I think in sports games, sliders are almost a requirement at this point. It's hard to have an in-game product that's going to appeal to everyone, while still being fun and accessible. The guy who just started watching hockey just wants to go out and score some goals. He doesn't really care about neutral zone pressure or defensive coverage on the PK.
But, the person who's been watching hockey, maybe played some, and wants a realistic experience is going to be focused on everything from lateral movement of the goalie to what forwards do in the zone on an odd-man rush.
Sliders let you tweak the game to your liking, so both of the above, and everyone in between can find their happy medium. The issue has been a combination of the AI being downright useless in some situations, and the fact that the sliders themselves were hard to understand, and didn't seem to really change that much when they were used.
If the changes make the sliders actually
do more, they will be a great addition. If they take the already weak/ineffective sliders and just increase the range you have to move things for nothing to happen, it will be incredibly frustrating.