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On days like today, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman should be thanking his lucky stars. While baseball is about to see one of its most sacred records broken amidst a steroid controversy that won't die, and the NBA is dealing with a gambling scandal that is calling into question the credibility of the league's referees, all the NHL has to deal with is two brothers getting arrested at a bachelor party that just got a little out of hand.

The guilty parties? Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes -- that's him in his official booking photo courtesy of the friendly folks at the Cook County Minnesota Sheriff's Department -- his brother Jordan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and 12 other guests who went a little too far at the elder Staal's bachelor party at a resort in Minnesota.

The party took place over the weekend at the Lusten Resort on Lake Superior, about a two-hour drive from the Staal's hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Everything was apparently hunky dory until the partying spilled over into the early hours of Saturday morning, when things got a little hairy after the guests were asked to leave the premises.The intrepid Luke DeCock of the News and Observer broke the news first -- few details of which would have made it into the final script of Very Bad Things:

"After leaving the property, the group gathered on Highway 61 and began harassing passing motorists," the Sheriff's office said, at which point 14 members of the group were arrested at approximately 4 a.m.

"I have no doubt there were probably a couple kids lipping off or something like that," Curran said. "Frankly, that goes with the territory. You get that many a group of kids together, somebody is going to say something stupid."

Besides getting nailed for disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process, Jordan, still just 18 and pictured at the left in his own mug shot, got dinged for underage drinking.

While the good folks at the resort wouldn't comment, someone familiar with the details of the weekend insisted that, "This isn't something we look for," and that the resort doesn't normally book bachelor parties. Apparently the entire party was booked to stay until Sunday morning, but after the arrests, it looks like things broke up a little early.

Nevertheless, the Staal brothers deserve our praise for following one of the more important bachelor party guidelines -- always be sure to hold the party well in advance of the actual wedding date. Thankfully, Eric isn't scheduled to marry fiance Tanya Vanden Broeke until sometime in August.

UPDATE: I've just gotten hold of the official press release from the Sheriff, and the entertainment factor just went way up. As it turns out, the entire party was actually warned that if they didn't knock it off, they faced deportation from the United States:

On 07/21/07 at approximately 12:30 a.m. the Cook County Sheriff's Office received several complaints in the area of Lutsen Resort and Sea Villas. All complaints were similar in nature, and reporting the same incident; a group of approximately 20 people screaming, yelling, and playing loud music.

At approximately 12:50 a.m. Cook County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived at the Lutsen Resort and Sea Villas. The suspects were warned multiple times to be quiet or they may be removed from the property, issued citations, arrested, and/or deported from the country.

At approximately 3:00 a.m. staff at Lutsen Resort and Sea Villas ordered the group to leave the property, as they were not obeying the warnings they had been given. Cook County Sheriff Deputies, a Minnesota State Patrol Trooper, and a United States Border Patrol agent assisted with the removal of the suspects.

After leaving the property, the group gathered on Highway 61 and began harassing passing motorists. At approximately 4:00 a.m. the suspects were placed under arrest for disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process. Some of the suspects fled in to the nearby woods.

Who knows, maybe they thought they could sneak back across the border? The release also reports that while Jordan was released shortly after being booked, Eric and nine other guests weren't released until a full day later. Now that's what I call getting the most out of your bachelor party!

In any case, congrats to the Staals for creating some very entertaining hockey news at the end of July.