i played two games of nhl 14 and tehn went to 13.  (i am... 32-3 in the last 6 games.. the last game was against a team of two, pretty lame, still won 5-2.. the game before that - I got probably 3 breakaway goals, a weak wrister on the 1-on-1 breakout [no way it should have gone it , and he quit, score was 7-1.. I mean, he should have quit way before then, but it was a bs goal no question], a short side wrister off of the glove which shouldn't have gone in.. ha, I was actually bored of winning).   already level 44. the game isn't hard at all. it's mostly not even fun.. I wouldn't say exploitation is needed to score, but there are definitely certain plays, tricks, button combos that increase the likelihood of scoring to the point where it's a game and not hockey for the most part.

yeah, the AI protects that puck to the point where it's like playing high levels in 13. they don't even try to breakout like you mentioned.    

I'm not even bothering with 94.  probably won't even play the demo again.

you pretty much hit the nail on the head with your prediction of 14.  The only problem I see with it is that they'll release tuner updates to reflect enough changes to avoid some of it.  And yeah, I don't know if I'd say the goalies are garbage.. every shot you said works 100% of the time pretty much.. it's that the programming isn't great.  not sure how you'd program the goalies other than to make them either 100% goals in specific locations and events (basically glitch goals) or 100% random for high percentage shots with like a 2% chance on low percentage shots.  Basically, they make them random in some aspects 'cause no shot goes in every time.  and the 100% glitch goals wouldn't even be fun, it'd be all exploitation.

I'm not getting excited at all.  13 was the best edition thus far for versus mode.  We've mentioned this stuff before - they have to revamp the board play dramatically, make poke checks work more effectively, increase the range on stick lifts while decreasing likelihood of penalties (I got 4 or 5 high sticks 'cause it doesn't work.. in one game), make the skating more realistic and goalies .. well, less superhuman and less human.  A fine balance.  Hopefully for xbox one they start from anew like they did with 07.  no other way to do it. All engines get stuck in a rut at some point.