Taking on EA Sports with an "anything you can do I can do better" attitude, 2K Games does just that with NHL 2K6, a slightly to flagrantly superior hockey game in most every respect (excepting visual gloss, maybe). Foremost is in-game control, with an icon passing system that, when activated, assigns a controller button to each player on the ice which, in turn, allows you to set up and execute tic-tac-toes and one-timers on the fly with a tap or double tap or two.

2K6 also lets you change defensive lines separately from offensive line (as opposed to a whole bench-swapping cluster-puck) and also set up and invoke pre-set plays for each, on-the-fly, like setting up a screen or cheating a winger up the boards for an outlet pass (though said winger seems oblivious to the fact two-line passes are now legal, so hovers at the center line like a fool).

Of the two offerings, 2K6 has the better presentation, overall, in spite of having lost the ESPN license and all its branded TV gimmicks and de facto familiarity to none other than EA. But this left them to pursue the quintessential commentary team of Bob Cole and Harry Neal of Hockey Night in Canada fame (famous in Canada, at least) which, as you might surmise, simply oozes authenticity due to the inexorable collocates of hockey and Canada.

Notably too, NHL 2K6 is a full ten bucks cheaper than NHL 06. Nevermind that 2K6 is the better game, and as any Bob & Doug-loving, Geddy Lee-quoting Canadian knows, "ten bucks is ten bucks."