It's Pundays at The Royal Half and that means we take a look back at the great puns featured on the NHL.com homepage over the past week. As the NHL heads into Round 2 of playoff hockey action the competition is getting more fierce... at creating the best puns!

I feel like NHL.com was holding back on this one. Why not go for it entirely?
"Dat's All Folks for Wile E Coyote."

This has to be one of the cooler nicknames out there.

On a total side note... does anyone know who came up with "The Big Pavelski" nickname first? I did a little research and found that this dude, Joe2Heatley, was the first to mention it in a twitter post on April 25th... even though I'm sure it's been around longer than that, right?

But the real story of last week was the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens unbelievable 7 game upset of the #1 seeded Washington Capitals. The play of Canadiens goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, has been the talk of the hockey world (not to mention other Pundays) and when the Habs forced a Game 7 with a 4-1 victory in Game 6… NHL.com was in top form.

The Habs played their hearts out in their 2-1 Game 7 victory over the Capitals at the Verizon Center... but NHL.com on the other hand... phoned it in.

Blame it on the Ha-lak star. Blame it on the falling sky.
Blame it on the satellite that beams me home.

I really think the NHL missed a golden oppor-punity here with Halak's Game 7 victory. Over at the PHT Game 7 live chat, some better alternatives were tossed around.

But where the NHL.com pun machine might have failed on the Canadiens side... they hit a home run on the Capitals side.

As said by the fine folks at JeanShortsandBaggedMilk... 
"I hear Ovechkin is coming out with a new line of clothing called Elimin8ted."

We've added a Pundays sidebar to the site so you can check out any of the past Pundays features on The Royal Half. Until next week... may everyday be a pun day for you.

As the action gets more intense during the NHL playoffs… so do the puns at the main page of NHL.com. Here at The Royal Half, we get tons of email each week that asks:

"Hey, Royal Half, what exactly makes a great NHL.com pun?"

Well, for me, the perfect NHL.com pun is a blend of the sheer exhilaration of the sport of hockey... with the ornate flair of pop culture relativeness. And this weeks "Pun of the Week" may be the best example of this yet.

Top 3 Rejected Headlines:

1) 2nd Round? Fuhgeddaboudit!
2) Jersey Washed Ashore
3) The Real Golf Courses of New Jersey

Even though this screengrab comes from a time when the 2nd seeded New Jersey Devils still thought they had a chance to beat the 7th seeded Philadelphia Flyers… it doesn't change the beauty of the pun. Plus, if you look just over the left shoulder of Zach Parise, you'll see Lardass Hogan from Stand By Me. I've been wondering that that guy has been up to! Kudos to the team at NHL.com for another stellar week of puns.

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Things have been pretty busy around The Royal Half during the month of April. So we wanted to make sure you didn't miss any of the great (well, we think they are great) articles that have been posted during this hectic playoff month for the Los Angeles Kings. Now that the Kings have been eliminated, you may find yourself with some extra time to do some reading.

There was an ode to the Kings clinching a playoff spot for the first time in 8 years.

Our 1st Annual ScreenGrab Contest (to which a winner still needs to be declared!)

We tracked the progress of Fox Sports West HD's "See What Develops" ad campaign over the course of a season.

Blogger Fake Chris Kontos sat down with LA Kings Playoff Legend, Chris Kontos.

We took an amazing trip behind enemy lines to Vancouver for Game 2 of the playoffs.

And we took a look back at 2+ years of Drew Doughty coverage at The Royal Half.

Even though it's really from March, it's always time for History Will Be Made - Marty McSorley.

For hockey fans across North America and the World... yesterday was as good as it gets. Teams were battling to get in the playoffs... the teams that were already in battled for playoff position... and even a goal scoring race came down to the wire. And to top it all off... the NHL.com Pun Machine™ went into full-on overdrive as 4 of the 5 slots on the frontpage were chock full of puns.

Normally, NHL.com only does one pun per front page. This is too much. I'm overwhelmed. Bring on the playoffs!

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak had a fantastic week that included back to back shutouts. And as the Canadiens wrap up their regular season it seems that their playoff hopes will be put on Halak's shoulders and not those of early season #1 goalie, Carey Price. But Halak's best achievement of the week... was making it into the NHL.com pun machine.

Top 3 Rejected Headlines:

2) Big Halak Attack

3) The Price is Right for Halak

It seems that amazing puns are not just for the NHL.com home page. Oh no... tonight, on the Montreal Canadiens own website this beauty popped up.

So either the person who writes the puns for NHL.com is freelancing for ALL the teams or there is a serious pundemic running through the headlines of hockey right now.

Now Pundays is the new feature here at The Royal Half that is sweeping the nation. And normally we'd just keep it for Mondays... but something happened tonight so punbelievable that we just had to post it:

Your guess is as good as mine. Any ideas what NHL.com was trying to pun here?

A) Just 3 ?
B) Rusty? Over here, Dad.
3) Dostoevsky ?

Let us know what you think in the comments!

"No circumstances, however dismal, will ever be considered a sufficient excuse for the admission of that last and saddest evidence of intellectual poverty, the Pun."
- Mark Twain

"Puns are the highest form of literature."
- Alfred Hitchcock

Over the last few years, I've become increasingly obsessed with the NHL.com front page headlines... headlines that each day tend to use an awful pun. So, we here at The Royal Half are proud to introduce our newest regular feature... Pundays! Each Monday we will highlight a NHL.com headline and present the top 3 rejected ideas. Since all the talk of the NHL now seems to be who is going to clinch a playoff spot, let's start Pundays off right...

Top 3 Rejected Headlines:

1) After Berth
2) Berth Control
3) The Berth of a Nation

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Oh, and in Los Angeles Kings news.... consider the panic button officially pushed. Goalie of the Future, Jon Bernier, is coming back to the big leagues. Not quite sure what Dean Lombardi and Coach Murray are thinking here... maybe they want to rest Jon Quick down the stretch... maybe they want to remind him that there is a dude in Manchester that can totally take over his place if he doesn't get his game together... or maybe it's just over for Erik Ersberg.

"Hey guys, remember me. I'm the capable backup on the team. Remember last week,
where I came in during a 3-1 game and gave up no goals so we could tie and get an important point?
Okay, I'll just sit here then."