"On defense, the all-new Defensive Skill Stick gives you the tools to counter attacks with poke check targeting, extended pokes, and controlled stick sweeps to cover zones of the ice and take away lanes."
About damn time they added this back. I can't believe they took out the basic ability to sweep your stick in front of an attacker for years. That's pretty much defense 101. "Keep your stick on the ice" and all that. It's embarrassing, TBH.
Three on three will be fun, but 99 percent of my time in these games is spent on Be a GM and basic versus games with a friend, so gameplay/AI changes are what matter most to me. This... looks sadly deficient in that area.
I've actually thought about collecting a bunch of clips and making a YouTube video with commentary pointing out how fucking terrible the AI is in the game, but I don't know if anyone would care (especially this late in the cycle).