Old Time Hockey!

I picked up NHL 20 on the cheap for our Xbox, and the boys and I are enjoying its handful of subtle enhancements over NHL 19. (Sadly, though, the legendary Doc Emrick doesn't do the play-by-play in this year's version of the game.) One thing that dawned on me is that the game is chock-full of opportunities to use players of the past. I'm now building a team of hockey heroes of yesteryear, focusing on the earliest players available. NHL 20 doesn't have the likes of Hod Stuart and Frank McGee (the lads I'm using in my pre-NHL Strat-O-Matic league), but it's certainly fun to zip around as Howie Morenz and Charlie Conacher. As for the team, I have enough forwards and an abundance of goaltenders, but the game doesn't offer many early defensemen. As such, I've used the create-a-player feature to build video game versions of Cyclone Taylor (an entirely pre-NHL player, but hands-down my favorite historical hockey star) and Eddie "Old-Time Hockey!" Shore to bolster the blueline. These guys will teach those young whippersnappers like Connor McDavid a thing or two about how the game is played!