NHL 21 Technical Test Is Out Now, And Players Are Struggling With The Michigan Move

One of the most exciting new additions for NHL 21 is the "Michigan" skill move, so when the game's closed technical test went live today, people understandably tried to pull it off.

However, it's proving to be exceptionally difficult--so much so that some believe it might be bugged. Hockey YouTuber Nasher says he's tried more than 500 times but hasn't been able to do it. He even created a "dangler" build to give himself a greater chance, but it still isn't working for him.

For what it's worth, EA Sports said players should expect The Michigan to be an extremely difficult deke to pull off in NHL 21 to replicate the high degree of difficult of the real-life move. The studio has said it will use feedback from the closed tech test to tune this deke specifically, so whatever experience you get in the tech test may not reflect the final game.

Andrei Svechnikov of the Carolina Hurricanes became the first player in the history of the NHL to pull off the move during an October 2019 game.

Mike Legg popularized the move in 1996 when he played for the University of Michigan. He is said to have practiced it hundreds of times and even consulted with a referee to determine if it was a legal move before trying it in the game that year.

The move involves the skater scooping the puck up onto their stick and wrapping it around into the net, surprising the goalie. It's an extremely difficult deke, and it makes sense that the developers of NHL 21 would want to have its in-game version reflect that.

The NHL 21 closed technical test requires users to agree to a non-disclosure agreement that states they cannot share gameplay footage, so that's why you probably won't see footage of The Michigan or anything else until later on.

NHL 21 also introduces Nikita Kucherov's "no move move" where he pretends as if he's making a move to get the goalie to bite, leaving the puck to glide between the goalie's legs and into the goal. Additionally, NHL 21 has new "chip" moves that aim to give players more freedom to play with style, skill, and flair.

NHL 21 launches on October 16 for PS4 and Xbox One.