The new Bob Costas talk show on NBC Sports Network featured NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman for two segments this week: One in which he was peppered with questions about fighting from NBC's grand sports inquisitor (more on that in a moment) and the other featuring a reunion with his former boss, NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Costas had a question for both men: What's the worst mistake you've made as commissioner?

Stern relayed a tale from 1984, in which a joke about extending the NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics for the betterment of the league became an outright conspiracy about game fixing.

Then it was Bettman's turn and … well, our expectations were low. Gary Bettman admitting an error happens about as often as Gary Bettman receiving a standing ovation at the end of the Stanley Cup Final. He's the type of guy who gets asked about his character flaws in a job interview and replies "My biggest character flaw is not having tolerance for questions like that."

But on the Costas show, Bettman didn't just admit one mistake — he scored a hat trick!

GettyMaxim Lapierre and David Perron share an intense and adorable moment.

No. 1 Star: Evander Kane, Winnipeg Jets

The Jets issued a massive statement Thursday, crushing the Southeast-leading Florida Panthers with a 7-0, home-ice rout to move into 8th place in the East and only two points back of the division lead. Kane led the way with 2 goals and 2 assists, and Mark Stuart, Kyle Wellwood and Blake Wheeler all chipped in with 2-point nights. Ondrej Pavelec made 33 saves for the shutout. It was a total team effort, as evidenced by this asinine 5-on-1:

With just under a minute remaining in Thursday's game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Minnesota Wild, and the Canadiens leading 4-3, Max Pacioretty streaked up the ice towards the Wild's empty net. He was hooked from behind by Kurtis Foster -- enough to draw a whistle, in my opinion -- but, rather than continue to fight through it, Pacioretty tried to sell the call, hopping to his belly like there was a slip n' slide in front of him. The officials didn't buy it, and play continued.

Then the Wild scooped up the loose puck, brought it down to the other end, and, with the net still empty, Devin Setoguchi tied the game.

What an odd sequence.

Considering the strange game that preceded everything above, this was a fitting end to regulation. But I it ends differently if A) Pacioretty makes the conscious choice to stay on his feet and B) his great leap forward isn't the second such incident in the game.

If the officials hadn't already been burned by Wild winger Cal Clutterbuck on a blatant dive in the second period, I think Pacioretty gets this call. But officials can be sensitive about such things, you know.

With his team down a goal in the overtime shootout, Devin Setoguchi was the last hope for the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. He had already made an impact in the game: Assisting on a third-period goal and then scoring the game-tying goal with 10 seconds remaining in a strange sequence involving a non-call. Now, he could play the hero again …

… or he could lose the puck, fall down on the ice, and then hide his eyes as goalie Carey Price skates out to touch the loose disc for a "save" and end the game. Which is exactly what happened:

Here's the Minnesota feed:

Montreal won the game, 5-4.

Some questioned the CBC's decision to air a seemingly meaningless mid-week game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Minnesota Wild, but the decision paid off. The Wild and Canadiens made it worthwhile, giving us a curiously compelling game full of big hits, bad blood, clutch goals, injuries (Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom left the game with a leg injury) and some truly odd incidents.

The oddest of which: a massive hit delivered by Canadiens' rearguard Alexei Emelin. What made it so odd? The victim of the hit was Erik Cole, Emelin's teammate.

It's a shame it was accidental, because this is a downright beautiful, open-ice hipcheck.

[Related: Epic fail of the hockey season, with the game on the line]

Back by popular demand, here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.

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Is this photo as scary to everyone else as it is to me?

Preview: New Jersey Devils at Boston Bruins, 7 p.m. ET

Don't look now, but the Bruins are only one point up on the Ottawa Senators for 1st place in the Northeast Division. (I say 'Don't look now' because the shock of this statement is mitigated when you notice they have four games in hand. But I digress.) The Bruins struggled in February, losing 8 times in 13 games and getting shut out in 5 of those losses. If March is similar, the Senators will really be nipping at their heels. But the Devils could be good for starting the month off right: Boston's won all three meetings this season. Plus Greg Zanon makes his debut! How can you not be excited for that? Greg Zanon!

We've never been fortunate to make a demand like the Gear Daddies and forcefully tell a rink operator "I Wanna Drive the Zamboni," but we imagine it to be a pretty fun experience. Experiencing it drunk would likely take to a whole different level, however.

In January, 34-year-old Joel Bruss was arrested for operating a Zamboni drunk at the Hayes Park Arena in Apple Valley, Minn. A normal 10-minute job of resurfacing the ice turned into close to a half an hour. As parents and young players looked on, Bruss cleaned the ice like a teenager mowing your lawn for the first time, leaving patches yet to be scraped.

Bruss was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and was charged as court documents Thursday revealed his blood-alcohol content was .32, four times the legal limit.

KARE 11 in Minnesota has video of Bruss' driving skills shot by a Pee Wee player awaiting to get on the ice (one bit of NSFW language):

According to the Star Tribune, Bruss has been convicted of drunken driving three times: twice in 1999 and once in 2002. This was the first time on a Zamboni:

The complaint said that when the officer entered the arena, the Zamboni machine was partly off and partly on the ice while the driver was trying to get it unstuck. Once Bruss got off the machine, the officer smelled alcohol on his breath and noted that he was "extremely unsteady" and was hanging onto the Zamboni to keep his balance. Bruss was slurring his words and mumbling and his eyes were red, watery and bloodshot, the complaint said.

As the Star Tribune noted back in January, just because Bruss was driving a Zamboni on an empty ice rink and not a car on a busy road doesn't lessen his coming punishment. State law allows a DWI to be given for any sort of motorized vehicle, including a lawn mower or forklift.

Stick-tap Bryan Reynolds of Hockey Wilderness for the video

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

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The Seven is an arbitrary list of randomly connected hockey subjects that will run every Thursday on Puck Daddy. Agree to disagree.

Whether it's a Ray Harryhausen army of skeletons or Wallace and Gromit, stop-motion animation has its charms. Its incredibly, stupendously time-consuming charms …

Luckily, there are a number of puckheads that decides the best use of their leisure hours was to create short videos that married stop-motion animation with hockey. Some used Lego's. Some used action figures. Some used table hockey games. And one guy used his face.

Here are The Seven stop-motion animation hockey videos we find rather awesome. Enjoy.