Archive for the ‘NHL’ Category

The NHL 14 team released another developer diary to highlight their One Touch Dekes feature, another aspect of their True Performance Skating.

One Touch Dekes
Experience what it feels like to be a superstar through a new, more responsive deking system controlled with only the left stick and one-button. From beginner to advanced gamer, this system allows for quicker reactive dekes and intuitive combination dekes, allowing for more moves than ever before. Be careful who you’re controlling with the one touch dekes though, not everyone has hands like Datsyuk. Getting too fancy with the wrong player is the quick and easy way to lose the puck.

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We’re now down to the final 8 players in the NHL 14 Cover Vote campaign. Remaining are Pavel Datsyuk, Joffrey Lupul, James Van Riemsdyk, Martin Brodeur, John Tavares, Wayne Simmonds, Taylor Hall, Sergei Bobrovsky. Voting for this round is now live, and runs until May 19th at 11:59pm ET.

The winner of the cover vote campaign will be announced during the Stanley Cup finals. You can vote as much as you want by clicking here.

Who do you want to see on the cover?

Be sure to update your NHL 13 rosters, as they just released an update for the NHL Playoffs. The update returns each team’s best players to their lineups, regardless of injuries, and a ton of players got upgraded and downgraded.

Here’s the full list, as well as instructions on how to edit your rosters manually:

• Alex Galchenyuk (MTL): +2, (81 OVR)
• Alexander Killorn (TB): +3, (78 OVR)
• Alexei Emelin (MTL): +4, (82 OVR)
• Anton Khudobin (BOS): +7, (77 OVR)
• Antti Niemi (SJ): +3, (85 OVR)
• Ben Bishop (TB): +3, (76 OVR)
• Ben Scrivens (TOR): +5, (76 OVR)
• Braden Holtby (WAS): +9, (82 OVR)
• Brandon Saad (CHI): +3, (79 OVR)
• Brendan Gallagher (MTL): +2, (81 OVR)
• Brian Elliott (STL): +1, (81 OVR)
• Carl Hagelin (NYR): +3, (80 OVR)
• Charlie Coyle (MIN): +9, (78 OVR)
• Chris Pronger (PHI): -3, (82 OVR)
• Cody Hodgson (BUF): +3, (81 OVR)
• Cory Conacher (OTT): +2, (79 OVR)
• Cory Schneider (VAN): +4, (87 OVR)
• Craig Anderson (OTT): +3, (85 OVR)
• Daniel Taylor (CGY): +4, (69 OVR) Read the rest of this entry »

The NHL 14 Cover Vote is quickly eliminating the field, announcing their final 16 candidates for the chance to grave the cover of their upcoming hockey game. Starting today, the vote shifts to a 16-player bracket format as players compete in head-to-head matchups for a spot in the quarterfinals. Over 12 million votes have been cast, up 70% from last year’s campaign.

Here’s the final 16, along with how the bracket is looking. Gotta love the Toronto/Boston rivalry is alive and well even in the cover vote:

Click here to vote.

The first of three NHL 14 Developer Diaries came out this morning, highlighting NHL 14’s new Collision Physics. If you’re a fan of the FIFA series, you’ll know about the Player Impact Engine, which provides more realistic contact between players. In NHL 14, there’ll be a new left-stick control scheme to make hitting much simpler. Check out the video from EA Sports’ producer Sean Ramjagsingh:

Plus, some GIFs showing off the Collision Physics. LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR:

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The field of 64 just got cut down in half, leaving 32 NHLers vying for your votes to be on the cover of NHL 14. Each team had one candidate advance, plus two wild card candidates (Joe Thornton and James van Riemsdyk) were added to the mix. If you want to place your vote, click here to cast your ballot. The top 16 vote-getters will advance to the next round.

The rest of the schedule:

• 32-Player Leaderboard (April 29 – May 5): Fans vote for their favorite 16 candidates; top 16 vote-getters advance.
• 16-player Bracket (May 6 – May 26): Weekly round-by-round, single-elimination playoff bracket decides finalists.
• The Finals (May 27- June 2): Winner takes the NHL 14 Cover.

Alright so the playoffs are set to begin tomorrow night, so we put all 16 teams through the ringer in NHL 13 and here’s how it fared:

Round 1: In the Western Conference, Chicago over Minnesota 4-2, Detroit over Anaheim 4-2, Kings over the Blues 4-2 and it took 7 games for San Jose to finish off Vancouver, 4-3. In the East, Pittsburgh over the Islanders 4-2, Canadiens over the Sens 4-2, Rangers over the Capitals 4-1 and apologizes to all the Leafs fans, but Boston handled the Leafs 4-2.

Round 2: The second round saw some sweeps, with the Blackhawks shutting out the Redwings and the Penguins sweeping the Rangers. Montreal beat Boston 4-1, and the Kings beat the Sharks in 7.

Semi-finals: In another 7-game Western series, the Kings defeated the Blackhawks, and in the East, the Penguins handled the Canadiens with ease 4-2.

Stanley Cup: It came down to the Pittsburgh Penguins and the L.A. Kings, and Pittsburgh had a 2-1 lead, when all of a sudden Sidney Crosby got a fractured ankle and was shelved for the rest of the Stanley Cup finals. Could Pittsburgh overcome and still win the Stanley Cup?

Indeed. The Pittsburgh Penguins are your Stanley Cup Champs, and here are your final stats:

Goalie stats:

The final playoff tree (click to enlarge):