NHL 2004 is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Black Box for the GameCube. It serves as a successor to NHL 2003 and marks a significant advancement in the series. The game features three European leagues: Germany's Deutsche Eishockey Liga, Sweden's Elitserien, and Finland's SM-liiga, enhancing its global appeal and gameplay diversity.
NHL 2004, developed by the EA Black Box studios, is an ice hockey video game. It is the successor to NHL 2003 and is widely considered to be a major turning point in the NHL series. The game adds 3 European Elite Leagues: Germany's Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), Sweden's Elitserien (SEL), and Finland's SM-liiga. (This is not the first time that European teams are included in an EA game; EA released both Elitserien 95 and Elitserien 96 for the Mega Drive in Sweden only and Elitserien and SM-liiga 2001 as an expansion pack for PC in Sweden and Finland which included those teams.) The ratings of the teams in the Elitserien and SM-liiga were comparable to the NHL rosters, however future installments had the league teams inferior to the NHL.