No matter the year, no matter the season, no matter the day, it's always a good time for a little "NHL '94."
Edmonton Oilers Calvin Pickard and Stuart Skinner learned that at NHL Headquarters in New York this week, turning back the clock to play the enduringly popular retro hockey video game.
Pickard and Skinner took some orange chairs at NHL offices in Manhattan ahead of their game on Long Island Friday night for a little digital warmup.
Of course they both chose to be the Oilers.
The stats weren't pretty, unless you happened to be the digital goalie version of former Oilers netminder Bill Ranford. Eight shots total, four from each team, zero goals.
From the shown highlights it appears No. 39 Doug Weight, N0. 89 Petr Klima and No. 9 Shayne Corson controlled the puck most of the time for both teams (it appears line changes were turned off, probably best for novices).
Digital defenseman Dave Manson and Igor Kravchuk controlled the game for both sides, but there was one real star in the game.
"This goalie is unreal," Skinner remaked about his counterpart, a computer likeness of former Oilers goalie Bill Ranford.
Pickard agreed but it seemed more a lack of familiarity with the game by the players that stopped the pucks from finding the twine. Hard to blame them, of course, since Pickard was barely a toddler learning to walk when the game came out and Skinner wouldn't be born for another five years.
The contest ended in a scoreless tie.
Next time, use Jeremy Roenick , fellas.
