FanHouse Ron Hextall

Great commercials in NHL history: A look back at the absurdity and hilarity of NHL advertising campaigns.

We're in the slowest part of the NHL year. The season just ended, the draft is still a week away, and free agency has yet to begin. So, what better time to turn back the clock and unearth some YouTube treasures?

Back in late May, when news surfaced that Sergei Fedorov might be finishing his hockey career in Russia, we took a look back at some of his finer moments in NHL advertising campaigns. Turns out, we missed some.

On Wednesday night, the Penguins and Flyers face off in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs to battle for Keystone State supremacy. It's the fifth time the two teams have met in the postseason. The Flyers won in 1989, '97, and '00, while the Penguins took state bragging rights in the '08 Eastern Conference Finals.

The two teams have a long, and sometimes violent, history with one another, so let's take a trip down memory lane and see just how much these two franchises dislike one another.

The Penguins and Flames played a highly entertaining game on Wednesday night, filled with outstanding goaltending, brutal physicality and an unlikely goal from hulking defenseman Hal Gill. It also featured the most ridiculous one-minute stretch of a team trying to score on an empty net in NHL history.

Trailing, 2-0, the Flames pulled goaltender Miikka Kipprusoff with just over a minute to play in regulation, and the Penguins suddenly became allergic to putting shots on goal.

A couple of weeks ago, TSN hockey analyst Gord Miller came to the conclusion that in order for the Pittsburgh Penguins to remain competitive in the NHL, they would have to deal the league's leading scorer, Evgeni Malkin, for a first-line winger, a No. 2 center, and "hopefully" a pick or a prospect. It was a laughable proposal.

On Sunday night, Rob Rossi, Penguins beat writer for the Tribune-Review, appeared on a weekly Pittsburgh talk show and suggested the team would be wise to put Sidney Crosby on the trade block this offseason. I guess this is what happens when you go from being two wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup to being the No. 10 team in the Eastern Conference in a matter of one season.

Remember Ron Hextall Night? That evening when the Philadelphia Flyers honored one of their most beloved (or reviled, if you don't bleed orange and black) players by inducting him into the franchise's Hall of Fame? The Flyers decided to hold the ceremony between periods of their home game against Washington. As Anthony Sanfilippo of the Delaware County Daily Times reports, that decision has been costly:

The whole plan worked like a charm, except for one thing - the intermission ran a tad long. Those 14 minutes, to be exact. The Capitals' brass wasn't happy, and complained to the league. It didn't matter, though, because the league overseers in Toronto were already miffed when they noticed the game had not restarted at the time it should have.

With a collection of stuffy-shirted undergarments firmly in a snit, the league decided to come down hard on the Flyers and hit them with a $25,000 fine for this infraction.

Sanfilippo argues that the rarity of Hall of Fame and number retirement nights should supersede the rigid rules of the NHL. He also argues that the New York Islanders' 25th anniversary party for its first Stanley Cup team was an even more egregious offender. I really don't understand the outrage: Can it really be called Ron Hextall Night if there wasn't at least some discipline handed down by the NHL?

Fights at hockey games bring most of the fans out of their seats. Even though many modern-day fights are simply a pedestrian dance between two highly-trained 'enforcers', I know that my blood goes a-racin' when two grown men wanna start chucking knuckles in the middle of a hockey match. I'm always hoping for a KO, or at least some bloody chicklets falling to the ice.

Goalie fights? Even better! When goalies go at it, you know they are going to be 1. pissed off and 2. not too skilled at 'the dance', leading to some REAL scraps. None of this slow-dance crap between Georges Laraques and Chris Simon, goalie fights are vicious and emotional.

Here is a video compilation of 5 of the best hockey fights in the recent past.

Garth Snow (pre-GM days) getting scrappy and yappy.
Neil Little, pulling a Superman in a minor league game. Perhaps he was watching a bit too much ECW during his Philly days.
My favorite goalie fight of all time: Patrick Roy getting his smug little face smashed in by little Mike Vernon. Who, other than Avalanche fans and Quebecers, didn't enjoy this scrap?
Felix Potvin? Surprisingly, he gets the upper hand on the grumpy Ron Hextall. Nice.
Lastly, Patrick Roy gets some revenge on Chris Osgood. Listen to the announcer just go frickin' nuts!!

One fight that I would have included in the Top 5 would be (recently demoted) Dan Cloutier throwing bombs on a turtling Tommy Salo. After making Salo his bitch, Cloutier challenges the entire Islanders bench, to which they say, "No thanks, I don't wanna get smacked around like that Swedish meatball over there".