NHL 09

**jyoung** · 27 Sep 2008, 10:52 AM

You're pretty much guaranteed a low-scoring game unless human goalies are involved, because the AI goalies are just super-human at times (and yet, stupid enough that they can't handle that lame against-the-grain drag shot from the point).

That's why I always jump from room to room until I can get a 6 vs. 6 game: user goalies make the game infinitely more fun/exciting.

**jyoung** · 27 Sep 2008, 11:34 PM

Heck of a way to earn my "Veteran" card:

Career OT game-winner #3

wEEman33 dumps the puck down the ice, then heads to the slot to set up while the three idiots on the other team all chase the puck, and buries the one-timer in the right corner of the net before anyone can recover.

The bad news is that you only get 4 additional stat points instead of the 5 that I was expecting.

Apparently, you get 4 stat points for:

-- 65 games played
-- 105 games played

And 5 stat points for:

-- 155 games played (the last milestone)

Bummer.

But my dude has a decent wrist shot now that it's up to 83 accuracy.

I was actually thinking about switching him to a dangler for the speed boost (85 rating vs. 83 rating), but his shot would be horrible if I did that (80 rating vs. 83 rating), and the defense would suffer big time, too (68 shot block vs. 76 shot block).

So in the name of shooting, passing, and defense, I sacrifice speed.

**kingoffighters** · 28 Sep 2008, 02:04 AM

Awesome goal.

I got my 20 games in tonight and upgraded my wrist shot. It immediately paid dividends with 2 goals the next game.

**jyoung** · 28 Sep 2008, 02:24 AM

I take back what I said about it not being worth sacrificing all that stuff for speed.

Speed kills, just like every EA game; it's stupid, but that's just the way their games are made.

First game I played as a dangler was 11 - 5, in our favor. It would've been even more high-scoring, but our user goal left after giving up 5 goals in the first period.

I had five of those eleven goals myself.

It's ridiculous how fast you get up the ice as a dangler. I was cherry picking on the breakouts like crazy.

Protip for the day: unless your dude has killer accuracy, you want to aim your shots directly left or directly right, not high and left/right. Reason being, aiming high and wide tends to make you miss the net completely unless you have a really nice accuracy rating (85+).

One-timers require an even higher accuracy rating to shoot effectively, so be extra safe on those when lining up your shot.

For that reason, the low shot through the five hole is always a good choice for one-timers if you're playing with a scrub shooter.

**Brisco Bold** · 28 Sep 2008, 02:32 AM

This doesn't necessarily apply here, but I'd just like to warn you guys: Don't ever, ever, ever, ever play NHL 2K9 for the Wii. This is the worst sports game I've ever had the misfortune of playing. The controls are atrocious. It is clusterfuck personified.

Thus ends my public service announcement.

NHL 2009 is tits.

**Othello Harrington** · 28 Sep 2008, 08:30 AM

Got a new gamertag, I'll be picking this up this week, I want to play

**kingoffighters** · 28 Sep 2008, 10:24 AM

Upping my wrist shot is incredible. 2nd game with the upgrade and I scored a Hatrick!

I normally hate playing randoms in online games, but NHL 09 is different. Almost everyone tries to play together instead of hogging the puck, so you are always creating opportunities for your teammates and vice versa.