NHL 09 was now the Hollywood couple media spat game. So when Avery told the press he was amused by other NHL players going after his “sloppy seconds” after it was revealed Phaneuf was dating his ex Elisha Cuthbert, that cover instantly took on a different context. Even loose association with this man during his time in the league was bad news. Avery will go down in history as one of the sport’s most dislikeable figures, conducting himself on and off the ice like a pantomime villain who only grows stronger from the boos and and cries of his adversaries. If anyone at the blue line deserved a cover appearance at the time, it was Phaneuf. In the late noughties he had the kind of buzz that it’s very difficult for a defenseman to get in the league, and he was part of a Flames side that was great to watch. And yet there he is, proud star of two games from arguably the best era of EA Sports’ hockey games. Certainly not as readily as you’d think of Ovechkin or Matthews in the modern era. Like Owen Nolan’s Sharks in the early ‘00s, they’re not one of the first teams your mind goes to when you think of that era. This is probably down to the Canucks’ spotty history making the playoffs at the time. And even having achieved all that, the natural and pretty logical reaction to seeing him on two separate EA NHL covers is: what. He’s a three-time all-star, posted 50+ point seasons with incredible regularity, and won the Lester B. This brings us to the only other NHL athlete to make it onto more than one cover, including one international version (Mark Streit is a multiple cover star in the Swiss version, would you believe). But there’s no denying he’s one of the league’s most recognizable and exciting superstars. Ovechkin earned those two covers by putting up nearly Gretzky-like numbers for more than a decade. ![]() While the Red Wings, Avalanche, and Devils fought for Stanley Cups with their iconic rosters and Kariya, Selanne et al graced the posters of the time, Nolan was just buckling down and getting on with it.Īs we’ve mentioned already, EA isn’t in the habit of giving out multiple covers to the same athlete lightly. Nolan was a 28-year-old power forward with high penalty minutes. Three: usually we think of soft-handed, lithe players as cover athletes. Two: his Sharks aren’t one of the iconic teams of the period, rarely getting beyond the first round of the playoffs. One: if I handed you a pen and paper and asked you to name the big stars of ice hockey in the year 2000, you’d probably be running out of pad before you got to Owen Nolan. 215lbs of Northern Irish grit ready to flatten anyone on the blue line and force his way to the slot, Nolan was coming off a career year in 1999-2000 with 84 points when EA decided he’d be the face of its hockey franchise that year. Of all the right-wingers you didn’t want bearing down on you with a full head of steam on the ice in 2000, Owen Nolan was the least desirable figure.
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