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Claude Giroux is on the cover of NHL 13 in a Flyers jersey, but you can now play with him in the game as Berlin Ice Bear. 

Last week I played online as the BIBs, fully expecting that I would be able to drop some serious ginger on the competition with Claude Giroux and his bestie, Danny Briere.

No such luck.

Inexplicably, EA Sports hadn’t updated the rosters, so I was stuck with a bunch of stiffs and a giant bear logo at center ice as I lost to an AHL team, like 6-1.

That’s been fixed.  

Screen Shot 2012-10-26 at 10.55.39 AM

Yesterday, EA Sports announced that players playing overseas have been added to their respective rosters, though they still remain on their North American teams, too (so you can still play with Giroux and Briere and Bryzgalov and Simmonds and others on the Flyers).

Hi there hockey fans! Today you may have heard that an online roster update for NHL 13 was released that adds a duplicate version of NHL® players who are playing in the following European leagues to their current team: Czech Extraliga (ELH), SM-Liiga, Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), Elitserien (SEL), and National League A (NLA). This means that a player like Giroux will remain on the Flyers, but will also be available on the Eisbaren Berlin (DEL) roster.

Hockey is a global game and within NHL 13 there are five European leagues, 66 European teams and over 2100 players representing 26 countries across Europe. By adding NHL players who have joined those leagues to their respective team rosters, we are able to create an authentic experience for fans of those leagues and the NHL, worldwide. For fans of a specific NHL team, those players will still be available on their NHL rosters, which could make for some interesting matchups online.

 

You can hop over to EA Sports' website to see the full list of players available on European teams.

Now if you’ll excuse me, a small piece of my soul has just died.