'Seinfeld's' David Puddy shows up at Devils game in full face paint mode

If you are a Seinfeld fan, and most of us are, you remember Patrick Warburton, aka David Puddy, as the Neanderthal-like, on-again off-again boyfriend of Elaine Benes who took being a New Jersey Devils fan to another level — and actually dragged a reluctant Jerry into his over-the-top fanaticism.

On Wednesday night, Puddy showed up in face paint during Game 4 at the Devils-Lightning game at the Prudential Center in Newark, and even took off his jersey to show off a painted on "D" on his chest. He could have used his fellow cast mates to finish spelling out E-V-I-L-S, but maybe Warburton was just showing off. He still looked to be in pretty good shape considering the show has been of the air for 20 years. 

Hey, this is the #StanleyCup Playoffs. You gotta let them know you're out there. LET'S GET IT ON! #TBLvsNJD | #NowWeRise pic.twitter.com/Ky8QpQeqhd

— x - New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) April 19, 2018

In the original episode, Puddy razzed Kramer over the Devils victory.

New Jersey lost last night and trails 3-1 in the series against Tampa Bay. Now it's the Devils turn to hope for some divine intervention — maybe from above. Something like three straight.

Minnesota Wild apologize for skit after mascot beats rival with a baseball bat

The Minnesota Wild apologized to fans after the NHL team faced criticism over a skit where the team’s mascot beat a rival mascot with a bat during an intermission on the ice.

During a gathering of NHL mascots at Thursday night's game against the Canadiens, the Wild were throwing a “birthday party” for their mascot Nordy, when he apparently took a pie to the face from the Chicago Blackhawks mascot named Tommy Hawk. 

Then, when the blindfolded Nordy was supposed to hit a piñata held by Tommy Hawk, he instead took aim and swung the bat to beat his rival mascot like from some scene from The Sopranos — enthusiastically urged on by the arena announcer to "keep swinging."

After about 10 fake hits another mascot, the New Jersey Devil, stepped in and stopped the mayhem while other mascots worked to drag Tommy Hawk off the ice. Smile if you remember Office Space.

via GIPHY

Some fans criticized the display of violence rarely seen at any hockey game (snicker) and thought the Wild was "promoting violence in front of thousands of people and kids."

Meanwhile...this happened at intermission. @NordyWild pic.twitter.com/UVxIFrMPrC

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 13, 2017

One Twitter mom asked, "How exactly should I explain this to my kids?" 

So, of course the NHL contacted the Wild before the team issued a statement about the fake violence on ice:

"We apologize to anyone offended by the mascot skit Thursday night. It was certainly not our intention." 

Maybe they should have added We'll leave that to the players.

J.T. Miller ejected for ‘putting on the tape’ and cutting opponent in fight (VIDEO)

New York Rangers forward J.T. Miller isn't known as a player to tussle, but when things get heated playing your cross-river rivals, you know every once in a while it's important to throw down the gloves.

J.T. just has to remember to have nothing under them.

During the second period against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, Miller found that out when he faced off against Devils forward Sergei Kalinin — and it ended up getting him thrown out of the game.

As you can clearly see in the video, Miller's right hand is taped, and during the fight Kalinin ended up suffering a cut on his face.

That combination turned out to be a violation of NHL rule 45.16, which states the following:

Any player wearing tape or any other material on his hands (below the wrist) who cuts or injures an opponent during an altercation will receive a match penalty in addition to any other penalties imposed including for fighting under this rule. A match penalty shall be assessed to a player who punches an unsuspecting opponent and causes an injury.

It's not quite "putting on the foil," but the rule is pretty clear.

Devils rookie gets called for worst dive ever (VIDEO)

The NHL has been trying to cut down on embellishment over the past couple of years and has even started fining players for flopping as a way to draw penalties.

On Tuesday night, New Jersey Devils rookie Joseph Blandisi ended up earning a two-minute minor for embellishment when he took a dive after he was slashed on the back of the leg by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald — who was about three feet away.

And the ploy was so flagrant, it's funny.

Blandisi regretted what he did afterwards.

"I never got swung at like that before, but I guess I could've done something to avoid that penalty," the young puckster said.

And what would that be?

"Just take it. Think about it before I go to the ground," Blandisi said. "I guess maybe I wanted to make sure the ref saw it and I took it too far."

Hockey. Soccer on skates.

And the award for Worst Flop of All Time goes to Joseph Blandisi of the @NJDevils. pic.twitter.com/bHCAcAIUhm

— 120 Sports (@120Sports) February 17, 2016

Devils prospect has Seinfeld's David Puddy on his mask (PHOTO)

Pretty much the first thing New Jersey Devils prospect Scott Wedgewood thought of when he heard he was being drafted by the NHL team was Seinfeld character David Puddy's turn as a rabid "Devils! Devils!" fan on the popular TV show.

Now currently with the Albany Devils, Wedgewood is paying homage to the show with a mask design that features the legendary Seinfeld character's painted face on the rear right side of his helmet.

#Repost @nhldevils ・・・ Hey man, Scott Wedgewood is just trying to support the team. @albanydevils

A photo posted by David Gunnarsson (@davidofdaveart) on Nov 2, 2015 at 10:38am PST

And every Seinfeld fan remembers it from the episode titled 'The Face Painter' from Season 6 (1995) of the show.

Just wondering — is there anything that can't be traced back to a Seinfeld episode?

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Martin Brodeur calls hockey 'too dangerous of a game': Report

Since joining the St. Louis Blues as a senior advisor last week, newly retired goaltender Martin Brodeur has been giving the team reports looking down from a scouting booth. But now the NHL veteran wants everyone to know about the ever-evolving game from the perspective of 20 years in front of the net too.

Brodeur spoke with Sportsnet to discuss what he likes and what he’d like to change about the game the future Hall of Famer played for almost his entire life.

The 42-year-old former New Jersey Devils legend pointed to the speed of the game and the resulting hits as something that he dislikes.

"It’s too tough of a game, too dangerous of a game. I think it goes… all the speed that they wanted to bring into the game, it kind of makes it up on those tough hits and it’s hard for the players to police themselves. First of all because fighting is going away from the game,” said Brodeur. “You have a lot of guys that are taking liberties and some guys they don’t, but because the game is so fast, they don’t have time to react to a lot of things.

"The dangerous part of the game, the accidents, some of the head injuries needs to get cleaned out."

Brodeur didn’t know exactly how the league needs to go about changing the game, but did have a couple of suggestions.

“The trapezoid has to go. I think the goalies have to help their players a little bit more, but a lot of the hits come because there’s no interference,” Brodeur said. “Put in the interference on the table for the players to use to help each other.

“In the neutral zone I understand the guy skating 100 miles an hour with the puck nobody should touch him, but when you see your guys getting lined up, you should be able to hook that guy a little bit to make him realize ‘hey, you got to stop buddy, you can’t hit him’. But if he does that, the guy gets a penalty. Interference needs to get back in the game.”

Brodeur was in Philadelphia on Saturday night scouting the Flyers and Leafs as part of his new role with St. Louis and spoke with NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman about his new vantage point on top of the ice.

“I think it’s a lot easier to judge people from up here,” Brodeur said. “That’s where I’m trying to find the way of doing it, the right way of doing it, to give the best input I can knowing that two weeks ago, three weeks ago I was the one down there.

“Hockey’s hockey. Right here I think it exposes it a little bit, but it’s all productive.”

MetLife Stadium must wait years to host Winter Classic, says NHL commissioner: Report

Important people surrounding MetLife Stadium fought long and hard to get a Super Bowl in the Meadowlands — and finally saw their vision come to fruition last February.

But if they were hoping for an NHL version of a wintertime event, they'll have to wait ... years.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said it would be at least that long before MetLife Stadium would get a chance to host the annual Winter Classic.

Yankee Stadium hosted games between the Devils and New York Rangers, and between the Rangers and New York Islanders, last January, and since MetLife Stadium was prepping for the Super Bowl that week, a hockey game there would have been a logistics nightmare.

Bettman made it clear that the annual event will be held around the country before returning to the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area in the near future.

"Every city, every club wants one," Bettman said at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, where the 2015 Winter Classic will be played Jan. 1 at Nationals Park. "We're going to move things around before going back."

Because there are three New York-area hockey teams, the NHL had to hold two outdoor games last January so no one would be left out, Bettman said.

"Playing in New York and New Jersey is a unique situation,'' he said. "We have a lot of other teams and a lot of other stadiums who want a game before we can come back."

No way Commish, Devils fans do feel left out.

Martin Brodeur's debut in a Blues uniform doesn't look right (VIDEO)

For the first time in his NHL career Martin Brodeur made a start for a team other than the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

The 42-year-old goalie who won 688 games over 21 years wearing a red Devils sweater was now in front of the goal wearing a St. Louis Blues uniform.

And to Devils fans, like pineapple on a slice, seeing Brodeur sporting a blue note didn't look right.

Brodeur, who hadn't played in a game since April 13, made 20 saves in his season debut for the Blues — a 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators.

He signed a one-year deal with St. Louis on Tuesday.

The future Hall of Famer who won three Stanley Cups and four Vezina Trophies with the Devils, refused to call it a career after going 19-14-6 with a 2.51 goals-against average, .901 save percentage and three shutouts in 39 games last season.

Brodeur is 688-394-176 and holds most major regular-season goalie records including games (1,259).

It's too bad the Blues and Devils have already played out this season and Mar-tan won't be coming back to Jersey one more time.

Bruins' Seth Griffith scores amazing, backwards, no-look, through-the-legs goal (VIDEO)

There have been plenty of backwards or no-look or through-the-the-legs goals scored in the NHL over the years. And all are pretty remarkable on their own but, have you ever seen all three plays on one score?

Well, the Bruins' Seth Griffith performed the amazing triple-feat against the Devils goalie Corey Schneider Monday night.

After blocking a shot to start a breakout, Griffith muscled through two Devils as he crossed the blue line. As he approached the crease, New Jersey defenseman Marek Zidlicky spun Griffith around, but the Bruins center slapped the puck backward and past the goalie. 

Griffith's all-out effort got a big cheer from the sold-out TD Garden crowd — and an even bigger one when it was replayed on the scoreboard and fans could see in slow motion what had happened.

“I knew if I got it on net, something good might happen,” Griffith said after his highlight-reel goal helped the Bruins beat the Devils 4-2.

Flyers Ice Girls get luke-warm reception for wearing 'sensible' outfits in return (PHOTO)

After much public jeering from Philadelphia Flyers fans when their beloved Ice Girls cleaning crew were replaced by a group of men — who were relentlessly booed between periods during preseason home games earlier this year — the team caved in and brought back the ladies for Thursday's home opener at Wells Fargo Center.

Yet, it's hard to appease those finicky Philly fans.

Flyers fans are still upset over the new look female skaters who now wear long pants on the ice:

Rather than their popular hot pants:

And to top it off, there are only four Ice Girls and twice as many male shovelers during the game stoppages.

It'll be fun to see how the evolving saga of the Ice Girls plays out. But, after dropping to 0-2 after blowing the home opener 6-4 against the Devils, Flyers fans may find other things to focus their energy on.

Anyway, here's the scantily-clad Ice Girls we had come to know and love:

Adam Carolla is the LA Kings' biggest 'fan'

Comedian Adam Carolla visited his old pal on the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show last night dressed in full Los Angeles Kings gear— including pads, helmet and on rollerblades— to show support for his "favorite" team.

Taking a jab at Los Angelelans— or whatever they're called— coming out of the woodwork during the Kings playoff run and hockey fever takes over the city, the Crank Yanker told Kimmel— his former co-host on "The Man Show"— he's "not  bandwagon guy."

"I was always talking about the Kings," Carolla joked.  "Hell to the no Jimmy.  I've been a King-natic, I call it, for many years."



When Kimmel quizzed the Kings "biggest fan" about the identity of the Kings' #32 on the back of Carolla's jersey, his guest got flustered and said, "Guy... Guy Robatusin?  Kobe?"

Carolla then squirted his face with water from a bottle.

"That was unnecessary," laughed Kimmel— who seemed a little confounded by Carolla's newfound loyalty to the Kings.

"It's weird, because when ever we'd work together on the radio, I'd go to Kings games all the time, and you really never came with me," Kimmel said.

"I was always talking about the Kings," Carolla responded before telling a touching story about how his father used to take little Adam to Kings games at the Staples Center.  One problem, Kimmel pointed out, the arena opened in 1999— when Carolla was 35-year old "boy."

Carolla's "favorite" team lost last night to the New Jersey Devils, 3-1.  I wonder how many Kings fans jumped off the bandwagon already.

It was probably about the black and white hockey jerseys anyway.