Quick Look: NHL 14

And if you had watched all of it they clearly at the end SPOILERS said they had fun!?

Oh, what!? I am from the Tri-Cities where the Americans are from. It's Richland, Kennewick and Pasco in southeastern Washington State. They were kind of a big deal around here when I was a kid.

Recently they were in the news because the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), also located in the Tri-Cities, has partnered with the department of homeland security to record the faces of visitors to the Toyota Center (where the Americans play) in order to improve facial recognition technology. You can read more about it here: http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/jrhockey-buzzing-the-net/whl-team-partners-u-department-homeland-security-173443132.html

Anyway, it was weird to hear you guys talk about my dumb little hometown's hockey team in a quick look.

Brad steps in with 100 questions to break sports team full game coverage :( Great!!!

Also because it's a running joke at this point. If sports QL didn't have that tone and ineptness people would complain.

Charlottetown Islanders!

Could we have Giant Bomb sports-team shirts, tanks, or jerseys? I think the time is ripe for such gold.

This was actually pretty riveting.

I love how everything they said was wrong. Glorious.

SJ SHARKS!

Fun fact: The lakers are my home town's team. They're Swiss.

I love it when Vinny scores.

At the 27:20 mark, there are at least 10 guys in the crowd doing the exact same animation at the same time.

I like how they spend two entire games trying to fight and then when the "Drop Gloves" prompt finally comes up, they both completely miss it, lol.

I really, unironically, enjoyed this. Those two games were intense and the little touches on NHL 94 mode like the ice rink's color and the player number/position under their stars instead of names was amazing. Last year's 90's mode was pretty dumb but this looks way more like what it should've been.

Hockey is cool, but yeah it is an east coast thing in the US. Soccer's cool, too.

Out of all of the major sports games that get released, I feel that the team who develops the NHL games is the one that tries the hardest and really care. Madden is a convoluted mess, Tiger Woods I swear hasnt graphically changed much since 06, and FIFA is incomprehensible unless you already know what you are doing. The NHL games are always pretty solid and once you get past that pick your favorite team nonsense the game is relatively easy to get into and have some damn fun

Swift Current Broncos?! That's my home town team, crazy! I have to say this looks extremely natural and Vinny is setting stuff up like he knows what he's doing.

I was impressed by Vinny's play, some good hustle.

I was going to go into something about hockey being popular in the north and eastern States (I'm fairly sure), but that was overshadowed by the fact that Vinny won in a sports game. Honestly, when was the last time that happened?

VINNY FINALLY WINS ONE!

I don't really like hockey or play hockey games...wait what?!!? Vinny? Oh, okay I'm in!!!!!

@nidzumi: Spoilers!

Hawks win! Hawks win!

Vinny wins!! (in the '94 game)

The Quebecois call it hice ockey.

The Tri-Cities, also known as the dry shitties are a group of three "cities" in the central Washington State area, Also Murika

I think I might just start calling it ice soccer.

This was entertaining as heck!

Had fun going to some NHL games (Dallas Stars), they do seem to go quicker than other sporting events & based off the ones I've been to, you might want long sleeve shirt or light jacket but the stadiums tend to not be insanely cold. They also did a good job at explaining the basic rules to make it easy to follow until the 2 man yard sales start (aka fighting) which sometimes would just be really quick & other times lots of people would get involved, fun stuff. Do recommend if people want to see hockey to look to the minor league games as cheaper than the NHL & also fun to see.

Also not knowing until now that Italy had a team plus it was rated this bad. More games need just a rules off feature though still in the mindset now of just getting one of these games for a particular sport a few years after the console launches & stick with that as the newer ones don't have a ton of additions in career/customization. Normally opposed to the idea of them doing real commercials in sports games but for some reason seeing the Tim Hortons logo on the ice, I'd really like to see those or just want a donut/coffee as I'm watching the QL.

With two-line passing out there's only two real rules to remember, and one of them is a soccer thing anyway.

Icing

What is it?

When a player shoots a puck to the end of the rink and it goes over two red lines (Basically, the one in the center and the one across the goal). If an opposing player (but not their goalie) gets to it first, it's icing.

Why is this a rule?

So that dudes aren't constantly shooting pucks away to take a break from the action. Without this in real life you may just watch dudes skate around chasing a puck across the rink for 55 minutes.

What happens?

The offending team must then drop the puck in one of the defending zone face-off circle (near the offending team's goalie).

Lots of times dudes will totally blast to the puck just to touch it -- leading to icing being a common source of injuries.

Why do it?

A lot of the time it's accidental. Maybe a dude was trying to pass it far and it missed the guy.

Sometimes dudes will do it if they're totally tired, and may even try to get it to just go slow enough that it doesn't do an icing and get caught by a defending player, or maybe try shooting it directly at the net, forcing the goalie to stop it. That way they can change lines.

How is this a punishment?

This is bad cause usually it means that the dude who shot the thing away is really tired and they are not allowed to change their lines (there are 4 groups of three forwards and 3 groups of two defenders) -- but the other team can. So it can lead to some bad shit with rested dudes potentially getting the puck from the face-off and skating circles around them.

Exceptions?

You can ice all you want if you're on a penalty kill (you have less dudes cause you got penalized), in that case they call it 'clearing the puck'. A standard strategy so that you make the other team on a power play (got more players) spend more time harmlessly chasing the puck.

If one of the offending player's team mates gets to it first then it's no longer an icing, rather a really long pass.

If the goalie nearby touches it, it isn't called an icing (sometimes they may want to just keep playing if they feel they have momentum).

Even if it bounces back past the red line near the goalie it is still an iced puck.

If a defending player can touch the puck and prevent it from icing (even if he doesn't want to) he must -- or the ref's will call "no icing!" Even if the defending player lets off and lets it get away they will be no icing -- this is to prevent dudes being douche-y and letting the puck skitter past him in hopes of getting an icing call.

If it was clear that it was a missed pass they may call it off as well. They'll call "no-icing" if say the intended receiver was pushed out of the way in mid-pass -- but they won't call "no-icing" if the pass was just shitty and missed.

Off-sides

What is it?

Off-sides is called when an offensive player goes over the blue-line before the puck and then touches it.

Why is this a rule?

It prevents a hypothetical situation where a offensive dude just sits back by the defending goalie and waits for a hot pass directly to him and immediately scores a goal. You need to move the puck up properly, son!

What happens?

When this happens the whistle is called and they do a face-off to the nearest 'neutral zone' face-off dot (near the blue-line).

Why do it?

There is a rule called 'intentional off-sides' that I won't bother trying to explain, but there isn't usually a reason to do it on purpose -- but it's almost always called because the offensive team wants to enter the defending team's zone as fast as possible -- but whoops, one player was a little too fast (a little too eager).

How is this a punishment?

It's a punishment because it stops the offending team's rush (they may have had a break away or something!) and gives the chance for the defending team to make a change of lines -- the offending team can also make a change, though.

Exceptions?

There is only one I believe, but to under stand it you need to realize how often times a defender (who hangs back at the blue line) often has the job of keeping the puck "in" the zone. Say if the defending team is getting danced around by the offensive team they'll try to get the puck just past the blue line -- grinding the offending team's play to a halt as all the players need to exit the zone before the puck can come back in. (If you ever see hockey fans watching a game where a puck just barely gets past a defender at the blue line and they all go "GOD DAMMIT! <enter defender's name here>" then that is why).

The exception here, though, if that if a defending player gains control of the puck and leaves the zone (over the blue-line to neutral ice) --- but then in just a natural flow decides to enter his defensive zone again (back over the blue-line) then the puck is fair game --- so if a offending player, who should have left the area earlier but was too slow--or maybe was getting sat on by a player, who knows-- he doesn't need to still exit the zone, he's no longer off sides, and he can deck that retreating player and take the puck immediately.

A puck isn't out or into a zone until it has fully passed the line in whichever direction that the players care about.

Lastly, the blue-line is only fully 'passed' when the last limb of the player is fully over it, so often times you may see players drag their trailing skate behind them to stay 'on-sides' for a precious extra few milliseconds.

I love when this QL turns into Jeff and Vinny really trying to beat each other.

The legit reactions are hilarious.

Wow, so EA would consider me an average NHL player? I own NHL 12 but haven't played any NHL game since NHL 98 (my copy of NHL 12 remains sealed). I'm kinda into the 94 mode in here, but I guess I could just as well go grab a copy of NHL 94 for my Genesis, they are only like $3 or something.

As a kid I mostly played Face-Off! for PC and Amiga, that game had some neat, bloody fights.

With those tiny little goals and huge padded dudes, I have no idea how anyone ever scores in Hockey.

It was worth watching that whole Quick Look just for the "Atlus is making the next Virtua Tennis" joke at the very end.