These moves along with others saw the Colts began to turn around their fortune with a playoff appearance in 1995 and 1996.

With the Bruins struggling on the ice and out of playoff contention late in 1996 – 97 season, Oates publicly berated team management: " You go on a trip and everyone says it's a big trip.

This was partly due to a 68 – 7 playoff thumping by the Edmonton Eskimos, and partly because the team had not had a winning record the previous two years, winning only seven games in 1995, and nine in 1996.

The Winnipeg Jets played their last-ever game on April 28, 1996, a home playoff loss to the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 4 – 1.

Perhaps Doan's most memorable moment as a Jet was his seventh and final goal as a Jet which came on April 12th, 1996 during the teams last regular season home game against the Los Angeles Kings, where he scored the game-winning goal in the second period for Winnipeg to make the score 4-2, the game would finish 5-3, and the win clinched a playoff spot for the Jets.

In the first quarter of the playoff game with Carolina, with Shahravan's allegations under active investigation by Dallas police, Irvin suffered a broken collarbone, ending his 1996 season.

The 1996 playoff run for Fuhr ended prematurely as Maple Leafs forward Nick Kypreos ran into him in the crease in the first round, causing him to tear several knee ligaments.

# Most single playoff points by an Avalanche defenseman ( 1996 – 97 ) – 19 ( shared with Rob Blake )

The next season, he played for Russia in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, and was a member of the Red Wings ' first Stanley Cup championship team since 1955, lead in team playoff scoring by contributing 20 points in 20 playoff games for Detroit.

After the lockout Kurri returned to Los Angeles but was traded to New York Rangers in 1996 for their playoff run.

Rhodes ' 118 RBI also led the league as the Buffaloes made an improbable run to the playoffs, finishing second in the Pacific League and making their first playoff appearance since their 1996 Japan Series victory.

The Impact lost to archrivals Rochester in their first four playoff encounters, in 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2003, before finally defeating them in 2004 en route to their second title.

* Former Teams: Detroit Rockers ( NPSL ) 1996 – 01, Detroit Pistons ( NBA ) for one playoff game in 1984 because of venue unavailability, and 15 games in 1985 after the roof collapsed at the Pontiac Silverdome, Detroit Compuware Ambassadors ( OHL ) 1991 – 92, Detroit Junior Red Wings ( OHL ) 1992 – 95, Detroit Drive ( AFL ) 1988 – 93, Detroit Turbos ( MILL ) 1989 – 94, Detroit Shock, ( WNBA ) for playoff games in 2004 and the 2006 WNBA Finals Game 5 when The Palace of Auburn Hills was unavailable because of a concert.

Since 1976, NJSEA buildings have hosted many major events, including seven games of the 1994 World Cup, the 1996 Men's Final Four, NFL playoff games and Super Bowl championship celebrations, the 2002 and 2003 NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals of 1995, 2000, 2001 and 2003, the 1999 Women ’ s World Cup, many other international soccer matches-including Pele's farewell game, a 1995 Papal Mass by Pope John Paul II and countless major concerts.

The PGA Championship introduced the sudden-death playoff to the majors in 1977 and used it seven times through 1996.

The Bills won every ensuing playoff game at the stadium until they were defeated by the Jacksonville Jaguars on December 28, 1996.

" Lemieux's title of being a dirty player was solidified in a 1996 incident with the Avalanche when Lemieux checked Kris Draper of the Detroit Red Wings into the boards from behind during a playoff series.

In doing so the Timbers became the first team to post a perfect PDL regular season record since the Jackson Chargers in 1998, the first regular season champion to win the playoffs since the Central Coast Roadrunners in 1996, and the first team in PDL history to go through an entire PDL regular season and playoff campaign without posting a loss or a tie.

* Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League ( AHL ); the Flyers ' AHL development club played some regular season and Calder Cup playoff games at the Center each season between 1996 and 2009 when the Spectrum was unavailable because of other events.

So far, Detroit's 20 consecutive playoff appearances ranks tied for fifth in league history after 29 consecutive trips by the Boston Bruins from 1967 – 1968 to 1995 – 1996, 28 consecutive trips by the Chicago Blackhawks from 1969 – 1970 through 1996 – 1997, 25 consecutive appearances by the St. Louis Blues from 1979 – 1980 to 2003 – 2004, 24 and 21 consecutive berths by the Montreal Canadiens from 1970 – 1971 to 1993 – 1994 and 1948 – 1949 through 1968 – 1969 respectively as well as tied with their own streak of 20 seasons from 1938 – 1939 to 1957 – 1958.

Sanders proceeded to play four more seasons with Dallas, earning Pro Bowl berths in all of them, though the Cowboys would only win one playoff game ( in 1996 against the Minnesota Vikings ) during that time.

* The Ark is one of four relics that must be recovered in the 1996 science fiction adventure game Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages.

In 1996, Atari shut down its internal game development.

Last Bronx, a 1996 Sega game played on the bad reputation of the Bronx to lend its name to an alternate version of post-Japanese bubble Tokyo, where crime and gang warfare is rampant.

Ports of the game were released for the Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari ST, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Sharp X68000, PC ( MS-DOS, 1989 and 1996 ), Apple II, FM Towns Marty, Sega Master System, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom Disk System, Sega Game Gear, mobile phone ( Sprint PCS ), Texas Instruments TI-8x series of calculators and UltraCade's Taito Arcade Classics.

Notably in 1996, tickets for every home game for the Indians sold out before opening day.

In 1996, programmer Kevin Horton released the first homebrew game for the ColecoVision, a Tetris clone entitled Kevtris .< ref name =" kevtris ">

In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the fifth best video game of all time.

The popularity of Doom led to the development of a sequel, Doom II: Hell on Earth ( 1994 ), as well as expansion packs and alternate versions based on the same game engine, including The Ultimate Doom ( 1995 ), Final Doom ( 1996 ), and Doom 64 ( 1997 ).

A Doom-based game called Chex Quest was released in 1996 by Ralston Foods as a promotion to increase cereal sales, and the United States Marine Corps released Marine Doom, designed to " teach teamwork, coordination and decision-making ".

* Plutonium PAK / Atomic Edition: The Atomic Edition of Duke Nukem 3D was released in November 1996, and contained the original 3 episode game as well as a new eleven-level fourth episode.

Also in 1996, Devo also released a multimedia CD-ROM adventure game, The Adventures of the Smart Patrol with Inscape.

Development of EverQuest began in 1996 when Sony Interactive Studios America ( SISA ) executive John Smedley secured funding for a 3D game much like text-based MUDs following the successful launch of Meridian 59 the previous year.

In 1996, STATS, Inc., a major statistical provider to fantasy sports companies, won a court case, along with Motorola, on appeal against the NBA in which the NBA was trying to stop STATS from distributing in game score information via a special wireless device created by Motorola.

Golem is the evolved form of Graveler, who is in turn the evolved form of Geodude, and they all first appeared in the 1996 game Pokémon Red and Blue.

In the 1996 World Cup, he scored 78 and 45 * against New Zealand and Pakistan respectively as South Africa won their group but in the Quarter final with West Indies a Brian Lara century ended their ten game winning streak.

He voiced the gargoyle Hugo in Disney's 1996 animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, its direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, and the video game Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

The Kansas City Wiz played their first game on April 13, 1996, defeating the Colorado Rapids at Arrowhead Stadium.

* A playable character in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, a 1996 adventure / console role-playing game

Nights into Dreams ... ( trademarked NiGHTS into DREAMS ...), is a video game released by Sega in 1996 for the Sega Saturn video game system.

At the time of its release, Nights into Dreams was the top-selling game for the Saturn, and was the 21st highest selling game in Japan for the year 1996.

Edge gave it a score of 8 / 10 in its original 1996 review of the game, and in its October 2003 issue the magazine's staff placed Nights in its list of the ten greatest platform games.

Next Generation Magazine ranked the game 25th in its list of the " 100 Greatest Games of All-Time " in the September 1996 issue.

* Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands, a 1996 PC based adventure game, the 11th in the 1977 Zork series