The Break Away Nhl

Still no decision for Teemu Selanne regarding his NHL future

We’ve seen a host of retirements this summer, mostly from Detroit thanks to guys like Brian Rafalski, Chris Osgood, and Kris Draper all opting to hang up their skates to live family life full-time. Oddly enough, we’ve seen 40+ year-old Nicklas Lidstrom opt to play for one more season and there’s another big name we’re waiting to hear from out of Anaheim.

Teemu Selanne had one of the best and most surprising seasons for a man of his advanced playing age. At 40 years-old, Selanne scored 31 goals and finished the year with 80 points, the most points he’s had in a season since 2006-2007 when he had 48 goals and 94 points in helping lead the Ducks to the Stanley Cup.

With 80 points at age 40 and a legacy that dates back to the 1990s that makes all of us old enough to have seen him in his 76-goal scoring hey-day feeling warm and fuzzy, it’s no wonder there’s a lot of interest in seeing come back and do it one more time. So will he or won’t he? Selanne’s agent tells the Orange County Register’s Eric Stephens that there’s no decision as of yet .

Agent Don Baizley has   been tight-lipped about his star client and continues to offer little in the form of updates about Selanne’s progress. When asked by the Register how Selanne is doing after his arthroscopic procedure in late June or whether there’s any new timeline on announcing his plans, Baizley said in an e-mail that there’s “nothing new at my end.”

So while his own previous deadline of July 1 is now long gone, Selanne continues to keep Ducks fans and the hockey world waiting. But that’s nothing new for the Finnish Flash, who’s typically signed one-year contracts and has shown previously that he won’t rush into revealing his plans even when it’s evident that he wants to continue playing.

Oh so secretive, Teemu. He knows the fans in Anaheim want him to come back, he knows the Ducks staff and GM Bob Murray want him to come back, and he knows that the fans around the league love him. He’s also a guy whose career has been so good for so long that he’s earned the right to take his sweet time deciding if he wants to.

We’re unabashed Selanne fans here and the more we can see of him, the better. If Teemu decides that his once surgically repaired right knee can’t handle the rigors of a full season and playoffs again, he’s got no shame whatsoever in walking away from the NHL. With a career that’s seen him break the record for goals scored by a rookie (76) and winning the Calder Trophy in 1992-1993 and moving on to win the Stanley Cup in 2007 with Anaheim and sitting 14th all-time in goals scored with 637 he’s had a lot to be proud of in what’s sure to be a Hall of Fame career.

PlaySmartGames.com Nintendo 64: Nhl Breakaway 98 - Nintendo 64 Game

Nhl Breakaway 98
Genre: Sports
Publisher: Acclaim
Developer: Iguana Ent.
Year: 1998

NHL Breakaway 98 claimed the crown for the best hockey game on the PlayStation, but how does it fare for the N64? Well, considering it's practically the same game, it fares just fine. Due to the lackluster hockey lineup currently available on the system, Breakaway 98 can easily be called the best hockey game on the N64.

Breakaway 98 has all of the real NHL teams - plus eight international teams - all of the players, and their stats. Players can be traded back and forth, letting you create a dream team of hockey's greatest players. In its management mode, Breakaway also pulls off what so many sports games have attempted over the years. It awards points for every victory, which can be used to pay for physical therapists (that speeds the recovery of an injured player), train minor league players, or improve your stadium, which in turn will help raise your attendance and net you more points to spend per victory. It's a vicious cycle, just like real life. It takes points to make points, and this feature makes playing an entire season tons of fun.

Visually, Breakaway 98 is fantastic - the animations of the players falling, skating, and shooting look incredibly lifelike. With such detail, not only can you read the names of the players off the backs of their jerseys, you can even see the players' numbers on their sleeves. Players also are sized according to their height in real life. So Gretzky is small and fast, but unable to check as effectively as a big, lumbering oaf. The graphics don't appear to be quite as crisp as the PlayStation version although some of the new camera angles in the N64 version are very good.

The sound effects give you a sense of how bad someone gets checked. The other effects such as a puck hitting the post and a player crashing into the boards sound as though you are at a real hockey game. Breakaway also has all the organ music featured at the rink and an announcer to go along with it, although the announcer in the N64 version is noticeably less talkative than in the PlayStation version.

One big plus for the N64 version is the control. The analog stick seems to lend itself well to the smooth motion on the rink. Players can skate backward, hook, dump passes, and do just about anything else. Breakaway has intuitive controls for beginners that let you play with the use of three buttons: pass, shoot, and check. Then when you get the hang of it you can learn some of the more advanced features of the game.

NHL Breakaway '98

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