In the long history of the NHL there have been many moments that the league wished never happened. Some on my list are of course made tongue-in-cheek, and I only restricted myself to 100.
Do you have any other examples of incidents in the NHL that led to bad publicity or was just embarrassing to the league in general, sad stuff, or stuff that happened behind closed doors that the league tried to put a lid on?
1918 – “Montreal Arena in flames” – Montreal Wanderers
1919 – “Spanish influenza” – Joe Hall / Stanley Cup Finals
1921 – “Senators leaving the ice / Smeaton resigning” – Ottawa Senators / Cooper Smeaton
1922 – “One man war” – Sprague Cleghorn vs Ottawa Senators
1925 – “Roar of the Tiger players” – Hamilton Tigers / Frank Calder
1926 – “”Tuberculosis” - Georges Vézina
1927 – “Suspended for life” – Billy Coutu
1931 – “Rig it big nose Harry” – Harry Acker / Alec Connell / Bill Dwyer / The Mob
1933 – “Fractured skull” - Eddie Shore / Ace Bailey
1933 – “First forfeited game” – Tommy Gorman vs Bill Stewart / Boston vs Chicago
1937 – “Broken leg and death” – Howie Morenz
1939-45 - "World War II" - NHL - Added by BigBadBruins7708
1943 – “Three heart attacks” – Frank Calder
1946 – “Betting on his own team” – Babe Pratt
1948 – “Banned for life” – Don Gallinger / Billy Taylor
1955 – “The Richard Riot” – Maurice Richard / Clarence Campbell
1957 – “Birth of a players’ union” - Ted Lindsay / Doug Harvey and others
1959 – “All-time low move by Jack Adams” – Jack Adams / Billy McNeill
1959 - "Officiating Mess" - Red Storey / Calrence Campbell - Added by Canadiens1958
1963 – "Officiating mess” – Eddie Powers / Clarence Campbell / Toe Blake
1968 – “On ice fatality” – Bill Masterton
1968 – “Stick swinging I” – Larry Zeidel / Eddie Shack
1969 – “Stick swinging II” – Wayne Maki / Ted Green
1970 – “CKPG-TV shootout” – Roy Spencer vs the Police
1972 – “Rival WHA” – WHA vs NHL
1974 – “Lawsuit costing the NHL $ 4000 per day” – Barry van Gerbig / California Golden Seals vs NHL
1975 – “On-ice assaults” – Dan Maloney vs Brian Glennie & Dave Forbes vs Henry Boucha
1977 – “No salary = No game / lawsuit” – Mel Swig / Cleveland Barons / NHL
1977 – “Sky shops bribe” – Clarence Campbell / Louis Giguére / NHL
1977 – “Paying for cars, NY apartment & first class trips” – National Hockey League Services / NHL / Don Ruck
1978 – “No letters on my jerseys” – NHL vs Harold Ballard / Toronto Maple Leafs
1978 – “First NHL player to be arrested on drug charges” – Don Murdoch
1978 - "Finito after 14 knee operations" - Bobby Orr - Added by BobbyAwe
1979 – “Soviet Union-NHL All-Stars 6-0” – Soviet Union / Challenge Cup / NHL
1979 - "The Shoe" - Mike Milbury / Boston Bruins / New York fans - Added by Filthy Dangles
1981 – “Stuck in a seat” - Barry Tabobondung / NHL draft / Philadelphia Flyers
1981 – “Soviet Union-Canada 8-1” – Soviet Union / Canada / Canada Cup
1982 – “The light bulb” - Pete Peeters / Jay Greenberg
1982 – “The sucker punch” – Jimmy Mann vs Paul Gardner
1982 - "Brain Aneurysm" - Normand Léveillé - Added by Sadekuuro
1982 – "Mulvey refusing to fight" - Paul Mulvey / Don Perry / Los Angeles Kings - Added by Iron Mike Sharpe
1982 – "Harry Neale duking it out with fans" - Harry Neale / Vancouver Canucks - Added by Iron Mike Sharpe
1983 – “Lawsuit – counter-suit & draft forfeit” – Ralston Purina / NHL / St.Louis Blues
1983 – “To any who now use, or may want to use, illegal drugs, we say this: We do not want you. Get out and stay out of our business – John Ziegler” – Ric Nattress
1983 – “Mickey Mouse organization” – Wayne Gretzky / New Jersey Devils
1984 - "Drunk driving fatal accident" - Craig MacTavish - Added by MeHateHe
1984 - "Good Friday Massacre" - Québec Nordiques / Montreal Canadiens - Added by MXD
1984 – “No handshake, No Jersey” – Mario Lemieux / Pittsburgh Penguins
1985 - "Porsche + Alcohol = Bad combination" - Pelle Lindbergh - Added by Bear of Bad News
1986 – “Oilers flying high – Off the ice as well as on” - Sports Illustrated / Edmonton Oilers
1987 – “Quinngate” – Pat Quinn / John Ziegler / Los Angeles / Vancouver
1987 - "Punch-up in Piestany" - Canada / Soviet Union / NHL draft picks - Added by MeHateHe
1987 & 1988 – “Indecent exposure & stick attack” – Dino Ciccarelli
1988 – “Babysitter” – Doug Gilmour
1988 – “Have another donut” – Jim Schoenfeld / Don Koharski / Referees on strike
1988 – “Boston Garden Blackout” – Boston / Edmonton
1989 – “Slashed throat” – Clint Malarchuk
1990 – “Caps PR-disaster” – Dino Ciccarelli / Neil Sheehy / Geoff Courtnall & (Scott Stevens)
1991 – “No thanks !” - Eric Lindros / Quebec Nordiques
1992 – “Ambush marketing” – NHL vs Pepsi-Cola
1992 – “Selecting three ineligible players” – Mel Bridgman (GM) / Ottawa Senators
1992 – “10-day NHL Strike” – NHLPA vs NHL
1992 – “NHL loses pension suit” – Ex-NHL’ers vs NHL
1993 – “Late hit” – Dale Hunter / Pierre Turgeon
1993 – “Chairman of the NHL Board of Governors & Jail” – Bruce McNall
1993 – “Problem with Russian mafia” – Several Russian NHL-ers
1994 – “The Eagle have crashlanded” – Carl Brewer and others vs Alan Eagleson
1994 – “103-day lockout” – NHLPA vs NHL
1995 – “No Mas!” – Patrick Roy / Mario Tremblay / Ronald Corey
1995 – “He shoots, he scores !” – Brendan Shanahan / Craig Janney & Jeff Brown / Kirk McLean
1996 – “Predator” – Graham James
1996 – “Foxtrax” – Glowing puck
1996 – “Swindler” - John Spano / NY Islanders / NHL
1996 – “The hit” – Claude Lemieux / Kris Draper
1997 – “Hot under the collar” - Dominik Hasek / Jim Kelley / Ted Nolan
1997 – “Sex scandal comes to light” – Toronto Maple Leafs
1998 – “The party incident” - Mark Messier / Pavel Bure
1998 – “Going berserk in Japan” – Bill Guerin / Keith Tkachuk / Jeremy Roenick / Chris Chelios / Brett Hull / Doug Weight
1998 – “You said what?” – Bobby Hull
1999 – “No goal” – Dallas Stars / Buffalo Sabres / Gary Bettman / Bryan Lewis
1999 – “Assault in Chicago” – George McPhee vs Lorne Molleken
2000 – “P-tute and a pipe” – Kevin Stevens
2000 – “Casanova getting clocked” - Eric Lindros / Rod Brind’Amour / Rick Tocchet
2000 – “Lumberjack” – Marty McSorley / Donald Brashear
2001 – “9/11” – Garnet “Ace” Bailey / Mark Bavis / USA
2002 – “Freak accident” – Espen Knutsen / Young hockey fan
2003 – “Ferrari” – Danny Heatley / Dan Snyder
2004 – “Unprovoked attack” – Todd Bertuzzi / Steve Moore
2004 – “Murder for hire” – Mike Danton / Dave Frost
2004 – “Loans & Lawsuit” – Andy van Hellemond / Mark Faucette / NHL
2005 – “Season officially cancelled” – NHLPA vs NHL
2006 – “Operation Slapshot” – Rick Tocchet / Jeremy Roenick / Travis Green
2007 & 2008 - “E-mail controversy - There must be a way to get rid of this guy” – Colin Campbell / Dean Warren / NHL
2008 – “The Avery Rule & Sloppy Seconds” – Sean Avery
2009 – “Coyotes bankruptcy” – Phoenix Coyotes / Jerry Moyes / NHL
2009 – “20 cents” – Patrick Kane
2009 - "Management issues" - Len Barrie / Oren Koules / Tampa Bay Lightning - Added by MeHateHe
2010 – “The Guardian Project” – Stan Lee
2011 – “Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot” – Vancouver Canucks
2011 -“Nine former NHL’ers perish in plane crash” – Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
2011 - "Prescription drugs / Head trauma" - Derek Boogaard / Rick Rypien / Wade Belak - Added by Seventieslord
2012 – “Preventing team management from attending charity event” – Philadelphia Flyers / NHL
2012 – “Another Lockout” – NHLPA vs NHL
2013 – “Minus $113 million” – NHL / Phoenix Coyotes
2014 – “Line brawl” – John Tortorella / Bob Hartley
2014 – “Cup winner and one way ticket home” – Slava Voynov
2014 – “Federal witness & Betting” – Thomas Vanek / Nathan Paetsch
2015 – “There’s a lot of cocaine in the NHL” – Viktor Loov
2015 – “Las Vegas arrest” - Jarret Stoll
2015 – “Longest non-lifetime suspension in NHL history” – Raffi Torres
2016 – “All-Star controversy” – John Scott vs NHL
2016 – “Postponement due to poor ice condition” – Carolina Hurricanes
2018 – “Concussion settlement” – 318 ex-NHL’ers vs NHL
