I had the chance to play this the other day, the 360 version though. It was pretty good, crowd was rather bland, I would have expected them to look a bit better (such as people wearing jerseys) but overall it was fun, a tad bit slow, though. There was no button to "hustle" you could only skate at one pace and not go faster
You must have been playing an old model of the game. The crowd does indeed have jerseys and to speed up in the game you tap LT and your player (with puck) will push the puck a head of him and gain speed. Once the full game comes out, you will be able to set sliders that can make the game speed faster.