{"id":887270,"date":"2026-09-07T23:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T23:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887270\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T23:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T23:10:22","slug":"eas-nhl-27-face-scans-go-viral-for-all-the-wrong-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887270\/","title":{"rendered":"EA&#8217;s NHL 27 face scans go viral for all the wrong reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>EA Sports is a billion-dollar company that has been producing a wide variety of video games for more than three decades with a famous slogan of \u201cIt\u2019s in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>However, one thing that seemingly isn\u2019t \u201cin the game\u201d for the company\u2019s latest NHL release has many fans upset: Realistic player face scans.<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">With <a data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" link=\"\" becoming=\"\" available=\"\" to=\"\" play=\"\" data-evt=\"click\" data-evt-typ=\"click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ea.com\/games\/nhl\/nhl-27\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NHL 27 becoming available to play<\/a> late last week and the full release coming on Friday, players have taken to social media, sharing screenshots of some of hockey\u2019s biggest stars \u2014 and what they actually look like in real life.<\/p>\n<p>While there are a few stars that look similar enough to their virtual counterparts \u2014 Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Quinn Hughes, to name a few \u2014 many others are either way off and a few are even nightmare-inducing.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Loading...\" height=\"64\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/22.0.1\/websites\/images\/common\/icon-spinner-animated.svg\" width=\"64\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We apologize, but this video has failed to load.<\/p>\n<p>Play Video<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">\u201cNone of these players are real. They can\u2019t hurt you,\u201d one user joked in reply <a data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" link=\"\" a=\"\" reddit=\"\" post=\"\" data-evt=\"click\" data-evt-typ=\"click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/hockey\/comments\/1w92q8k\/nhl_stars_in_nhl_27\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to a Reddit post<\/a> highlighting some of the images.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir eyes all seem way too close together,\u201d another user commented, to which another replied: \u201cExcept for Cole Caufield, whose eyes look like they can\u2019t run fast enough away from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>How do the Maple Leafs look?<\/p>\n<p>Of the Toronto Maple Leafs scans posted on social media, several stand out for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Auston Matthews \u2014 who has been a cover star for the game on two occasions \u2014 has a moustache that looks closer to Wendel Clark\u2019s than his own facial hair and his hair\/hairline is noticeably thicker than in real life.<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\">A screenshot of William Nylander looks all wrong, prompting one user on X to write: \u201c<a data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" link=\"\" is=\"\" not=\"\" my=\"\" william=\"\" nylander=\"\" data-evt=\"click\" data-evt-typ=\"click\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/leafscini\/status\/2096994547134075006\" rel=\"nofollow\">That is not my William Nylander<\/a>\u201d with crying emojis.<\/p>\n<p>As for John Tavares, one screenshot from in-game action showed the former Leafs captain having eyes which could be described as \u201csoulless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Maple Leafs centre John Tavares in real life and in NHL 27.\" class=\"embedded-image__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0908-john-tavares-nhl-27-faces.jpg\"  height=\"750\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\"\/> Maple Leafs centre John Tavares in real life and in NHL 27. Getty Images, TwitterWhich face scan is the worst?<\/p>\n<p>However, nothing could possibly prepare hockey fans for the appearance of Boston Bruins defenceman Mason Lohrei.<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>At 6-foot-5 and 218 pounds, the 25-year-old can be an imposing force on the ice. But with a face scan like his in NHL 27, he\u2019s more likely to haunt video game players in their dreams.<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED VIDEO<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Loading...\" height=\"64\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/22.0.1\/websites\/images\/common\/icon-spinner-animated.svg\" width=\"64\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We apologize, but this video has failed to load.<\/p>\n<p>Play Video<\/p>\n<p>Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Article content EA Sports is a billion-dollar company that has been producing a wide variety of video games&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-887270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}