EASHL Friday Night

So NHL 09’s EASHL is a big success. No surprise there given the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the feature. Over 10,000 teams have been created and over 50,000 users involved which are very significant numbers considering how NHL games don’t sell all that much (relatively speaking) and then you’re cutting into that with only those who play online. Expectations have been exceeded to where EA is adding servers to deal with the load and working on an issues that have arisen.

What I find most interesting is how this is a mode that can reel in people who normally wouldn’t have played an NHL game or who have little knowledge of the sport to begin with. I’m one example of that and I know several others who have been drawn into this game due to the mode alone.

In addition to all that mention has been made of a patch being worked on for the game. No specifics yet on what the patch will entail. I do hope they take some of the minor suggestions that would make EASHL more enjoyable (locking in colors to positions, forcing dark vs white jerseys) and other things such as a way to shoot a loose puck instead of checking an opposing player standing nearby.

So the next get together for the Pasta Padre club will be Friday night at 9ET/6PT. I’m really hoping for at least one win out of the evening. We got some goals last time but just couldn’t pull any of the games out.