Surprise surprise. After having sworn off EA's NHL series in favor of ESPN's NHK2k3 and 2k4, I became rather disgusted with the level of shoddy play in ESPN's brand for 2005. Having purchased this game and determining it a step down from prior year's phenomanal offerings, I first rented (unwilling to commit any serious cash to EA) NHL 2005, and low and behold, I was completely blown away by the presentation, gameflow, realistic feel of the game of hockey, and the overall fun level, even in losing to the hated NJ Devils (I'm sadly a true blue Rangers fan). Needless to say I purchased the game 4 days later and have been addicted to it since. Whether backwards skating, overall management of your franchise, shear speed and realism of gameplay, this game dominates ESPN in all aspects. Again, I had sworn by ESPN in the past 2 years and was hooked once again on NFL2K5, which had raised my hopes even further for their brand of hockey. Sadly, although there isn't any real NHL action, there is luckily one game in town and that's EA's NHL 2005.