In the spectacular Be A Pro mode (of which I’ll have more to say in a moment), I was pleasantly surprised to see my teammates demonstrating impressive awareness, firing off passes to my player whenever I became open and always being in position to take advantage of chances when I set them up. I don’t know if this is new to this year’s version or it started with last year’s game, but the non-human players here seemed much smarter and more aware than they were in NHL 19.

And not only does it move quickly, it moves smoothly - watching my team glide around the ice was an impressive approximation of the real thing. Even accounting for the setting at which I’d put the speed, NHL 21 moves at a much faster pace than the previous entries in the series that I’ve played. The first thing that really jumped out at me after starting up the game was how fast it moves. Obviously, it’s a little early to tell whether I’ll play NHL 21 nearly as much as I’ve played NHL 19, but my early impressions of the game are pretty good. It wasn’t enough to make me watch the real thing on TV, mind you, but it reminded me of how many hours I sank into NHL 94 so many years ago.

And, somehow, NHL 19 became one of my go-to games. Despite the fact I’m Canadian, I haven’t watched a hockey game on TV in literally decades, and the last time I tried playing any NHL games, I soon realized I didn’t know any modern players and quickly gave up. Up until a couple of months ago, I had absolutely zero interest in ever playing another NHL game.

Nhl 19 reviews