"Horrendous": Oilers fans react to Kris Knoblauch's hilarious NHL 25 model
EA Sports has added real-life coaches to NHL 25, and Edmonton Oilers fans aren’t thrilled with the model they created for head coach Kris Knoblauch.
It may be a bit of a stretch to expect the popular hockey video game developers to create a one-to-one model of the sophomore head coach, but the reveal has given fans a bit of an uncanny valley with the Oilers’ bench boss.
When you look behind the Oilers bench in-game, you’ll see a Knoblauch who has been given a lot more grey hair and added a few more pounds of muscle than his real-life counterpart.
#Oilers HC Kris Knoblauch has been added to NHL 25 in the game’s latest update… and they’ve given him quite a bit of grey hair pic.twitter.com/AuoRVTZqmN
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) November 4, 2024
The reaction from fans has been overwhelmingly negative as many laughed at how the video game wound up portraying Knoblauch. Many thought the model instead resembled that of Ben Stiller or even Nashville Predators defenceman Brady Skjei.
Either way, some of the responses were hilarious.
Pretty sure that’s Brady Skjei but ok pic.twitter.com/X0eoPsO8VP
— Mark 📸 (@TheLineBlender) November 5, 2024
Is that Ben Stiller
— Ryan Nutzenberger (@ryan_nutz) November 4, 2024
Oh man I thought this was really bad AI at first
— StonerDadYYC (@StonerDadYYC) November 4, 2024
Oh that’s horrendous
— MosesAndHisPetRock (@MosesAndHisRock) November 4, 2024
Garlic should not look like this
— Wile.E.Fox (@wil_e_f_ox) November 4, 2024
WHO TF IS THAT
— Conor (6-6-1 🐶💔) (@ConorOrConor) November 5, 2024
Pretty sure that’s Shawn Horcoff.
— Maplejed (@i_jonthe) November 5, 2024
When did Picasso start his internship at EA?
— Sheldologist (@sheldologist) November 4, 2024
— G7SCRob (@G7SCRob) November 4, 2024
EA Sports. Looks like trash https://t.co/KzdiUc12qM
— The Cynic (@J_TheCynic) November 5, 2024
He looks so swole. #Oilers https://t.co/FHhULR9Q3F
— Curtis Der (@CurtisDer) November 4, 2024
Trying to find parking downtown on game nights will do that to you…. https://t.co/Mv5APYzCqz
— Kellen Nitro ‘24 (@KellenNitro) November 4, 2024
While it may not be a hit with Oilers fans, they should be grateful because some other coaches got it a lot worse. New York Islanders coach, and goaltending legend, Patrick Roy looks nothing like himself, and Vancouver Canucks bench boss Rick Tocchet, who was a formidable player at one point, was made to look rather feeble.
Patrick Roy in NHL 25 looks like me watching the #Isles this year pic.twitter.com/7trDlcvU7b
— Mike (@DynoDangle) November 4, 2024
EA Sports did Rick Tocchet dirty pic.twitter.com/rQ2y7V2fxh
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) November 4, 2024
Having real-life head coaches behind the bench is a long time coming for the EA NHL franchise, they may just need to tweak the process of creating the models for these coaches.