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By Mark D, July 6, 2011 12:27 am

I hate EA, I really do. For any sports game in which they have to face real competition, they do try. But for the NHL and NFL, they seem to be sitting on their laurels. The Madden series is just getting around to adding some of the better features of NFL2K, a game series that has been mothballing since 05. In the NHL series they made the decision years to stop producing a computer version because of the ability to mod the game and allow you to keep playing the old game with new rosters. I remember how early NHL and NFL games from EA wouldn’t let you even trade players.

So here’s the EA NHL 12 Producer Video, and it’s time to nitpick a bit:

First off on the “ALL NEW FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER” Goalie Fights, this is Footage from NHL 04. That’s right, 7 years ago:

Hey though, how about Glass Shattering Hits? Which existed in NHL 09 but were so poorly implemented that the wrong glass would shatter:

or

Quality work there EA, wonder how that slipped by?

Another point they make is players losing their helmets from big hits. You know it was a feature from another series, NHL Hitz (goals could reflect in off of loose helmets on the ice) which has been mothballed since 2003.

At the end of the day, EA seems to care more about updating graphics then putting out a competent NHL game. Since the move away from 2D players, games have struggled to replicate hockey play. Too often a game seems to put an over emphasis on one facet of the game or another, making it easy to beat up on the AI. For example NHL 99 seemed to love the stick poke, which would strip any player of the puck regardless of who it was. I used this to my advantage as Team Italy (with Jason Muzzati in net) in the World Tourney the game had, winning gold by defeating Team Canada. I did this multiple times, as the Italian players were commonly too slow to break out of the zone, but the stick poke kept Canada from getting deep enough to get off good scoring chances.

If you have ever seen the game live, you’d understand that even watching it from TV does not compare. While you can get the feel for most sports by watching from Home, hockey transcends that. Playing the NHL games, while they look nice, have the same problem. The incredible speed, the positioning of players, the way goalies can bend and twist to make desperation saves, just can’t be captured yet. In the end I’d expect more of what we’ve seen, occasional Oh Wow moments to go along with a lot of head scratching moments.

I’ve said it for Madden, and will say it about most sports games. They need to stop making yearly releases. Make them bi-annual and give people more upgrades for their buck. For the in-between years release a 20-30 dollar expansion pack which is all the updated rosters, head coaching changes and what not. EA needs to stop gouging the fans, they are going to revolt at some point. Oh and stop lying to us when you remove a feature and put it back in.

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By admin, February 21, 2010 11:39 pm

These are mostly from the last two decades or so. It seems like there are always a few goalies who the powers that be proclaim to be the next big thing. Yet goalie is one of the most interesting positions in any sport. Your the only player who plays the whole game, just about every minute.  Sometimes a team and a goalie just don’t mesh, sometimes a backup is just meant to stay backup. Here are some of the more memorable ones.

Damian Rhodes

People were talking about him just needing a chance for a while. That chance wasn’t coming with Felix “The Cat” Potvin in net. He eventually made his way to the awful but improving Ottawa Senators. Splitting time with Also-Ran Ron Tugnutt it slowly became clear that Rhodes had peaked while Tugnutt continued to improve and won the job. He was then picked up by the Thrashers, who proceeded to be one of the all time worst expansion teams. Although it can be argued that his struggles weren’t all his fault, his time in Atlanta was the end of his career. From promising Backup to out of the league in only Six years.

Eric Fichaud

Another former Leaf. The 16th overall pick in 1994 was talked of as the “Next Roy”.  By now that’s almost a warning sign not to pick up a goalie. Although impressive in the AHL, Milbury had told anyone that would listen that this kid was the future of the franchise. He was called up far too early, and through three years on the Island he lost the starting job to Tommy Salo. Following his last season as an Islander he never again reached double digit games and became the quintessential journeyman goalie a team picked up when it needed a cheap backup or third stringer. His last NHL playing time was in 2001, meaning another goalie from promising elite to out of the league in only six years.

Dan Cloutier

Growing up in NYC, I never heard the end of it about Cloutier. He was the next big thing, and the overrated Goon and his run in with Salo always annoyed me. I knew his trade to the Lightning was going to be his ending. It would have been a majority of the time. Two seasons with a sub .900 sv% looked like the end of the road for him. Unfortunately the Canucks grabbed him off the scrap heap and put a NHL caliber team in front of him. He still struggled as a starter before being shipped off to the Kings when the team got Roberto Luongo. Out of hockey now, he’s so infamous for being a bad goalie that there’s a picture of him with a beach ball in the net.

Garth Snow

The Poor Flyers. Every few years their backup gets hot in the playoffs, they think they have finally taken care of their weak goalie position, he ends up being a bust the next season. Snow was highly touted in the time between his being drafted and making the NHL. He had an incredible run. Ending up in Philly behind Hextall,he got hot and helped lead the Flyers to the Confrence finals. The following year there was High expectations, but he didn’t really pan out and Hextall was back as starter. A few more years in Vancouver, Penguins and finally a few years (with one outstanding season) for the Islanders before calling it quits. He is far above expectations when it comes to being a General Manager.

Marc Denis

Another one of those “Next Patrick Roy” he was helped by playing behind Roy himself. A Former first rounder, he had two really good seasons behind Roy before being tagged in the expansion draft by Columbus. In four years in Columbus he did have two outstanding seasons, but could never get to the 30 Win plateau. After being traded to the Lightning he hit career lows with a .889 SV% Followed by a .859 and a later stint with Montreal he only managed a .857 SV%. His career is all but over already.

Mike Dunham

A lot of Jersey Goalies could take this spot. But Dunham, drafted the same year as Brodeur had a lot of fans and pundits predicting greatness. The Devils themselves went so far as to (Claimed by his agent) underplay him so either he couldn’t be a RFA or he wouldn’t be in the Expansion Draft. In the end he was picked up the expansion Predators. He had some good seasons too, but injuries would continually pile on. When the Predators gave up on him and went with Vokoun, things wouldn’t get better. Of his next four seasons after the Predators he only managed to get back above a .900 SV% once, and that was his first year with the Rangers. Like another goalie on this list, he finished his career on the Island and ended up moving to become a coach at the end of his career. Meanwhile Brodeur is still protecting the crease in Jersey.

These are almost all going off memory and some checking via Wikipedia and HockeyDB. If I got anything wrong feel free to comment, My memory is not that good.

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By Mark D, February 15, 2010 2:57 am

The Golden Milbury

That’s right, its time to give away an award. The Golden Milbury will be given to the team that makes the dumbest move (or moves) during the season. Now I need your help since I mostly follow the Islanders. There will eventually be a poll to choose the winner (or if no one votes, a judge will decide) of The Golden Milbury. My personal choices?

Carolina Waives Leighton

Following the horrible injury to Cam Ward, the Canes decided to dust off Manny Legace of all people and call him in ahead of Leighton who had been their long term backup. When Cam Ward returned, the Canes waived Leighton and the Flyers (coached by former Canes coach Lavoilette) desperate for a backup picked him up. Not only has he started in the premiere game of the regular season, but the Canes are playing half his salary AND Legace is their backup. For comparison’s sake.

GP W  L OTL   GAA SV%
Micheal Leighton 18 12  3     1     2.19 .920
Ray Emery              29 16 11    1     2.64 .910
Manny Legace        19   7  6    3     3.05 .900

Toronto Signs Kessel

Brian Burke. That’s all you really have to say. The argument about whether he’s good or he inherited good positions could go on forever. In his attempt to turn around Toronto he signed the talented Phil Kessel, whose rights cost him a first and second rounder in the 2010 draft and a first in the 2011 draft. Now the hope might have been to improve Toronto enough that the draft pick was a high one. Unfortunately despite Kessel leading the team in goals, Toronto has struggled all year and this years picks look like they might be a top five pick. Also of note is that any pick of the top 4 could possibly become a first overall pick due to the lottery.

Kings let Moulson go

It isn’t so much that they let him go, but they didn’t really try to re-sign him. A rebuilding Kings team could only give Moulson (a former 9th round pick) 29 games over two seasons in the NHL and only 10 points in those games. The Islanders after drafting John Tavares (an old linemate of Moulson’s) decided to sign him. He impressed from camp and just kept rolling from there. He’s the Islanders first twenty goal scorer in a few seasons and the Kings are kicking themselves for missing out on him.

Flyers Sign Emery

After making a big splash by trading for Pronger and showing they wanted to win now, the Flyers decided to go with enigmatic goaltender Ray Emery to lead them to the Cup. Now Emery does have a run to the Stanley Cup finales on his resume. But that was with a very good Senators team in front of him. Ottawa soured on him so quickly (due to off ice incidents) that the following year they bought out his contract. He did have an impressive run in the KHL last year, he still had off ice issues and arguments with the team. Although quiet off the ice, he has suffered injuries and his play left the door open for Boucher and Leighton to take over the starting job. In fact it wouldn’t be surprising if the playoffs started today and Emery was healthy if Lieghton was starter still. The cap is also another consideration in his deal, but in the end former Flyer Goalie Martin Biron could have been signed for nearly the same amount. Also former backup Nittymaki has been outstanding for Tampa Bay this year

Now that’s my four favorites, but bookmark this page. As the trading deadline passes I want to know what you think is one of the worst moves this year. Comment on this blog or email me (located at bottom of page) via the contact form. I want to make the vote for The Golden Milbury that much more fun.

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By admin, January 10, 2010 8:42 pm

Last year I did a blog about Brodeur compared to his backups. One of the reasons I did it was because of all the love being heaped upon Devils savior Scott Clemmensen. The fact of the matter was that Clemmensen was an average (at best) goalie who was playing for a defense first team. I was deathly afraid that the Islanders might be one of those teams that fell for his great run and sign him for a few years for too much money. Fortunately they went with Roloson who has been spectacular despite being 40 years old.

Instead it was almost surprisingly the Panthers who dished out money for Clemmensen while having the grossly underrated Thomas Vokoun as starter. Meanwhile they allowed Craig Anderson to sign with the Avalanche. So how did everything work out for all involved?

Vokoun continues to be silently spectacular. On a better team or a better market he would be appreciated.

Anderson has helped to bring the Avs back to respect and shortened their apparent rebuilding by leaps and bounds.

And Clemmensen? Before this season he only once managed a SV% over .900 and he’s at .888. His GAA went from 2.39 to 3.53 (Vokoun is 2.56 right now). In all his games, he’s only let in 1 goal once and has no shutouts. He’s been pulled from games twice in 11 starts. He has proven that he’s not a NHL starter or backup unless he’s playing for the Devils.

His replacement in NJ? Yan Danis only has 4 games this season, but currently has career highs in GAA (2.00) and SV% (.929). Considering that Danis couldn’t even hold onto a backup job with the worst team in the league last year, this once again proves the point that anyone can play behind the Devils defense and look good.

I wanted to add on that I hope Brodeur doesn’t make the Hall Of Fame. I know he has all the records. I know he’s broken records people never thought would be broken. I for one believe that just about any goalie who played for the Devils for the same period of time would have the same record. Its nothing against him, he’s had some great playoff runs and definitely won games others would ave lost. But statistically Brodeur matches all of his backups stats. It doesn’t matter, Marty will be a first ballot HoF’er and I’ll be here arguing that Osgood deserves to be in. At least Osgood played for other teams.

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By admin, March 21, 2009 7:01 pm

So with Martin Brodeur overtaking Roy in all time wins, the question has been whether Brodeur plays in a great system or is a great goalie.

Well I decided one of the best ways to see what the Devils system does for Goalies is to compare the Mid 90s Devils Goalies (Terreri, Schwab and Dunham) who were all highly rated in their time with the Devils and to see how they did once they left Jersey. Terreri and Schwab were both traded in deals for 2nd round picks. Dunham was the first selection of the Preds in the Expansion draft and was their starter for a few seasons.

One can argue that Terreri and Schwab were backups at best, but teams believed that they could improve their goaltending and were willing to part with a prized second round pick for them. So how do their averages compare between the Devils and other teams?

I’m using Clemmensen as a sort of neutral marker. He didn’t look particullary good when playing for the Devils before this season, so its worth a look to compare him. I ignored Beezer, who was at the end of his career and was a proven goalie. I also ignored Weekes, who wasn’t in the Devils system till this year.

Chris Terreri
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
93-94 Devils      44      2.72   .907  2
94-95 Devils       15     2.53    .900  0
95-96 Devils        4       2.57   .902  0
98-99 Devils       12      2.48   .898   1
99-00 Devils      12      3.42   .876  0
00-01 Devils      10      2.78   .874  0
Devils Average  16.1   2.75  .893   .5

Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
95-96 Sharks     46      3.70   .883   0
96-97 Sharks     22      2.75   .901   0
96-97 BHawks    7       2.66    .901   0
97-98 BHawks   21      2.41    .906   2
00-01 Isles          8       2.44    .912    0
Other Average  20.8  2.79   .906    .4

Corey Schwab
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
95-96 Devils      10      2.18   .899    0
02-03 Devils      11      1.47   .933    1
03-04 Devils       3       0.64   .971    1
Devils Average  4.6    1.43   .934    .66

Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
96-97 TBLight   31     3.04    .897   2
97-98 TBLight   16     2.92    .892    1
98-99 TBLight   40     3.52    .891    0
99-00 Canucks   6      3.57    .861    0
01-02 Leafs        30     2.73   .894     1
Other Average  24.6  3.15   .887     .8

Mike Dunham
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
96-97 Devils      26      2.55  .906    2
97-98 Devils      15       2.25  .913    1
Devils Average 20.5   2.40  .909   1.5

Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
98-99 Preds        44      3.08   .908  1
99-00 Preds        52      2.85   .908  0
00-01 Preds        48      2.28    .923  4
01-02 Preds         58      2.61   .906  3
02-03 Preds        15       3.15    .892  0
02-03 Rangers   43       2.29    .924  5
03-04 Rangers   57       3.03   .896   2
05-06 Thrash      17      2.77   .893   1
06-07 Isles           19      3.74    .889  0
Other Average     44.1  3.23     .904  2

Martin Broduer
Devils Average
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
Devils                 61.75  2.20   .914  6.3

Scott Clemmensen
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
08-09 Devils      40     2.39   .917   2

Schwab, Terreri and Dunham’s Devils stats average
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
Devils                   13.7   2.19    .912  .88

Their Non Devils stats average
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
Other                    29.8  3.05    .899  1.06

In Comparison to Broduer while with Devils
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
Devils(Backup) 13.7    2.19    .912  .88
Devils(Marty)   61.75  2.20   .914  6.3

In Comparison to Broduer while with Others
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
Other                    29.8    3.05    .899  1.06
Devils(Marty)   61.75  2.20   .914  6.3

In Comparison to Clemmensen while with Devils
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
Devils(Backup) 13.7    2.19    .912  .88
Devils(Clem)      40        2.39   .917   2

In Comparison to Clemmensen while with Others
Team                     GP     GAA    SV%  SO
Other                    29.8    3.05    .899  1.06
Devils(Clem)      40        2.39   .917   2

In whats a somewhat amazing stat info, during their time as backups to Broduer the trio managed almost identical stats to what Broduer has averaged over the years except for shutouts which is due to the disparity of games played. When playing for other teams the same trio managed to drop their GAA by .80 and their SV% by .15.

When compared to Clemmensen when backups with the Devils the trio managed a better GAA by .20 but a slightly lower Sv% by .05. But when compared to the Trio when they weren’t on the Devils, Clemmensen clearly outshines them with a .66 improvement in GAA and a .18 better in Sv%.

Personally I think this shows that the Devils have had one hell of a run with Brodeur, and Brodeur probably fits perfectly in their system. Out of the Trio, the only one that might have worked out for the Devils was Dunham. Of course, Brodeur is still playing and Dunham is currently retired.

It also helps that the Devils knew what they had in Brodeur from the start. His whole career he’s played 60+ games a year (obviously minus this season and the strike shortened season) while Roy didn’t reach 60 games till his sixth season in the league. Despite the two cup wins for Roy with the Canadiens, they weren’t nearly as good of a team when compared to the Devils team Brodeur started with or the Avs team that Roy played with.