Does anyone really care about this year’s crop of hockey video games if there’s no NHL hockey being played in real life? I’m sure there will be NHL hockey played at some point this year, but exactly how many fans will be left I can’t say. EA recently unveiled its first look trailer for the upcoming NHL 2006, showcasing some of their slick new features since no one will buy the game based on an updated roster alone. This year they have included realistic puck momentum so that hard shots can injure people, and a new “Skill Stick” feature that allows fancy stickhandling between the legs or the ability to bat the puck out of the air. They also promise “classic deking control”, with analog stickhandling that apparently feels a lot like NHL 94. Not to be outdone, EA’s competitors Visual Concepts and Kush Games (no longer associated with Sega or ESPN) released a video and screenshots for E3. In both cases, it’s hard to say what is a cut scene and what is gameplay. It’s still too early to tell which will be the game to buy this year (if any).