Man am I having a difficult time with NHL15.... now I'm not new to the series I've played a few versions but usually skip a year or 2 between versions, played the hell out of it back in the early days of gaming.

If I put it on rookie settings, I always win 10 to 2 or so... if I bump it up to Pro, I always lose, usually with 3 to 5 goals against my lucky 1 or 2, I can't score on Pro... and even higher is insane.

If I use the new control stick setup, I rarely if ever score, I've been using the hybrid, with of course the old 94 button controls working best, back when I played a lot.

So what settings are you using/playing with, and how are you doing?

I just played a match my TB against Fla, and Florida scored 3 goals in 2 minutes, every time they touch the puck, I took 8 shots in that time and they were blocked... this was on Pro, just seems so unbalanced.

and BTW, how do you play a season, IE: TB's season when it starts... using the GM mode?

and what ever happened to the tutorials and practice sessions, you have practice session now but it's you, and a goalie... ridiculous.

This is why I stuck to NHL 2K series, SLiders and stuff are easily tuned.

I'm not 100% certain here, Magnum, but I thought I read somewhere that there is NO season mode. I think you have to do it through the GM mode. Ugh.

Check out Gamespot.com for a review of NHL 15. You'll be sorry you didn't read it before purchasing.

One of the reasons I bought the XB1 was because of NHL 15. Luckily, I read the reviews before buying. It's a shell of its former self, apparently. They've removed about 50% of the content from what I've read. People are quite up in arms about it. Obviously, I'm skipping this year's version. I'll check back in with them next season and hope they bring the series back to its former glory. I haven't owned a copy since NHL 12. But, for awhile, this would have been one of my top 2 or 3 all-time favorite game series in any genre.

And, Zilla, you are right. NHL 2K was terrific and, for awhile, it was clearly better than EA's offering.

But, there was a time when EA had the sliders in their NHL game too. It was very customizable. It's a shame what it's become.

Im the same as you Mag. Rookie I win by a huge margin, I put it on Pro and not so much. Last year I played with the sliders to get a good feel on Pro.

Last year I set it to PRO and put both User Puck Control and Pass Interception up 1. I set CPU aggressiveness to 1 or 2. I think at 1 it was to easy and 3 was to hard. Also I set Goalie reaction to 3 for Human and 0 or 1 for CPU.

I havent checked sliders this year but those few things really really helped last year. I had a bunch of close games, I won some lost some but never really blew any team out of the water.

When you test out your settings make sure you play the same team you played with the default settings. Pay attention to stats at the end of the game too. Shots on goal will be a great teller of how close it is. Foe example on rookie I get 30 shots a game and the CPU gets 10. Last year after I got my settings adjusted we were both almost even each game.

As for season, start be a GM, AS with Madden the first season will follow the real season.

Im currently playing on Rookie with it set to Hardcore. It helps a bit but I am still blowing teams out.

EA NHL has always had a huge gap between rookie and pro IMO.

SO I changed difficulty to PRO and adjusted the following sliders

Puck Control Human I set to 3
Pass Interception Human I set to 5

Aggression CPU I set to 2

Goalie Reaction Human I set to 3
Goalie Reaction CPU I set to 2


I played the Bruins in Boston and won 2-1. We both had 19 shots on goal. They had 11 face off wins and I had 9.

It was a close game but I didnt feel over whelmed by the CPU. Most of their shots came in the third when they were behind.

Im not saying these setting will work for you but it could be something to get you started.

Also I play as the Blackhawks, so I am not a physical team.

I played a game this AM TB vs Fla... first on rookie/sim and Florida never got a goal, shot, hit, or even won a face off on Rookie, all zeros... bumped it up to Pro/Sim and it balanced out by end game with shots/hits/faceoff wins... no goals, just luck my goalie was on fire.

so I guess I settle for Pro/Sim level.



This game looks, sounds, and plays awesome... just too bad they removed a lot of the modes in the next gen version of last years and even the old gen...

A couple of clips in this video, my first goal, a fight ending, check out the fan when Florida gets put into the penalty box, crowds are awesome and very personal, then another fight and then a funny bug, Florida went to change lines my guy got his leg stuck in the door, he still played till Florida changed lines again and opened the door freeing him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzkZ-uGFlX8