I always hated the arrows. if you are off-screen, you are "that way" -- off screen. there was so much unnecessary clutter in the original. it made it accessible and easy to learn, but it hurts the overall value, in my mind. I can't begin to express how much happier I am with no player indicators (numbers, stars, arrows). now if only I could get rid of the overlaid time and score window and only have it appear briefly after whistles and in the final minute of each period....
edit: Bob, it might be because your team sucks. in fact, yeah, it's that. personally, I like having some shitty teams to pick from, so I'm satisfied with excluding teams from the not-quite-the-worst pool, as I did with CBJ and MIN. ideally, we wouldn't bar anybody from Ron Barr's bar, if you bar what I bar.