But I’m assuming you were an honorable person who would never resort to such chicanery. Unless, of course, you just used one of the many glitchy moves that seemed to work all the time, like piling into the crease, doing that wraparound move, or flipping the puck in so it bounced off the goalie’s head and then scoring into the empty net while he was stunned. Plays had to be set up, shots chosen carefully, and specific players used in the roles for which they were best suited. NHLPA ’93: There were no one-timers, which meant that if you wanted to score you had to get creative.

So you had everything: player names, team logos, and even the Stanley Cup (instead of the weird-looking knockoff in NHLPA ’93). NHL ’94: This was the first game in the series to hold both licenses. As long as you weren’t an Islanders fan stuck playing as “Long Island,” you might not even notice the lack of an NHL license. Instead of the Montreal Canadiens, you just had “Montreal,” a nameless team that through a weird coincidence just happened to have the exact same uniform colors as the Habs. That sounds like it would be a pretty big issue, but it was surprisingly easy to get past. (This was a reversal of the original NHL ’92, which had the teams but no players.) That meant that all the real players were included, but there were no team names or logos to be found. NHLPA ’93: As the name suggests, the game was licensed by the NHLPA but not the NHL. It was a very good game, and everyone loved it.īut was it really better than its predecessor? There’s only one way to find out: on to the head-to-head. That shouldn’t be a surprise after all, NHL ’92 introduced the series and NHLPA ’93 advanced it, and all things being equal you’d expect NHL ’94 to take things another big step forward. (The first version was technically just called NHL Hockey, but for simplicity’s sake I’ll be referring to it as NHL ’92.) They were revolutionary, and along with Tecmo Bowl are the only things from the early ’90s that aren’t horribly embarrassing in hindsight.Īnd I think it’s fair to say that most people seem to like NHL ’94 better. NHLPA ’93 and NHL ’94 were the second and third versions of EA Sports’ NHL video game series, which - to this day - is easily the most famous and critically acclaimed hockey game ever made. And so that’s what we’re going to do, 20 years later, by breaking down the head-to-head matchup in a dozen key categories.įirst, a little bit of history for those who may not be familiar with the two games because you’re too young or too old or your parents never loved you. That’s been known to happen once or twice a decade.Ĭlearly, we need to dig into this in a lot more detail. Look, I understand that this is a divisive issue that hockey fans feel strongly about, and I’m willing to admit that’s it not an easy call. Then I said NHLPA Hockey ’93 was a better game than NHL ’94. And as it turns out, everyone was fine with that. I used the opportunity to make fun of Gary Bettman, the Lady Byng Trophy, enforcers, advanced stats, people who don’t get advanced stats, several players, and most teams. Last week, Grantland published my version of the concise NHL Dictionary.

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