The twelve best videos of bugs, glitches and fails in NHL 12

EA's NHL series has come a long way since I was a child (a fact that this graphic beautifully illustrates). But, while it continues to progress and develop in its realism, it's still a video game, which means it still has small bugs.

These bugs can be infuriating if you're playing some kid that's figured them all out and has no problem whatsoever using them to trounce you, but glitches and fails are downright hilarious when there's nothing on the line.

Back in the day, you could watch a replay over and over, and sometimes you could even save it for a little while, but at some point you always had to let it go. Youtube has changed all that, however, and the site is full of clips from the game. While most are pure crap, filmed on an iPhone while some kid snickers in the background, some are genuinely funny. You just have to spend some time wading through the crap.

If you don't have that kind of time, take heart: it's the offseason, so I totally do. With that, here's a helpful countdown of the twelve best glitches, fails, and bugs in NHL 12.

-- 12 --

As the puck drifts along the goal line, just waiting for somebody to tap it in, a glitch renders it untouchable. Enjoy watching players attempt in vain to make contact with it, as intense metal music makes their ineptitude seem far more epic than it is.

-- 11 --

A beautiful shootout move turns into a disallowed goal when the puck hits an invisible shield, jumps in the air, because untouchable, and then gets kicked in by a frustrated player. And can you blame him for being frustrated? At some point I'd kick this in too.

-- 10 --

In practice mode, a run-in with the goalie will occassionally cause the stick to chase you around the ice. It's a glitch, except for that time it happened to Jan Mursak.

-- 9 --

Get out of the way and let the goalie see the shot. Get out of the way and let the goalie see the shot. Get out of the way... here he comes... evasive manuever! ... Aw Hell, I'm the goalie.

-- 8 --

If this happened in a real game, we'd dedicate a whole week to it. The golden comedy moment is when the Caps' netminder makes that subtle turn like, "Wait, he can go around me?"

-- 7 --

I imagine that, shortly after the goalie caught this puck, the net whimpered, "Feed me," like Aubrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors".

-- 6 --

I'd say he got a little too fancy. Like, when he used telekinesis to fling the puck directly across the goal line and into the corner -- that probably wasn't necessary.

-- 5 --

Sadly, this couldn't happen in a real game because the net would come off its moorings. And also because Jonathan Toews isn't a brain-dead idiot.

-- 4 --

The glitch: somehow, the 2012-13 Red Wings made it into the game a year early.

-- 3 --

Wholly dedicated to realism, NHL 12 introduces "Jacques Lemaire's fantasy mode", where you can play two goalies at once.

-- 2 --

Lots of games have glitches the occur when you collide with the goalie. For instance, in Stanley Cup Hockey for the SNES, if you skated into the crease, you fell over like you'd been electrocuted or hit by a truck. In NHL 12, a run-in with the goalie will occasionally turn your player into Jesus. We call this "Literal representation of how Jack Edwards described the Lucic-Miller incident" mode.

-- 1 --

In the end though, nothing will top this glitch, which is undoubtedly the greatest glitch there can possibly be.