In keeping with the Be A Guru manner, playing every single NHL 21 Hut Coins game feels just like a wreck where players always bump into each other, and they never generate any rate to make a play. In All-Star and Superstar levels, it should feel closer to a real NHL game. When players break out of the zone, they have no purpose. When gamers are on the offensive side of the ice, they circle a good deal, but not into some specific spot. If the game wishes to highlight Ovechkin, his ultimate signature move is the one-timer from his office on peak of the left circle. Even though on the powerplay, this drama, along with many others like it, are in the realm of fantasy to achieve because there are no lanes to maneuver, and pucks constantly magically end up on an opposing stick no matter the approaches used to escape from them.

More problems arise when gamers use the right thumbstick to maintain the puck away in their bodies. When this happens, they quit skating. Not ice hockey induces opposing players to take the puck away effortlessly, and there is simply no way to make any plays. With the passing being atrocious - centered on aiming the left rod and R2 buttons - this means, like NHL 19 and NHL 20 before it, passing is a guessing game trusting the pass makes it to the right location. After enjoying the Franchise mode and Cheap NHL 21 Coins easy pick-up matches, this problem becomes even more evident in most difficulty levels, past merely Be a Pro where it's most exacerbated.