"NHL Action Series: Ice Hot - The Best of the 1995-1996 NHL Season"

Classic release looking at the NHL 1995-1996 season.

NHL ought to release more home videos like this. Releases like these are another reason why I miss the nineties. Then again, it's an extra expense for the league and it seems that the demand for exclusive home releases are incredibly low. Okay, but how are fans able to remember the classic moments that remind them why they are hockey fans? Being a basketball fan myself, volumes like this make great sources to better know players from the past and the growth of various teams throughout the years. Yeah I know, there's online resources readily available, but those websites have the league strict on taking down third-party uploaders posting their content without permission. That's great, but as "old school" as I am, I prefer these home video copies since they don't hog up my internet bandwidth with it comes to streaming.

A program hosted by John Davidson, this volume goes over the hair-raising moments and some bloopers that went down during the 1995-1996 NHL season. It is presented in a simple, almost an hour special, format worthy of airing on the NHL Network.

This program goes through the following segments: Goal Scorers, Hockey Stick Bloopers, Goalie Bloopers, The 1996 All-Star Weekend from Martin Brodeur's perspective, Breakthrough Victories, Greatest Checks, Sudden Death Overtime Moments, Top 10 Goals and an overview of The 1996 Stanley Cup Finals: Florida Panthers versus Colorado Avalanche.

For the Goal Scorers, they present the top 20 of the 1995-1996 season. See if these names ring a bell:

#20. John Cullen
#19. Joe Sakic
#18. Peter Forsberg
#17. Geoff Courtnall
#16. Saku Koivu
#15. Martin Straka / Bill Lindsay
#14. Alexander Mogilny
#13. Keith Tkachuk
#12. Jaromir Jagr
#11. Clayton Beddoes

#10. Steve Konowalchuk
#09. Darren Turcotte
#08. Pat LaFontaine
#07. Benoît Brunet
#06. Tony Amonte
#05. Jaromir Jagr
#04. Bill Lindsay
#03. Marcus Naslund
#02. Chris Osgood
#01. Mario Lemieux

The show ends with credits, including a couple of outtakes and more great moments from the 1995-1996 season.

Very simple and straight-forward show that bares rewinding and watching again. It is one of those things that make you look back and recall the crazy/unbelievable plays that players today may not be able to pull off. If you listen closely, you'll hear announcing from one of my favorite sports commentators of all time: Mike "Doc" Emrick. His voice, believe it or not, was what got me into hockey (I've only been a hockey fan since 2012—the same year the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup championship).

Along with these segments are cool, some funny, some jaw-dropping, moments that you may not likely find online and/or on TV.


(Source and credit to user Ju MacMillan for uploading his copy of the program.)

The video is in a standard 4:3 format with stereo audio. The tape cover says this VHS is also Mono compatible (for those TVs with one speaker). Quality of the video, running at 29.97 interlaced, feels like one of those shows you'd watch in the locker room to educate while enjoying the highlights from pro hockey players who know how to get the job done. Given the age of this tape, it does get a tad bit glitchy at times but given the technological age of VHS, it's something to expect. (To our knowledge, this wasn't remastered on DVD....or even Blu-ray.)

Like I briefly mentioned near the end of our review for FOX NFL Sunday from Afghanistan DVD, it would be a lovely treat for NHL to produce special home video programs like these that wouldn't be aired on TV or streamed online. How are fans, especially young kids, going to remember the times that made hockey so much fun? Please do so, and we'll be happy to review them here.

(If you or anyone you know work at the productions and/or home videos department for sports leagues like the NHL, and are serious about the idea of producing programs exclusive to home video or digital release, kindly contact us for discussions and settling for an agreement in a deal involving this. I personally enjoy these specials as much as you have had producing them!)

This NHL Action Series is truly a must-have for hockey fans, casual and diehards alike!

Kris Caballero

Founder and operator of KCU Network, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially retired from video production and going back to the computer sciences, Kris enjoys studying Math, Quantum Computing, playing old video/DOS games, and listening to sports radio.

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