This week the NHL 10 development team had the fortunate opportunity to meet Darcy Hordichuk who came to EA Canada to check out NHL 10. EA Canada is no stranger when it comes to sports celebrities paying a visit to the home of the world’s largest video game studio, but it’s always an exciting opportunity when someone from the Vancouver Canucks decides to make their presence felt. With the NHL season just about to get underway, it seemed like the perfect time for the NHL 10 development team to get pumped up about the upcoming season with a visit from one of hockey’s toughest enforcers.

Darcy’s time at EA began with him being toured around various spots of the EA Canada campus. He got to check out the EA Store, which houses various goods such as EA memorabilia and of course GAMES! Next on the tour he was brought to the motion capture studio where he had the opportunity to see how all the recorded player movement from your favorite athletes get implemented into the game. To say that Darcy was floored by what he saw was an understatement but he saw just how much work goes toward capturing all the authentic moves that are seen in NHL 10 and how the entire process works. After checking out the motion capture studio Darcy was brought to the NHL development space where got the chance to meet one of NHL 10’s producers Sean Ramjagsingh.

Sean brought Darcy over to check out NHL 10 on the big screen and explained to him just what some of the new features were in this year’s game. One of the new features that really caught Darcy’s eye was the new first-person fighting feature. Sean explained that in past years they never really got fighting right but the team really wanted to nail it with NHL 10. Sean proceeded to get himself into a fight to show Darcy first-person fighting in action. Darcy had a nice grin on his face as he got to see how authentic the new feature really is. Being an enforcer himself, to see how the game implemented some of the finer aspects of fighting such as jersey pulls, blocking and face washes really seemed to impress him.

After Sean was done showing Darcy all the various features that went into NHL 10, it was Darcy’s turn to take the controls and play the game for himself. Darcy was impressed with just how authentic the game was to real life. He liked the board play as the puck was being dumped and he especially like the new enforcer feature that was in the game. Sean demoed the enforcer feature for him Darcy where after shooting the puck during a stoppage the players from the opposing team would take exception. Seeing stuff like players being face-washed brought a nice smile to his face as he really looked like he was enjoying the game.

After Darcy had a chance to play the game he was greeted by members of the NHL 10 development team. At first it looked like the development team were awestruck as they had no questions for him but once someone from the development team stepped up with his first question, the rest of the team began to fire questions Darcy’s way. One of the developers asked Darcy about face-off techniques. Although Darcy hasn’t taken many face-offs in his career he did give a lot of great info about various face-off techniques. Darcy used Sean as an aide to explain various face-off techniques that NHL players employ during games. He went on about how guys curve the blades of their stick in a particular way to get the necessary advantage needed to win the draw and he answered why certain guys always get kicked out of the face-off. For someone that stated that he’s only had about 10 face-offs in his NHL career he seemed very knowledgeable about the subject.

The next question from one of the developers was about fighting techniques. This was particularly entertaining as Darcy had numerous stories of on-ice confrontations that he has had in his NHL career. Darcy then began to show one of the developers techniques that are used during fights in games. The little nuances that enforcers employ to get the upper hand in fights was quite amusing but don’t worry Darcy Hordichuk fans, this blog entry will not be revealing any of his fighting techniques (much to the chagrin of any non-Vancouver Canucks’ fans). The developers asked Darcy for any tips when in an on-ice scrap. He mentioned that there is a lot of technique to fighting and that you don’t really have time to take a break once the fight occurs. Once you stop someone you’re going to go down. Darcy then proceeded to sign some memorabilia for the developers. One such fine piece of memorabilia was the team board. For every player that comes into NHL’s development area they get the opportunity to sign on the replica board used in NHL games. Darcy signed on the board and now he will be a lasting part of the NHL development team.

Next came the team picture of Darcy with the development team. It’s not everyday that the development team are going to get the chance to be in a team picture with a NHL star but the team took full advantage of the opportunity and the result was a great photo.

Darcy said his good-byes and that was it. The end to an exciting day and a rare opportunity to be so up close to a local NHL star. Be sure to keep reading the In the Crease blog for more exciting stories in the world of NHL 10.