AFX, I know what you mean. My buddy and I would play for hours on end. When I was 15, I had an old digital clock from the late 70's that got rained on. It gave me the coolest malfuction... I could set it for 10 mins and it would count down, second by second, and the the alarm would go off at zero. We would play 3, 10 min periods... we'd even keep a scorebook for later trash talking rights. My buddy was 2 yrs older than me and when he went into the Navy, my table hockey playing days were over. In those days, most of the games came with the Rangers vs the Canadians, but I painted one set... to your dreaded Bruins. I grew up in NJ but for some reason I was a big Bruins fans back then. I think it was because I liked Cheevers face mask when I was a kid. Brad Park was one of my favorites too.
We got very good at the game... 2 player, even the occasional 3 player passing plays, tips ins, rebounds passed back and then re-shot. I wish video cameras were as cheap and easy to come by back then as they are now, we would have had a whole playoff series, complete with instant replay highlights..lol! Like you, I had one of those old record players that would just keep replaying the same record over and over again until you got up and changed it, for us it was the Beatle White album, side one. (back in ther ussr, dear prudence, glass onion, bungalow bill, etc) We wore out both, hockey game and album.
I even did a photo essay on it for my high school photography class... posing players (as best one can win thin flat metal players), setting up passing plays, cheesy as all hell, but I got a "B" on it. I wish I could find those pics now.... it would really be a laugh!
This one buddy and I would compete at anything, all day long.... in the foul weather, it was table hockey and electric baseball, in nice weather it was whiffle ball. Man, we'd play from noon to supper, day in and day out. Those were the days.
I hope Heaven is real and it allows us to go back and relive all the good days from our lives again and again, THAT would be Heaven to me.