The best so far... In some facets.
Gameplay: The gameplay is generally the same as it has been for the past few years with just a few minor tweaks. The new passing system is pressure sensitive and sometimes finicky. The longer you hold in R2, the harder your pass will be, this in turn makes those quick one-timers a bit more difficult. Also, on more than a few occasions, my defensemen have passed the puck back into my own zone when I was certainly aiming for someone up the offensive boards. This is very frustrating and has ruined more than a few cycles. After the play scrums are still rather boring and basically a ten second "who will be the stupid one that takes a penalty" moment.
Graphics: NHL 11 certainly looks good. The arenas look nice, even though they are not true-to-form of any of their real life counterparts.
Player models / animations: The player models in NHL 11 are a bit lacking. A superstar such as Sidney Crosby should look like Sidney Crosby, which he doesn't. You can certainly tell it is supposed to be him, but this is an area where the NHL series has excelled before but is lacking now. The animations are very good. From goal celebrations and big hits, to goalies scrambling around and general skating, you will not be let down by the fluidity.
Hitting: This is one area that always bugs me with NHL. Every year they claim a "new physics system" but every year I am let down. For instance, in an online game yesterday, my player was moving down the boards rather slowly. A defender came over back-skating, also slowly, the two bumped into each other essentially slowing all progress, and then out of no where comes a gigantic hip check sending my guy hurdling head over heels and knocking him out of the game. Sheer size doesn't matter as a monstrous player like Hal Gill or Zdeno Chara can hit a tiny guy like Mike Comrie head on, where they would literally knock his head off, and the two of them just bounce off each other like bumper cars. Maybe one year they will get this right.
Be a GM mode: Good Lord does the trading system need a patch. They claim to have "tweaked the AI" of CPU GMs. Well, un-tweak it. It is impossible to make a trade. I personally hate Chris Kunitz and want to dump his salary, but no team would accept an offer. I event went as far as only asking for a 6th round draft pick. The AI generally returns on of two messages. "I would be run out of (city) for making such a deal," or "We are looking to downgrade our (athleticism, offense, or defense) not improve it." It is annoying and I can only hope they patch it.
Online: The online play is generally fun. I've yet to run into anyone that has left a game early. A surprising change this year though (at least to me it was), is that you have to play as the goalie in a shoot-out. Some people are very good, which can be frustrating, but hey, that's what multiplayer gaming is all about.
Ultimate Hockey League: A variation of a trading card game. You are given an initial 'pack' of players that makes up your team and spend 'EA Pucks' to increase various attributes. It seems like a fun addition, but the fact that you are able to spend actual money to get more 'EA Pucks' and getting them by playing the game alone is painstakingly slow, they should have just named this part of the game George Steinbrenner's NHL. Investing any serious amount of time into this mode will prove futile when you come up against someone that spent money on the 'rare' packs and are loaded with every big-name star in the game.
Overall: A very good re-charging of the title, and though it has some very annoying flaws, it for some reason is the most fun I've had with an NHL title since the SEGA genesis days. If you are a fan of the title and are on the fence, pulling the trigger won't be a regret.