July 7, 2007
Advantage: Roenick
Posted by pete at July 7, 2007 9:37 AM
And...repeat.
Phoenix Coyotes center Jeremy Roenick announced his retirement earlier this week. This, in itself, is mildly interesting from a sports perspective and more so if you follow hockey. The...outspoken center will retire with 495 career goals, which puts him third all-time for American-born hockey players (Roenick was born in Boston) behind Mike Modano and Joey Mullen. He never won a championship, however.
More importantly, as the Sports Hernia point out, Roenick was easily the best offensive player in Sega's classic NHL '94 videogame:
Upon hearing the news of Jeremy Roenick announcing his retirement, we couldn't help but look back to the key moment of his career, the moment that truly put the center of the Chicago Blackhawks on the map. Yes, we're talking about NHL '94 on Sega Genesis.
Roenick was a beast in every sense of the word, nearly impossible to take down, dished out murderous body checks and flashed a one-timer that went through torsos; all this with a relatively modest rating of 87 out of 100. He quickly became one of the most feared names in homes across the nation, quite possibly only taking a back seat to the immortal Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson.
To appropriately honor this man, er video game man, take some time today to abruptly check a random co-worker into a wall.
I shared an apartment with three guys, and we played NHL '93 and NHL '94 like we were getting paid overtime for it, losing entire weekends to marathon Sega sessions. And The Wife will confirm that I was late to more than a couple of dates because a game went into overtime. We played entire seasons, letting the other match-ups be decided automatically while sitting down to actually play those games involving our chosen teams. Through sheer coincidence, I ended up with the Blackhawks. You see, when we first acquired the game, we took teams that shared a city with our favorite football teams, so - being a Bears fan - I took Chicago. Lewis was a Raiders guy, but since there are no hockey teams in the Bay Area, he went with the L.A. Kings (and Gretzky, coincidentally enough). I don't even remember who Bo ended up with though I want to say it was Hartford, for reasons known only to him.
And while Roenick was indeed nigh unstoppable, a lot of people seem to forget that Ed Belfour, the Blackhawks' goalie, was a freaking 98 out of 100 (on '93 at least). And Dominik Hasek backed him up.With that kind of awesome power, we had to limit periods to five minutes just so Chicago wouldn't outscore the Whale 22-0 every time.
Roenick can retire secure in the knowledge he might be, next to The Great One himself, the modern player most recognizable to non-hockey fans. Now isn't that better than a Stanley Cup?
I should have been clearer in my sarcasm. He was aware of the Sharks, but chose to ignore them because they were an expansion team, and - more importantly - he really wanted Gretzky.
never have been a j-ro fan, but i’ll always remember the time he sat on the bench at St. Pete Times Forum and chatted on his cell phone while we were playing a tourney game before the Lightning/Flyers game. my one brush with big celeb sports star. =P
Was sad to see him leave Philly…always enjoyed him when he played for the Flyers.
No hockey team in the bay area?
The San Jose Sharks organization is going to be so disappointed.