Controls for goalies in hockey games

[shadobeni]

Do hockey games these days allow you to play as the goalie and if so, are the controls any good and is it any fun?

I remember on some of the old ones sometimes you could play as the goalie but your control felt a bit limited.

It'd be interesting what type of goalie control schemes could be implemented. You could have a pretty complex system where you have commands for poke check, left/right pad save, butterfly (five hole) save, blocker save, glove save, stacking the pads, diving, pushing away opposing players, passing, clearing the puck, etc.

Although from a top down perspective it would seem kind of hard to judge when to block low or high which is why I think if a game were to make playing as the goalie a viably fun option there'd need to be a way to toggle to first person view mode for the goalie.

[Weekend_Warrior]

The 2K series has integrated a dedicated goalie control feature in their games since NHL 2K6. But I don't know how well it works or how much it has advanced in the more recent games.