The entire NHL season will be simmed

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

I got this from the New York Times site (it's subscription so I copied/pasted it)

If Hockey Is Out, Best Thing on Ice May Be a Computer Game

By TOM ZELLER

Published: September 27, 2004

Crestfallen hockey fans worried about filling the hours during the National Hockey League's labor dispute may now have a place to turn. Beginning Oct. 13, the cable channel G4techTV plans to resurrect each of the 1,230 regular-season games listed on the league's defunct 2004-2005 schedule by setting them in motion on a video game console. All 30 teams will face off in "computer only" mode, meaning that the computer will control both teams, and the resulting scores, stats and highlights will be shown on the network's sports program, "Sweat."

G4techTV was born last spring when the cable giant Comcast acquired TechTV, a channel aimed at computer geeks, and folded it into its G4 channel, which catered to video game enthusiasts. G4techTV now bills itself as "the only 24-hour television network devoted to games, gear, gadgets and gigabytes."

"There are lots of us here who are hockey fans," said Charles Hirschhorn, the G4techTV chief executive, who came up with the idea the day before N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman, citing $1.8 billion in losses by team owners over the last decade, announced a lockout earlier this month. "Our hope is that it will be the next best thing to real N.H.L. hockey."

The network says it is negotiating with several video game publishers. Among the choices being considered are NHL 2005 from Electronic Arts, which plays on the three major platforms - the Xbox from Microsoft, PlayStation 2 from Sony and GameCube from Nintendo; ESPN NHL 2K5 from Sega, which works on the Xbox and PlayStation 2; and Gretzky NHL 2005 from Sony, which works only on PlayStation 2.

Whether or not this will help the fledgling G4techTV network - which says it reaches about 50 million homes - its native audience of men and boys aged 12 to 34 would seem to dovetail nicely with hockey's fan base. Real-time statistics for each match-up will be available on the network's Web site, g4techtv.com, with game analysis, clips and jocular sports-anchor banter planned for daily television broadcast in the evenings.

"We're talking to some former N.H.L. players," Mr. Hirschhorn said.

If the labor dispute is settled, will the virtual season continue? "No," Mr. Hirschhorn said. "We'd much rather be watching real hockey." TOM ZELLER

[Dave 1]

What a bunch of BS...