Most uncommon thing ever happened in hockey

[Thibaj]

During the Canadiens/Nordiques rivalry, in the Colisée de Québec, Guy Carbonneau removing the O'keefe ad glued on the boards in front of the Habs bench with rage in his eyes during a game. Of course O'keefe was the Nordiques beer and sponsor, while Molson was the owner of the Canadiens at that time.

Also the bench claring brawls after the second period AND before the third period during another Canadiens/Nordiques game in 1984... The Good Friday game.

That was quite a rivalry!

 

[Ducks_è_Halos]

When Dale Hunter's stick got stuck in the boards, he went to steal some goalies stick and tried to play with it. The ref stopped the game though immediately.

Dale Hunter now coaches the London Knights and when I was listening to one of their games last season, Corey Perry did a similar thing when his stick broke...forgot exactly what it was though.

 

[justsomeguy]

The WHA Philadelphia Blazers handed out souvenir orange pucks to celebrate their inaugural game. Unfortunately the game was not played because the Zamboni fell through the ice. Guess what the fans did with the pucks?

One night in MSG, referee, Wally Harris awarded penalties for dancing to two players who had dropped their gloves and circled for over a minute with no blows being exchanged. Crowd roared with laughter and Rangers coach, Emile Francis almost wet himself when the penalties were announced. NHL president, Clarence Campbell, later to embark on a life of crime was not amused.

Legendary wildman, Howie Young, once came out in a Beatle wig to the great amusement of the fans assembled and removed it to show off his new do, a mohawk, pretty radical tonsure for the mid-sixties.

 

[octopi]

I don't remember the player' s name but I'm sure a Kings fan will help me out:

A Kings player loses his stick, then gets hooked by a player on the opposing team, rips the guy's stick away, uses it for a while and goes back to his own bench for a change (while still holding the opposing player's stick). The guy whose stick he stole chases the Kings' player just as he's about to change and punches him in the back of the head, earning a penalty for his troubles. He really complained to the ref about that one. I believe the Kings scored on the ensuing PP.

Oh, yeah, I forgot:

When the Ducks first came into the NHL, on their TV broadcasts every time a Duck would score, an animated Tinkerbell would fly in and tap the scorer with her magic wand, sending a shower of sparks everywhere. No lie.

I remember that. Hey, nobody's listed the awful "comet puck" yet

 

[MS]

I don't remember the player' s name but I'm sure a Kings fan will help me out:

A Kings player loses his stick, then gets hooked by a player on the opposing team, rips the guy's stick away, uses it for a while and goes back to his own bench for a change (while still holding the opposing player's stick). The guy whose stick he stole chases the Kings' player just as he's about to change and punches him in the back of the head, earning a penalty for his troubles. He really complained to the ref about that one. I believe the Kings scored on the ensuing PP.

I recall this happening to Peter Stastny once. I thought Claude Lemieux was the player who stole the stick but I could be wrong on that, though.

Craig Janney picking up the puck behind the net, skating out in front and throwing the puck into the net, and it counted. It was on Don Cherry's 1994 Rock 'Em Sock 'Em.

This was Nelson Emerson, not Janney. The best part was that it was the OT winner, and it was so blatantly obvious it was unreal. The game was Chicago vs. Winnipeg, and Darryl Sutter nearly had an aneurysm. Funny stuff.

 

[ukflame]

One of my favorites happened here in the UK in the late 80's at Whitley Bay. Whitley fans had a reputation for being un welcoming at the best of times and for players, officials and fans of a delicate state of mind it was definately a place to avoid. Due to the lowly stature of pro-hockey in this country at the time it was not uncommon to have the same referee for a large chunk of your games in your season as referees were assigned based on geographical proximity. One referee in particular Mick Curry had not exactly endeared himself to the Whitley faithful due to his previous calling of games, that coupled with the fact he originated from the same region as Whitley's fiercest rivals at the time made him a target of the crowds abuse..

The local rumour mill had been in action and word had spread that Micks wife was a little tired of never having him home at weekends as he was always away officiating a game, as a result she had decided to 'find alternative outlets for her marital activities' while Mick was busy with his whistle. This news was like shaking a red rag at a bull for the Whitley fans and in particular one fan who proceeded to taunt Mr Curry at every possible opportunity about his wifes affair. At first Mick took the taunts in good humour but eventually his resolve snapped at which point he vaulted the boards, (plexi was a luxury here in the late 80's) ran up the stand and proceeded to lay into the guy with a barrage of fists. IIRC the fans around him were in hysterics..so much so it was left to the Linesmen and a couple of players to come and pull him off..

I've often heard of, and seen footage of players laying into fans but never the ref...

Sadly Mick, god rest his soul, died in a crash on the way to a game a few years later but he is definately remembered with fondness not only for the stories around him but for his devotion to the game in this country.

 

[Oilers1*]

When Brian Boucher was a Flyer, and in goal in the playoffs against the Penguins (?), he took a slapshot in the face and the puck ended up getting wedged between the grill in his mask. They actually had to remove it, and jimmy it out with a screwdriver.

Can't recall who it was, but there was an incident a few years back where a bouncing puck went straight up into the air. . .and then down into a player's hockey pants. They were looking for it for sometime until another player came over and told them where it was.

Watching Keith and Wayne Primeau beat the **** out of each other was funny, too.

 

[Hasbro]

In a WHA game Dave Hanson got into a fight with Bobby Hull. In clinch Hanson blindly grabbed Hull's toupee and pulled it off. Hair pulling was an automatic game misconduct, but since Hanson technicaly didn't pull Hull's hair he didn't get kicked out. Hull returned wearing a large helmet.

 

[Seachd]

There was one time Mike Modano got injured, and they had to put him on a stretcher. As the paramedics were loading him into the ambulance, they dropped him. The camera caught it all. Ouch.

There's actually at least a couple good books on stories like these ones being brought up: It Happened in Hockey, More It Happened in Hockey, and Still More it Happened in Hockey, all by Brian McFarlane. Very interesting books.

 

[Hasbro]

One strange thing I saw in person was a the Western Regional two years ago. Holy Cross versus North Dakota, the Crusaders goalie just lifted his mask and puked on the ice, stayed in for about another five minutes. Some good heckling there "You can't drink like you're at sea level lightweight."

 

[EventHorizon]

There was one time Mike Modano got injured, and they had to put him on a stretcher. As the paramedics were loading him into the ambulance, they dropped him. The camera caught it all. Ouch.

Wow, I remember watching that game. It was against the Rangers. I remember Sam and JD not knowing what to say. I think Sam finally managed to get out 'I....I can't believe we just saw that', or something like that.

 

[silver_made*]

Ducks fans may be able to fine tune this story, but here it is...

The game was televised on ESPN and Bobby Dollas was playing for Anaheim. Dollas rips a slapshot from way out, misses, and play continues ordinarily. The refs stop the game after several minutes had been played since Dollas' 'missed shot.' Upon further review not only did Bobby not miss on his shot, it went into the goal and ripped through the netting in the back of the goal.

The coolest part was no one, no player/fan/announcer even questioned the shot at the time, until minutes later when an Anaheim player noticed a rip in the net and notified an on-ice official.

 

[Seth Lake]

On my only trip to MSG, the Rangers were hosting the Penguins during a Sunday afternoon matchup nationally televised on FOX.

In the second intermission the on-ice activities took place and then the Zambonis came out and did their thing. When the referees came back onto the ice with about 3:00 to go in the intermission they noticed something wrong with the ice...

One of the Zambonis had accidentially driven over one of the goal post pegs and dragged it around the ice as they cleaned the ice... There were multiple large ruts the length of the rink.

The players came onto the ice, but only after the linesmen stopped them at the gate and told them to watch their step...almost 90 minutes later...after every player (including Jagr), official, and available employee of MSG helped fill the ruts(the players spent about 10 minutes on the rink before going back into the locker room) the game resumed.

Fox actually dropped the telecast in all but the NY/NJ market due to time constraints. In the rink they showed the other two games that were on Fox and even reopened the concession stands, eventually giving away all soft drinks and 50% off of some food items.

It was something that I've never seen happen before and was definitely one of those odd events.

Back to Malarchuk, personally I'm amazed he ever returned from that injury. I remember when that happened. I was a new hockey fan, but remember seeing it on SportsCenter when it happened.

In the meantime, I saw former Ranger Johan Witehall get his wrist stepped on by a player's skate and also an official's hand stepped on as well. Both turned ghastly white, but skated off calmly to the locker room.

 

[Hasbro]

No ****?! I was at that game too.

 

[Douggy]

In the meantime, I saw former Ranger Johan Witehall get his wrist stepped on by a player's skate and also an official's hand stepped on as well. Both turned ghastly white, but skated off calmly to the locker room.

That happened to Audette too, but he wasn't exactly calm. He was so focused on getting to the locker room he backed into a door to push it open, except it was a 'pull' door.

 

[Macman]

I'll always remember a game from 1970 or '71 between the Leafs and Rangers in New York. It might have been a playoff game. Anyway, a huge bench-clearing brawl broke out, one of the craziest I've ever seen, and at some point a Ranger player took Bernie Parent's mask and threw it into the crowd. Parent didn't have a replacement and was unable to continue.

 

[NYC Aim 4588]

Well, it was uncommon... The Clint Malarchuk 'incident' ...

Pic Not Safe for the Faint at Heart

All I can say is WOW, that is some scary scary ****.

 

[arrbez]

Didn't Gordie Howed fight in an all-star game?

 

[CrAzYNiNe]

Didn't Gordie Howed fight in an all-star game?

I think Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard fought in an all-star game

 

[Islanders4Life*]

When the helicopter crashed through the arena roof during Game Seven of the Cup Finals.

Haha I was gonna say when the hell did this happen then I read the next post and was reminded of that awful movie....

 

[ProctorSilex]

- Manon Rheaume playing in a game was pretty messed up.
- Minnesota Wild letting TV host Dan Moriarty lace them up for a shift

 

[12# Peter Bondra]

- Minnesota Wild letting TV host Dan Moriarty lace them up for a shift

I saw that. He even checked Paul Kariya that game along the boards. Enough considering he only played about 15 seconds.

 

[Galchenkel]

I saw that. He even checked Paul Kariya that game along the boards. Enough considering he only played about 15 seconds.

Yeah! I Remember when he checked Kariya. Pretty funny when you remember Moriarty playing at NHL level and wasn't able to skate.

 

[Steelhead16]

I forgot about a minor league game I went to when I was a kid. It was the late 70's back in the Pacific Hockey League or Pacific Coast League or whatever it was called that year, they kept changing their name. It was in San Francisco at the Cow Palace and the San Francisco Shamrocks were playing the Phoenix Roadrunners. Jeff Carlson (Jeff Hanson from Slap Shot) was on the Roadrunners. It was a crazy league no glass around the boards just chain link fence. A promotion some genious came up with one night was "Navel Orange Night". They gave everyone who showed up (2000 ish) a bag of oranges on the way IN to the game. There were about 15 oranges in each bag and as each Roadrunner goal was scored or each penalty was called or just after each beer, oranges rained down on the ice from all directions. My friend was one of the linesmen that night and I remember him breaking up a fight and just getting pelted with oranges. I was only about 15 or 16 then but it was the funniest thing I have ever seen at a hockey game. The rats in Florida used to remind me of that game when the goalies used to hide in their net to keep from getting hit. Good times!!!

 

[Pantokrator]

During the Hurricanes first season, at a pre-season game (or the home opener in Greensboro), they were going to unveil the new mascot. During one of the intermissions, the Zamboni comes out, sits at center ice, and it's front opens up. The crowd is wondering what the heck is going on, but then you notice there are two large mascot legs in the opening of the zamboni, just laying there twitching. After a couple of minutes of this, the driver, confused, drives out of the rink, leaving everyone in the arena confused as to what just transpired. It ended up that the mascot, who was supposed to come out of the zamboni, had a panic attack, and just lay in there convulsing and twitching.... It's a dumb mascot anyway.