Nhl 11

It’s a bit early but info is starting to come out on this one. A bunch of good stuff in a developer chat today:

http://nhl.easports.com/livechat.action

For those who are TLDR here are the highlights:

Speaking of TLDR: just as a heads up, our team is going to try and expand to play full 6 on 6 as much as possible for 11. We have one LW who plays all the time (me), one center who plays nearly as often, two later night right wings, and zero full time defense and goalies. What we need is probably one or two more forwards to cover earlier times and off nights, three or four defensemen, and a goalie or two. If anyone is interested (this includes previous people who have played with us) hit me up here or on XBox Live for a tryout. We still sporadically play NHL 10 and NHL 11 is going to have a practice mode so we can find a decent stretch of games to give you a solid look and even work on things in practice mode in 11.

What we are looking for is people who pass the puck well, read the play well, and defend well (even if you are a forward). We don’t expect superstars just good solid team play. Oh and if you are a goalie stop the puck. :) We aim to play good defense to make a goalie’s life easier.

I will obviously bump this thread as I get more info and will repeat the recruiting info as NHL 11 gets closer.

The injuries and broken sticks have me a bit wary of the OTP for this go around. The injuries just seems to enforce the idea that people can goon it up and win games. Obviously this will depend on frequency etc.

We’ll also have to see how intimidation works in 11 since it sounds like more of your stats are going to matter (endurance & durability for example). This will make it more difficult to setup a build to counter it.

So yeah it looks like we will need at least one defenseman who can punish people and probably a RW who plays the same style to be balanced. We have plenty of straight up skill and I bring some aggression depending on my build. Don’t think we need a goon but maybe a grinder or power forward riding shotgun on the right side would help.

Oh man I can definitely play a goon build, that would be awesome.

I’m up for chipping in as an offensive RD again but I can play a bit more responsibly in 11 :P

In 6v6 we will need to vary our offense more so hopefully we can get the defense more involved especially once we get setup in the zone and on power plays.

Another new feature for NHL 11 Ultimate Team Dynasty: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/111/1110238p1.html

If not for the EASHL I might be all over this but playing 1v1 is pretty painful now for me. I soldiered through 50 or 60 games of 1v1 this year to nab some achievements.

Half the time I forget how to play 1v1. I’ll do things like pass the puck to a computer player and then try to call for it back which makes me pass it in some random direction because I took control of the player I passed the puck to.

On the other hand, an offline dynasty mode or online co-op dynasty mode might be kind of interesting to me.

More stuff:

http://www.easports.com/blogs/inthecrease/post/slug/goalie-gear-with-gurn-reebok

Money quote:

Q: Will there be boost specific equipment or will we be able to boost authentic equipment this year?

A: So this year there will be no “Camo” aka “Clown” gear in the game. Everything that is in the game will be real equipment that the pros use, aside from the Bauer 20th anniversary equipment (go reserve your copies of NHL 11 from GameStop now). Boosts however are still in the game but are tied into your character instead of equipment. You unlock boost slots like you would boosts in that you can either complete the corresponding task or purchase it.

I’d love to play with you guys, but there are just too many darn games in the NHL schedule.

Meaning you are too busy watching hockey to play?

Too soon, too soon…

I used to look forward all summer to hockey season starting and the new crop of hockey games. As a Flyers fan for 25+ years, thinking about hockey now just wants to make me cry. I am used to them loosing, but man, last year was just fucking heartbreaking.

Just to make sure there isn’t any confusion, we aren’t playing teams like in the Madden league. This is for the EASHL…meaning we all play on ONE team with as many as 6 players (5 skaters plus goalie) playing at a time. You need a minimum of 2 players to run a quick match. If you don’t have the full 6 players, the computer plays the other players on your team. For each game, everybody picks a position, but, once you pick it, you are locked in for that game.

Seasons last a month, but there isn’t really a set schedule. We just play games when we have enough people. Granted…some of us play more games than others coughxaroccough

Sorry if you were familiar with the EASHL setup…just wanted to make sure everyone understood what we’re talking about.

To add to this, the rankings for each season are a ladder system and you build up or lose points based on wins/losses (here is our club’s ranking for example: http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/clubs/762A0001/1928/standings).

Also, this is a great way to take out frustration when your team loses or celebrate when your team wins or just if it is a Tuesday or just because … yeah I play a lot.

Is there some way marginal players can participate without messing up the team? I have played NHL 09 in the single player RPG mode & would love to play on an NHL 11 team but I am a very casual player.

If you are talking about just showing up once every week or two to play a few games then probably not. You won’t develop the necessary skills to be able to play effectively playing that infrequently. That being said if you are willing to put in the time and work on your game you are welcome to tryout with us. With the new practice mode we plan on having regular short practice sessions to work with everyone on general play and some of the new concepts in NHL 11.

Any idea if you’ll be able to join more than one EASHL team this year? I’d like to be able to play more competitive games with you guys while still having the ability to play with my bro-in-law in the casual league off & on.

I don’t think they’ll allow for you to be on more than one team. Best option would be to team hop when needed, but that can be pretty annoying.

Fair enough. Realistically I dont have time to be that good, as much as I would love to have enough time to practice that much. Thanks for the response. If someone wants me to start a team of scrubs let me know!

That might be fun! We could be the Bad New Beavers, or something (truly a proud and noble creature).