EA Sports need to tweak their goaltending animations for NHL 25
One of NHL 24’s most common complaints amongst the chel player base has to have been the goaltending. Will this be addressed for NHL 25?
The biggest change for goalies came from the exhaust engine system that was implemented by the development team to make the game feel more authentic. Let’s start there with the good and bad.
The exhaust engine was a neat addition and for the most part, felt like a welcomed addition by the chel community.
After all, if you’re constantly spending time in the offensive zone and peppering the goalie with shots, then there should be a reward for outplaying your opponents.
You see it all the time in hockey. A goaltender is standing on his head and keeping his team in the game, but he’s exerting his stamina, and eventually, his armor will start to crack. That’s exactly what the exhaust engine was meant to do and by all means, accomplished its mission.
So, once he’s used up all his stamina, you’ll start to see the netminder flailing around in desperation, like a real-life goalie would do.
The main complaints have come from when the goalie (player-controlled or AI) does a desperation save while his stamina bar is still in the green.
Nothing is more infuriating for chel players, especially in EASHL, when the other team shoots low and your goalie decides to desperately kick out his pad while falling to his butt, which leaves the net wide open.
If the goaltender has been exhausted, that desperation animation getting activated makes sense.
However, unless you’re misplaying your angle as a controlled goalie, they should never be doing that wide-leg spread animation while having nearly a full bar of stamina.
I can speak from experience while playing 6v6 in EASHL. If the faceoff in the attacking zone is on the left side, my centerman will win the puck back to me on right defense, and I will immediately aim to shoot low on the goalie regardless of what their stamina is.
What I’ve noticed is that around 80% of the time the goaltender will make a pad save, but fall to his butt and produce a rebound, which my right winger usually picks up the puck and scores on the wide-open net.
Another common complaint would be goals going in from terrible angles or long-range shots that have very little power behind them. Those goals are going to happen in any NHL video game realistically, and chel players just have to laugh it off.
In summary, the exhaust engine isn’t a bad system in the game, and NHL 25 should bring it back. It makes the game more authentic. There are times when a goalie will make an insane desperation save that is fun to see, even if you’re the one he robbed.
Alas, the issue is that goaltenders will do a desperation save animation when they shouldn’t, and that’s what EA Sports should look to tweak for their goaltending gameplay in NHL 25.