Hockey Fans Throwing Weird Crap on the Ice
May 23, 2012 10:46 PM   Subscribe

Fans of the Nashville Predators Hockey team threw a live catfish onto the ice during Friday’s game. Since 1996, fans of Florida Panthers have been throwing fake rats onto the ice, after player Scott Mellanby discovered a huge rat circulating in his dressing room, split it open with his stick and then scored a couple decisive goals, inspiring the 'Rat Trick' tradition. And supporters of the Stockholm-based AIK ice hockey team threw rubber dildos, and waved giant inflatable penis, to remind player Jan Huokko, (‘Dildo-Jan’) of a leaked sex video of him with his girlfriend. Turns out this kind of thing is fairly common in the world of hockey fandom. (Via Everlasting Blort)
posted by growabrain (52 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
We put a lot of effort into smuggling fish into the rink in school (inside your sweat pants works great, kids). There's a long tradition of throwing fish on the ice at Cornell / Harvard hockey games, going back to the early 70's. Harvard started it, throwing a dead chicken into the Cornell stands a month before.
posted by pkingdesign at 10:59 PM on May 23, 2012


Poor octopodes. :(
posted by Salmonberry at 11:05 PM on May 23, 2012 [5 favorites]


This happened a couple of Fridays ago, as the Preds have been out for two weeks, but nonetheless, the best part is that the linesmen and referees absolutely refuse to deal with this, so the bold ice girl barehands it. (Rumor had it, on her birthday.)
posted by disillusioned at 11:19 PM on May 23, 2012


Poor catfish.
posted by pracowity at 11:19 PM on May 23, 2012 [4 favorites]


Poor ice girl! Them catfish are sharp!
posted by disillusioned at 11:21 PM on May 23, 2012


Our minor league hockey team are the Walleyes. Guess what we throw on the ice?

(Never live, though. That's not right.)
posted by MissySedai at 11:22 PM on May 23, 2012


Poor substitutes for actual penises!
posted by pracowity at 11:25 PM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


I don't necessarily buy that the fish is live... the logistics of keeping a live catfish concealed in your... trousers? through the third period in a hockey game? I mean... I don't quite think so, no.

I love that the ice girls keep their spirits up and smiles on. (And yeah, this happened two nights in a row.)

My understanding is the refs reserve the right to charge the home team with delay of game if the problem becomes... intractable.
posted by disillusioned at 11:28 PM on May 23, 2012


Poor substitute for what, now?
posted by five fresh fish at 11:40 PM on May 23, 2012




Weirdest post tags ever.
posted by MuffinMan at 11:42 PM on May 23, 2012 [8 favorites]


I remember that day when the Ottawa Senators threw actual senators into the ring. That was a great day for hockey.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:43 PM on May 23, 2012 [18 favorites]


Poor substitutes for actual penises octopuses!
posted by joe lisboa at 11:49 PM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'm not a very good Canadian, despite being born and raised here, because I'm not really all that fond of hockey as a game. It's watchable, but it's not my favorite way to spend an evening, even during the playoffs.

But God do I love the weirdness that a dedicated fandom can coax out of it.
posted by figurant at 11:55 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


I remember the old Snickers' commercial that riffed on this, using their "Not going anywhere for a while?" tagline.

A goal is scored, and one announcer says to the other, "Like in Detroit, where they throw octopuses, here in Montreal, they throw Canadians!" Canadian after Canadian goes sailing through the air. One, lying on the ice, sees a friend, and says "Hey Bob!" The goalie, sitting under his net for safety, munches on his candy bar.

Pure genius.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:01 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


I remember that day when the Ottawa Senators threw actual senators into the ring. That was a great day for hockey.

*gets tickets to next Nashville vs San Jose game*
posted by pracowity at 12:02 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]


To expand on ShutterBun's link, the Calgary Hitmen (the WHL junior team in town) have a promo for a chosen game shortly before Christmas, where fans celebrate the first Hitmen goal by throwing teddy bears (Warning: LOUD video) on the ice, which are then given to charities. This leads to a terrifying avalanche of adorable cuddliness as 25,000 stuffed animals are hurled in the direction of the ice simultaneously.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 12:13 AM on May 24, 2012 [6 favorites]


I don't necessarily buy that the fish is live... the logistics of keeping a live catfish concealed in your... trousers? through the third period in a hockey game? I mean... I don't quite think so, no.

True. The logistics of keeping a live dildo in your pants for that long are less daunting.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:13 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


Hockey is a sick fucking sport; it's gladiators on ice. And, throwing a living animal onto ice is fucking sick. Assholes!
posted by Vibrissae at 12:56 AM on May 24, 2012 [5 favorites]


Is there anything I can wave at Ilya Bryzgalov to encourage him not so suck so much?

Yahoo: there is a lot of negativity surrounding the team. You did everything you could on the ice. You go to the locker room and someone yells some nonsense at your back. They're ready to eat you alive. It's unpleasant

Oh, forget it, his fee-fees are already too hurt. I guess I should just cheer this more loudly to encourage him, only eight more years!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 1:00 AM on May 24, 2012


Oh, forget it, his fee-fees are already too hurt. I guess I should just cheer this more loudly to encourage him , only eight more years!

I cannot express to you how happy I am that he is no longer our problem. Mike Smith did amazing things this season and I love him for it, especially considering the death knell everyone was singing for us when we "dared" to let chokegalov go.

He simply doesn't have what it takes, but he sometimes appears as if he does. He's like the filbert of goaltenders: he cracks under pressure. (Or a good roasting.)
posted by disillusioned at 1:05 AM on May 24, 2012


There's a long tradition of throwing fish on the ice at Cornell / Harvard hockey games

Cornell isn't exactly known as an athletic powerhouse these days. Long gone are the undefeated football champions of yore. But there still remains one sport, one solitary athletic endeavor, in which our fair college still excels: hockey. Over the years there have been many conference championships, both joy and anguish at the NCAA tournament, and a few NHL hall of fame inductees. But throughout all the triumphs and tears, all the highs and lows, all the game winning goals and overtime losses, there is one constant: we hate Harvard. No rival raises the ire of the Lynah Faithful like Harvard, and no game on the schedule is more anticipated.

So imagine, if you will, a small hockey arena, filled to capacity with over 4000 fans, all of whom have been waiting the entire season for this night. Preparations have been made. Everyone is ready. On this night alone, security guards pat down the attendees, but they know it is for naught. This is the Harvard game, and college students always find a way. As the band plays its pregame routine, the announcer reminds the audience that it is against regulation to throw objects on the ice, but he surely knows the futility of this admonition. He has done this before. He knows what is going to happen.

Just then, the Cornell team takes to the ice, and skates to the far end of the rink. The crowd erupts in cheers. But almost as quickly, the roar turns to a murmur, for there, at the back of the rink, stands the opponent: the Harvard Crimson. The veteran players know what is coming; the rookies surely have been warned. The first player hesitates at the door. But it is time. He must go forward. He must enter the rink. Slowly and deliberately, the visiting team takes to the ice.

And then it begins to rain fish.

Minnow, pike, carp, trout, fish of all shapes and sizes are thrown at the Harvard players. Fresh fish, frozen fish, fish caught in the lake, deceased pet goldfish, even the occasional cephalopod fly through the air before skittering across the ice. The more timid among the fans may throw a frozen fish-stick, while others attempt irony by arming themselves with sushi. Surely it is a member of the Fraternity system that has impossibly snuck a 41-inch striped bass past security and, using two hands firmly gripped around the tail, has now hurled it through the air. The crowd erupts with glee at the watery slapping sound it makes when it hits the ice.

The Harvard team tries to find cover, but all they can do is skate away and try to avoid the larger missiles. Some wait stoicly for the rain of seafood to end. Others swat at the fish with their hockey sticks, and sometimes try to shoot the fish back into the stands. This rarely succeeds, and only makes the crowd angry. Most just skate to the center of the ice, beyond the reach of most of the marine projectiles.

Finally, it ends. The rink attendants, properly covered in rain-gear, make their way across the ice and collect the remains. Now the game may begin. While the entire display may last only 60 seconds, it is, for many, one of the most glorious moments of the entire Cornell experience.
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 1:48 AM on May 24, 2012 [16 favorites]



Is there anything I can wave at Ilya Bryzgalov to encourage him not so suck so much?

quonsar, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
posted by eriko at 2:31 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


When I was at Georgia Tech the fans used to throw fish onto what was then Grant Field when Notre Dame was the opponent. Not being a native Southerner, I was somewhat confused by this so I asked one of the rednecks throwing them "What's up with the fish?"

"It's Notre Dame," he says to me as if I was as clueless as I actually was.

"So?" I inquire further.

"THEY'RE CATHOLICS," he yells at me. "Get it? Catholics, fish."

I see they're still doing it.
posted by three blind mice at 3:10 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Here at Chelsea Football Club I always thought we were weird because we threw celery on the pitch (we have a celery song), now I realise we are nothing.
posted by ciderwoman at 3:16 AM on May 24, 2012


I saw the octopus thing first hand in Detroit a few years ago. The person who took me along said that the team and arena owners had even prevailed upon local fish markets to withhold them for sale on and around game days in order to discourage the practice.
posted by hwestiii at 3:52 AM on May 24, 2012


They say soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby vice versa.

Hockey is thugs for thugs and by thugs. The last true blood sport.
posted by spitbull at 4:44 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


This leads to a terrifying avalanche of adorable cuddliness as 25,000 stuffed animals are hurled in the direction of the ice

I took my 6 year old this past year. He was excited by the idea, but grew bored and distracted waiting for the Hitmen to score. And, with hindsight, sitting in about the tenth row was a mistake, because when they did score...well, he wasn't paying attention to the play, so from his perspective all of a sudden they were horns blaring and stuffed animals raining down on us from the sky. I spent the entirety of the break in the game getting him calm again, and we left shortly thereafter.
posted by never used baby shoes at 4:49 AM on May 24, 2012


I saw the octopus thing first hand in Detroit a few years ago

Effiing squidflippers....
posted by eriko at 4:50 AM on May 24, 2012


And it's worth noting that Edmonton's WHL team, the Oil Kings, also do the toss. There's a bit of a competition between the fan bases to be the team with the largest count of stuffed animals tossed.
posted by never used baby shoes at 4:51 AM on May 24, 2012


When the Sharks were playing the Red Wings in the playoffs a year or two ago someone threw a small shark on the ice. It had an octopus sewn into it's mouth.
posted by ghharr at 5:06 AM on May 24, 2012


In Portland we have our own Teddy Bear toss. We have also been known to unleash an octopus or two after an opponent goal.

On the issue of keeping catfish alive, wrapped in a wet cloth they can live for days without being "under water". Personal experience talking.
posted by pdxpogo at 5:06 AM on May 24, 2012


That's disgusting and makes me angry... There is truly no limit to the human race's (a) moronic imbecility or (b) unfeeling disregard for the lives of non-human animals. What a combination. To loosely paraphrase David Foster Wallace, consider the fucking catfish! Fuckwits.
posted by désoeuvrée at 5:11 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]


The poor, poor chapeaus.
posted by notyou at 5:17 AM on May 24, 2012


furiousxgeorge: "Is there anything I can wave at Ilya Bryzgalov to encourage him not so suck so much?"

Bears?
posted by specialagentwebb at 5:36 AM on May 24, 2012


So there's no room for history and tradition on the blue? I mean... at least Red Wings fans don't go out and hunt down octopi to chuck them on the ice at critical times - they were already well and truly dead at the local fish markets. Unless you are an animal activist, the only way I could see this being offensive is being a slight *slight* waste of food.
posted by Yzerfan at 5:48 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I remember the old Snickers' commercial that riffed on this, using their "Not going anywhere for a while?" tagline.

"Hey, Chucky!"
posted by shoesfullofdust at 5:53 AM on May 24, 2012


In the Twin Cities, bagels are sometimes thrown on the ice when the team from St. Louis Park (a suburb with a good-sized jewish population) is playing. So, I'd always associated this sort of thing with teen-age anti-semitism. Nice to read that it can be more playful.
posted by Area Man at 6:11 AM on May 24, 2012


When I was at Georgia Tech the fans used to throw fish onto what was then Grant Field when Notre Dame was the opponent. Not being a native Southerner, I was somewhat confused by this so I asked one of the rednecks throwing them "What's up with the fish?"

As a native Southerner, I'm just surprised they're using a stereotype about Catholics that 1) relatively inoffensive and 2) based in some kind of reality. They could have been pelting them with pamphlets about the evils of idolatry.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:12 AM on May 24, 2012


I remember that day when the Ottawa Senators threw actual senators into the ring. That was a great day for hockey.

Can someone please throw Mike Duffy onto the ice? I know it might take a few (dozen) people to lift him, but you'd be doing all Canadians a favour.
posted by barnoley at 6:28 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Don't any of you heathens know not to waste food?
posted by narcoleptic at 6:28 AM on May 24, 2012


GenjiandProust: "I don't necessarily buy that the fish is live... the logistics of keeping a live catfish concealed in your... trousers? through the third period in a hockey game? I mean... I don't quite think so, no.

True. The logistics of keeping a live dildo in your pants for that long are less daunting.
"

"He stuffs his trousers
I'm telling you quite plainly, he stuffs his trousers
With a plastic penis
It fell out in Lima."
posted by symbioid at 6:33 AM on May 24, 2012


Hockey is a sick fucking sport; it's gladiators on ice. And, throwing a living animal onto ice is fucking sick. Assholes!

Lighten up, Francis.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:34 AM on May 24, 2012 [5 favorites]


The last true blood sport.

I guess you've never seen toddlers play hungry hungry hippos.
posted by elizardbits at 6:48 AM on May 24, 2012 [6 favorites]


Agree with the throwing of live (or even dead) animals on ice. Gross, sick, twisted, wrong.

But hockey is a beautiful sport. I played for a few years and am amazed how someone can go that fast, on a thin blade, on ice, and keep their head up while moving a puck. Pretty impressive.
posted by stormpooper at 6:55 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I am not condoning throwing live (!) animals, well, anywhere really. But blanket dismissals of hockey qua sport strike me as seriously underinformed or just tacky. I don't burst into your Doctor Who fanfic threads and deride, say, Science Fiction/Fantasy as a genre. Show some tact.

("Show some tact" in a thread about hockey = Priceless.)
posted by joe lisboa at 7:28 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Do we really need to visit the octopi vs octopuses vs octopodes debate ?

(Their hat-trick video, same presenter, is good too.)
posted by k5.user at 7:44 AM on May 24, 2012


Do we really need to visit the octopi vs octopuses vs octopodes debate ?

Octomupuseses.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:55 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Hockey is a sick fucking sport; it's gladiators on ice.

Hockey is thugs for thugs and by thugs. The last true blood sport.

Bullshit. It's a contact sport, and there's a few players that need to reign in some dangerous aspects of their game, but there is no shortage of speed, finesse, sportsmanship, and beauty in the sport. "Gladiators on ice" he says. "The last true bloodsport" he says. Overlooking American football, boxing, and MMA.
posted by Hoopo at 9:02 AM on May 24, 2012 [5 favorites]


Metafilter: we really need to visit the octopi vs octopuses vs octopodes debate.
posted by Blue_Villain at 9:32 AM on May 24, 2012


Is there anything I can wave at Ilya Bryzgalov to encourage him not so suck so much?

I am going on the record as the guy who doesn't think Bryz sucks. He's definitely rattled by the fans and media, but it's Philadelphia so fans and media, who are frequently... Shall we say "unreasonable"? Anyways I can't be the only one that noticed the Bryz you paid for show up at times this year. Even in the playoffs. Philly's defense is not great without Pronger (and often Timonen). There was a reason you were able to ride Leighton and Boucher to the Finals once. Give it time. He'll come around.
posted by Hoopo at 12:44 PM on May 24, 2012


Fans of the Nashville Predators ...fans of Florida Panthers

The Preds and the Panthers don't have "fans." They have spectators who are bribed with $5 seats and free t-shirts to fill in seats that are visible to cameras and Gary Fucking Asshole Bettman.

Canadian teams have "fans." The Oilers, who sucked massively this season, and the Leafs, who lost something like 19 of 20 in a late-season meltdown, sold more--far, far, far, far more-- tickets this season than did Phoenix and Phoenix just made it very deep into the playoffs. And those Canadian tickets were not only sold at full price (versus the giveaways, even in the playoffs, in Phoenix and many other US markets) but they also subsidize these teams that do not belong, have never belonged, and have next to zero fan base in Nashville or Miami.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 4:03 PM on May 24, 2012


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