Thank you... now THIS is a good, fair review. I'd personally up the score a bit to an 8, but that would be after tweaking sliders.
It's obvious when reading reviews like IGN, Gamespot, and Game Informer that they spent very little time with the game and went in unwilling to give it much of a chance. They try a couple games on default settings with classic button controls, then complain that there's a speed burst button. When they don't bother discussing "minor" things like AI, online leagues, franchise blogs, or other key features (some things which they may actually do better than the competition, if not just provide a fun alternate approach), it's an unfortunate disservice to readers and hockey fans. Not to mention the potential damage it can do to the future of the franchise...
That said, I agree that the game could (should) play better out of the box and make a better first impression, and you do have to account for that in a review. It really only takes a handful of key slider adjustments and the difference is night & day... and you have to wonder if that's all that stood between review scores of 8+ and the 6.5-7's they're getting.
Either way, while initial out-of-the-box impressions are important, so is giving a game enough time to see everything good AND bad about it. This includes focusing on details and AI and other features that matter but somehow keep getting overlooked. I'm glad you took the time to do an honest, thorough, accurate review... something that the other big gaming sites and mags didn't bother with. Kudos, OS.