Introduction

NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 is the sequel to our favorite sports sim of last year, NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005. It is a game that builds on the unparalleled depth of its predecessors, offering the player a panoply of options, all within a realistic simulation framework. 2007 is not radically different from 2005, indeed, in some ways it disappoints with its lack of progress, but it has improved in key areas.

The most noteable change in the game is the brand-new simulation engine. The top-down 2D display of the hockey games themselves is much advanced over its predecessor. Players are no longer stuck in moving between fixed positions on the map of the rink, but flow smoothly along the ice. The game can be viewed in speeds as slow as 0.25x real-time to a fast forward mode where the standard 20-minute period takes less about thirty seconds. Passes, hits, poke checks, and shots are all visible. In general the new simulator does a good job of presenting the game, though it’s not perfect.

At the NHL level, a game averages about 30 shots on goal per side, and probably another 30-50 attempted shots that are blocked, flubbed, or miss the net. Rarely will a team have more than 40 or fewer than 20 shots, or less than 10 or more than 20 in a period. Eastside Hockey Manager’s simulation engine is somewhat more eccentric, with teams being able to manage over 40 and under 25 shots with a fair amount of regularity. Occasionally, this is reflected in the scores, we’ve seen some as absurd as 13-0, though in general the game does limit itself over the course of the season to a believable per-game average. One area where there seems to be a discrepancy is in scoring assists; it is far too common to see a player with more goals than assists, which is a rare event in the NHL.

Notably, the game is not all about the NHL. The OHL, QMJHL, WHL, AHL and Swedish Elite League, Deutsche Elite League and others are available. These are the licensed ones, others are without license but contain the players and teams. The only time where real player names are not available are, of course, for NCAA teams, which provide only a minority of the players in the draft for hockey.

Despite these flaws, the new engine is a great advancement over its predecessor. Changes in tactics are more visible. The drawbacks of having a slow team are painfully apparent as opposing skaters, even if weaker and less skilled, blow by your defensemen. Unfortunately, the manual is not very handy in suggesting the proper ways to exploit your player’s skills, but with some fiddling around you can get a vague idea of what works best.

In fact, the tactical options are a considerable blessing. You can dictate how creative passing is, what kind of tempo your players try to maintain, how hard they hit, how aggressively they backcheck, what kind of forecheck strategy your lines use, what formations, and even where they shoot. The shot targeting can be as specific as choosing the high glove or stick side of the opposing goalie. If you face, for example, Tomas Vokoun of the Nashville Predators, who is rated at only 1 on his stick side, you will almost certainly want to direct your players to aim there.

Then again, specific coaching details can be left to the AI coach. The coaches vary in quality like players, and also like players, aren’t necessarily as effective as their stats would indicate. The presence of hidden stats like “current ability” and “potential ability” can drastically affect a player’s or coach’s current and future performance, even though his visible statistics may look great or mediocre. For players, you can get a sense of how good they are by scouting them repeatedly, but there is no such option with coaches, assistant GMs, and scouts.