Knuckle Puck: Booby-Trapped Center Ice Logo Foils Sharks

Each and every Saturday this season I'll be taking a look at the random happenings and absurdities that occur in the world of hockey. Feel free to suggest stories, complain or otherwise babble at me via electronic mail.

When the Sharks hired Wile E. Coyote as Director of On-Ice Hijinks last summer, I don't think this is how they envisioned it working out. But then again, when you're working with Mr. Coyote, not much does.

With the Hawks already up 2-0, Patrick Sharp blocks a shot and goes the other way with the puck. Sharks defender Jason Demers falls down, tripping over the logo at center ice, and Sharp beats Evgeni Nabokov to make it 3-0 on the way to a 7-2 win for Chicago. Of course, Wile E. Coyote wasn't really involved, but when Demers tripped over the logo -- in classic cartoon hijinks fashion -- to give the Hawks their third shorthanded goal of the game, didn't it see like the cartoon coyote was a part of it? The home team's well-placed booby trap at center ice backfires and works against them? Sure seems like the work of Mr. Coyote (skip to the 1:30 mark of the video).

Double Bonus YouTube of the Week
John Tavares returned to Toronto Monday night for the first time since being drafted by the Islanders. He had lots of friends and family in attendance and was constantly trailed by a media circus. But he did take the time to do a long press conference with the media. In true Toronto media fashion, the press conference took place in front of infinite space as a metaphor for how great their love of Tavares is.

Knuckle Pucker of the Year Nominee
Each week, we'll nominate someone who deserves to be recognized for their outstanding service and commitment to giving me something to write about. By the end of the year I'll come up with some way to declare a winner. Today's nominee is...

... Nova Scotia! A judge in the Canadian province recently chastised a few of its citizens for swinging their golf clubs like hockey playing movie character Happy Gilmore (there's the tenuous connection to hockey for ya). How that came about was thanks to a bachelor party gone awry, where a drunken groomsman hit another in the wrist after taking a tee shot like Adam Sandler's famous character. The groomsman who got hit sued and the case made its way through the court system, eventually awarding the plaintiff a cool quarter million. But the judge decided to rail against Gilmore's trademark swing in the process rather than comment on the fact that it's really just a bunch of drunken shenanigans.

"I am convinced that the "Happy Gilmore" shot," wrote Judge Le Blanc in his decision, "would have been less controllable than a normal tee shot, both because it involved a run-up to the ball (rather than an aimed shot from a stationary position) and because the defendant had been drinking throughout the day."

You don't say?