Players who want to vent their frustrations at a game's circumstances in NHL 23 can get into entertaining fights with other athletes, putting their pride on the line as characters duke it out on the ice. Far from a new feature to NHL 23 or the series at large, fighting has been a staple of EA Sports's hockey simulation franchise and continues to be prevalent. Although there's no risk when fighting in NHL 23, the humiliation of losing a fight would add an undesired level of embarrassment that players may try to avoid.
Starting a fight in the NHL has been legal since the League's inception in 1917, receiving a formalized ruling called "fisticuffs" in 1922 that saw players be given a five-minute penalty instead of ejection for participating in a fight. Unlike amateur and collegiate teams, professional ice hockey almost glorified the "fisticuffs," turning matchups between members of certain teams into events similar to boxing rivalries. While players may not see stars such as NHL 23's cover athletes supporting the tradition, fights in hockey hold a long-standing presence that has formed an intrinsic connection with the sport.
Due to rulings made in the 1970s that have carried over to NHL 23, fights only involve two athletes at once, never more. Therefore, despite actual fights in the NHL becoming less and less frequent as seasons go by, players can initiate fights depending on the situation on the ice. Winning a fight boosts the overall morale and energy of a player's team, emphasizing some attention on which athlete responds to aggression. While there have been instances of players being selected to serve this function, usually called "enforcers," players will have to use the statistics of the Rating system to categorize NHL 23's top players best suited to fight.
How To Start a Fight in NHL 23
The primary ways to instigate a fight in NHL 23 are to double tap the Y or Triangle input before the puck drops during a face-off or after the whistle blows and take a slapshot at the goalie once the play already stops. Fights are a bit finicky to continue once the prompt has been selected, so players should be ready to commit as opponents come in close. During an online match with another player, both sides have to agree to the fight before engaging through the aforementioned Y or Triangle input that serves as an invitation.
The best defense players in NHL 23 also have a chance to promote a fight through their normal interactions with rival athletes. A particularly big open hit or dirty strike from behind has opportunities to open up the prompt to fight immediately. A small menu of different options during a fight opens up once the fight has begun, allowing players to perform uppercuts, fake grabs, pushes, pulls, and other behaviors through the inputs tied to the trigger and analog stick inputs on controllers.
Players may change the probability of a fighter in NHL 23 to increase or decrease the chances of it happening. Scrolling through NHL 23's biggest changes in its Setting mode, the Rules section has a bar tied to Fighting that can be adjusted on a slider of 2. A 0/2 setting means that fights no longer occur, while a 2/2 on the scale makes fighting far more possible during a match. Winning a fight in NHL 23 takes a bit of prediction to land the most hits on a rival athlete, but players looking to take the risk at least have an opportunity for engaging content that remains mostly a separate reprieve from the normal intensities of a game of hockey.
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NHL 23
- Platform:
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC
- Developer:
- EA Sports
- Publisher:
- EA Sports
- Genre:
- Sports
- Multiplayer:
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- ESRB:
- E10+
- How Long To Beat:
- 12h 5m
- Prequel:
- NHL 22
