NHL Hockey/YMMV

• Good Bad Bugs: In NHL 09, should the puck ricochet into the net off of a defenseman, the celebration cutscene will show the defender partying with the opposing team.
• Most Annoying Sound: The "click-click clack-clack" sound^[1] that comes at the end of a penalty.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Goaltender controls. Granted, it's not easy to replicate the kinds of movements goalies need to make in real life to cover every potential hole but it still seems like the developers could put in just a bit more effort.
  • Any sort of play along the posts is a particular problem. The hug commmand basically locks the player to the post making it very difficult to get to the other side of the net in an odd man situation. There's also no good way of using the pad to press against the post in order to stop wraparounds and shots from off to the side. The post hug somewhat helps, but in additions to the locking issue, when combined with the butterfly trigger will leave the 5 hole wide open.
  • The 3rd person goalie camera means that it is extremely easy to lose track of the puck right in the low slot - ie, right in front of you.
• Stop Helping Me!: The "scouting report" during intermissions, which give out either obvious advice, or poorly-worded "advice", both of which aren't really necessary to win a game.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The fighting mechanics originally looked pretty realistic in NHL 2004, but got overhauled in NHL '07, where fights ended in just one or two punches. It got changed again in NHL '10 to a first-person view, and reactions to it have been mixed.
• They Just Didn't Care: The reaction from some fans of the franchise about the lack of attention paid to recent games' creation modes, particularly Create-A-Team.
• Unfortunate Implications: With the addition of female created players in NHL 12, it's now possible for a male player to beat up on a female player during a fight.

1. ↑ Supposedly the goalie banging his stick on the ice