In the “No big surprise” category this week comes news that EA is playing dirty pool once again. This time, they went so far as to announce an exclusive license agreement with the NHL before a deal had actually been struck. Gamespot recently reported that the NHL 06 website proclaimed an “Exclusive License” tagline, similar to their Madden, NCAA Football and NASCAR game sites. However, after the story went live, EA changed the artwork on the site to read “Official License” instead. So was it a simple typo or optimistic thinking? Spokespeople for EA and the NHL have both confirmed that an exclusive licensing deal does not yet exist, however, it certainly sounds like one is currently in the works. This could spell doom for the many other hockey game franchises including Midway’s NHL Hitz, Sony’s Gretzky Hockey and 2K Sports’ NHL 2K series. More on this as it develops.