I myself haven’t completed a full non simulated NHL season since 99’s amazing game on the PS1. What would happen is that I’d gladly play a hand full of franchise games, usually around 3 months or so, then get bored playing versus the computer all the time with no real goal on the way. After the 3 or so months I would only play the game when friends came over, and ultimately my franchise would go from being neglected to nonexistent.  It wasn’t that it bored me but it felt like a chore, a grind. It became extremely repetitive and I was unable to find the motivation to keep on going.

My friends and I have been talking about a feature like this for years. It’s perfect for a simulation fan. You create a player (or use a current pro), get sent to the minors, work your way up the minors to an NHL team, maybe get traded, try to become captain, all-star, hall of famer, whatever. The options seem endless and from every blog post and article I read on this gametype it makes me want to play it more and more. I know I could go more in-depth with the feature and the actual game but since this is only a quick blog post I will try and keep it short and sweet. It’s not a preview just some of my thoughts on it and past NHL games.

As mentioned above, I haven’t played a full NHL season since the PS1’s NHL 99. What a fantastic game that was, back then I was living with 2 friends and we played a full 3 player season, 5 minute periods, 82 games & playoffs for all 3 of us, around 300 games give or take. I was the Philadelphia Flyers while my buddy’s used the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche. NHL 99 turned us into fans of the real NHL. We would watch what limited games we had on our Australian ESPN and enjoyed all aspects of it. Oh yes the good old days when you could play video games and watch TV all day and night without having any real responsibilities. Thinking back to those days I smile on how much fun a sports game can be and I am very hopeful that this game will turn out to be sports game of the year.

I don't really like any kind of hockey,  but I have played NHL 2004 and NHL 2005. I liked the 2004 one most.

You know Hockey is really the only sport i can enjoy. with the exception of car racing (rally) but that's not really a spot per say. on another note that is really awesome we can upload Youtube vids i had no idea!!!! I will have to recommend this game to my buddy, he is probably going to be picking up a 360 soon and is bat shit crazy for hockey! 

i really dont like sport video games besides top spin 3

Sounds awesome man. I'm not a big fan of hockey but it's nice to see EA is at least trying to make the game better. Hope it's fun for you :D

Not to try to burst your bubble or anything. But Ive hated every single be a pro mode ea's ever put out. I just like to control the whole team. But a bunch of people seem to like it. So enjoy!

I've played a bunch of NHL 08 and 07 for the Xbox 360 and it's looking like NHL 09 will be even better.  The Be A Pro Mode sounds like it is going to be exciting and engaging.  I look forward to getting my hands on the game in September! 

Burst away :) I know a lot of people didn't like the the madden implementation of it. But i feel that it will be way better with hockey. so I hope that is :)

Totally agree with you, this new feature looks amazing, but I also liked playing in dyanasty mode, but what I did was sim alot of games, and then play the teams I wanted to.