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Hey NHL Gamers, the ECL 5 sign-up period ended yesterday, and we are very proud of the fact that a total of 98 teams will be participating in the first season taking place on NHL 18! This is up 24% from the 79 teams that signed up for ECL 4 - a truly amazing growth. Without further ado, let's look at the final division structure. ECL 5 Elite - All teams 15 teams confirmed their participation for ECL 5: Written In The Stars Northern Ascendancy (previously Unknown) Kattiautomaatti Sjukstugan SJK eSports (previously Laser HT) Silver Sword Griffins Carlsberg HC Aapon Taikasauva Dynasty Northern Stars Nordic Nightmare MUKIMIEHET Synergy Nordic Lightning TIKI TALK Due to the fact that Limitless were folding, one spot in the Elite division had to be filled. To make this decision, League Administration was looking for the most successful ECL 4 Pro team that wasn't promoted to the Elite division by regular means. Round 2 of the ECL 4 Pro playoffs featured 4 possible contenders: White Trash (4 PO wins / 1.18 reg. season PPG) Shameful Knights (5 PO wins / 1.43 reg. season PPG) Unlucky Boys HC (6 PO wins / 1.5 reg. season PPG) Rusty Blades (7 PO wins / 1.54 reg. season PPG) Based on these numbers, League Administration offered the 16th ECL 5 Elite spot to Rusty Blades. The invitation was accepted by the team's captains. ECL 5 Pro - All teams 23 teams (excluding Rusty Blades, which were moved to ECL Elite) confirmed their participation for ECL 5: Alliance HT Baltic Sea Eagles DEAD END KINGS SIKA Inter Iceland J P T J Bellizzi Nordic Stars Shameful Knights Lavetten Gotham Knights (previously Refuse To Lose) Pata Hellalla Hawks Hockey Club White Trash Speedy Bros Hockey (previously Finnish Roosters) Evolution (previously Nocturnal Hunters) Bare Knuckles Hockey Sypperstaars (previously Rynnäkköviikset) Free From Rodents Unlucky Boys HC AK 47 Nemesis Murohoki This means a total of 9 spots had to be filled with ECL Lite sign-ups. As ECL 4 Lite quarter-finalists, these three teams were prioritized and moved to ECL 5 Pro: EN HUND Banterfield Battalion Black Panther Party (previously HC Ancient Warriors) For the 6 remaining spots, we were looking at all the remaining ECL Pro applications from these 14 teams: Red Machine The Beagle Boys Soldiers of Odens God Tier Clowns on Ice GHETTO FIREBIRDS THE UNITED KNIGHTS Dirty Animals Slapshot Club Germany Squirt Hockey Face Wash Hockey Falun Coal Miners Phantoms HC Company of Geeks To ensure a competitive and sustainable Pro division, League Administration not only looked at in-game leaderboards and records, but also considered EASHL history as well as notable achievements, recent games and ECL experience (games played, points, wins etc.). At the end of our evaluation, these 6 teams were considered suitable and are moved to ECL 5 Pro: God Tier Clowns on Ice GHETTO FIREBIRDS THE UNITED KNIGHTS Squirt Hockey Falun Coal Miners ECL 5 Pro - Final groups ECL Pro will be played in 2 groups with 16 teams each. With 2 games against each opponent, this results in a 30 game regular season in which the top 8 teams out of each group will go to the playoffs (16 teams total). To determine the final groups, 10 pre-seeded teams were randomly assigned to the 2 groups. Afterwards, the remaining 22 teams were assigned to the groups. Here is the result: Group 1 AK 47 Alliance HT Bare Knuckles Hockey Black Panther Party Evolution Falun Coal Miners God Tier Gotham Knights Hawks Hockey Club Inter Iceland Lavetten Murohoki Nemesis SIKA Squirt Hockey White Trash Group 2 Baltic Sea Eagles Banterfield Battalion Bellizzi Clowns on Ice DEAD END KINGS EN HUND Free From Rodents GHETTO FIREBIRDS J P T J Nordic Stars Pata Hellalla Shameful Knights Speedy Bros Hockey Sypperstaars THE UNITED KNIGHTS Unlucky Boys HC ECL 5 Lite - All teams The remaining 50 teams will be participating in ECL 5 Lite: Elämäm Kiekko The Beagle Boys iNF4M0US Pohjoista Voimaa Terrific Tigers HC Aurinko Ice Phoenix Rising Phantoms HC EV Duisburg Papat Nordic Nosebleed Company of Geeks Red Machine Soldiers of Odens Lucky Strike Freddie Mercury Institute Puck Panthers Nottingham Chiefs Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat Nordic Eagles Try Another Hole SGWEER United Rusty Bulls Finnish Hockey Legends Raging Monkeys Nearbird Fighters Mentula SKA Dirty Animals Slapshot Club Germany Squad Vilttiketju Deadly Phantoms HC Almost Famous Bucketeers DarrasStars Cold Turkeys Rasend Krokodil Face Wash Hockey Kouvola Screaming Eagles NuggetZ South Sweden Panthers Roistot Hc Nappiaivot KulmalaHengaus Donec Reges Phantoms HC Penalty Box Burns Beardy Bastards RAKETTIPUTKET Breakers Of The Bone PUNANEN REHTORI ECL 5 Lite - Final groups ECL Lite will be played in 5 groups with 10 teams each. With 2 games against each opponent, this results in an 18 game regular season in which the top 6 teams out of each group, as well as the two best 7th ranked teams out of all groups will go to the playoffs (32 teams total). To determine the final groups, 15 pre-seeded teams were randomly assigned to the 5 groups. Afterwards, the remaining 35 teams were assigned to the groups. Here is the result: Group 1 Face Wash Hockey Finnish Hockey Legends Freddie Mercury Institute Lucky Strike NuggetZ PUNANEN REHTORI Puck Panthers Raging Monkeys Roistot Terrific Tigers Group 2 Cold Turkeys EV Duisburg Ice Phoenix Kouvola Screaming Eagles Nottingham Chiefs Penalty Box Phantoms HC Rasend Krokodil Red Machine Rukoilevat Hinkkaajat Group 3 Company of Geeks Deadly Phantoms HC Donec Reges HC Aurinko iNF4M0US KulmalaHengaus Pohjoista Voimaa Rising Phantoms HC Soldiers of Odens Try Another Hole Group 4 Almost Famous Breakers Of The Bone DarrasStars Elämäm Kiekko Mentula SKA Nearbird Fighters Nordic Nosebleed Papat South Sweden Panthers The Beagle Boys Group 5 Bucketeers Burns Beardy Bastards Dirty Animals HC Nappiaivot Nordic Eagles RAKETTIPUTKET Rusty Bulls SGWEER United Slapshot Club Germany Squad Vilttiketju ECL 5 Rules The rules for ECL 5 can be found here: All players, whether they are captains or not, are obligated to be aware of all the rules. Make sure to memorize all rules outlined in "8. Game rules" due to the 30 second limit for stoppages in-game. Throughout the tournament, the rules may be updated. Any updates will be conveniently listed at the very top of the ruleset. Make sure to check out if anything changed once in a while. League Administration members All league related decisions will be made by League Administration. To open up a case, create a new question in the "Contact League Administration" helpdesk: https://nhlgamer.com/community/forum/27-contact-league-administration/ Please note: Teams are expected to solve issues on their own before contacting League Administration - the rules include lots of guidance for different issues. League Administration is always the last resort to solve any disagreements. Team management tools All teams have been created, and the captains will shortly be unlocked for the team management tools on the main page (go to https://nhlgamer.com and click on your username in the top right corner to access them). All players need to be invited to the team rosters ahead of your first game. Please note that all invited players need to accept the invitation (there will be a popup alert on https://nhlgamer.com) before they show up on the team roster and can start playing! In case you have any questions, please use the comment section below this news story. Good luck to all teams and have fun! @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Hey NHL Gamers, a while ago, Twitch introduced its new Communities feature which helps streamers connect to the most relevant audiences and helps viewers discover streams that fit their interests easier and faster than ever, using self-organizing, public groups centered around specific activities. Starting today, we invite all of you content creators and EA SPORTS NHL fans to join the official NHLGamer community on Twitch! Whether it's ECL games, HUT giveaways or just regular NHL 18 gameplay from some of our best players in the world: This is the place to be. NHLGamer followers will instantly be aware of all NHL-related broadcasts and be able to discover the community's upcoming shooting stars in an instant. Use this opportunity - here's how it works: 1) Go to https://www.twitch.tv/communities/nhlgamer and click the "Follow" button in the top right corner! 2) Open up your personal channel and click the "Edit" button below the stream. 3) In the Broadcast Options menu, after having set your broadcast title and NHL 18, type "NHLGamer" in the Community field and choose the "nhlgamer" community from the dropdown menu. Last but not least, don't forget to save from the bottom right corner of the options menu! 4) If you did everything correctly, NHLGamer will now show up below your broadcast title. Now whenever you start to stream, everyone will be able to see it on the NHLGamer community page! It's as simple as that. Let's start to build a streaming network for all EA SPORTS NHL enthusiasts! @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Hey NHL Gamers, welcome to our Gamescom Blog 2017, where we will update you on some of the things we saw, games we played and people we met during our visit to Europe's biggest gaming event. This part will be about our experiences from the exclusive trade visitor's and press day (Tuesday) as well as some of the events that took place on Wednesday. Public show floor Gamescom is divided into two main areas: The public show floor (halls 5-10) and the business area (halls 1-4). To avoid the extraordinarily long queues during the public days, we spent our entire Tuesday in the public area. After starting to get up at around 5 a.m. in the morning and driving to the trade fair, we started our journey in hall 7 in the Sony PlayStation area, where we were greeted with a Detroit: Become Human booth. The successor to Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream's popular game from the PS3 era, offered a 15 minute demo showing off some of the gameplay and storytelling aspects. As a human-like android, we were called to a crime scene featuring a hostage-taking of a young girl that went out of control. Due to the heat of the moment, we had the option to go all in and negotiate directly with the kidnapper, or we could also investigate the scene to increase our success rate (which was a visible meter during the entire demo). As you would expect, we chose to investigate the area, which included minigame-like tasks that allowed us to reconstruct some of the events that had taken place earlier that night, and learn about the kidnapper's name, age and history. Every single piece of gathered information increased the success rate, however it was also decreasing every few seconds, which means we were forced to hurry up. After finishing our investigation, we went into a negotiation with the hostage-taker and were eventually able to rescue the kidnapped girl. While killing the kidnapper. And ourselves. Yeah, I know, things could have turned out better in the end (I assume). We pretty much messed it up in the end. Detroit surely was one of our highlights so far, however we are unsure in which ways the game will open up gameplay-wise in other chapters. Other booths in the PlayStation area featured PlayStation VR and Gran Turismo Sport (which we already tried last year) as well as Call of Duty WWII and a large stage hosting several tournaments. All of us shared the same thought: "Let's get ECL up there in a few years!". The other half of hall 7 was filled with Activision titles, such as Overwatch, World of Warcraft: Legion and Hearthstone. Due to the fact that none of us are too invested with any of these games (no offense!), we decided to move on to hall 6. Large signs, plenty of lights, a BMW M5, huge Tie Fighters and other spaceships hanging from the ceiling. Turns out we arrived at home within our first hour at Gamescom: The EA public area. We queued up for Star Wars Battlefront II and played the new Galactic Assault game mode, which is somewhat similar to Walker Assault in the first Battlefront game, which in turn is pretty similar to the Rush game mode known from Battlefield games. To keep it short: If you played the first Battlefront game, you will love this one. If you are a hardcore Star Wars fan, you will love this game. The fact they included all of the eras and their characters, as well as some more of the iconic locations adds a lot of depth to the experience. As for the gameplay, Battlefront II introduces classes, similar to Battlefield. While others might not like the comparison, it is difficult to deny plenty of similarities between the two series. More about Battlefront II will follow later on. The remainder of hall 6 was occupied with Project Cars 2 (with some super fancy racing setups!), Ace Combat 7, PES 2018 and plenty of Ubisoft games such as Far Cry 5, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, and Assassin's Creed Origins. Let me be clear here: I played all of the previous Assassin's Creed games and enjoyed all of them, especially for their interconnected storyline. However during the past few years, I was losing some of my excitement: Combat elements got repetitive, stories got rather predictable, and overall I didn't get the feeling of playing a finished product - janky animations and weird design choices are just two examples of a long list of reasons. So, what about Origins? Of course, it's hard to tell from a single mission. However, considering the dev team paused for a year to polish the Assassin's Creed series, the result so far felt a little bit disappointing. The characters we got to see looked and acted bland, janky animations are still a big issue and we were seeing lots of performance issues. Of course, the version we got to play was a very early build and things might improve until the final product ships. However, compared to other games' early builds, this definitely was a letdown. And with earlier Assassin's Creed games in mind, we are not sure if things will change a lot. Moving back to hall 8, we were looking forward to getting a glimpse at Xbox One X and its games and their improved performance at the Microsoft booth. We faced our longest queue of the day there, around 45 minutes of waiting. Inside, we got to see a nice in-depth trailer about the new console, featuring Dolby Atmos sound. In case you don't know about Dolby Atmos yet, we suggest you read up on it. It sounds as amazing as it reads! After the trailer was over, we were directed to a small area with Xbox One X stations and several supported games, such a Rise of the Tomb Raider, F1 2017, Quantum Break and Assassin's Creed Origins and given 15 minutes of time to try as many as we'd like. In theory, at least. Practically, we were the last guys to enter the area and thus our choice was limited to some of the less popular games. Still, it was nice to see Xbox get on the 4K bandwagon as well, all of the games looked very clean. As a 4K TV owner since January it wasn't enough to surprise me, but if you're new to 4K gaming, the Xbox One X is a great choice to get started. To make up for the long queue, all visitors got a gift bag in the end, including a drink, some batteries, toys, sunglasses and shower sandals. Exactly. Xbox-branded shower sandals. Furthermore, hall 8 also featured some of Wargaming's popular titles, such as World of Tanks and Total War Arena and other games like Gwent (we played that last year as well), Destiny 2 (the same mission that was already included in the beta a couple of weeks ago) and Farming Simulator. As well as Pure Farming. And if you didn't know yet (we did not either until today), there is also a third farming game called Real Farming Sim. This genre seems to be a thing in Germany... apparently? Hall 9 did not cease to amaze either, welcoming us with a huge Nintendo Switch booth featuring plenty of titles. Thus, the queue was incredibly long, so we decided to skip that one. Instead, after moving past Final Fantasy Online, Shenmue III and similar titles, we decided to give F1 2017 with racing seats and actual Formula 1 wheels a shot. A shoutout to the crew: When they saw @Kenu and his crutches, they moved him all the way to the front of the line for instant access - nice service! My experience with the game: Overwhelming! Using actual racing equipment, manual transmission and no driving aids, it took me two entire laps to get used to the setup. After the third and final round, I obviously finished last, but the feeling was amazing. All of a sudden, it was very evident why people would spend hundreds or thousands of euros on this equipment. At the end of the day, we checked in to the EA Game & Capture area (that's their official name for the business lounge) to get our EA press passes for the remaining days and already take a look at what it has to offer inside. More about it below. EA Game & Capture lounge and a game called "Fe" The EA Game & Capture lounge is filled with developers, marketing/communications/sales people and plenty of members from different EA-related communities such as NHLGamer. Essentially, it's the perfect place to get connected with previously unknown people and share ideas and thoughts with creators from other outlets - seriously awesome! At the same time, it offers smaller, more intimate booths with recording features for Star Wars Battlefront II, Battlefield 1, FIFA 18 and Need for Speed Payback and also some stations for NBA Live 18, Madden NFL 18, Sims 4 and a couple of mobile games. For Wednesday, we also got an appointment for a game called Fe which is developed by Zoink Games from Sweden. While we were not allowed to capture any footage for this, we are allowed to tell you about it in text form. In Fe, you take control of a small squirrel-like character that is about to take on his exploration in the forests. Your main activity during the journey will be singing: You use it to interact with your surroundings, such as flowers, trees and animals. After a few initial tutorial popups, the game does not include any more tooltips, nor does it include a map, minimap or other UI elements. Instead, you will be met with a variety of ways to proceed, all about to be figured out by the player. By interacting with animals and other creatures as well as collecting shards that are scattered across the forest, you will unlock several new abilities such as climbing trees (the dev's replacement for a map) and flying in short bursts to reach previously unaccessible areas and to eventually proceed in the game. The Silent Ones however, larger beasts that have been invading the forests and capturing many of the friendly animals, will also try to capture the player. As there is no combat element in Fe, you won't be able to fight back - instead, you can either try to get away by looking for a hideout, or you can use aggressive animals like bears to your advantage by having these entities fight against each other. These Silent Ones will also be relevant for the storyline, however the devs did not explain any details so far. You might wonder: Why are we reporting about this indie after all? Well, the answer is simple: If a game manages to get me lost in it's world within just 20 minutes of time, it's doing stuff right. You will be met with excellent art design that features a very unique, polygon-like look with excellent use of colours and lights and a simply adorable main character. You will fall in love when you listen to it singing for the first time. Which leads us to sound design: Astonishing background themes, adorable character "voices" and high attention to detail when it comes to the many audio effects all let you dive into Fe within a heartbeat. This achievement of game becomes even more impressive when you take a look at the hard facts. The game has been in active development for the past two years, with around a dozen developers at Zoink working on it. Personally, I have to admit Fe was my personal highlight of this year's Gamescom so far. It will launch in early 2018 at an unknown price point, and will surely find its place on my to-do list. Star Wars Battlefront II Gameplay After spending some more time in the public area to talk to some of the many exhibitors, we met up with Mikko from SJK to get some lunch. Spring rolls for me, chicken and noodles for the other guys. Honestly, the latter was the better choice as I was still feeling pretty hungry, which ultimately made me queue up for some fries afterwards. Anyway, we decided to return to the EA business lounge, in time to get three free spots in the Star Wars Battlefront II booth. Awesome! This time, we were playing the Starfighter Assault mode which finally takes the Fighter Squadron game mode from Battlefront I into space. Aside of that, not a lot has changed, and it also didn't have to change. Fighter Squadron's controls already felt very intuitive and easy to take care of, so instead of revamping that solid base, the team at Criterion focused more on fine-tuning. The fact that a huge starship is the main area of focus for both attackers (they have to destroy shields other structures), and defenders (I don't have to explain... do I?) adds a lot of depth though. Opposed to Fighter Squadron, you can now evade attacks more effectively by using quick strides close to the starship to eventually get rid of other players hunting you down (in case you manage to not crash your Tie Fighter while doing so). With the starship in place, Starfighter Assault has gained a whole new strategic aspect which is very welcome. We also recorded some direct-feed gameplay from @gzell60 for you guys, enjoy! Coming up: Gamescom Blog #2 In the second edition of our Gamescom blog, we will take a closer look at some of the other EA titles such as FIFA 18, Need for Speed Payback and Battlefield 1 and will also tell you about our stay at CD Projekt Red's business lounge where we will get to see Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Stay tuned for that! @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Hey NHL Gamers, while a small group of the NHLGamer staff is currently at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany to follow the latest gaming related trends, we will have a great opportunity next week to talk to some of the EA SPORTS NHL producers. Like last year, we are aiming for another interview compiled from your feedback and specific questions about the NHL series. This opportunity is truly a great way for everyone to voice their opinion and to keep our community and its members recognized as a valuable source of direct community feedback for the development team in Vancouver. How do I submit the feedback/questions? Easy in many ways! 1) Use the comment section below or 2) Write to us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram! (Pro tip: Use all of the channels to increase your chance of making it to our list of questions!) @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Hey NHL Gamers, today the NHL 18 achievement list on Xbox One, which usually matches the trophy list on PlayStation 4, was revealed. As usual, it is a mix between requirements from the past few years and some aspects from new game modes, such as NHL Threes. Take a look at the entire list below: Someone Get That Kid The Puck! Play and score your 1st NHL goal in a regular season game in Be a Pro. Bronze/15 That’s Number 50! Play and score your 50th NHL goal in a single season as a rookie in Be a Pro Mode. Bronze/15 Win it for Dale Win the Stanley Cup® in Be A Pro mode. Bronze/15 Goose Egg Play an entire game and have your 1st shutout in a regular season game in Be a Pro. Bronze/15 Drafted Have your Be a Pro player drafted in Be a Pro mode while playing an entire season in the CHL. Bronze/15 Practice Makes Perfect Complete all training camp drills. Bronze/15 Knighted Win the Stanley Cup as the Vegas Golden Knights after doing an expansion draft in Franchise Mode. Bronze/15 Cup Champs Win the Stanley Cup as the 32nd NHL team after doing an expansion draft in Franchise Mode. Silver/30 Bobble Head Star Score the hat trick goal with a player on their Bobble Head night in Franchise Mode. Bronze/15 Developer Have a player that you drafted grow to 90+ overall in Franchise Mode. Bronze/15 3 Star Performance Complete and win a NHL Three's Circuit Game with 3 Stars. Bronze/15 King of the Pacific Defeat the final boss of the Pacific Circuit in NHL® Threes. Bronze/15 Cooperative Complete and win an Online Co-op NHL® Threes Circuit Game. Bronze/15 Star Collector Collect all the stars in a NHL® Threes Circuit. Silver/30 Circuit King Win the final circuit trophy for NHL® Threes Mode. Silver/30 Mascot Sniper Have a mascot on your team score 5 goals in a single game in a NHL Three's game. Bronze/15 League Champions Be a member of an EASHL club that has recently won the League Title and return to the Seasons HUB. Bronze/15 Conference Champions Be a member of an EASHL club that has recently won a Division Title and return to the Seasons HUB. Bronze/15 On A Roll Be a member of an EASHL club that had a perfect record last season and return to the Seasons HUB. Bronze/15 Victorious Be a member of an EASHL club that has recently won a playoff cup and return to the Seasons HUB. Bronze/15 Triple Threat Complete 3 EASHL 3 on 3 games. Bronze/15 Overtime Heroics In an EASHL club game, score the game-winning overtime goal. Bronze/15 You'll always remember your first In an EASHL game, score your first goal as a skater or complete and win your first game as a goalie. Bronze/15 Veteran Club Members Be a member of an EASHL club that has reached Level 25. Bronze/15 How Prestigious Level up your EASHL pro past Player Level 50. Silver/30 Flip Biscuit Score a goal by flipping the puck back against the grain from the backhand toe drag in any mode. Bronze/15 Extend the Twig Deflect a shot with the Defensive Skill Stick in any mode. Bronze/15 Kids a Beauty Score a goal with a between the legs shot in any mode. Bronze/15 Not My Bottle! Knock off the opposing goalie's bottle from the net by scoring a goal. Silver/30 Manual Sauce Get an assist from a manual saucer pass in any mode. Bronze/15 Tee it up Score a goal with a manual one timer in any mode. Bronze/15 Own the crease Have a shutout and win a game as a user-controlled goalie in any mode. Bronze/15 Costume Party Score a goal as a Mascot in a NHL® Threes game. Bronze/15 Tuck me in Score a goal with a one hand tuck in any mode. Bronze/15 Apple a Day Get an assist with a between the legs pass in any mode. Bronze/15 First Timer Complete a Hockey Ultimate Team Set for the first time. Bronze/15 Master! Complete a Hockey Ultimate Team Master Set. Gold/90 You've Been Counting Stars Earn a total 50 Stars in HUT Challenges. Silver/30 Championship Belt Recently win the title in a Hockey Ultimate Team Season and return to the Hockey Ultimate Team Hub. Silver/30 A Little Help From My Friends Complete a Co-op challenge with a friend. Bronze/15 You're Crafty Complete 50 Hockey Ultimate Team Sets. Gold/100 Buzzer Beater Complete a limited time Hockey Ultimate Team Set. Bronze/15 Competitor Earn a HUT Competitive Seasons reward. Bronze/15 Synergized Activate a Synergy Style in Hockey Ultimate Team. Bronze/15 OP! Have every player on your active Hockey Ultimate Team Lineup have an active Synergy Style. Bronze/15 Drafted! Complete a NHL® Draft Champions Draft. Bronze/15 All the Way! Win every game in a NHL® Draft Champions Draft. Bronze/15 Ultimate Competitor In HUT Competitive Seasons, earn a ranking within every round of a season. Silver/30 @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

Hey NHL Gamers! As of this minute, EA SPORTS are sending out codes to select people who signed up for the NHL 18 beta! Keep an eye on your inbox and make sure to check your spam folder as well. The e-mail also contains a second code you can pass on to a friend in case he was not selected to be part of the beta test. See you on the ice! @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com