Tag Archives: NHL

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!

Return to SSX

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Second Season Express still takes a while to play a game.

Not as long as a regular Second Season game, but still longer than other Express games from PLAAY.

Still, I may try to power through and finally finish the 1967 Denver Broncos season replay this week.

The plan is to finish some of these season replays that have been sitting idle under the full PLAAY games using the Express version, specifically this 1967 Broncos replay, perhaps the 1966-67 NHL replay, and maybe the 1974 John D’Acquisto season replay.

I may start a 1974 fictional Lacrosse season replay once Lacrosse Blast Express arrives.

Stay tuned!

Chomp

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One of the freebies from this year’s PLAAY Holiday Sale was the 1995-96 NHL Season for Hockey Blast.

I happily downloaded and opened it up on my PC and smiled when I saw the names on the San Jose Sharks squad from that year.

I then went to print it out and again felt happy to see the team roster.

And then I went to hockey-reference.com to review that season.

20-55-7 record.  Dead last in the Pacific Division.  Yikes.

I remember going to more than a few games that season, and the seasons before and after that.

I remember the faces but not the names of some of the regulars who sat around us.

I remember the loudest CLANG off the crossbar when Eric Lindros fired a shot on goal.  Not sure if it was that season, but it was certainly during that time.

And that Sharks team was one of my favorite sports teams during that period as well.

With the new Hockey Blast Express I expect to roll some games from that season, maybe not a full season replay, and not just Sharks games.

The Flyers won their division that season, only to be knocked out of the playoffs by the eventual Eastern Conference Champs, the Florida Panthers.

If I play out a Flyers-Sharks Cup final, I’m afraid San Jose is gonna get swept by the Flyers.

But we’ll see.

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!