Why do nhl fans throw octopus

The origins of the activity go back to the playoffs, when a National Hockey League team played two best-of-seven series to capture the Stanley Cup. The octopus, having eight arms, symbolized the number of playoff wins necessary for the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. Since the practice has persisted with each passing year. In one game, fans threw 36 octopuses, including a specimen weighing 38 pounds 17 kg. It has become such an accepted part of the team's lore, that fans have developed what is considered proper etiquette and technique for throwing an octopus onto the ice.

The octopus tradition has launched a couple of other object-tossing manias. Some [ who? During the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as the hype about the Wings' run to the Finals grew, a fan at the Boston Garden threw a lobster onto the ice during a playoff game between the Boston Bruins and the New Jersey Devils.

Lobster harvests are often identified with the Bruins' home region, the New England States, particularly Maine. During the Stanley Cup Playoffs , fans of the Florida Panthers threw thousands of toy rats on the ice whenever the Panthers scored, instigated by the octopus toss and the story of Scott Mellanby killing a rat in the Panthers' dressing room.

And guess what? The Red Wings won in eight straight. Before the season home opener, Panther Scott Mellanby obliterated a rat in the locker room with a perfectly placed slap shot and then scored two goals with the same stick. By the time the playoffs rolled around, Panthers fans were throwing rubber rats to the ice for each Panthers goal. The ritual was so egregious that during the offseason the NHL devised a new rule penalizing home teams for delay of game with similar fan disruptions.

The Panthers devised a rat mascot. Fish are a popular choice. The Harvard vs. These days, though, the traditional objects have become predictable. You expect an octopus to hit the playoff ice in Detroit. But how about a prosthetic leg? One of the frustrations of any passionate hockey fan is the way refs always make calls that benefit your opponent.

Totally unfair, right? Apparently, one anonymous Corpus Christi IceRays fan thought so, too. Maybe he was trying to give his team a leg up on the competition. No one knows for sure. It might simply have been a knee-jerk reaction to all the unfair whistles.

Wolf — now working for Leipold in Minnesota for the NHL franchise there — will be back in Nashville this week to see his beloved Preds play. Oh, and he registered a trademark for the flying-on-ice catfish, giving it a name that soon may appear on T-shirts, hats and in children's books — "Preddy the Catfish. Game 3 at Dallas: p. Facebook Twitter Email. Catfish tossing started because some Predators fans hated Detroit It may be a fish tale, but former Lower Broadway bar owner Bob Wolf claims he's the first fish flinger, a response to octopus-tossing Red Wings fans.

Brad Schmitt The Tennessean. Show Caption. Hide Caption.