[actionhank]

There are definitely some positives, but, man...the AI still seems absolutely clueless a lot of the time. Not sure if someone was controlling the Czech team, but at 6:14, there's a perfect example of the bad defense by the AI players away from the puck, and the inability to really do much on defense.

The Czech center coming back after the turnover just stops and stands still, and Toews makes a pass up ice right by his stick. The AI never actually tries to stop the play, or intercept the pass, they just stare at it, and slowly work back up ice once it's past them.

The center ice defender on the Czech team keeps skating in after the turnover, before stopping and then slowly doing backwards crossovers once the Benn is right on top of him. He does two poke checks that both miss, and then turns around and starts skating behind Benn who got to come at him with speed, and instead of the defender doing anything, he just skates right behind Benn and watches the shot go in.

It would be really nice to see more pressure from defenders in close to puck carriers. It seems that the AI tries to skate in for a crosscheck, and if that fails and the poke checks fail when the player is coming towards them, they just give up and follow the play. In real life you see defenders constantly trying to get a stick on the stick, arms, or puck as they're trying to chase someone down.

There are parts that are nice to see, still. The coverage looks good at times, but at others it just looks weird as guys pile in and move around. A lot of the AI movements still seem stuck in a "Have to Be at X Position" setup, rather than reacting to what's around them (Easier said than done, I know).

8:53 is another good example of frustrating defense AI. Muzzin has the puck at the blue line, and the AI forward skates at him, which is nice to see, but there's no defense...he's literally just providing a warm body to come towards Muzzin. He doesn't put his stick out to block any passing lanes, and as he's skating in towards Muzzin for the body check, he still isn't actually doing anything defensively. He's just skating towards him. I think that's my biggest issue with defensive play, and I think it's what leads to the feeling of a lot of tape-to-tape passing. It's not necessarily that the AI is too accurate (they are) but it's also that the AI on defense is just standing in place near a player waiting for them to get the puck before they do something to react to it. There's no attempt to clog shooting lanes, or block passing lanes, it's all reactionary.

After that, it's nice to see Hertl skate up and retrieve the puck that was knocked loose when Muzzin got hit (It's great to see that smaller hits can knock a puck loose now, instead of the bumper cars that it used to resemble with a glued on puck) and Doughty immediately skates back to cover the neutral zone. Things look good for the Czech team, because they've got a potential 3 on 1. Muzzin is now facing away from the play, almost at the top of the circles, and the other nearest Canada player is a forward skating towards the play, but he's also at the top of the circles and fairly behind the play, whereas 3 Czech forwards are near the blue line with only Doughty back on defense. The odd-man break gets almost immediately canceled out though, because as soon as Hertl passes up to Hanzal on the boards, Hertl slows down, and then Hesmky I believe it was, the other forward who could have made a straight break down center ice and kept it at least a 2 on 1, gets passed by two Canadian forwards when he makes a wide sweeping turn to the "right" side of the ice where he should be playing normally.

By the time Hanzal is crossing the blue line with the puck, Hertl has slowed down and is being passed at the center ice line, and Hemsky is also not even crossing center ice. What could have been at least a contested odd-man rush turns into a weak wrister from the circles, with 3 Canadian players in the middle of the ice, and 3 Czech players in a line on the left side of the screen.