Voting for Greatest NHL Moment begins

What is the greatest moment in NHL history? Starting Oct. 18, NHL fans will have their say in answering that question.
With the launch of the Greatest NHL Moments Presented by Coors Light and Pepsi Zero Sugar, a bracket-style, interactive, digital and mobile program, fans will have the opportunity to select the Greatest NHL Moment of all time from a field of 64 spanning the
100-year history
of the League.

The 64 moments, as determined by a blue-ribbon panel consisting of broadcasters from NHL national rightsholders NBC Sports Group, NHL Network, Sportsnet and TVA, have been placed into a bracket-style format, and are divided into four regions: Hart Region, Norris Region, Calder Region and Vezina Region.
From the Toronto Arenas becoming the
first NHL team to win the Stanley Cup
on March 30, 1918 to the Pittsburgh Penguins becoming the
first team since 1998 to repeat
as Stanley Cup Champions on June 11, 2017, the site includes video vignettes for each moment, bringing each of the 64 stories to life.
Fans can visit
NHL.com/GreatestMoments
to begin Round 1 voting, and join the conversation using the hashtag #NHLGreatestMoments. The fans' choice for the Greatest NHL Moment will be announced during the
2017 Scotiabank NHL100 Classic
between the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators on Dec. 16.
Here are the voting dates:
Oct. 18-24 -- Round 1
Oct. 25-31 -- Round 2
Nov. 1-7 -- Round 3
Nov. 8-14 -- Round 4
Nov. 15-21 -- Semifinals
Nov. 22-28 -- Final
Dec. 16 -- Greatest NHL Moment announced at 2017 Scotiabank NHL100 Classic
NHL.com experts offer their personal favorites from the pool of eligible moments as the voting gets underway.

Brodeur passes Roy for wins mark

March 17, 2009
, belonged to
Martin Brodeur
, who made 30 saves in the New Jersey Devils' 3-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks to pass
Patrick Roy
for the most wins in NHL history with 552. Roy was at Bell Centre when Brodeur tied the record with 22 saves in a 3-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens three days earlier. That gave Brodeur the opportunity to break the record at home. For some reason, what I remember most about that night is Brodeur struggling with the scissors to try to cut the net away from the goal frame for a souvenir after the game. Eventually, some of Brodeur's teammates came to help, which allowed him to take a victory lap and celebrate. -- Tom Gulitti, NHL.com staff writer
Martin Brodeur has been a part of my life as a hockey journalist from the very beginning. He went from the future to the present for the Devils during the 1993-94 season, the same year I joined the beat as a writer for the North Jersey Herald & News. I had watched every iteration of his career -- being passed over for starts at Boston Garden in the 1994 Eastern Conference Semifinals, losing the
"Matteau, Matteau, Matteau" game
later that spring to the New York Rangers, winning the first of three
Stanley Cup championships
the next year and, eventually, chasing down virtually every goaltending record there was as he matured into one of the game's elder statesmen. Roy's wins record was one of the last to fall. It came at the still-shiny Prudential Center, a building he helped make happen with his successes, against the Blackhawks. When it was over, Brodeur raised his knee to his midsection and pumped his arm with his stick raised, a staple in his arsenal of celebrations. The crowd roared, at one point chanting, "Marty's better." For me, it was a final, and powerful, reminder that I had a front-row seat for what will go down as one of the greatest careers this game has produced. -- Shawn P. Roarke, NHL.com Director of Editorial

Messier guarantee, Matteau in OT

I'll never forget the night of
May 25, 1994
, mostly because of where I was -- and wasn't. I was working a night shift at The Courier-News in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and wasn't in front of a TV watching Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils because the newspaper did not have a subscription to MSG Network. While practically every hockey fan in New York and New Jersey was watching to see if
Mark Messier
would deliver on his guarantee and save the Rangers from elimination, my only portal to the game was a cheap radio in the composing room that seemed to broadcast as much static as it did hockey. But listening to the game on the radio that night made what Messier did seem that much more unbelievable. If I had been watching on TV, I would have seen it with my own eyes, but relying on the Devils' radio team -- the guy who owned the radio was a Devils fans -- made the moment when Messier scored three goals in a row to deliver on his promise and force a Game 7 almost mythical. When work ended, I raced home to watch the game, which I had recorded on my VCR, to make sure it had happened. It did, resulting in a moment my ears will never forget. Two nights later, there was more magic, this time from forward Stephane Matteau, perhaps the most gut-wrenching, nerve-wracking sporting event I've ever watched. This time, I took the night off and watched, and only later did I hear Howie Rose's famous "Matteau, Matteau, Matteau" radio call. -- Bill Price, NHL.com Editor-in-Chief

105K see Maple Leafs-Red Wings at Big House

It was not the biggest moment in NHL history in terms of importance, not even close. But it was the biggest in terms of scale and spectacle. On
Jan. 1, 2014
, an NHL-record crowd of 105,491 crammed into the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to watch a 3-2 shootout victory by the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings in the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. For a guy who grew up watching the Red Wings and Maple Leafs, who went to college at the University of Michigan, whose first real job was covering Michigan football and second was covering the Red Wings, who lives five miles from Michigan Stadium … For a guy who dreamed of this since Michigan and Michigan State played the first outdoor game of this kind in 2001 … Well, it was my worlds colliding in one place on one day. I shivered in the stands with my wife and our two sons, sipped hot cocoa, looked around and saw how huge hockey could be. -- Nick Cotsonika, NHL.com columnist

Selanne sets rookie goal mark

The excitement around the Winnipeg Jets gained steam throughout the 1992-93 season for the NHL's new good guy, Jets rookie right wing
Teemu Selanne
. In his 63rd NHL game, the "Finnish Flash" scored four goals against the Minnesota North Stars to pass the 50-goal mark. In his next game, Selanne scored three more against the Quebec Nordiques at Winnipeg Arena on
March 2, 1993
. His third goal that night was his 54th of the season, breaking
Mike Bossy
's NHL rookie record of 53, and produced a night to remember. Of all the great memories on the road to a 76-goal season, Selanne's celebratory glove toss and mimicked shoot-down remains an iconic sporting moment. Selanne's record-breaking game came during a week when he scored nine goals in three games, and it started a 20-goal month, an NHL record that still stands. -- Tim Campbell, NHL.com staff writer

Sakic hands Cup to Bourque

Though it crushed us -- Bostonians, that is -- to see
Ray Bourque
win the Stanley Cup in a sweater that wasn't black and gold, we accepted it and celebrated it because he had worked so hard and so long to win one with the Boston Bruins. We watched as
his dream, after 22 years, was fulfilled
on
June 9, 2001
. And as Colorado Avalanche captain
Joe Sakic
handed Bourque the Cup he had wanted so desperately that he had been willing to risk tarnishing his legacy by asking for a trade out of Boston, we couldn't help but cheer. It was his dream. It was our dream. It had come true, finally. My eyes still get a little misty when I watch that footage, as Sakic immediately hands the Cup to Bourque, as Bourque immediately lifts it over his head, as he kisses it, as he begins a skate that it had seemed he might never get to skate. It might not have been exactly the way he, or we, envisioned it, but Bourque had his championship, and a little bit of it was ours too. -- Amalie Benjamin, NHL.com staff writer

Canadiens win 10th straight in overtime

"And now, a 24th Stanley Cup banner will hang … from the rafters of the famous Forum … in Montreal … The Canadiens win … the Stanley Cup!" Legendary broadcaster Bob Cole's iconic, breathless-pauses-inserted call of
Cup championship No. 24 for the Canadiens
came at the end of an impossible run of 10 consecutive overtime victories, anchored by future Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy. I was working on the Montreal Gazette's sports desk the night of June 9, 1993, the Canadiens up 3-1 against the Los Angeles Kings in the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final and no one in the city expecting the series to return to the West Coast for Game 6. A 4-1 Montreal victory made certain of that. "CUP COMES HOME!" shouted our front page the next morning -- it would become a T-shirt -- with the lead photo of Roy, the winner of the
Conn Smythe Trophy
as the most valuable player of the postseason, joyfully pressing the Cup overhead.
Now, 25 years later, I remember the sports department's television blaring Cole's magical call of the final moments of that game. I still have his call on my computer, and I never fail to mention it to him every time our paths cross in an NHL arena. -- Dave Stubbs, NHL.com columnist

#

Matthews' debut is four-goal game

Auston Matthews became the first player in the modern era to
score four goals in his first NHL game
, but what struck me after the game was the fact the Toronto Maple Leafs rookie forward, then 19, blamed himself for the 5-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Oct. 12, 2016. "That last play was 100 percent my fault. We came here to win and didn't get that done," Matthews said after Kyle Turris' goal won the game for Ottawa. The second of Matthews' four goals on six shots in 17:37 of ice time was memorable: He skated down the left wing, moved past defenseman Erik Karlsson along the boards and drove hard to the net before delivering a hard shot just inside the far post to tie the game 2-2. Also unforgettable was watching Matthews' mother, Ema, overcome with emotion when the television cameras caught her celebrating her son's third goal of the game, 1:25 into the second period. -- Mike G. Morreale, NHL.com staff writer

Crosby, Ovechkin match playoff hat tricks

I remember sitting in the press box before Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals in Washington wondering how the series could match the hype. This was more about Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby then it was about the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins. It was about a once-in-a-generation rivalry between superstars. It was about a clash of styles. It was about the present and future. It was what the NHL needed. And I was lucky enough to get a chance to cover it. But I remember wondering if there would be an unforgettable moment, and who would have it? Then, on May 4, it happened. I'll never forget it. Hat tricks. For each. The rivals matching each other with epic performances, with the difference in Washington's 4-3 win being a late second-period goal by David Steckel. Crosby scored first. Ovechkin answered. Crosby scored again. Steckel tied it 2-2 going into the second intermission. Ovechkin completed his hat trick with goals in the third period at 12:53 and 15:22. Crosby completed his at 19:29 of the third period. Time ran out. Crosby and the Penguins fell one goal short. It was the kind of night when you wanted time to stop and Nos. 8 and 87 to keep going. It was the moment that matched the hype. -- Dan Rosen, NHL.com senior writer

Gretzky Tricks Maple Leafs in Game 7

Almost 25 years later, this game still stings for my friends who live in Toronto. All I need to say is: "Gretzky, Game 7, 1993." Conversation usually comes to a halt. Wayne Gretzky put on a performance for the ages on
May 29, 1993
, against the Toronto Maple Leafs with three goals and an assist in the Los Angeles Kings' 5-4 victory in Game 7 of the Campbell Conference Final. Cliff Fletcher, then the Maple Leafs' GM, said the greatest player in the world beat them that night. I most remember Gretzky's joy after he had led the Kings to their first Stanley Cup Final. Gretzky even hugged a reporter (not me), and it remains my favorite playoff series. -- Lisa Dillman, NHL.com staff writer

Sittler has 10-point game

When the Toronto Maple Leafs last
won the Stanley Cup in 1967
, I was 4, too young to appreciate the moment. I'm 54 now. They haven't won one since. You do the math. As such, for a kid growing up in Toronto, lasting Maple Leafs memories were few and far between. But on Feb. 7, 1976,
Darryl Sittler
turned in a night for the ages. It was the type of incredible on-ice theater Torontonians of my generation were unaccustomed to. He scored from the slot. He scored from the point. He scored from behind the net. Every time you looked up, Boston Bruins goalie Dave Reece was fishing pucks out of the net. By the end of the night, Sittler had eclipsed
Maurice "Rocket" Richard
's single-game NHL record of eight points by getting 10 (six goals, four assists) in an 11-4 victory. A Leafs player outdoing a Montreal Canadiens player? And not just any Montreal Canadien, either; Richard, the greatest of the Montreal Canadiens! For a hockey-crazed city accustomed to disappointment, it was a legendary moment -- just like it was for me. -- Mike Zeisberger, NHL.com staff writer