Yeah, but it is very deflating when you spend all of your time working to defend areas of the ice that are not realistic scoring threats in real life. That is what the problem with the game really is.
The AI is so bad that the human element is forced to play a game that is not really hockey because you spend the entire time just trying to stop a play such as a 1 on 2 in transition on the rush and a soft float shot from above the circles. Where as in real life that puck would almost never be a goal, it is nearly automatic in the series, and has been for years.
Meanwhile and conversely, cycling the puck and playing a realistic style down low that results in drawing the human opponent defenseman out of position doesn't really punish their team as the cpu goalie will then make an unrealistic side to side save where they are squared up with the tap-in that was fed far side before the puck even reaches the stick of the attacking player.
There in lies the true problem with the series. When you start defending areas that wouldn't matter in real life and start giving up or taking chances you wouldn't normally take on a real pair of skates because you know the game will react differently than what is realistic, then you are no longer playing a representation of hockey. You are just playing a video game. And that is not the point of playing; there are hundreds of video games we could play, there is no hockey game right now. Just because you slap NHL on the cover and make it look like it is on ice and with sticks and a puck doesn't make it hockey. You need to represent the actual sport of hockey.
This video game often falls far from the goal of making that happen, unfortunately. And it has been quite some time since they have even attempted to adjust it or fix any of these issues. The same money/cheese/glitch goals have been in the series for quite a few years. It is very rehashed and not fun or fresh if you are a long time player. This is our major gripe with the developers in the genre.