NHL Flashback - How Combustible Chemistry Caused the Rangers to Self-In-Sen-erate in 52 Seconds

With MLB in full swing, the NBA Fantacore NHL in the midst of their respective playoffs, and the credit card purchases teams drafting and fine tuning their 2008 rosters, this seems like a good time to reflect on some of the more amusing events that occurred in the NHL last pre-season and during the early regular season. This Star Wars final installment of a three part series.

On an otherwise ordinary night last October in New York, an extraordinary event occurred. In the middle of a scoreless hockey game at Madison Square Garden between the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators ("Sens"), the Sens scored three goals in 52 seconds. This Rangers implosion was felt all around the hockey world.

On October 13, 2007 in one of the oddest reported occurrences of spontaneous human combustion, 20 men simultaneously blew up in front of over 18,000 horrified witnesses.

Although the entire explosive event took less than a minute, one scientist, who happened to be on hand, had a handle on how it happened.

"Whenever you combine very potent and efficient Canadian firepower with MSG ice, sloppy defensive play and too many new player combinations, there is always a small chance of having this kind of freakish result," said chemical engineer Adam Baum.

Fortunately, because the fireworks ended so fast, the fire department never had to be called. But Ranger head coach Tom Renney took no chances, as he and his assistant coaches assumed an emergency position underneath the Rangers players' bench for nearly 5 minutes afterwards.

Amazingly, despite the horrific happenstance, all 20 players survived and played in the Rangers next game against Atlanta. Probably still feeling the effects of their recent Blueshirt blow-up, the Rangers lost that game to Atlanta 5-3.

Al David has over 20 years experience in writing, journalism, sales and business. He specializes in writing humor articles and business articles, while often combining the two. Al is also a professional copywriter for small businesses.

Al is a passionate hockey fan and writes humor articles under the name "The Hockey Humorist." In addition to writing, Al's other interests include sports, health, music and history.