The NHL franchise by EA Sports has been an absolute must-own ever since I can remember. My first game was NHL ‘93 for Sega Genesis. The game has undergone so many changes in adapting to the next gen consoles (as well as changing developers for a bit there) and it’s always been a blast. You can easily say that the current franchise run has been the most realistic adaption to the game that has ever been seen. However, there are some very minor details that, being a super fan of hockey, I’d like to see.

This is in no way, shape, or form me complaining about NHL 11. In fact it’s my favorite game, and I play it religiously. First and foremost, realism tweaks. I love, LOVE, when video games bring a sense of reality to the table. I’m not just talking about how the game plays and feels. I mean how it’s presented. Things like accurate goalie masks, player “styles,” and correct sticks. These are all things that are easily added. I’m not saying they need to take every single goalie in every single league and put his mask design in, but the big names would be a great addition (i.e. Fleury, Thomas, Ward, Miller etc.). Safe to say that if they took the starters of each team that my appetite would be satisfied. For those of you that watched the playoffs last year, you may have noticed that some of the Blackhawks (and others in the league) taped stripes all the way down the shaft of their sticks. Why? Who cares. But I would like to see things like that be added. Ovechkin’s yellow laces would be pretty sweet to see. Also, for the most part, they have the equipment assigned to each NHL player down pretty well, except for sticks. For instance, 2 years ago Crosby started using a Sherwood one piece stick. The game still has him using his old RBK custom. It wouldn’t be necessary at all to make these changes, but like I said, It would be nice to see. They’ve gotten the gameplay down to a science, it’d be nice to see EAS start paying more attention to these player specific details.

On to the GM mode. To sum it up in one word, GM mode is nothing short of ADDICTING. NHL 10’s was very repetitive, but a huge step in the right direction from years previous installments. NHL 11 took the basis of 10’s GM mode and cranked it up to (no pun intended) 11. With addition of RFA/UFA, it’s much much harder to make the team you’ve chosen to helm remain a competitive entity in the league. They did a pretty good job explaining it in the little tutorial when you start it, but there were some points that were left out that may have seriously confused some people who aren’t on the up and up with how the collective bargaining agreement works. For instance, Taylor Hall was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers this year, but when I played them in the Reg Season, he wasn’t starting, and wasn’t in the AHL. If you’ve got little to no idea how the CBA works, but you want to win some Stanley Cups so you start a GM mode, and this happens to you, you’re going to be very confused. Truth is if a player is under 20 years of age and you don’t want him in the NHL for the time being, he is unable to be sent down to the AHL from the NHL, so he’ll go back to his junior team. In real life, there’s a way to get around that, but in the game these little sneaky moves aren’t available (i.e. the Red Wings recently “loaned” Tatar to Grand Rapids). An explanation of how that works would be nice. But again, I’m going to bring up very fine and minor changes I’d like to see. Scouting/drafting is fun and gets better every year, but it would be nice to see them make more of an event out of it. I’d be happy with showing the first round, first overall pick getting up, meeting with the owner and GM of the team he was drafted to, putting on or holding up a jersey, and putting the hat on. Why would I want this? Because it would look cool, and if they can put President Obama meeting with the Super Bowl winning team in Madden, I do believe this is possible for NHL. I would also like to see that for your respective Be A Pro player. Ah, Be A Pro. This is still a new and young mode that gets slightly better every year. Three things I’d like to see for that. The draft thing (already mentioned), a Hall Of Fame induction cut scene if you make it there, and the ability to REQUEST A TRADE. I got drafted to the Blues. No matter how hard I tried, I could never make it to the playoffs with them, but they wouldn’t trade me. They were eager to dump TJ Oshie off to the Kings though. Lame. The Ultimate Hockey League is just about perfect though. So much fun. The trading card system they developed for this is horribly, HORRIBLY addicting. Although, I wish they wouldn’t make it possible to actually buy card packs with Microsoft points. That just takes the challenge out of getting better and being competitive. You’re pretty much letting everybody go New York Yankees and buy their team. Oh, and one more thing for GM mode. With the new All Star game format, I’m expecting, no, DEMANDING that EAS overhaul the way All Star games are presented. The addition of Super Skills competition as well as the new Fantasy Draft style would be amazingly fun. Another thing that’s extremely possible. If you look at all the mini-games Madden has had over the past few years, there’s no excuse for the Super Skills to be included. Now, I understand that the trick shot would be a little difficult, but surely things like fastest skater, hardest shot, and accuracy would be easy to pull off. In fact, they’ve got 90% of that already completed, but for whatever reason you can only find that in Practice Mode.

Now for what I’ve been wanting to see for YEARS. CLASSIC TEAMS. I used to LOVE when sports games would have classic, storied teams become available for free play. In NHL 09 and NHL 10 they had the 100 year anniversary Montreal Canadiens team with all sorts of classic players from the many many years of Montreal domination (Richard, Dryden, Roy etc.). That was a step in the right direction and got me excited for maybe more classic teams. Who wouldn’t want to be the ‘91, ‘92, or ‘93 Pittsburgh Penguins? Or the Gretzky-era Oilers? It would be an absolute blast. And it’s POSSIBLE. NBA 2K11 has about 10 or 15 classic teams. There’s no excuse for this not being in the NHL games. Again, not necessary at all, but it would be a very welcomed addition.

In conclustion, I’d like to explain one more time that in no way am I unsatisfied with the way the NHL games are presently. These are just a few things that I’ve thought of while relentlessly playing the games to death. Hopefully any of you that read this will agree with me, or better yet, give me your ideas if I didn’t mention them. If anyone wants to try their luck with me, my XBL gamertag is DeathGrip777. Hit me up. Play on.