Many fans of the franchise are still hoping for a proper fighting system in the near future. Winning a fight can cause a momentum boost for your team, or drain the home crowd's morale if you are the visiting team. This makes fighting much shorter and easier for most of the new gamers. Checking/FightingĪ new fighting engine has been introduced, switching from confusing stick controls to a few simple buttons. To promote a mix-up of offensive strategies and realistic play, players can also flip the puck in the air for the first time in any NHL game however, a poorly aimed attempt to flip the puck out of the defensive zone can result in a delay of game penalty if the puck happens to make its way into the stand. The hit system still uses the skill stick but is more realistic compared to previous editions.

The Defensive Skill Stick is the developers response to the all too frequent hitting and unrealistic play as the result of poor defensive strategies. Players can also stick lift to prevent some key passes that can lead to goals against, this doesn't come without consequences though, a poorly places stick lift or excessive use can lead to either a high-sticking or slashing penalty. To balance the new Skill Stick features introduces the Defensive Skill Stick, this allows defencemen to sweep the puck either manually or automatically to knock the puck loose from the offensive skaters possession. For example, now one-handed dekes are available for use. The all new features allows players to deke all of the players on the ice, using a variety of moves from the windmill to the famous Datsyuk move. This year the Skill Stick gets a much needed upgrade, nearly adding triple the moves on top of NHL 08. The original Skill Stick from the previous years was only useful against goalies, usually of breakaways, penalty shot Kirk Maltby ready to perform the windmill deke on Adam Foote.

Introduced in NHL 07, the Skill Stick is a revolutionary system that EA has built upon in this years release of NHL.

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