Best NHL game in a long time
To an extent, I agree that it's dirty pool to charge your customers $60/yr for updates that are typically patch-worthy or at most expansion pack/DLC worthy. However, considering the annoying amount of praise NHL 12 and 13 got, this year was terrible timing to knock the score down.
NHL 14 is finally an NHL game that is more fun than frustrating again. Have they fixed all of the franchise's problems? Of course not. However, this is the first time that I can recall this many positive changes from the previous year.
What has improved? Skating/deking (smoother; dekes don't decelerate you as much as before), shooting (in particular, the one-timers are much better), and most of all, the hitting. The inconsistency of the hitting in NHL 13 was rage-inducing it was so terrible. This year the hits not only look better, but they also reward you for lining a guy up really well with a big hit.
What still needs to improve? As I said before, they certainly didn't fix everything. First, the defensive AI on a user's team is still atrocious (it's obvious that EA still makes your AI dumber as their way of increasing the difficulty on harder settings -> they make a habit out of skating into your own crease with the puck, and also often refuse to head-man the puck when you're trying to break out of your zone). Second, the momentum system is better for hitting this year, but you still feel like you're tethered to a piano when you're skating around (your ability to accelerate from a stand-still is way too sluggish, and trying to turn at even moderately high speeds is virtually impossible). While they improved it from NHL 13, they still need to get away from locking you into animations (I hate it when I tell a player to start moving as a pass is still en route, but they are locked into a 'pass reception' animation and don't respond to my commands until after the puck gets there -> they should make it so that every animation can be interrupted by a new command).
Overview: While there is still a ton of room for improvement, NHL 14 is leaps and bounds better than NHL 13 was, and consequently is deserving of at least a moderate amount of praise.