Players can play in exhibition mode, regular season mode, playoff mode, and even listen to stereotypical music of each nation in the sound test mode (country music for Canada, rock and roll music for Team USA, for example). In the Sega version, the players’ names are formalized (Thomas instead of Tom, David instead of Dave, Steven instead of Steve, etc.).
Players can also have the CPU play some or all of their regular season, but the computer will lose more games than win them so it’s important to play as many games as possible manually. In addition to American cities corresponding to real NHL teams, the player can also play as international teams (Sweden, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, United States and Canada).
The game lacks the NHL license, meaning that teams are represented only by their corresponding city, rather than official name and logo. On default settings, teams do not feature their appropriate colors, but the game can be customized so that each team’s uniforms resemble their NHL counterparts.