Quick Look: NHL 20

A tradition unlike any other.

BAKALAR!!!

oh man, poor alex, jeff feeding him the puck on purpose so he could get one goal lol

DIVING DAB

I have to tell myself that Jeff is just suffering from Stockholm Syndrome with his love for Doc Emerick. I can't stand him and am glad I barely hear him in Canada, but I get it. He used to cover the Devils and you grow attached to the voice you associate with your team regardless if they are really terrible or not. I'm still always happy to hear Jeff talk about the best sport in the world.

Love of hockey; check.
Dislike of Doc Emerick; check.
Zap Rowsdower profile pic; check.
Looks like @corporalgregg passes the Canadian Citizenship test 👍🍁

Chel is a way of life Vinny! But in all seriousness, it became a quick way to refer to the NHL games a while ago, then EA started to include it in the games.

some of my favorite quick looks are the yearly sports game quick looks

I wouldn't mind doing a diving dab to everything.

Btw, if anyone out there has this game, or plans on getting it, could you please record your character doing a diving dab upon replay and turning it into a gif?

That thumbnail Hurts.

As someone who is a fan of hockey i would loove these games on the pc.

The misconduct was charging, Stepan skated from like the centre faceoff dot to hit Simmons.

i only watch playoff Leafs hockey, but i'd also buy this on pc

Just Hire Jeff Please...

Oh wow, the commentators they went with are an interesting choice. James Cybulski is definitely not a play-by-play guy but fascinating to hear him here. He was a sportscaster first, then radio host back in the day for TSN, left, then got picked up by Sportsnet and worked there until 2016. I have no idea what he has been doing and this is the first time in a long time to see him back in the fold. I distinctly remember Jay Onrait calling him C-balls back in the day.

Ray Ferraro is the between the bench colour commentary on TSN's hockey broadcasts who is really good. It makes sense he is one of the announcers here.

This seems like a cost-cutting move (and better access to the talent) because TSN gets the scraps in regards to broadcasting games. Sportsnet (owned by Rogers) has the national contract and subleases games to CBC for Hockey Night in Canada. TSN gets whatever mid-week small market games. However, TSN's hockey experts, panel and commentary are so much better, knowledgable, and good humour.

Oof. Alex you definitely charged (or even boarded) that guy for the 5 minute major.

more jeff, more abby

Time for the spektakalar vernakalar of our friend Jeff Bakalar.

Jeff Bakalar - "It's kind of a little bit better"

Edit: Alex's 5 minute major was from truck sticking a guy making a pass about half a second before Jeff's first goal

That truck horn on every goal is kinda distracting.

I feel like the Vengabus is coming

Cloth-physics still creepy and floaty, like the jerseys are made of water or or something...

EDIT: Maybe the game interpreted the "crotch-shot" as a knee-on-knee tackle?

This is only sort-of-kind-of related, but -

Can we just be done with tiles in menus now? I think if the way you have organized the modes can't fit on a simple 4 or 5 item list, then you have too many modes and your sports game is too damn complicated.

This is why I don't play FIFA anymore. They took an incredibly simple game and made it way over complicated.

Also, I think they need major improvements to their goalhorn tech next year. That goal horn sucks.

Scott Foster is the legendary NHL emergency backup that shut out the Jets late in the 3rd period. Dude is a beauty. 1.000 save percentage in the NHL. The emergency backup is indeed used for either team, literally a house goalie. In case they play they sign essentially 1 day try out contracts and I think don't get paid, but the team will usually throw them some swag or free tickets

As a Canadian I love watching this every year. Guys, there's a lot of Americans now that play hockey. In fact there's probably more Americans playing hockey then Canadians. States has 10x the population, so for Canada 1 out of 10 players playing, = 10 for the U.S. In the 80's it was 90% Canadian players in the Nhl, then a few Americans and other Countries... 90's it went down to 70+%. Today it's around 30 to 40% are Canadian if not less, then all the other Countries. The last 3 year's the top 30 Draft Choices were mostly Americans, it's a big sport now, especially with all the Americans teams, it helps in the end. Do they a;; become top players in the league, no, but Matthews is a top player and top 5 i the world, and he grew up in Phoenix, thanks to Phoenix getting a team there year's ago, it helps as I stated. Will it be bigger then NFL? No! NBA? No! But even in Canada NBA is Huge with today's Generation over Hockey.

Anyways, this game looks good, haven't bought one since 2008 I think, cuz they are all the same, maybe I'll get it, but I want a bigger leap for next gen.

The hockey definitely does look better and I like how fast it is. This year I'll still wait 10 months before I buy it for $20 but maybe now I won't immediately regret it!

Watching the Madden and NBA 2k videos lately has made me a little jealous that we'll never get any sort of single player story mode. I would love for more of a focus on that or even some improvements to the GM mode because I never play this online. Sucks that I'm in the minority in that by far I guess.

also good riddance Doc

I suppose it depends on what team you're following. The majority of Jets (and Canadiens and Senators?) games are on TSN and it's great... but Sportsnet still does all the playoffs and its excruciating.

There can't be more than 2 players in the penalty box for a minimum of 3 skaters on the ice. Additional penalties are served after.

No "Doc": no buy.

I still wish this series would come to PC

Action on ice!!

That main menu is hilarious, I love it.

@corporalgregg: Doc Emrick is fucking terrible. It’s like Gilbert Gottfried swallowed a thesaurus when he’s commentating. I can’t wait for his screeching cornball act to be permanently retired.

game misconduct on Alex Navarro

@therealturk: What they didn't cover is that the menu is customizable. Most people only play a couple of modes, so they allow you to put your favorite modes right up front in the main menu. They have variety for people with different tastes but they allow you to avoid the mess of it all by pulling out your favorite ones. Don't like the bs modes? Put play now right on the front, start it up push 1 button and you're in.

Goal horn tech? They use the audio files from the actual stadiums, each team has a different goal horn sound. You aren't criticizing the game you are criticizing the culture of New Jersey.

Here is a recording of the Devils goal horn;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzN5jkhL_G4

I, along with Vinny, just realized this is the first time I've really looked at a hockey rink in about 10 years.. PC needs nhl back :(

NO EDZO NO PEACE

JOIN MY CRUSADE ALL YOU YOUNG HOCKEY FANS

Seems pretty authentic to me... they even got in the part where people complain about whether a hit should or should not have been a penalty!

Also I got a no-goal call for goaltender contact in my second game. So they exist.

Idk, I'm like a bug to a zapper with these quick looks every year. I have seen so many different people have a lot of fun with NHL to call these games trash just seems plain disingenuous. I'm sure it has to do with where I'm from, but these games are a dorm classic around here. Everyone I know in my generation has played a game of NHL at one time or another, it's just what you do. People who never play video games, people who aren't into sports, all the way to people who are playing college or juniors enjoy this stuff.

Compared to other sports games its the easiest one to hop in on a two player. Madden is great but a lot of people have a hard time adjusting to it and good luck getting someone who doesn't care about football to play. Fifa is fun but if you can't get the shooting touch down it can be very frustrating. 2k is good if you are at comparable skill levels, if you aren't it's too easy to get blowouts which aren't fun for anyone. With NHL the speed of the game is fun, when you score a goal you feel like you've earned it and comically big hits are a universal language.

NHL is the sports game that EA invests the least into so it's like a short hoop, of course it's easy to dunk on, do you have to do it so incessantly? Yes, you're kind of a sucker if you are paying $60 a year for a glorified roster update but the positive side is that if you get one NHL game it can last you a few years before you feel like you need an upgrade. Could it be more realistic? Sure, but EA is not making the investments to do that and strategically speaking it could narrow the games appeal because there aren't a whole ton of people who know what authentic hockey feels like to be able to appreciate that.

The consistent criticism I've heard over the years that I have never heard Jeff speak to is that whenever they add a new feature they overplay it to ridiculous levels. For instance, in 19 they introduced blue line straddling which happens once in a while in the NHL and can give you an advantage when moving into the offensive zone, but if your timing is off you can get called offsides. The computer tries to do it so often that it has professional athletes getting dumb offsides calls multiple times in a game in the hopes of getting a minor offensive advantage, which rarely happens in the NHL. That is a legitimate criticism and it seems to happen every time they add something new, but all we hear is "It's not real enough".

Idk, I find myself getting very frustrated with these QLs every year and I just want to get that off my chest. I should just skip them, but like I said; bug to a zapper.

Ugh, "Chel"? I love hockey but some of the surrounding culture (and music) makes me nauseous. I (unreasonably) expected the NHL to avoid millenialization somehow. Yes, I'm a fun-hating old man.

This isn't true...

Fun quicklook. In a different life, i'd be way into Ice Hockey. Calling it Chel because the sound from going to a H & a L sounds like it is CRAZY TALK though. Like i genuinely thought they put the portal lady in this game or something :D Would be nice to see a game like this on PC at some point. Like the porting costs can't be higher than the demand for it right?

Great quick look, but Bakalar isn't up to date on his NHL rules. A season or two ago, they changed it so the player whose team is in the defensive zone has to put his stick on the ice first on faceoffs.

That is actually surprising to hear. Although it probably helps that Canada just won an NBA title.

Lets go Preds!

@raynorshine: Couldn't agree more, I avoid the other sports games as they are too difficult to get into, it's hockey or nothing for me (also I grew up with a backyard rink, but barely played other sports). As far as frustration with these QL's, I'll just offer this advice: accept these videos for what they are. Have a few laughs, get a surface level look at the game, then move on.

Personally I think NHL 20 is the best one this generation, which makes sense since we're almost at the end. NHL 16 through 18 were garbage, I didn't even finish my 10 hour trials on EA Access before they got added to the vault. NHL 19 finally got the speed of the game feeling good, but the animations were still laggy and slow and unplayable. This year there are way more animations and the players feel much more responsive to my mashing on the gamepad. I may end up buying this one.

Glad to see Doc and the NBC presentation go away, but the new guy only seems to have recorded at one performance level, SCREAM CORE. So that's grating, but I always mute the commentary after 3 games, so I don't care, it's just not for me.

Finally, I agree with several others, we need this game to come back to PC. Maybe next gen, when the consoles are even more like PCs. I remember installing endless community add-ons for NHL 2004: CBC HNIC Frontend, face packs, boards ads, and of course custom music. Those were the days!

Jeff - "The Devils seem a lot better this year"

lol