Mindless Juices

I got Sabrina NHL '06 for the Gamecube. I thought this was really just a present for her, but when I saw the Dynasty mode, I was intrigued. The thought of creating my own hockey franchise, managing and trading players and working the team up to stardom really got my engine started. I never would have guessed it. So, I'm starting slowly and just playing a season to get my skills up. I would really like to create some of the players that didn't make the Hurricane's line-up and get them in the game. Additionally, EA Sports obviously underestimated the Hurricanes this year. They have them ranked as one of the lowest teams in the game. Currently, the Hurricanes are ranked #2 in the Eastern Conference. They are obviously better than most of the teams out there, but EA doesn't have a number of stars in the game. They consider Stillman the star player. He's good, don't get me wrong, but Erik Cole and Eric Staal are going to be Olympians. Cole's breakaway speed is severely underrated. Staal's skills are completely wrong and far too low. They have Commodore moving at the speed of molasses and they're missing Ray Whitney, who apparently, makes a lot happen as the Hurricanes are 18 for 23 when he's on the ice. Their relatively small losing streak this season followed his injury. Lastly, the game auto-chooses HORRIBLE lines. What really blew my mind, was that the "best-choice" made by the game made five less than average lines and when I re-did them (to be closer to Peter Laviolette's actual lines), I made ALL the lines ABOVE average. Interestingly enough, I won my next game. Hmm... what a little chemistry will do for a team, huh? According to the press, that's actually Laviolette's theory, too. The 'Canes work hard to spend time as a team on AND off the ice. They try to have their families in the stands and have embraced the NHL's push to remember that professional sprts are about the FANS, not the teams, coaches, salaries, or players. EVERY professional league needs to take a queue from the NHL. Put in place some salary caps and quit charging fans an arm and a leg to see a game. Bring back players who LOVE to play and that's why they're playing. Get rid of attitudes and bring back teams. Shoot, maybe change some rules to make the games more interesting. The only other professional sport that seems to care about its fans is NASCAR... if they are sure to not let their new influx of fans make them too commercial, you'll see that sport continue to grow.