Recap: Hockey Day (and more) in Canada!

Well, another on-location PLAAY Games event is in the books--here's a recap of "Hockey Day in Canada" which was held Saturday, September 30th at Game Knight Games in Winnipeg, MB.

Our group included twelve people: three Americans (myself, David Santistevan and Kevin Sieg), and nine Canadians (Ron Arnst, Max Feierstein, Grant Fines, Rob Gallamore, John Horn, Peter Lorenz, Bruce McFarlane, Michael Owens and Jeff Tomlinson). Of the Canadians, four live in Winnipeg, the rest are from elsewhere in Canada.

I flew into Fargo, ND on Thursday, rented a car from there and drove into Canada. It's about two hours from Fargo to the Canadian border and another hour and a half from there to Winnipeg, not too bad. I loved the Fargo airport, by the way, "Hector International Airport." Tiny! It only has five gates, what a contrast to Denver International Airport!

I got to Winnipeg around 5:30pm, checked into our "official" event hotel, the Holiday Inn Winnipeg South. Michael Owens swung by about an hour later and we were off to Ron Arnst's house for dinner, sports game discussions and a run-through of the full-play hoops game.

Friday was a travel day for many, but for those who, like me, arrived Thursday, there were games to be played in the hotel lobby, culminating in a full-game, full stats, full-PLAAY hoops game between the 2021-22 Philadelphia 76ers (coached by Michael) and the 2021-22 Toronto Raptors (coached by Rob Gallamore). It was quite a game, with the Raptors holding on for a 99-97 win when XXXX missed a last second three-pointer at the buzzer.

Around 4:30 everyone gathered in the lobby for a trip to IG Field for the Blue Bombers/Argos CFL game. The stadium is located about two miles from the hotel, so there were a lot of Bomber fans hanging around as we gathered, making for a great atmosphere. It was a beautiful evening--so wonderful because a week earlier, rain was forecast! Instead we had clear skies and a perfect fall evening, including a full harvest moon peeking through the gap between the upper and lower deck of the stadium…

It was a great game, too. The Argos, despite resting some of the key players having already clinched the top seed in the east, gave the Bombers all they could handle. But six field goals from Sergio Castillo and 169 yards rushing from Brady Oliveira powered Winnipeg to a 31-21 victory.

Saturday morning, we met at the game store at 10a. As usual, it didn't take long for everyone to get acquainted (it's a sports board gamer phenomenon I've alluded to in many past PLAAY events, where a group of mostly-strangers quickly realize that their common hobby makes them blood brothers!) and soon the dice were rolling for the 9th annual Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament!

This year's tournament was different in a couple of key ways. First, we played the ENTIRE tournament on-site--in previous years, the preliminary rounds were played prior to the event. Which leads to the second key difference: we played the first three rounds using our new "express" version of Hockey Blast, switching to full-play Hockey Blast for the semi-final and championship games. We divvied up the first round games, drawing opponents out of a hat randomly (that's the way this tournament works!), and rotating gamers so that everyone got a chance to play everyone else. We ran five games concurrently--when one game was done, we re-loaded the table with new teams. We went from 32 teams to 16, and repeated the process until we got to our "Final Four."

Michael Owens (left) and Grant Fines get ready to coach the Blue Jackets and Kraken in the opening round of the Commissioner’s Surprise ‘23!

Both the real-life Cup participants were eliminated in the first round! (Hey, that's why we call it the "Commissioner's Surprise!"). The Golden Knights fell victim to the hometown Jets 8-5, while the Panthers were knocked out in overtime by the Capitals,6-5. We had the full gamut of scoring, everything from a 1-0 squeaker between the Islanders and Rangers to a 10-3 pasting of the Oilers by the Devils. Five of the first round games went to overtime, and one went to double OT (Buffalo and Carolina). The second round featured an epic game between the Avalanche and Hurricanes, and a beatdown of the Flyers by the Kings. The third round was marked by hard-checking and low scores, highlighted by an amazing triple overtime win by the Bruins over Colorado.

Bruce McFarlane (Montreal jersey) looks over the Vancouver lines one last time before the Canucks take on David Santistevan and the Dallas Stars.

For the final rounds, we switched to full-play Hockey Blast. For a moment, it looked like we might have a classic championship matchup between the hometown Winnipeg Jets and the team with the real-life best record, the Boston Bruins. But alas, both teams lost in the semi-finals. So, instead of a Boston-Winnipeg title game, it was Minnesota-Dallas. Which had it's own interesting story line, the OLD Minnesota team vs. the NEW one! The "new kids on the block" coached by Rob Gallamore, knocked off the former Minnesota club led by John Horn 2-1 to earn the 2023 Commissioner's Surprise title. Full results are posted below.

After the hockey tournament, we took a bit of a breather and many of us enjoyed perusing a suitcase full of vintage/classic sports games brought by Bruce McFarlane. I'd brought the full-play hoops game along, and some folks took a test drive with that. Ron Arnst brought his copy of the golf game, and we ran through a few sample holes on the Yellowstone Course, me, Ron and Max. (Max has the game, but has never played it--until Saturday!) Mostly, we just relaxed and enjoyed being around other folks who shared our interest in sports board games.

Around 2:45p, we improvised a CFL playoff pre-PLAAY with Cold Snap Express and the 2023 express teams I created for last month's newsletter. Eight of us each chose a team (normally, only six teams make the CFL playoffs but we figured eight would be better), and the rest watched as the playoff drama unfolded. It was pretty awesome, with John's Argos holding off Jeff's BC Lions in the GRAAY Cup (see what I did there?) in a classic that went down to the final seconds, 35-30.

Group photo! Seated (left to right), Max Feierstein, Ron Arnst, David Santistevan, Michael Owens. Standing (left to right), Bruce McFarlane, Jeff Tomlinson, Grant Fines, John Horn, Kevin Sieg, Rob Gallamore, Peter Lorenz. Such a FUN event—thanks, guys!

After the football fun was done, we adjourned for dinner at a local Boston Pizza, and hung out for another couple of hours--plenty of sports on TV, great food, and fun conversation. Side note: at post-event mealt-time, it always seems like the conversation turns to vintage professional wrestling. On our side of the table, we were going over the exploits of guys like Mad Dog Vachon, Wahoo McDaniel, Big Ernie Ladd--oh yeah! I mentioned this to Kevin Sieg who was sitting at the other end of the table and he said that THEIR side of the table ALSO got into a discussion about old-time wrestling! Interesting!

About 730 we finally had to call it a night--the restaurant was closing early for a private party, otherwise we probably would have stayed there for another couple hours, haha! But it was a great finish to a wonderful day. Thanks to all the attendees, you guys made the event VERY special!

Special thanks to Game Knight Games for hosting our event—a fantastic game store with a rich heritage of serving gamers.

2023 Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament Results

(Winner in bold, home team indicated by @ symbol…)

First Round

@Los Angeles 3, Tampa Bay 2 (OT); @Pittsburgh 3, Calgary 2 (OT); @New York ISL 1, New York RGR 0; @Dallas 4, Vancouver 1; @Seattle 6, Columbus 4; Carolina 4, @Buffalo 3 (2OT); @Detroit 2, Chicago 1; @Boston 7, San Jose 6 (OT); Winnipeg 8, @ Vegas 5; @Philadelphia 3, Arizona 2; @Washington 6, Florida 5 (OT); @Toronto 6, Ottawa 5; @Minnesota 2, St. Louis 0; @Colorado 7, Anaheim 0; @Nashville 7, Montreal 1; New Jersey 10, Edmonton 3.

Second Round

@Minnesota 6, Seattle 3; @Boston 3, Washington 0; Winnipeg 7, @ Detroit 3; @Toronto 3, Pittsburgh 0; Colorado 5, @Carolina 4; Los Angeles 9, @ Philadelphia 1; @Dallas 6, New Jersey 2; Nashville 4, @ New York ISL 3 (OT);

Third Round

@Boston 4, Colorado 3 (3OT); Dallas 2, @ Los Angeles 1; @Winnipeg 3, Toronto 1; Minnesota 2, @Nashville 0.

Fourth Round (full-play)

@Dallas 5, Boston 3: This game saw an explosion of seven goals in the first period, two from Bergeron! It was 4-3 Dallas at the end of the period. Rupe Hintz blasted another in the second minute of the second period, making it 5-3. Then, suddenly, the offenses went silent. Or, more accurately, the defenses stepped up. The Bruins had a chance to get back into it with back-to-back power-play chances midway through the final period, but came up empty both times.

Minnesota 5, @Winnipeg 3: Some of us were hoping for a home-town title, but it didn't happen. 2-2 after one, 3-3 after two, most of the third period went scoreless. Then Zuckerman put one in for the Wild with three minutes to play, and a minute later Foligno tapped in a rebound shot for the final two-goal margin.

Championship Game (full-play)

Minnesota 2, Dallas 1: An awesome, defensive game that was scoreless for the first 39 minutes. Gaudreau's goal in the final minute of the second period gave the Wild the lead. More hard-hitting hockey ensued, until just six minutes remained, when Robertson knotted it up with a one-timer. But in the seventeenth minute, Minnesota got what proved to be the game-winner from Zucarello. The Stars pulled their goalie and got a couple of late shots, turned back by the Wild's Gustavsson.

CFL Playoff Pre-PLAAY with Cold Snap Express

First Round

Calgary (Rob Gallamore) 22, Edmonton (Bruce McFarlane) 6 • Ottawa (Peter Lorenz) 26, Montreal (Keith Avallone) 20 • British Columbia (Jeff Tomlinson) 40, Saskatchewan (Ron Arnst) 22 • Toronto (John Horn) 31, Winnipeg (Michael Owens) 22.

Second Round

British Columbia 46, Calgary 17 • Toronto 41, Ottawa 31.

Championship Game (“The GRAAY Cup”)

Toronto 35, British Columbia 30.