r/EASHL

This is a bit of a rant, but the matchmaking in this game feels rough.

This is my first NHL game ever, and honestly, my first time really getting into hockey too. Whenever I play online, I usually get destroyed by high-ranked players who just dangle around me nonstop. Half the time I can barely even hold the puck long enough to practice anything.

I’ve put a lot of time into the game already (Prestige 2), but I still get smoked most games. I've tried YouTube, which has gotten me to my current skill level. I also try practicing offline, but the AI doesn’t play like a real person, so it's hard to actually improve.

What are people doing to get better at this game? Right now, I kinda feel stuck at my current skill level because I’m either playing bots or getting matched against players way above me.

Like what’s the point I’m just getting railed every game. Shots are 20-0 after the first period. Can I play against people my actual rank or do I need to just leave in the load out screen every time I see people with a way higher level than me till I get a fair game

Someone comes in turns there back and you can’t poke check them because it’s removed and they can just glitch goal all day.

Stick checking is removed and poke checking is removed.

Esports runs gaming they complain to the developers to remove things they don’t like and since poke checking countered all of their exploits they told the devs to remove it.

It’s similar to ninja asking for things to be removed in Fortnite telling the developers to make a private NDA discord telling them to remove all the things he doesn’t like.

Poke checking is what the sport is about in real life but because we live in an esport world these e sport players can complain to the devs to remove the most basic things from the game that are at the heart of the sport. It was a drastic drop off from nhl25 to the point where poke checking is completely removed so the players can do their esport exploits without a counter.

Esports accounts for 0.001% of the player base but always get in the ear of the developers to make the game not about fun or about the sport in general but what helps them do more exploit goals.

I have a club already with ~5-6 people (both xbox and ps5) and am looking for a casual league without sweats to join where there isn’t a draft included as we want to play together. I looked through the directory and its seems to be almost all draft leagues. We are D1, but our skill levels range anywhere from gold to diamond level. We usually play 2-4 times during the week and are all east coast (~8pm-12pm EST).

Anyone have any recommendations?

I'm only level 5, so I understand everyone thinks I'm a noob, but I've been playing chel for forever and am good, I just play from the pc when it hits the cloud 😂

Is it just me or is Ottawa not in the NHL section? I checked under Atlantic and they aren’t there…

A tale as old as time, a drop in for our 3s game as a defenceman. We’re up like 6-1 on the other team and he starts pulling goalie and AFking and allowing breakaways and we lose 7-6. Avoid at all costs, massive troll.

NHL25 has poke checking that balanced out the game. It was real hockey poke checking wise. NHL26 has zero poke checking and is tailored to fake hockey and “esports”.

If this is a hockey game why haven’t they added poke checking back into the game.

Whose idea also was it to remove poke checking from a hockey game and what esports players advocated for it? Why does esports have any influence on a dead game in the first place?

West Coast PS5 player here.

I just started near the end of WoC S4, and have had a horrific time finding reliable players/groups that don’t rage quit during matches, aren’t wildly toxic with racist bigoted slurs/conduct, and friendly to new people.

Ideally would like to find groups to continue to improve without the bs mentioned above.

I’m still finding my position I enjoy naturally, and typically play RW/C/RD. I don’t quit matches, have open availability, and down to grind.

Hello, we are looking for a defensive minded dman to run some club with that can also fill in at F as well if needed. We mostly play between 7:30 EST till 10:30-11 on weekdays and maybe a little later on weekends.

Club record is 373-90 we have 3 quite active players but one of our other guys work schedule is swing shift so he can't play some weeks.

If interested please PM me and we can set you up in our discord.