Its a very odd situation indeed. When I get my Gravis Gamepad in my hand and actually begin playing it however, its a totally different experience. It goes without saying that I am enormous hockey fan, and perhaps this has something to do with it, but I seemingly become immersed in the game. This is a very powerful thing for any game to achieve, but NHL '96 does it. Also, the game is far more competative than previous versions.
League play in the game is virtually unchanged.
This is somewhat of a disappointment too. There have been calls over the last three or so years for EA to implement some sort of management AI like the ones in the Front Page Sports series from Dynamix. Again, these calls have gone unanswered. I think this may be a matter of market positioning. If that's the case, then it is very sad for EA because they are allowing policy and politics to stand in the way of them creating a complete gem of a product.