The NHL games have always been the best yearly EA pump out sports game produced, they simply look and play better than the rest, especially FIFA which I guess is the alternative. Also more biast since I enjoyed playing Hockey as a kid / teen, more than football. I only have EA sports games on my PS2 though as I have the most controllers for it and a group of friends don't need better graphics to have fun
NHL 2004 is the one I have, compare that to FIFA 2004 and oh boi, you can see who cares the most.
Just look at the differences in graphic, this summer I dusted off my PS2 and had a little tournament with some friends on both games (normie alert), and oh boi FIFA looks fucking horrible.