Kitchener Rangers, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies do duelling ‘Harlem Shake’ videos

It was just a matter of when a major junior hockey team would get in on the Harlem Shake fad.

Within hours of each other on Thursday, two Canadian Hockey League teams, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and Kitchener Rangers, released what might be considered duelling versions of the viral dance video that has all but broken the Internet.

The QMJHL's Huskies begins with one player clad in a Speedo swimsuit and an upside-down wastebasket on his head starting the dance in the middle of a team study sessions. The OHL's Rangers is initiated by one of the mascots in the team dressing room. Let's let the Internet decide who is going better. Apparently, "The key to a 'good' Harlem Shake video is for one person, and one person only, to dance to the music, and then when the beat drops, to quick cut to everyone else in the dorm, locker room, or office going absolutely nuts." It looks like both teams captured the spirit of the thing.

Kitchener's version, highlighted by one of their goaltenders wearing his goalie pads on his arms and another player getting piggybacked around the room. One too-cool-for-the-room player reads a newspaper,

Rouyn-Noranda's version, complete with wild, shirtless gyrations. Plus one player in the foreground doing what is either The Worm or really intense crossfit training. The Huskies might have a little more energy here, as hockey commentators would say.

Everyone is doing it, so why not? It's a fad that will run its course in due time. It's just another thing that brings a hockey team closer, which might be how Huskies coach André Tourigny and the Rangers' Steve Spott make sense of it all. That presumes both coaches are just as befuddled as anyone who is not doing it.

It's all about the come-together aspect of the Internet. Online culture is pretty much made up of two separate yet equally important groups of people. The people who put inhibition aside for something fun and in the moment — and the eggheads who analyze it.

(Stick taps: Jérôme Bérubé, Matia Marcantuoni.)

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.