Are you tired of EA’s poorly rehashed NHL video game every year? I know I am. NHL ’22 was the last straw for me. I’m done being suckered. Year after year and patch after patch I hoped for a better game. Instead, I continued to be disappointed with their attempts to fix what should have never been released to their loyal and paying customers. It’s obvious to me that their current focus is on creating the fluff in the CHEL and HUT sections. EA’s NHL video game has become a virtual hockey card store with a horrible hockey game attached. Their whole focus is on monetary micro-transactions within the game. I could put up with their CHEL and HUT micro-transaction focus IF the core game played well. Well, I’m done with their molten lava hot mess. Just peruse the daily EA Forum posts, Tweets and Reddit posts to see the countless people who feel exactly like me.
Because of the beatings my wallet has taken by EA’s NHL series for countless years, I decided to return to my trusty XBOX 360 and fire up 2K Sports NHL2K8. It still ranks as my favorite all time hockey game. Of course, it’s not perfect. But it’s much better than anything EA has ever put out IMHO. If you don’t like it, it’s all good by me. But if you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t be at this site checking out these posts so welcome aboard and enjoy it!
2021-2022 Roster File
In order to enjoy my favorite NHL game even more, I downloaded the latest 2021-2022 roster created by “austrianredwing” and posted within this forum:
https://forums.operationsports.com/forums/nhl-2k-rosters/994152-nhl-2k8-2021-22-rosters-x360.html
THANK YOU SO MUCH “austrianredwing!” YOU ROCK! It’s truly amazing! The only change that I made was altering the Vegas Knights and Seattle Kraken uniforms to my liking. That’s the beauty of roster sharing. You can do what you like with these awesome foundations!
As much as I love the current rosters, my true passion lies with playing games with historic great teams. I love the old school/historic teams! NHL2K8 is loaded with great historic teams. The trouble is, the players weren’t named within the teams (except for a few). As such, you have to spend countless hours editing the teams for the correct names and fixing the glove colors (NOTE: I really focused on the gloves) and player/goalie equipment, etc.
Unlock the Teams, Trophies etc. with a cheat code/profile
The first thing you’ll need to do is unlock all the teams, trophies, etc. with a cheat Profile code (I was two teams away from unlocking them all via the challenges at the point of discovering this code – OY). First, you’ll need to hop over to Profile Management and create a new Profile using the name within this site:
https://forums.operationsports.com/f...sic-teams.html
Shout out and Kudos to “Fiddy” for posting this code!
Historical NHL Teams
After unlocking all the Historical Teams via the Profile cheat code, I then happily researched each team using several web resources available (e.g. https://www.hockey-reference.com/). I’m extremely pleased with the results of my efforts re: these 45 teams and the 10 Historical International Teams. It was quite a bit of work to identify each player but I’m very pleased with my work. I think you will be as well. I hope you enjoy my roster as much as I do! It is attached here within this post. I added a couple of notes below re: a couple of the 45 Historical Teams. I’ll leave the rest of my surprises as Easter Eggs for you. Enjoy!
1. Detroit Red Wings ‘02
2. San Jose Sharks ‘02
3. Colorado Avalanche ‘01
4. Pittsburgh Penguins ‘01
5. Buffalo Sabres ‘99
6. Dallas Stars ‘99
7. Washington Capitals ‘98
8. Detroit Red Wings ‘97
9. New York Rangers ‘97
10. Philadelphia Flyers ‘97
11. Colorado Avalanche ‘96
12. Florida Panthers ‘96
13. New Jersey Devils ‘95
14. New York Rangers ‘94
15. San Jose Sharks ‘94
16. Vancouver Canucks ‘94
17. Buffalo Sabres ‘93
18. Quebec Nordiques ‘93
19. Los Angeles Kings ‘93
20. Montreal Canadiens ‘93
21. New York Islanders ‘93
22. Winnipeg Jets ‘93
23. St. Louis Blues ‘93
24. Toronto Maple Leafs ‘93
25. Chicago Blackhawks ‘92
26. Minnesota North Stars ’91 (especially happy with my glove colors)
27. Pittsburgh Penguins ‘91
28. Boston Bruins ‘90
29. Edmonton Oilers ‘90
30. Calgary Flames ‘89
31. Edmonton Oilers ‘87
32. Philadelphia Flyers ‘87
33. Montreal Canadiens ‘86
34. Los Angeles Kings ‘82
35. New York Islanders ‘82
36. Montreal Canadiens ‘77
37. Buffalo Sabres ‘75
38. Philadelphia Flyers ‘75
39. Boston Bruins ‘72
40. New York Rangers ‘72
41. Chicago Blackhawks ‘71
42. Montreal Canadiens ‘68
43. Toronto Maple Leafs ‘63
44. Montreal Canadiens ‘56
45. Detroit Red Wings ’52 (love the old school brown leather glove look)
Historical International Teams
I also did my best to fix the gloves/gear, etc. re: these International Teams after identifying the players. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn about the gamer posts mentioned below re: naming the players until after I’d finished these 55 teams – another OY moment. The rosters weren’t that tough to find though so no big deal.
1. Olympics Canada ‘02
2. World Cup USA ‘96
3. Olympics Sweden ‘94
4. Czechoslovakia ‘91
5. Canada Cup Canada ‘87
6. Canada Cup USSR ‘87
7. Olympics USA ‘80
8. Olympics USSR ‘80
9. Summit Series Canada ‘72
10. Summit Series USSR ‘72
All Decade Teams
After fixing the 45 Historical NHL teams and the 10 Historical International Teams, I discovered this resource re: the All Decade Teams within the game: https://forum.nhl94.com/index.php?/topic/4729-for-those-who-have-nhl-2k8/
MAJOR kudos to “TruePensFan1981” for this resource. It helped me greatly to identify the players within the All Decade Team rosters!
1. 1960’s
2. 1970’s
3. 1980’s
4. 1990’s
National Teams
After all this work, I thankfully discovered this site re: the included National Teams: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/933143-nhl-2k7/faqs/45261
Shout out and major kudos to Phil Parent re: the player names for these teams. His resource was a HUGE help even though the info was in regard to NHL2K7. Too bad I didn’t see his website until after I’d finished the 45 Historical Teams and 10 International Teams! Oh well. I enjoyed the exercise.
Again, I spent a lot of time on player/goalie gloves/gear etc. to try to make the best appearing game as possible.
1. Austria
2. Belarus
3. Canada
4. Czech Republic
5. Denmark
6. Finland
7. France
8. Germany
9. Kazakhstan
10. Latvia
11. Russia
12. Slovakia
13. Sweden
14. Switzerland
15. Ukraine
16. USA
Created Teams Added
The “Create A Team” ability allowed me to bridge the gap between the included 2002 Detroit Red Wings historical team up to today. There is a 5 team creation limit so I had to carefully consider the list of teams who’ve won the Cup since 2002. I considered creating the 2006-2007 Anaheim Ducks and 2005-2006 Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup teams but their 2007-2008 regular season rosters aren’t too far from their respective Stanley Cup rosters. As such, I passed on using a slot to create essentially the same team.
Here are the 5 Stanley Cup winning teams I’ve added to bridge the gap up to today. Once again, I took painstaking care to create the best uniforms that I could and including the best colors for the gloves and correct equipment for each player/goalie. I also did my best to create the players/goalies for each team with appropriate ratings. Of course, if you don’t like the player/goalie ratings, you can easily change them. I tried to create them on par with the other teams within the game as well.
1. Tampa Bay Lightning ’21 – I’ll let their uniforms be a surprise – but I think you’ll like them as they’re close to the real ones
2. Pittsburgh Penguins ’17 – I went with the trio of Unis used from 2014-2016 as a guide.
3. Chicago Blackhawks ’15 – I used their Winter Classic and Reverse Retro Unis as a guide. I also moved Johnny Oduya and Corey Crawford from the 2007-2008 roster to Free Agent status so I could add them with their real pics to this roster. They were both on the Blackhawks Minor League Team within the 07-08 roster so they won’t be missed.
4. Los Angeles Kings ’14 – Their Home and Away Unis are a combo of designs as they didn’t have a choice exactly like what the Kings have worn. But I’m happy with how they look. I used the famed Chevrolet Kings logo because the newer “home plate” logo wasn’t available. It’s always been my favorite Kings logo so it was all good for me. Their Alternate Uniform is the new Reverse Retro Uni.
5. Boston Bruins ’11 – I’ll let their uniforms be a surprise – but I think you’ll like them as they’re close to the real ones.
Unfortunately, the “Create A Team” section does not allow you to add the year at the end of the team’s name. Otherwise, I’d have added the team’s name and the year afterwards to preserve the game’s naming convention. Just know that the years above are the ones I selected for creation.
The Final Product
So, what do I have now? I have what I feel is the best playing, hardest checking NHL video game ever created with the greatest historical teams AND current rosters! All I have to do is switch between rosters to enjoy the best of the old and new! I still prefer NHL2K8 over 2K9 and 2K10. I feel much more in control of the players and like the presentation and player models much better. I don’t own a Nintendo Wii so NHL2K11 is N/A for me.
Can you imagine what 2K Sports NHL2K22 for the XBOX Series X/S or PS5 would look and play like? Just try 2K Sports NBA2K22 and imagine. I can only dream.
Please 2K, come back to creating NHL games! We miss and need you badly!
Additional note re: 2K Beats, Music for Arenas and Events
Final note re: the Music Soundtrack capabilities of this game. It is AWESOME!
For each “Loading” screen, I added organ music with the USA and Canadian National Anthems. It really adds atmosphere.
For the Opening sequence as each game is starting while the players skate to warm up and the commentators make their observations, I added the following songs. Note: you have to create a separate “Playlist” with only one song in it outside of the game using the XBOX Music Player so that you can select a single song for the game events within the game (after you rip a music CD to your internal hard drive and rename the songs appropriately):
Honda Center – Get Ready For This
Philips Arena – No Limit
Bruins Arena – Sandstorm
Sabres Arena – The Boys Are Back In Town
Pengrowth (Flames) Saddledome – Shot Down in Flames
RBC Center (Hurricanes) – Rock You Like A Hurricane
United Center (Blackhawks) – Keys To The City
Pepsi Center – Sirius
Nationwide Arena – I Gotta Feeling
American Airlines Center – Get Ready For This
Joe Louis Arena – Bad Motor Scooter
Rexall Place – Crowd Chant
BankAtlantic Center – No Limit
Staples Center – Kings Theme
XCEL Energy Center – Let’s Go Crazy
Bell Centre – Sandstorm
Sommet Center – Sirius
Prudential Center – I Gotta Feeling
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum – The Boys Are Back In Town
Rangers Arena – The Boys Are Back In Town
Scotiabank Place – Get Ready For This
Wachovia Center – No Limit
Jobing.Com Arena – Sandstorm
Mellon Arena – Sirius
HP Pavilion – I Gotta Feeling
Scottrade Center – Get Ready For This
St. Pete Times Forum – Thunderstruck
Air Canada Centre – No Limit
General Motors Place – Welcome To The Jungle
Verizon Center – Sandstorm
International Arena – Crowd Chant
Created Team One (2021 Tampa Bay Lightning) – Thunderstruck
Created Team Two (2014 LA Kings) – Kings Theme
Created Team Three (2011 Boston Bruins) – Sandstorm
Created Team Four (2017 Pittsburgh Penguins) – Sirius
Created Team Five (2015 Chicago Blackhawks) - Keys To The City
I also added about 35 songs that are frequently played during NHL games to play as a created playlist called “Hockey Songs” during the intermissions and when you’re still in the menu (versus the 2K Beats songs).
You can also add a bunch of great songs (by creating a one song “Playlist” for whatever song you want to use) as goal songs for each team. For instance, I created a one song Playlist with "Chelsea Dagger" by The Fratellis for when the Chicago Blackhawks score! The possibilities are endless! Enjoy!!
If you need help with transferring my file to your Saved Roster file, here is a great explanation re: using Horizon (shout out and kudos to “snowdrift” for his tutorial!): https://forums.operationsports.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2049564598&postcount=9
Now go play and enjoy 2K Sports NHL2K8!! Cheers!
Note: I play the game on the Hall of Famer difficulty level, Pro Classic Controls, and with mostly default other settings. You can adjust the rest of the sliders, etc. to your liking. I mostly play the User versus CPU mode and am not really a franchise or season player. For me, this game fills the bill.
06-08-2022, 01:01 PM
