It really is. There's zero balance to the game now. Defensive players are at an amazing disadvantage because none of the defensive tools work anymore (poke check, pass interceptions) and the skating engine was tuned to allow figure skaters to run the show again. Nerfing goalies brought back several cheese goals from previous years again too.
The demo played fine. I'm not sure what the hell happened between then and release but this game needs a huge set of tuners released in a hurry.