NHL 09

The Good
NHL 09 is a fun, semi-realistic hockey game. The gameplay is very good. Playing against a friend is great fun.

The Bad
This is practically the same game as NHL 08. And NHL 07. And NHL 06. And NHL 05. All of these 5 games use the same engine, and they look (and play) exactly the same. NHL 09 simply has the newest rosters. Thus, this is the best choice out of those. NHL 09 has the same "problems" as the previous games: the AI is not that impressive, it's a little bit too easy to win against the computer, the commentary is not very good...

The Bottom Line
The NHL series by EA Sports is practically the only choice, if you want to play ice hockey on your PC. You might also want to try NHL 2004 (the most realistic in the series, with a slightly worse gameplay), or NHL Hockey 95 (probably the most fun in the series).