Year after year after year EA brings ... this. I mean, why can the football fans have such a great series like Madden?
Having the license fot NHL and the European leagues doesn't mean EA will serve you a thrilling hockey game on a silver plate. Contrary to the Fifa series, there is no competitor like Evolution soccer and EA remains the only distributor to any hockey game. The bitter taste can be felt in the game itself - quite the same visual feeling for the last 5 years, the same idiotic control system along with ... same bugs.
Sure there are some good ideas in the game, like the dynasty mode and stick control, which work just fine in the next-gen consoles ... but ... buged as they are in the PC conversion? And on top of that, they were introduced in 2004 and 2005 version of NHL.
All I can say is - such a great game (which hockey really is) deserves much better ... much better then EA!