NHL 22 is now days away from a worldwide launch, but the title is already available either through the EA Play Trial or soon with Early Access.
With so much to do in this year's hockey installment, we've pinpointed five absurdly fun things everyone has to try in NHL 22.
If you still need to pre order NHL 22, follow this link to do that now!
NHL 22: 5 absurdly fun things you have to try at launch
NHl 22 is the next evolution of hockey gaming, and it looks more gorgeous than the franchise has ever looked before.
With a wide variety of game modes on the agenda when you first get started, there are some absolute gems hiding in this game you need to experience.
Whether you're tackling it with the NHL 22 Trial, ready to hit Early Access thanks to a pre order of the NHL 22 X Factor Edition, or waiting for launch day, here are five things you have to try in NHL 22.
Play as a mascot in NHL Threes, HUT Rush Threes, or Ones Now
NHL 22 has so many ways to play, but you absolutely need to feel the chaotic joy that comes from body checking another mascot while playing as a mascot.
NHL 22 has team mascot as playable characters in three different game modes: NHL Threes, HUT Rush Threes, and Ones Now.
NHL Threes is fully offline, while HUT Rush Threes is a part of Ultimate Team, but in both you'll be able to play as a team of mascots in a no-rules game where you can body check all you want without risking a penalty.
The same applies in Ones Now, where you can even pit mascots against real-life players in a three-player every man for himself mode where each of you try to score against a lone goalie.
The ultimate goal in any of these is the same: keep playing for the absurdity of getting to be a nimble anthropomorphic animal costume that can demolish others and hit a mean slap shot.
Set your playoff beard length in Be A Pro
You're likely to spend some early time in Be A Pro, which is the single player story and career mode in NHL 22.
You'll get to create a player from scratch, and among the many customization options is an easy to miss setting for playoff beard length.
You'll only get to choose a single beard style, but you can set an average length for the season and alter that length for the playoffs.
Even if you go almost clean shaven throughout the year, this will let you sport the massive playoff beard if you take your team towards the Stanley Cup.
Become the Enforcer and demolish the competition
When you get into Be A Pro, you'll be presented with several different Archetypes which represent the kind of player you're building.
One of those core Archetypes is Enforcer, which sets you up for a very physical play style with the eventual goal of unlocking the Truculence X-Factor.
You won't have your Superstar X-Factor immediately, as it's a process to earn in Be A Pro, but the ideal one to unlock later as an Enforcer is Truculence.
While active, Truculence gives you exceptional stability and assist on shoulder checks while greatly increasing the chance of knocking over an opponent and sapping their energy.
You'll need to be careful not to body check when you aren't allowed and draw penalties, but once you've got the timing down you can absolutely wreck people.
Make a monster with the mascot creator
One of the many great things you can do in NHL 22 is make your own team, but there are more settings in that team creation than you might think.
On top of being able to name your team or choose logos and colors, you can actually create a mascot of your own design.
Let me be completely blunt here: the vast majority of mascot mix and match combinations are going to look absolutely monstrous.
That's not a knock by any means, as this ability to mix different mascot heads and bodies allows you a lot of different options to work with.
Once you've got the right absurd pairing, play with the colors you have to work with to get the right look for your personal monster mascot.
Create your team's custom goal horn
Nothing is quite as iconic in hockey as the sound of an important goal, and some teams have their own unique way of celebrating that.
The goal horn itself can vary in tone and style, and some teams will tack an extra special sound effect on at the end as the icing on top.
You can do the same in NHL 22, as creating a custom team for Franchise Mode will also give you the opportunity to customize the arena, and among those arena options is the goal horn creator.
You can choose from multiple horn variants to fill up to three layers (bass, mid, and treble) and create your perfectly harmonized or painfully out of tune goal horn.
You get to choose how many times the horn will blow, how long each blast will last, and finally cap it off with a special sound effect after the horn goes off.