Life on the road in the NHL leads to a great deal of ribbing between teammates.
From rubber reptiles hidden in coolers to staging fake interviews, hockey players will take the necessary (or occasionally unnecessary) steps for a laugh.
Here are several of the more memorable pranks between teammates that have come to light over the years.
For more Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada content, check out our hub page
Weise falls victim to the old water bottle gag
You should always ensure the cap is firmly in place before consuming liquids on the bench. If not, you could end up wearing Gatorade like Dale Weise.
The Montreal Canadiens clown prince of mischief
If former Montreal Canadiens great Guy Lapointe isn’t the godfather of NHL pranks then he’s at least an honoured member of the mischief Hall of Fame.
Montreal Gazette columnist Dave Stubbs detailed Lapointe’s affinity for hi-jinx in a November column:
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once paid a visit to a victorious Canadiens dressing room to congratulate the team. Lapointe carefully coated his own palm with Vaseline and with a firm grip of his huge hand he slimed the leader of the country.
“He was kind of surprised,” Lapointe said, grinning. “He laughed. I mean, what are you going to do? Then I gave him a towel.”
He once pranked his own coach, Scotty Bowman, at a Verdun Auditorium practice, tucking a whistle into his glove and skating in the pack, secretly blowing it to cut short skating drills. After a few aborted sprints, Bowman had gone from puzzlement to confusion to anger and soon was scanning the stands for a troublemaking fan with a whistle. Who didn’t exist.
Flyers snake prank
Derek Settlemyre, the head equipment manager of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, pulled off a great halloween prank this past October. Settlemyre left a rubber cobra snake in one of the team’s coolers, which nearly every member of the Flyers caught a scare from while reaching for a refreshing beverage.
Primeau becomes Primeaov
Keith Primeau is not a Russian. Some of his former Detroit Red Wings teammates made him an honourary Russian once, though.
The Toronto, Ont., native once took the ice for the pre-game skate wearing a ‘Primeaov’ tag on his nameplate, fitting right in with the likes of Sergei Fedorov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Igor Larionov, Viacheslav Fetisov, and Vladimir Konstantinov.
Dumping on Shayne Corson’s car
Shayne Corson joined the OHL Brantford Alexanders team as a teenager back in 1983. Corson’s attitude didn’t sit well with the likes of tough guys Bob Probert and Todd Francis, so they took it upon themselves to send the cocky kid a message.
From Bob Probert’s autobiography (with Kirstie McLellan Day), “Tough Guy – My Life on the Edge”:
“Shayne was the number one draft pick of Brantford in 1983. That fall, he showed up at camp driving a brand new Camara Z28. He was cocky as s—, so after practice, Todd went out and s— on the hood of his car to show him, “You know what? You’re an a–hole. You need to walk the line here.” S— on his brand new car, right on the hood. Shayne didn’t know who did it. It didn’t straighten him out, of course. Shayne was pissed, but he just laughed it off. He had to clean up the hood himself with a couple of paper towels, still full of attitude.”
Ryan Jones orchestrates hilarious overhead baggage prank
Former Edmonton Oilers winger Ryan Jones filmed his teammate Linus Omark taking a scare from a flight attendant hiding in an overhead baggage compartment prior to lift off.
Beaulieu skates alone
One of the oldest tricks in the book is to let a rookie think he’s leading the team out onto the ice… only to have him take a few laps on his own.
The Montreal Canadiens got Nathan Beaulieu with this classic in 2013.
Sim gets Puck’d
Luc Robitaille led his former Los Angeles teammate Jon Sim to believe he was being interviewed as part of a FOX Sports segment. Instead, Sim plays the punchline to an Ashton Kutcher “Punk’d” inspired prank.
You’ve been Puck’d.
Tormented Toews
The Chicago Blackhawks seem to have a quite a bit of fun together. Early in his career, captain Jonathan Toews was the target of a great deal of ribbing from teammate Patrick Sharp.
Of all the pranks Sharp has pulled off on Toews, this one he described on ESPN Radio back in 2011 was one of the better ones.
“It was kind of mean, but I think that’s what makes practical jokes funny,” Sharp told The Waddle & Silvy Show. “We’re sitting around Buffalo [during the 2007-08 season] at a team dinner. It was about 6 or 8 of us at a table. I stole Jonathan [Toews’] phone when he was at the bathroom and changed Brent Seabrook’s contact information to a girl that he was seeing the same name, so when he came back to the table I had Seabs’ phone and I was texting Toews from it, saying, ‘Hey this is so-and-so, we need to talk, I think I might be pregnant.’
“All the guys at the table were in on the joke and they were kind of looking at his face to see his reaction. He didn’t give it away like something bad was happening, but you could tell, his mouth opened pretty wide and he slid away from the table and his face went white. It turned out to be a pretty good one.”
