Steve Rucchin, captain of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, skates over to center ice where the red… Steve Rucchin, captain of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, skates over to center ice where the red carpet has been rolled out. Rucchin shakes the hand of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman before grabbing the Stanley Cup and hoisting it high in front of his home crowd.

He and the rest of the 2004-05 Mighty Ducks won the Stanley Cup, defeating the New Jersey Devils 2-0 in game seven — a rematch of the 2003 Stanley Cup finals.

Sounds like a great story, doesn’t it? Makes you want to watch it, right?

Well, I did.

Upon hearing Bettman say on Wednesday that there would be no hockey, I turned on my PlayStation 2 and set up a full hockey season with my ESPN NHL 2K5 video game. I wanted for there to be a season so badly that I made my own. Here’s how it went:

For starters, Mario Lemieux managed to stay healthy throughout the year and played in all 82 games, scoring 47 goals and assisting on 31. With the great season, Lemieux notched his 700th career goal before the All-Star break, giving him 730 goals for his career.

Despite the success of their leader, the Penguins again failed to make the playoffs. In fact, they came nowhere close, finishing last in the league with a record of 32-42-3-5.

But if it makes you Pittsburghers feel any better, Philly didn’t make the playoffs either, ending the season at 33-39-8-2.

It was the Ottawa Senators who won the Eastern Conference with 49 wins and 110 points in the standings. Below them were the New York Rangers, finally making the playoffs, thanks to league-leading goal scorer Jaromir Jagr, who had 73 goals. They would, however, be quickly tossed in the first round by seventh-seeded Boston.

There were no more celebrations for Boston, though. The Bruins’ party ended with a 4-1 series loss to the Senators. Also making the playoffs in the East were Washington, New Jersey, Montreal, Toronto and the New York Islanders.

In the Western Conference, Detroit took first place with 45 wins and 101 points. Anaheim finished second with Edmonton, St. Louis, Nashville, Minnesota, Colorado and Phoenix also sealing playoff berths.

Tampa Bay and Calgary, who matched up in last year’s real Stanley Cup Finals, missed the playoffs by one and two points, respectively.

But forget about the regular season. As always, the Stanley Cup Finals is where this season simulation became exciting.

After dropping the first two games of the series, the Devils fought back to take games three, five and six, forcing a seventh game in Anaheim, Calif. This was too good to press the X button and simulate. Instead, I hit the start button and watched it.

Goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere, the 27-year-old Candian and Vesina trophy-winner, won his second Conn Smythe in three years, this time for the winning cause. He stopped 37 Devil shots in game seven, including 18 in a hard-fought second period, to record his fourth shutout of the playoffs.

His biggest save came midway through the second when Sergei Brylin skated to the top of the left circle and passed in to John Madden, who was cutting toward the goal. Madden, with a clear path to Giguere crossed the front of the net, and released a back-handed shot to the top-right corner of the goal.

Giguere quickly showed why he’s rated an 88 in the game and made a ridiculous diving glove save to keep the shutout alive. The home crowd began to cheer “Gig-gy! Gig-gy!” about the same time as my roommates began to gather around and watch.

Even with a two-man advantage late in the third period, the Devils could not break past the goalie.

The Mighty Ducks benefited from early Devil penalties. On a two-man advantage, Sandis Ozolinsh fired a shot from the left point that was deflected by Sergei Fedorov through the five-hole of Martin Brodeur. Brodeur had 48 saves in the game, but he couldn’t stop the deflection.

With less than three minutes remaining in the period, the Mighty Ducks struck once more, again with the help of Fedorov. On the powerplay, he found Vaclav Prospal on his left, who immediately one-timed the pass to the top-left corner of the goal. Brodeur had no chance.

And of course, what seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals is complete without a fight? Not this one. In fact, it had two — and the Devils won both of them. Jamie Langenbrunner, who consoled his goalie after the game with a pat on the back, knocked Anaheim’s Vitaly Vishneuski flat on his back with two quick punches — about as quickly as the players’ association rejected the owners’ offer. Vishneuski was knocked out, just as the league now is locked out — something that cannot happen in this video game.

Not once did a digital Bob Goodenow show up on the screen and reject a logical NHL proposal. Never did Bettman come up and say there will be a lockout until the league is fixed.

And if he did, I would have hit restart. I wish life was that simple.

Without a restart button, I can only hope that there is an agreement before another season can be disturbed. But until that first puck drops, I’ll be playing my PlayStation 2.

Maybe you’ll see me again in October. Until then, I’m locked out.

Jimmy Johnson is the sports editor of The Pitt News, and he’s looking for revenue sharing between the editors at The Pitt News. His desk cannot compete with the rest in such a small market. E-mail him at [email protected].