Oilers celebrate Nugent-Hopkins's 1,000th NHL game

Everyone was No. 93 on Sunday.

The Edmonton Oilers took to imitation as a form of flattery to celebrate forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’s 1,000th NHL game, which came against the St. Louis Blues at Rogers Place.

During warmups, Nugent-Hopkins’s teammates all dressed up in his No. 93 sweaters, then copied his everyday warmup routine.

The special warmup jerseys even came with a “Nugent-Hopkins 1000 NHL games” shoulder patch.

Before warmups, Oilers players all rocked special “Nuge” sweaters during arrivals.

Once everyone got their pads on and got warmed-up, the team put on a special pregame ceremony for the 32-year-old forward.

The ceremony included a video to Nugent-Hopkins showing highlights from his career, then went through congratulatory messages from former and current teammates and friends.

Joining him on the ice for the ceremony was his dad, Roger, mom, Deb, brother, Adam, wife Breanne, and their daughter, Lennon.

After the montage video played, Nugent-Hopkins’s Oilers teammates presented him with a custom Rolex watch and had flowers for his mom and wife.

Oilers general manager Stan Bowman presented Nugent-Hopkins with a Tiffany crystal on behalf of the NHL.

CEO and president of hockey operations Jeff Jackson presented him with the customary silver stick, then Zach Hyman gave a mini silver stick to his daughter.

Hyman presented a second silver stick to the family, for Nugent-Hopkins’s next child, who is due in just a few weeks.

To cap off the celebration, Nugent-Hopkins got the scoring started for the Oilers late in the first period.

Nugent-Hopkins came into the league as the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft to the Oilers. On Sunday, he became the first player to reach the 1,000-game milestone exclusively with the Oilers.

“I think if you can get to this point in your career, play 1,000 games in this league, things have to go right for you and you have stick with a lot of it, and I’m very proud to be able to have done it,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Obviously, coming in as the first pick, there’s a lot of expectations and talk around you, but what I started to learn is that I’m just who I am, and I can’t control the outside things and I’m going to be the player that I’m going to be and try to be the best version of myself.”

-- NHL.com Staff Writer Derek Van Diest contributed to this report