Watching the Stanley Cup playoffs has got me thinking about a hockey themed pinball game. We have had several soccer, basketball and football games, but I think we are due for a modern hockey pinball game.

Before all of you non-hockey fans say anything; I have to tell you that I can't stand watching soccer, but World Cup Soccer '94 is one of my favorite games due to the fun game play. The same can be done with hockey. I would love to see a feature similar to flipper football where you have drop targets in front of the goal that you must knock down and then get the ball through the opening in a very short period of time before the pop up again.

Modes the game could feature would be Hat Trick, Drop the Gloves (Hockey Fight), Power Play (for multiball), and Empty Net.

I have never bought a new pinball machine because I prefer to restore old ones, but a well done hockey theme would be too hard to resist. Sales in Europe should be good due to hockey's popularity there as well.

Any pics?

In the past when NBC has carried the Stanley Cup our local affiliate didn't even air it. They put it on their secondary channel that no one watches.

I would watch hockey any day over basket ball where team A scores then team B scores back and forth for the entire game. When you finally get to the end the teams are usually within 8 points of each other and the trailing team just fouls everyone with the ball for the last 5 minuets of the game hoping they miss the free throw. Maybe if they allowed fighting in basketball it would be watchable.