Reasons We Love Hockey Part 19

The 19th in our 118 part series.

Power Play

No, not power plays, Power Play, the German card game! We are people who love the idea of playing board games but it’s a rare game that the two of us can agree is fun. Schnookie is really Type A and can’t stand being out-strategized, preferring word games like Boggle; Pookie can’t spell to save her life and thus sucks at games like Boggle, but also isn’t smart enough to be truly good at strategy games. Over the years we’d established cribbage and Quiddler were perfect, but those games are both missing a certain je ne sais hockey. Enter Power Play. Power Play is a very simple affair, following a similar structure to War. Cards with higher numbers beat cards with lower numbers. Every player draws six cards — 3 forwards, 2 defensemen and 1 goalie. A turn consists of a player either challenging another team to a game, trading a player by discarding and drawing from the main piles, or trading by drawing blind from another player and then giving to that player a card that matches the type of the traded player (everyone must always maintain the 3 forwards, 2 d-men and 1 goalie pattern). A challenge match consists of each player laying down one card at the same time; the higher card scores a goal with the one exception that a goalie always stops a skater (if two goalies face off, the higher value scores a goal). There are also certain cards that act as “bruisers”, knocking their opponent out of action regardless of the face value of the card. The challenge continues until all 6 cards are played; in the event of a tie, the match goes into sudden death overtime. Sure it doesn’t sound challenging, but there is so much charm and silliness inherent in this game, we just can’t get enough of it!

Each card features a goofy cartoon of a player, and each player has a ridiculous German name or bad pun. There’s Klaus Die Maus, a bat hanging from a hockey stick. There’s Schlitter Ritter, a knight in shining armor. There’s Wayne Netsky, a studly superstar (proving the game designers had never seen Wayne-O play). There’s no keeping a straight face playing Power Play with us; you can instantly tell when someone’s drawn ridiculously low-ranked players like Eddie Skeleti or Hinten Dirk by the groan followed by uncontrollable giggling and you can instantly tell who’s drawn Sumo, the goaltender who literally cannot be scored on, when they get a look on their face like Lou after a particularly sneaky draft steal. But the real gem, the card everyone wants, is Drachenhorst.

Drachenhorst isn’t the highest ranked scorer. That title belongs to Super Star, who pulls in an impressive 10. However, just the way Jagr or Forsberg isn’t always the best player in the game, Super Star never seems to get the job done. Drachenhorst? Is money. When Buffalo fans were losing their mind of Briere and Drury, we merely shook our heads and said, “If you want to go after Super Star, that’s fine, but remember, Vanek is Drachenhorst. You trade Super Star for Drachenhorst every time.” Speaking of trading for Drachenhorst, as soon as it’s known Drachy’s in play, all challenges are called off, sparking a frantic run of desperation blind-draw trades. We imagine it’s just like real trade-deadline day, thinking you’ll draw Drachenhorst and instead coming up with Chubby Checker or Kleine Kangaruh.

While nothing compares to the fun and excitement of watching a hockey game, Power Play, when played with the right people, sometimes comes close.