goalie rating, the worse they play. This Falter guy ended up stopping 28 out of 29 shots. Crawford stopped 15 out of 18.

Just looked him up. Martin Falter is a 31 year old stand up goalie in the Extraliga for HC Kometa Brno. He's an 82 OVR. How can EA have a game where goalie play is just a random roll of the dice?

 
Vulcan2422 said:
Pre Hockey, yes please. See, shame you can't see his team. He could actually be a goalie and be using a 99 OVR card!!
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HA, Gary, that thought makes me laugh because I talked a tremendous amount of shit to him calling the goalie a shit kicking scrub playing like a Hall of Famer. Hopefully it really was him, lol. :lol:

More likely though...EA is just retarded.
 
Herroooooo? Nobody on yet?

Picked up Martin Falter for 250 coins. First game...won 6-3. Martin stopped 28 of 31. His counterpart, Craig Anderson...stopped 17 of 22.

R....N....G, haha. Wish the guy who found the "timebombs" in Spintires would reverse code NHL and prove how goalie performance is determined. I can't see any other explanation other than it being randomly determined before the game starts.

 
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No pro hockey for me tonight.

IIRC, if you go to match history, I think you can look at their lineup....there IS a way though if that isn't it, just cant remember off the top of my head.

 
The Humble monthly bundle games to go along with ARK finally got unlocked. The other games are:

Wasteland 2

GRAV

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

I Am Bread (I can't believe how many times I passed on buying this and it finally paid off)

Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game

And two indie games called Battlesloths and Switchcars.

Actually not shabby at all for the $12 it cost.

 
I don't want to get into a thing, but I stand by my call in that video. I was open, Brandon was not, and (and this is not a judgement on Brandon), I thought he might have a problem getting the puck to me from where he was with a defender in front of him. My thought was, if I cut down on the distance his pass has to go, he can get rid of it quicker, and I'm still open in front of the net. I think the fact that his pass was deflected by the defensive player covering him sort of proves my quick assessment of that situation. In general, hell yeah I'll hang out all alone on the far end of the post for the potential one-timer. But I feel like in that situation, I made a solid call.

 
Yeah, not trying to make this a blame thing, but just trying to point out things, because we pretty much don't "talk strategy" much anymore, and I feel like its making us worse. And I'm not necessarily trying to say that this is on you and you alone; this thing happens A LOT. This particular one coincidentally happened right before the server dropped, so I had a chance to record it.

At 15 seconds, Brandon gets the puck. Me, Nate, and Gary aren't passing options, 100%. You actually came out from behind the net, which is the only open area left.

He passes it to you at :19, which you're right, gets deflected. I guess this is where we disagree: In my mind, your momentum carried you to the red line, so you wouldn't have been in front of the net with the puck if that pass connected, you would have been at or behind the red line. So really, what can you do that he cant from that position, even if his pass connected? If he shot it from instead of passing it, or if his pass connected and you shot, how would your shots be any different? Skating at him didnt accomplish anything IMO.

Basically, this is the equivalent of one of my frequent gripes of forwards skating the puck down to the point, but with two forwards instead.

When the puck carrier skates it directly at a teammate, it is basically making it a 4 on 5.

I don't have any clips that show a really good example of why we need to stop doing that, but this is the closest thing I have that's already uploaded:

WqS1Goz.gif

Their #28 Is the guy responsible for the left point on their team. As I take it into the zone, their Dman has me cut off from getting past the dots. Our AI is no where near behind the net, so I cant throw it back there, as their other Dman will get it first. I either have to stop and skate back to the blue line, or pass it to Red/Green (Nate and Brandon I am assuming in this clip). 

Since I pass it back, instead of stopping and skating it back, 28 commits too deep trying to cover me, and allows Brandon to take the puck to the high slot for free.

If I stopped and skated back towards Brandon, that takes him out of the play, and limits what I can even do with the puck, because all I can do it keep going backwards, attempt to force a shot, or force a pass over to Nate. If I force the pass to Nate, it run the risk of getting it picked for a breakaway, as I already dragged 28 with me.

Ultimately, I think we are picking up too many bad habits, besides these couple things I've mentioned in this post, and it's leading to nights like last night being more common.

 
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Well, to be fair, the AI does actually help on that play. He crashes the back post, pulling two defenders down with him (the only reason I'm even remotely open). That helps open up the slot too.

That's something Gary and I talked about on Thursday night. Moving without the puck and finding seams is just as important as having the puck. And we each have to recognize that we have teammates. Sometimes you being in a bad spot allows your teammate to be in a good one.

That's why we always need a forward crashing the back post on the odd man rush whether a crosser is there or not. It's a decoy for the defense. By that same token, we need the puck carrier to see when it's not there, and not force it. But if we don't pull the defenders down low with a man on the back post and the puck carrier skating it in deep, the high slot and points aren't going to open up a whole hell of a lot.

This is the double edged sword of the "douche shot". It's a great tool to have and it's super high percentage. But we have to be careful turning it into the new cross crease (ie. forcing it). I try to be especially mindful of this because I feel like I've got the shot down pretty well...but against AI defenders, it's really tough to tell if they're going to give you that opening or lunge up and challenge. But if it hasn't worked 3-4 shots in a row, we have to look somewhere else.

Crossers, "douche shot", slap shots from the dots, point shots, one timers, etc...we should be doing all of them all game. They're all valid...and at some point just add up to "playing hockey". But seeing plays in front of you, moving well without the puck/getting open, and not being one dimensional are the difference makers.

We also took quite a few penalties. I think we get a little overaggressive at times. It's one thing if you're trying to stop a scoring chance or something...but the aggression in trying to retake the puck has been a bit high lately. Another thing Gary and I talked about was slowing the game down. So many mistakes seem to come from just panicking and rushing things. The game gets so frantic sometimes with the racing up and down the ice, and teams applying super pressure in our zone, and we're down by a goal, and it's the 2nd period....and it's like we start getting in our own way.

That's why I'm such an advocate for flipping the puck out of our zone (a high flip...not the quick one that just becomes an icing). It's an instant relief of pressure, and if you do it right, it puts immediate pressure on your opponent because now they're essentially defending a forecheck. Again, it's not something to do every time you pick up the puck...but when you're getting aggro pressure in your face and you're trying to skate forward or pass through 3 defenders, just skating toward a corner in our zone while holding RB and then flipping up the middle/to the opposite corner can do amazing things.

To sum up...it's about playing smarter and not getting caught up in the bullshit run and gun of this game. We can do better. We just have to actually try.

 
But back to our normal off topic discussion:

OOTP 17 is doing something cool

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/6/11169526/ootp-baseball-17-minor-leagues-historical-rosters

More than 150,000 of them — all real-life, career minor league baseball players dating back to 1919 — will join the roster of Out of the Park Baseball 17 when it launches March 22 for Windows PC and Mac. The acclaimed sports management simulation will introduce fully accurate minor league rosters going back to 1919.
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So, I found the gem of goalies. Steve Mason. So far, 15 games and only 1 goal let in and it wasn't even the glitch shot. He actually defends the glitch shot like a freaking pro should. I'm glad I listened to a few reddit people on him. Worth every coin of the 2500 he cost me.

On the subject of us playing, we all see different plays developing. Now, for some of us, what we think is the right play might be, but it's hard to see. This is why I play playmaker. I'm not one to shoot at all as a forward so I NEED my passing as how as possible because I can sort of see a play developing ahead of time (sounds gay but maybe because I've been playing for so many years IRL that I've pretty much seen it all and sorta know what MIGHT happen). Maybe we should set up a practice if we can. I do notice though, some of us drop to low or to high when playing Offense. I'm guilty as well because I still have that D mind set still when I jump up. Maybe we should even have it like Mites where you have to pass three times before shooting. Just a thought.
 
The biggest thing I strive for with NHL 16 is quickly seeing and identifying the highest percentage scoring chance on any given possession. There is something to be said for setting up in the zone, establishing "real plays" and whatnot. But with the way the game works...that effort often goes unrewarded.

If I'm carrying the puck into the zone on the left side, I'll take stock of how many defenders are in front of me (and chasing behind me), whether they're AI or human, where my trailing teammates are and what the positioning of the defenders is between me and them. If I feel there's a good probability of the "douche shot" being open, I will probably go for it. I know that's an unrealistic hockey play, and it doesn't do much to involve the rest of the team...but uncontested, I can generally bury that thing 30% of the time now. To me, that's as good of a scoring chance as any.

Of course, going to the well too many times is a huge factor. Our opponents (and even the AI sometimes) aren't stupid. They see what we're doing. In that same scenario, my options for mixing it up are skating up the left board into the corner and kicking it back to Alan, backskating into the corner and hitting the trailing forward in the high slot, or even rocketing a crosser to the man on the right post (which to me is the lowest percentage option since that's going against the grain in both passing right to left as a righty...and a righty receiving it on the right post where he's naturally further away).

If I carry the puck up the right side, I'm almost always looking to pass first because as a righty on the right side, wrist shots rarely go in. Taking a slap shot short side and trying to rip it over the goalie's shoulder is probably higher percentage...but I still don't like the shot options enough to feel like they're our team's highest chance of scoring. In that situation, getting the puck to somebody else seems like a much better option IMO.

Coincidentally, I feel like that right to left crosser works much better. Righty to righty, it's a forehand pass and a forehand shot right at the post. But if both defensemen are low and the trailing forward is in range, same as the other side, I go to the corner, turn around and feed him. Kicking back to Gary along the boards is also an option. Going to the left point can sometimes be there too...but that's a hell of a pass to make, and it's easy to fuck it up in this game and wind up giving the other team a breakaway. So, in my head...those are the main passing options in order of high percentage scoring chances.

Naturally, other variations come along as well. If the defense is just camping in all passing lanes and I'm not being pressured, I'll try to buy time carrying the puck behind the net. I'd like to do more in terms of passing and working the puck around...but the passing in this game is so wonky and things get broken up so easily. In my opinion, you're going to find more success understanding how goals are typically scored in the game, and quickly deciding which is your best option. "Pass - pass - pass - pass - turnover" doesn't accomplish anything.

Sometimes shooting immediately is your best chance to score. Sometimes passing three times is your best chance to score. Having the awareness and seeing those moments is what makes the difference.

 
Wow...so the Bear Simulator developer is already regretting his game and mostly giving up on it.

http://www.pcgamer.com/bear-simulator-enters-permanent-hibernation/

I don't know if this is just an "easy way out" kind of thing or if he's really that bothered by a few negative reviews on the internet (like the article says, the game has 79% positive reviews). But it's a shame either way.

I watched Markiplier's video on it, and it actually looked decent. The graphics were solid, it had stuff to do, enemies to fight...and it even had a random weather system. There are way worse games on Steam than that. I can't believe the guy is that easily bullied. Or, like I said, he was just looking for a way out.

 
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Even though Steam Workshop support hasn't been added yet, the American Truck Sim mods are pretty impressive already.

http://www.modsats.com/category/american-truck-simulator-mods/

Some people have already made coast to coast routes, allowing you to travel through the major cities. Then there's custom traffic (with real car models), a legitimate UPS truck skin, real cop cars, and even some driveable car/pickup truck models. I can only imagine how much easier it will get once Workshop support goes live.

 
I'll probably be on. I grabbed a one month code for EA Access (only $2 on G2A.com), and downloaded EA UFC 2 since the early release is up now. Going to re-enact Tate/Holm and just repeatedly choke that bitch out, lol. :lol:

 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQC1zLkoknI[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MleLqjWvLgs[/youtube]

 
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Surprised you didn't know about them deleting the files. It was almost a month or two ago they were banning for that.
 
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But it says cross network. Also, Sony has to agree and also, for people to play against PC, they need to download it from the Windows store. A lot more behind it really.
 
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Vulcan2422 said:
But it says cross network. Also, Sony has to agree and also, for people to play against PC, they need to download it from the Windows store. A lot more behind it really.
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This is the quote that directly references Steam, PS4, and possibly even Nintendo NX (speculation on that one though).

Microsoft's new policy means Xbox One users and Windows 10 gamers using Xbox Live will be able to play cross-platform multiplayer with users "on different online multiplayer networks — including other console and PC networks."
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It wouldn't make sense to go through the trouble of allowing cross-platform play to turn around and exclude like 80% of the game's existing user base. "Cross-platform" play just between XB1 and Windows Store would be such a non-story.

 
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