We're less than one month away from the release of EA Sports' NHL 15 and the company released another trailer Tuesday. However, we're still waiting to see something really new. Plus, who is missing from NHL 15's top 50 player list?
We're less than a month away from EA's Sept. 9 release date for NHL 15. Yesterday, the company released another trailer that will get the hardcore NHL gamers excited.
And while it looks incredible and cool and everything great, we're still mostly in the dark about the actual game play. What was done about cheap, glitch goals that happened with great regularity? Won't a superstar skill stick make it worse? Offline, if you outgrow a difficulty setting, can you move up to the next one without finding it impossible to score at all? The physics are supposedly different, but how meaningful are this year's upgrades actually? Or is EA just adding some makeup?
Check out the latest trailer that shows some pretty cool fan animations - which are ultimately meaningless - plus some hits and goals. (A Kings player flattens San Jose's Patrick Marleau, which is fitting.)
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbskn16gpQE[/embed]
On Saturday, EA released the ratings for the top 50 players in NHL 15. Not surprisingly, Sidney Crosby is the highest-rated player at 96 overall. That's three points better than No. 2 Steven Stamkos, which is the kind of virtual love you'll get after winning the NHL scoring title by 17 points.
Here is the full ranking of the top 50 rated players in NHL 15, followed by some players we think should have cracked the list.
50. Mikko Koivu (89) Overall – Minnesota Wild
49. Patrick Marleau (89) Overall – San Jose Sharks
48. Corey Crawford (89) Overall – Chicago Blackhawks
47. Joe Thornton (89) Overall – San Jose Sharks
46. Mike Smith (89) Overall – Arizona Coyotes
45. Nicklas Backstrom (89) Overall – Washington Capitals
44. Ryan Miller (89) Overall – Vancouver Canucks
43. Eric Staal (89) Overall – Carolina Hurricanes
42. Semyon Varlamov (89) Overall – Colorado Avalanche
41. Ryan McDonagh (89) Overall – New York Rangers
40. Niklas Kronwall (89) Overall – Detroit Red Wing
39. Roberto Luongo (89) Overall – Florida Panthers
38. David Backes (89) Overall – St. Louis Blues
37. David Krejci (89) Overall – Boston Bruins
36. Joe Pavelski (89) Overall – San Jose Sharks
35. Erik Karlsson (89) Overall – Ottawa Senators
34. Patrick Kane (89) Overall – Chicago Blackhawks
33. Ryan Kesler (90) Overall – Anaheim Ducks
32. Sergei Bobrovsky (90) Overall – Columbus Blue Jackets
31. Alex Pietrangelo (90) Overall – St. Louis Blues
30. Matt Duchene (90) Overall – Colorado Avalanche
29. Jamie Benn (90) Overall – Dallas Stars
28. P.K. Subban (90) Overall – Montreal Canadiens
27. Phil Kessel (90) Overall – Toronto Maple Leafs
26. Taylor Hall (90) Overall – Edmonton Oilers
25. Zach Parise (90) Overall- Minnesota Wild
24. Claude Giroux (90) Overall – Philadelphia Flyers
23. Pekka Rinne (91) Overall – Nashville Predators
22. Marian Hossa (91) Overall – Chicago Blackhawks
21. Patrice Bergeron (91) Overall – Boston Bruins
20. Zdeno Chara (91) Overall – Boston Bruins
19. Anze Kopitar (91) Overall – Los Angeles Kings
18. Drew Doughty (91) Overall – Los Angeles Kings
17. John Tavares (91) Overall – New York Islanders
16. Henrik Zetterberg (92) Overall- Detroit Red Wings
15. Ryan Suter (92) Overall – Minnesota Wild
14. Duncan Keith (92) Overall – Chicago Blackhawks
13. Tuukka Rask (92) Overall – Boston Bruins
12. Evgeni Malkin (92) Overall - Pittsburgh Penguins
11. Carey Price (92) Ovarall – Montreal Canadiens
10. Corey Perry (92) Overall – Anaheim Ducks
9. Ryan Getzlaf (92) Overall – Anaheim Ducks
8. Jonathan Quick (93) Overall – Los Angeles Kings
7. Henrik Lundqvist (93) Overall – New York Rangers
6. Pavel Datsyuk (93) Overall - Detroit Red Wings
5. Shea Weber (93) Overall – Nashville Predators
4. Alexander Ovechkin (93) Overall – Washington Capitals
3. Jonathan Toews (93) Overall – Chicago Blackhawks
2. Steven Stamkos (93) Overall – Tampa Bay Lightning
1. Sidney Crosby (96) Overall - Pittsburgh Penguins
WHO'S MISSING?
Cory Schneider: Eleven goalies appear in the top 50, but the guy who has the NHL's top cumulative save percentage since 2010-11 isn't one of them. The recently extended Devils goalie has a .928 save percentage over the past four seasons, but here he ranks below the guy he pushed out of Vancouver. That may be debatable, but would you rather have Corey Crawford or Schneider in your net? Give me Schneider.
Tyler Seguin: Sure he's still young with only one truly elite scoring season under his belt, but he led the Dallas Stars with 37 goals and 84 points last season. Teammate Jamie Benn made this list as a 90 overall.
Jaromir Jagr: C'mon. He finished 27th in NHL scoring last season, led the Devils in points at the age of 42 and reached the 700 career goal mark. It's possible this is the last game Jagr will be a part of. Make him killer!
Mark Giordano: The anchor of the Flames set a career high in goals and points last season that ranked him 11th in offense among defensemen and he was considered for Team Canada's Olympic squad. He's not just about offense - Giordano plays a pile of ice time. And though plus/minus is kind of an antiquated stat, it's still worth pointing out his plus-12 made him the only positively rated blueliner on the Flames. (His corsi relative was +10.3 percent.)
But enough about stats. What about the game play EA? I want something different and really new this year - haven't seen it yet.
What do you think of the trailer for this game, or about the top 50 player ratings? Who's missing? Who's too high? Let us know in the comments.