NTSC is US/CANADA/JAP TV standard (525 lines 60Hz vertical refresh)
PAL is rest of world (625 lines 50Hz vertical refresh)

Go to ####@//www.eapatcher.com and search on NHL 2002 for further info. I have a Jap SCPH 15000 fitted with the OrigaChip v1.11. It performs as follows:

Import originals (incl. NHL 2002): Boots no swap
All backups: Boots with AR2/GS2/DVDR-X Sawp ( I uses DVDRX)

I haven't yet done a backup of NHL 2002