Imagine that

On Saturday night, I had the NBA jerseys pleasure of covering Patrick Roy's jersey retirement at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Growing up as a die-hard Habs fan, Roy was the idol who gave my team two Stanley Cups.
I thought it was somewhat ironic that the Leafs decided to honour Wendel Clark on the same night as Roy. For years, a great debate has raged: Would Wendel Clark's Maple Leafs have beaten Patrick Roy's Canadiens if they met in the 1993 Stanley Cup final?

I feel like this is an appropriate time to answer that question, given the events of this past weekend. I thought about recreating the two teams and simulating this series on Xbox. However, I don't think I could find a setting on NHL 2K9 that allows me to create bald players (ie. Brian Bellows), players with mustaches (ie. Jamie Macoun) or players with neck braces (ie. John Cullen).
Game 1 - The Montreal Forum has a hostile welcome for Pat Burns, who left the Habs as head coach one year earlier. Burns, however, misinterprets the fans anger and thinks he is being applauded by the Montreal faithful. ("I thought they were saying "Boo-urns," he would say in his post-game press conference.) Despite the distraction, the Leafs use a pair of third-period goals from Dave Andreychuk to secure a 4-1 victory in Game 1.
Game 2 - Gilbert Dionne causes a mild controversy by pointing to himself and claiming he scored the game-winning goal midway through the second period. Only one problem: Dionne wasn't actually on the ice. Roy makes 17 saves in the third period as the Habs even the series with a 2-1 win.

Game 3 - The first Stanley Cup final game at Maple Leaf Gardens in 26 years starts with a bizarre twist. Habs forwards Gary Leeman and Vincent Damphousse are given plaques to commemorate their great season with the Leafs back in 1989-90. Nobody seems to know how to react to this pre-game presentation. Questions arise like, "Why are the Leafs honouring two guys that never scored 100 points and got knocked out in the first round?" and "Why wasn't Daniel Marois invited to participate?" The Leafs never seem to recover from the pre-game blunder and lose 4-1.

Game 4 - Felix Potvin outduels Patrick Roy, making 47 saves in a 3-2 Leafs victory to even the series at two games apiece. After the game, Cliff Fletcher announces he has signed Potvin to a record 15-year contract. "This will be the wave of the future," Fletcher says. "I defy anyone to tell me that Potvin won't be a great goaltender in the NHL in the year 2008."

I also thought about dusting off my old Sega Genesis system and playing the original NHL '93. But every game would have ended 15-14 since I know all the ways to cheat and score in that game. How many wrap-around goals with Nik Borschevsky can you score before everything gets boring?
So I decided to create the 1993 Stanley Cup final between Montreal and Toronto in the only place that I could: My mind.
Game 5 - With the game tied 3-3 late in the third period, Todd Gill coughs up the puck at his own blue line allowing Kirk Muller to score the go-ahead goal. But just seconds later, Patrice Brisebois gives the puck up at his own blue line, which gives Glenn Anderson the chance to tie up the game. Fights break out in the stands as Leafs and Habs fans argue over which defenseman creates more turnovers: Gill or Brisebois. The game goes into extra time and the Canadiens win their eighth consecutive OT game on a goal by Stephane Lebeau.

Game 6 - Trailing 2-1 with just under a minute left in the game, Pat Burns decides to call for a stick measurement on Canadiens defenseman Lyle Odelin. Turns out Odelin was using an illegal stick and for the first time in recorded history, Kerry Fraser gives the Leafs a break. Dave Ellett ties the game with just over 30 seconds left -- and then scores the winner early in OT. "Would we have called that? No," Canadiens coach Jacques Demers said after the game. "I don't believe in winning like that. Nothing disparaging against Pat Burns, but Jacques Demers would not make that call."

Game 7 - The Leafs are hesitant to take the ice at the Forum as they learned Fraser will be the referee for Game 7 as well. But Toronto hangs tough and gets a pair of goals from Wendel Clark to force overtime. And four minutes into the extra period, Nikolai Borschevsky tips home the Stanley Cup winner past a stunned Patrick Roy. The CBC, hesitant to air another unwatchable interview with Borschevsky after he scores a Game 7 OT winner, cuts directly to an episode of Road To Avonlea.