My other gripe with the gameplay is that when I try to dump the puck into the other teams' zone it never goes around the boards. Instead of going around the back of the net the puck stops suddenly in the corner that I dumped it into. I've played ane entire regular season of 15 minute games with my Ottawa Senators and I have yet to see either my self or an opposing team hit the post of the net with the puck on a shot. Graphics are very well done. The ice is shiny at the start of the game and get marked up as players skate around.
Arenas are detailed enough.
Animation on the players is good and you never feel like you are seeing the same animation constantly repeated. My 550 mhz Pentium III with 128 mb of RAM and a 32 mb video card runs the game more than ok, but I can't run the game at the highers detail levels and resolutions without getting some choppiness and slowdown in the game. Sound is overall well done but not without some flaws. Music is ok but would have been better with more music from today's top music stars and also some more songs that we might typically hear while at a live NHL game. Play by play commentary is accurate and rarely falls behind the action on the ice.