Stick with this game, and it will stick to you.
The graphics are brilliant considering it's age, although on many occasions the animations are terrible. For instance on the ice you can check a player when he's two feet away. Sometimes you will be glad for the bugs, as they sometimes prevent, or cause the puck to end up in the back of the net for no apparent reason.
The trouble with this game is that the spectators have not evolved much from the old cardboard cutouts of old racing games. Maybe they have some new animations such as walking up and down the aisle and clapping, but even then, when it comes to slow-motion replays the spectators seem to double speed instead of slowing down.
As for the audio, it makes you feel as if you really are on the ice when the graphics let you down.
In multiplayer I really can't say because there is no server browser in the game, forcing you to type in an i.p. address to play online. That is if you arn't willing to pay EA for a gamespy-like multiplayer.
The music in the game is okay, but there isn't a lot of it unfortunatly. We have been told about a music importer so that you can listen to your own music in-game, but this idea has dissapeared into thin air.
Gameplay is fun but takes practice, and it is quite hard to fool the AI on the other team.
So I gotta admit this game is fun yet badly flawed.
Well worth playing but not for everyone.