Cale Makar can sense when the Colorado Avalanche are clicking offensively. Those moments when they’re swarming the attacking zone, zipping passes to one another and a goal feels inevitable.

But as a defenseman, Makar also understands what it’s like to endure that kind of pressure during an opponent’s offensive onslaught.

“When we get buzzing on our team and can get some good pressure, [defenders] just start getting tired and then you just start exposing different seams and stuff like that,” he said. “And when you’re put on the press and you’re in your own zone, it definitely isn’t fun. You’re kind of just trying to stay alive out there and live for another second.”

In a sense, that makes Makar the perfect cover athlete for NHL 24, the latest edition of EA Sports’ blockbuster hockey video game series that drops in early October. If there’s one overriding theme to NHL 24, it’s a test of stamina, particularly in those moments when one team is surging and another team is surviving.

“It’s a very true part of hockey,” Makar said.

The new Exhaust Engine in NHL 24 rewards extended attack zone time and is made up of two different systems.

The Sustained Pressure System is measured by a meter on the ice in the attacking zone. The more pressure created, the more “adrenaline effect” for the attacking team, which will see its passing speed and accuracy increase. Conversely, defensive skaters start getting heavy legs, and their stamina depletes faster as the offensive pressure increases. It’s called the Pinned Effect, and it challenges a defensive team to change tactics in order to defend its own goal and attempt to clear the zone.

Mike Inglehart, senior design director at EA Sports and one of the architects of NHL 24, said the Exhaust Engine brings more realism in the game.

“There’s always a loud cry for gameplay to be different, refreshed and new. But the game has a good foundation,” Inglehart said. “So what we tried to do was look for missing components of the hockey story we watch every night that aren’t embodied in our gameplay.”

The aspect they focused on for this edition: momentum. Those elongated shifts in which one team is on the attack and the other team is on its heels, desperately trying to clear the zone or get a stoppage.

“That expectation that you feel your team is on the brink of scoring. Or on the reverse side, your team is hemmed in and you’re on the edge of your seat hoping they can survive and not let that other team light the lamp,” Inglehart said. “We wanted to bring in a change to the ebb and flow of the game. Change how you think about the game, because now you have to build the pressure.”

Inglehart said the game makers were careful not to make NHL 24 just a “sustained pressure game” by ensuring the system didn’t create an insurmountable advantage.

“The boost is there and you can feel it, but it doesn’t tip the scales. It’s not something that can’t be defended,” he said.

There’s also a goalie fatigue system, designed to create more ways for the puck to go into the net. As the offensive pressure builds, the goalie gets worn down. They leave more parts of the net open, encouraging shots from more angles. But it also increases the chances for goalies to make spectacular, desperation saves.

“What makes the highlights at the end of the night are those improbable saves. When you have shooters looking up to the hockey heavens wondering how that [shot] didn’t go in,” Inglehart said. “Goalies will be broken down over time, but they’ll definitely have their heroic moments.”

Here’s a look at some of the other significant changes in this year’s game:

Physics-based contact

The game has overhauled its checking technology in order to make physical play more tactical.

“Poke-checking has long been the biggest defensive weapon, almost to a detriment, because people have often called it the ‘poke-checking game’ on defense,” Inglehart said.

Defenders can now quickly shove skaters to try and separate them from the puck, with a lower chance of earning a penalty for it than on a hit.

But the hitting isn’t going anywhere: NHL 24 has a new checking system where one pulls the right joystick back on the controller to load up the weight of a player and then pushes up to deliver a hit that saps the stamina of its target. There are also hip checks along the boards, hits that send opponents onto the benches and hits that shatter the rink glass.

“So if a hit is thrown, just showing you the hit totals quickly,” he said. “It wasn’t distracting.”

They’re also going to use the boards for goal celebrations in NHL 24, partly inspired by the way the NHL used those boards during the 2023 All-Star Game.

Sometimes, things that happen in video games can lead to real-life innovations — witness the camera use in NFL games that gives a Madden-like view of the offense breaking its huddle. Could NHL 24 inspire the way the NHL uses its digital boards?

“In a game, we’re able to bring things to life a little bit quicker because it’s a virtual world and you’re not dealing with real life complexities,” Inglehart said. “But our hope is that maybe they see stuff in our product that does inspire the real game.”