Warka
05-24-2008, 02:48 AM
From http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080523/SPORTS0103/805230374
Octopi fly as Detroit prepares for Stanley Cup finals
Francis X. Donnelly
May 23, 2008
DETROIT -- The seats are full and the octopi will fly.
With the Wings once again happily ensconced in the Stanley Cup finals, beginning Saturday, hockey traditions and mania are about to pervade Hockeytown.
And no tradition is more manic than octopus-tossing. Fans sneak them into the Joe, usually under their clothes.
Slimy, sure. Weird, you bet. But it's a Wings custom that goes back a half-century, when two brothers running a local fish market flung an eight-armed creature onto the ice for good luck. "They get all the credit for it or the blame," said building manager Al Sobotka.
Back then, a team had to win eight playoff games to attain the championship. Now it's 16 games. But God hasn't created a 16-arm being, with the possible exception of sainted goalie Chris Osgood.
The mollusk has become a team mascot. But rival Pittsburgh fans are fighting back -- a fish market there won't sell octopi to Wings fans.
As the tender of this octopus garden, Sobotka is responsible for retrieving the $40 critters. He works fans into even more of a lather by swinging them over his head.
The NHL asked him to stop twirling them because it sprays "matter" onto the ice. So now he limits his swinging to the concourse.
Octopi fly as Detroit prepares for Stanley Cup finals
Francis X. Donnelly
May 23, 2008
DETROIT -- The seats are full and the octopi will fly.
With the Wings once again happily ensconced in the Stanley Cup finals, beginning Saturday, hockey traditions and mania are about to pervade Hockeytown.
And no tradition is more manic than octopus-tossing. Fans sneak them into the Joe, usually under their clothes.
Slimy, sure. Weird, you bet. But it's a Wings custom that goes back a half-century, when two brothers running a local fish market flung an eight-armed creature onto the ice for good luck. "They get all the credit for it or the blame," said building manager Al Sobotka.
Back then, a team had to win eight playoff games to attain the championship. Now it's 16 games. But God hasn't created a 16-arm being, with the possible exception of sainted goalie Chris Osgood.
The mollusk has become a team mascot. But rival Pittsburgh fans are fighting back -- a fish market there won't sell octopi to Wings fans.
As the tender of this octopus garden, Sobotka is responsible for retrieving the $40 critters. He works fans into even more of a lather by swinging them over his head.
The NHL asked him to stop twirling them because it sprays "matter" onto the ice. So now he limits his swinging to the concourse.