I think that the sim engine does a pretty good job of representing the sport of hockey in general, but a couple of things annoy me about it. Defensemen taking too many shots is an obvious one, as is the concept of goalie heat. Heat seems to affect the way these players play, which is just silly when you understand statistics and any sport where players "get hot". The whole concept is a fallacy.
It would definitely be nice if the engine could somehow find a way to break the meta - make it so Strat A beats Strat B, Strat B beats Strat C, but Strat C beats Strat A. With one set of sliders and builds dominant over all others, it takes a lot away from the strategic side of the league while pigeonholing player builds.
A final thought would be that FHM6 was released in 2019 and doesn't have a 2D Match engine. To take a comparable game in a different sport, Football Manager had a 2D game engine in 2005, and a 3D one in 2009. I know this was introduced in the very next edition of FHM, but I really can't see why it wouldn't b e in the sim that we use, given its release date. Would really add to the experience.