EA has no competition, so no worries about releasing a broken game.
The physics are terrible. Just nudging into a player can send them flying across the ice, as if hit by a Mack Truck! Announcers will repeat the same line multiples times in a game. I've heard the Hat Trick spiel over four times in a single game. "Is the third goal the hardest?" No! Not repeating the same thing seems to be the hardest.
Scoring is based on doing tricks, rather than skill. Do the same thing over and over again, even with learning on and the goalies still will bite. The goalies have no ability to stop cross ice passes. They practically have no skill or intelligence at all.
The AI can strip the puck from behind someone breaking up the ice, even if their stick cannot even reach the puck. It's amazing! Lots of magical moments. I miss when the game was controlled by moves rather than canned animations that decide everything.
Even at 8 minute periods on All-Star with the goalie skills nearly maxed, each team would score almost 10 goals a game.
It's just annoying. I don't see how GS can rate this a 9, when EA hasn't made a good hockey game in 10 years. This is garbage.