Category Archives: APBA Hockey

The Before Time

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I was watching Dave Garner’s latest video about how he picks his replays, and got stuck with the idea of choosing a season before my team existed.

So I figured, why not go with the last NHL season before the San Jose Sharks came into existence?

This may not be a full season replay, but one where I play a certain number of games featuring the players who would eventually be the inaugural 1991-92 San Jose Sharks.

Plus it’s the first year the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup, so that should be a pretty good Cup Final series to play, yeah?

Stay tuned!

2024 Goals

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  • Complete at least one baseball replay (1921/1971)
  • Complete the SCRAM 2012 season
  • Complete a hockey/soccer/football replay
  • Complete the Scott Bullerwell Heavyweight Invitational
  • Start a basketball replay

Lofty goals to be sure, but I’ve been putting shit off long enough.

Stay tuned!

Five For Fighting

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As I’m getting though this first game of APBA Hockey, I don’t think I’m making *that* many mistakes, but halfway into the second period:

  • Sharks are up 6-2 on the Flames
  • I decided to pull Mike Vernon for Jeff Reese for the Flames
  • Link Gaetz got into a fight with Neil Sheehy, both got 5 minute penalties, and Sheehy got a game misconduct and was ejected

Mah boy.

AHA! Moment 2?

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After playing one period of APBA Hockey, I felt oddly… calm, almost at peace with the universe.

One pass through the rule book and I seemed to have gotten most of it down, in addition to a few suggested hints on play along the way.

The result was a period of tabletop hockey that reminded me of and felt like actually being at a hockey game.

After I finish this game up (tonight, I hope) I’ll tackle Strat-O-Matic Hockey, and if I’m really adventurous, I may pull out In the Crease Hockey.

Stay tuned!

Arriving Soon

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I decided to start from semi-scratch and get a couple of replacement/updated core sets for hockey, so I should be getting these in the next few days:

APBA is arriving with the 1991-92 NHL season, Strat-O-Matic is arriving with the 1945-46 NHL season.

It’s been a few years since I got a full game from APBA (2014 Soccer) or Strat-O-Matic (2012 Baseball).

GameNerdz.com is where I got a “ding ‘n dent” (damaged) copy of the Start-O-Matic 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame set.

I remember the late 70s when my brother Robert got his first APBA games, there was no way of tracking deliveries back then, the oversized boxes just arrived one day.

Nowadays you can order these games from Amazon.  But aside from the core sets, they don’t have as much variety of seasons available, if any, than the companies themselves offer on their respective sites.

In all recent cases, you can track the orders as they were shipped.

I hope to start these replays sooner rather than later, along continuing all the other ones currently in progress.

Stay tuned!

Seasons: NHL

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Replay plans for the various hockey games:

  • Inside the Crease: 1966-67 NHL, from my not-yet-abandoned goal to complete replays in all the major sports for the year I was born.  Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
  • APBA Hockey: 1991-92 NHL, the season I became a hockey fans thanks to the newly formed San Jose Sharks.  Team: San Jose Sharks
  • Hockey Blast: 2013-14 IHL (homebrew league), using the fictional season from PLAAY that year.  Team: entire league
  • Stone Cold Hockey: 2022-23 Central Cities League, another fictional season.  Team: TBD
  • Shootout Hockey: 1993-94 NHL), the greatest turnaround season ever for the Sharks.  Team: San Jose Sharks
  • Strat-O-Matic Hockey: 1945-46 NHL, the season I believe is chronicled in the animated short, “The Sweater”.  Team: Montreal Canadiens, perhaps the entire league

Stay tuned!

Renaissance?

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In addition to pulling the APBA games off the shelves, I also pulled the Strat-O-Matic games as well.

I was surprised to find that I have the 1994-95 NHL season set for Strat Hockey.

Arguably my favorite Sharks team, at least in the early years of the franchise.

I mean…

I may replay that Sharks season, in addition to the 1991-92 Sharks season (ordered earlier this week from APBA).

I ordered a new set of parts for Strat Hockey, in addition to the 1945-46 NHL season, in honor of

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I’m not sure why I’ve been going back to the roots of tabletop sports gaming, first with APBA Golf and Soccer, now with the hockey games.  I just seem to be wanting something more in my game play, as much as I enjoy playing similar, newer games of the same sports.

Oddly enough I have no desire to go back to APBA or Strat-O-Matic Baseball.

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I also don’t feel like going through the 1995-96 hockey teams and reversing trades to get accurate rosters, so if I end up playing that season, it will be with existing rosters.

I noticed the inaccurate opening rosters when I was about to play Blackhawks vs Sharks, and Sandis Ozoliņš was not on the Sharks roster, having ended the season with Colorado.

He scored the first goal for the Sharks that year.  I only remember that because he also scored the first goal for the San Francisco Spiders that season.

Anyways, I felt a little miffed that the rosters were wrong, so I went looking for a list of transactions for that season, and then decided that to heck with it, and will just play with the existing rosters.

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Another pair of games that I pulled off the shelf and put right back: APBA and Strat-O-Matic Football.

Never learned to play either.  Maybe when the football season rolls around I’ll pull one of them out, but Second Season and Inside Blitz are good enough for me for now, to scratch the football itch.  Which doesn’t come up too often, TBH.

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So is this a tabletop renaissance?  Maybe.

We’ll see how it goes.  I think I’ve played more tabletop sports games this year already than I had in the last 3 years.