Anyway, I actually like if they focused on the hitting engine. In 13, you can either hit, or you can't. And lets face it, its VERY hard to do in the open ice. If they get it right, its a huge change in gameplay by itself.
In all honesty, it is pretty hard to make a good hit in open ice in real life too. I'm not defending the current physics engine by any means, nearly every aspect of it is flawed to some degree. I would actually say it is much too easy to make a hit in open ice compared to hitting a guy along the boards.
Just look at where hits occur in a real life game. Nearly all of them are along the boards. It's the complete opposite in the game. There is virtually no board play in the game and when there is some, all it takes is a guy to come in and poke the puck out.
I'm not expecting any of this to be changed this year but would love to see the grittiness that happens in real life with players jostling in front of the net and in the corners be somewhat replicated sometime in the next console cycle.