What's better than a pre-game brawl?  How about a pre-game brawl in the playoffs?

Tonight's festivities came prior to the start of the 6th game of the 1987 Wales Conference Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers.  I know it seems strange that a Flyers team, particularly one coached by an unassuming gentleman like Mike Keenan would engage in shenanigans like this, but it's all there on tape for whole world to see.

A little background on this fight and it's principals, since the footage is a bit grainy, the commentary is in french and half the guys aren't wearing sweaters to begin with.  The whole thing started because of Claude Lemeiux's(big shock) pre-game ritual of shooting the puck into the opposing team's net at the end of warm ups.  For whatever reason, this habit made the Flyers extremely upset, and so Flyers defenseman Ed Hospodar and backup goalie Glenn Resch decided to stay behind and stop it.  You can tell how both men think by their methods.  Resch, the goalie, decides to try and stop the puck by flinging his stick at it.  Hospodar decides the best way to put a stop to it is to pummel Lemiuex senseless.  Both seem like good plans, and although neither technically worked, the Flyers did win the game and the series.

Other highlights of this fight:

Just before they skate onto the ice, Hospodar turns to Resch and asks "are you sure Clark Gillies isn't going to be out there?"

Even at this early stage of his career, Claude Lemiuex had already perfected his "Crouching Turtle" fighting style.

Patrick Roy comes charging onto the ice like a bat out of hell and then proceeds to...stand around and do nothing.

It's pretty clear that during his life, not many people had dared to challenge the 6' 6" 235 lbs. Kjell Samuelsson to a fight, as Kjell has absolutely no idea what to do when confronted by the much smaller Chris Nilan.  Nilan stands chest to chest with Kjell and then pushes him, and all the while Samuelsson seems to be thinking "I never had to put up with this shit in Sweden".

Nilan then gets into it with a shirtless behemoth who I think is either Tim Kerr or Dave Brown (correct me if I'm wrong).  Chris Chelios steps in and saves Nilan's life.

Disappointing performance from John Kordic.  I guess this occured prior to him having his pre-game six-pack of Pabst.

Canadiens forward Mike McPhee (No. 35) is 26 years old and doesn't look a day over 47.

Sergio Momesso!