The NHL's Top Goal Horns

In recent years, goal horns have become all the rage at hockey arenas. Most junior, college, minor league, and professional arenas have a horn of some sort. It blares at a usually high volume whenever the home team scores. At some rinks, the horn also goes off when the home team takes the ice, or when they win a game.

Since the goal horn has become as much a part of the arena atmosphere as the organ used to be, it seems like a good time to rank the best of the best around the NHL. The top five, with obligatory YouTubes, are after the jump.

Honorable Mention

Carolina Hurricanes, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators

No. 5: New York Rangers

We tend to lean toward cool sounds, but this is also about tradition. No matter what other arenas sound like, there is one goal horn that is probably familiar to even people who don't follow hockey.

With apologies to all fans who feel nothing but general annoyance when the Rangers score, we can't pass up the old horn at Madison Square Garden.

No. 4: Washington Capitals

Some might call it loud and irritating. However, there are two better descriptions for the horn at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Unique and cool.

It sounds more like a remix than a goal horn, but it's played every time the Capitals score. Lately, that means it's played a lot for the league's best player (well, he's at least in the top three).

No. 3: Chicago Blackhawks

After what he experienced in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals last season, Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo probably disagrees. It's reasonable to think he goes to sleep with this sound in his head, and he probably wakes up to it, too.

Patrick Kane scored a hat trick that night, part of a seven-goal Chicago barrage that ended Luongo's season. Even without that, the United Center is home to one of the older horns in the game, one that simply has to be on a list like this.

No. 2: Calgary Flames

It's hard to say what the Flames' horn sounds like, which is a good thing. It's one of a kind in the NHL. It's not ear-piercing (at least on television), and it sounds really good when you mix it with 20,000 happy Flames fans.

No. 1: Edmonton Oilers

In a way, it's fitting that the best goal horns come from Canada. At virtually every turn, those folks treat this great game the right way.

They might not win the Battle of Alberta on the ice, but they win it with their ambience. Not only are the fans at Rexall Place fully capable of singing the national anthem on their own, but they have easily the coolest-sounding goal horn in the league.

Hockey fans in America heard plenty of it in 2006, as the Oilers went on their magical run to the Stanley Cup Finals.