I agree with everything you said. I like how when 2 players collide something has to happen. It's just frustrating when "goalie pull" mechanic can ruin breakaways somehow. The sad thing is, my second time I did slow down and I tried going to the other side, but the goalies leg clipped me, causing me to tumble and lose the puck. Meanwhile the goalie recovers the puck, makes a pass and returns to his net before I can even get up.
I've been playing for years and this is the first time someone has done this. I totally understand in verus when someone controls the goalie and poke checks. That actually requires some motion and effort on their part. But when the opponent is on a breakaway and you command your goalie to be pulled and he can take the puck from you? That just sucks. He doesn't actually try to save it, he just takes it somehow. It doesn't even make any sense, and you shouldn't be able to pull your goalie when the opponent has a breakaway.
The worst part about this is, my friend was trying out the beta. He hasn't bought an NHL game since like NHL 10. He really enjoyed the beta but these stupid little things turned him off. He saw it happen to me twice and then it happened once to him. I'm not saying this single thing turned him off from the game, because he enjoyed parts of it, but it's just annoying that EA would let you pull your goalie from all the way on the other side of the ice, when a breakaway is in progress. It's amazing.