Click here to view the original article: Interview: Stamkos and Roenick talk gaming on and off the ice, originally posted on Dose.ca on September 1, 2011.

Steven Stamkos and Jeremy Roenick were on hand at the X’11 Canada event in Toronto to preview the upcoming EA Sports’ NHL 12. Stamkos, who recently extended his contract with the Tampa Bay Lighting, is the cover athlete for the game and confesses that it’s been a surreal honour.

Stamkos says he didn’t hesitate when the call came asking him to be on the cover. “I got to play this game as a kid, I got to make it to the NHL and that was a dream come true,” he shares.

The forward joins a roster of recent cover athletes such as Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Dion Phaneuf, Eric Staal and Alexander Ovechkin.

As a lifelong fan of the video game franchise, Stamkos says “seeing yourself in this game for the first time as a character and now being on the cover, it’s amazing. It’s surreal to think you’re now a part of that illustrious group.”

NHL 12 introduces a slew of new features, including dynamic goalies (where the players can make contact with the goalies and even fight them) and the option to play as a legend. Stamkos believes this feature appeals to all generations. “The younger kids get to see their favourite players in today’s game and maybe they don’t know as much about the legends and [now] get to play with them. The older crowd gets to see the stars of their generation.”

Jeremy Roenick, who joins other legends Ray Bourque, Chris Chelios, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Borje Salming and Steve Yzerman, says “being in the first batch is always something that people will remember.” As for future legends, Roenick would like to see Mark Messier and Paul Coffey included in the next installment.

Although this is the first time that Reonick appears as a legend in an official capacity, this isn’t his first experience with the game franchise. In NHL 94, everyone wanted to play as Chicago because of how good Roenick was in the video game.

“It is the one thing that everybody talks about. It’s the one thing that everywhere I go, people commend me on my video game prowess much more than my on-ice prowess, which is obviously really nice.”

Being referenced in the film Swingers by Vince Vaughan (“It’s not so much as me, as it is Roenick”), helped catapult Roenick into pop culture. Roenick recently teamed up with FoxSports.com and FuelTV’s Cubed to re-create that clip, which he says was a blast.

“They put me in a Gretzky shirt which is kind of ironic. I think a lot of people with get a kick out watching the re-enactment.”

As for the current situation in Roenick’s former market of Phoenix, the retired star agrees that the league is wasting time and money there.

“It doesn’t look good for the organization,” he says. “Losing their potential buyer was a big loss and the fact that people there aren’t going to go watch hockey games until the playoffs, I don’t know how it can survive.”

As for the biggest difference in today’s game versus the game when he started, Roenick says that the players are much more advanced and talented in addition to being stronger, faster and in better shape. “It’s an eleven to twelve month sport now, not just an eight month sport. In the summer, they have to train every single day to be ready for the season.”

There’s no doubt expectations are tougher on players now than they were ten or twenty years ago. Discussing his new five-year contract, Stamkos says, “Obviously, the expectations are there now. I’ve been in the league for three years now and there’s no excuse that you’re still trying to feel it out. We had a tremendous run at the end of the year and going as far as we did in the playoffs. That experience was new for me. It was such a valuable experience that no one can take away. You know what it takes to win and the sacrifice that you have to have to get yourself, in our case, one win away from the final. So, with the new contract, there’s a little more expectation and I put that on myself the most. I’m not trying to change anything. We’ve got a great thing going in Tampa, with the new ownership, Steve Yzerman and the new coaching staff. We’ve all had a year to really gel and maybe progress a little quicker than expected but now the bar’s been set for our team and we’re looking forward to come out of the gates as strong as we finished last year.”

When asked why he wants to play in the sun belt as opposed to a market where hockey is much more popular, the Markham native attributes his decision to stay based on the “unbelievable” crowds he has witnessed during the recent playoffs. “I think we had 21,00 people a night! It was crazy! The atmosphere was great and for a lot of people who didn’t get to see that and experience that first hand, they don’t know that. You look at when Tampa won the cup, listening to some of the guys that were on that team, they said it was the best place to play hockey and other than the great weather, the fans were unbelievable. The past couple of years have been tough because we haven’t really given them much to cheer about but this past year, we gave the fans a great playoff run and the fans are just as excited about this upcoming year. To me, it’s a great place to play and you have a great balance. There’s not much of a media spotlight and you can go out to dinner, you can go to the mall – there’s a great balance with that. It’s a beautiful place to live too.”

As for what the Lighting needs to do to top the Bruins this year, Stamkos says the team isn’t getting ahead of themselves. “Boston’s a great team, we were so close. But in order to compete in the East, it’s going to be tight this year. We look at what Philly’s gone out and done, we look at what Washington’s done and Boston, who are obviously coming off the Stanley Cup win. You know that all these teams are going to be improving. Winnipeg now, they have a new outlook and you look at Florida with all the new signings – the great thing about our sport is the parity, so many teams are going to be great. We can’t let the success that we had last year get to our heads and the other teams are hopefully going to respect us a little more now. We’re going to get our team’s best every night. We’re a true contender; we believe that and other teams are going to know that heading in.”

The closeness with his teammates is quite evident and Stamkos says video gaming deepens their bond when they’re off the ice. “This year on our team, Call of Duty was a big hit for us. Steve Downey, Ryan Malone, Mike Smith (who is now in Phoenix), a bunch of our trainers and equipment manager, we’d all get online, create an account and have games against each other. It got competitive! We brought Xbox out on the road on long trips and played. It’s fun, not only do we play EA Sports games like NHL but some other games and keep it competitive and loose. It’s a fun way to pass time.”

As for playing the new NHL 12, Stamkos reveals that he and Roenick have already enjoyed a quick, friendly game. “We didn’t play the whole game. I was winning 1-0 and got cut off!”

EA Sports’ NHL 12 will be released in North America on Sept. 13, and will be available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.

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Photo credit: Xbox Canada