You can actually see it work. The game comes with the 27 NHL teams from the last season rated. Of course, they teams come with code names rather than their actual nicknames. You can change them back almost immediately, but before you do it can get confusing. Like many sportsgames, Face-Off is modular.
Different programs do different things.
The name changing trick is done in the league module. There is a module for manually entering stats, and one for importing stats from other computer game users. What there isn't a module for is creating new players. The player ratings are taken straight off the boardgame cards, so only carded players can be used. Coaching is Face-Off's greatest strength.