My Dad Guilt kicked in, as it usually does, on the third day of the road trip. This was day three of 12, so the deadbeat-dad thing felt heavier than usual. I was in Columbus for the 2015 NHL All-Star Game, wandering through the merchandise area in search of a dumb (read: cheap) souvenir for my daughter, who was about seven weeks shy of her third birthday.
A 2-year-old has no need for a puck, she was too little to build a Lego Stanley Cup, and she was too big for a bib. Even little jerseys cost a fortune and refrigerator magnets aren’t very exciting. Then I found it: NHL Mascots & Friends, a colorful children’s book introducing all of the league’s mascots. Sometimes it rhymed, sometimes it didn’t, which to this day I still find confusing, but no matter. It was perfect. Little did I know it would trigger an undying love of giant, silent, dead-eyed furballs in my daughter, and eventually send me on a two-year, cross-continent journey to buy her a stuffed animal of each mascot, each one procured from its native arena for authenticity’s sake.
Howler from the Coyotes is her favourite. Harvey is 12th.
Confirmed, young children don't like Hunter (he came in 28th of 30 -- only the Devil and Gritty were lower):
Quote:
28. Hunter, Edmonton Oilers: I don’t have a Hunter doll yet because they don’t make them. He’s a bobcat, I think? He looks like a kitty cat, but I think he’s kind of scary.
__________________
Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
Flyers PR department hit a home run with this one.
I think the Flames Game Presentation & Events people are paying attention. There's a shift in mascot design designs in recent years towards more aggressive personnas.
Perhaps a make-over for Harvey in the future, less cuddly and more rabid husky?
Still think an updated Scorch would be Gritty-level awesome.
The Following User Says Thank You to Reggie Dunlop For This Useful Post:
The close of the show was even better with the Gritty knockoff.
Gritty in a Supreme Court judge’s robe crushing a beer, and as they cut from camera, he was coming around the corner of the desk, must have had a fall (like the clip they showed earlier). Gold.
The Following User Says Thank You to DeluxeMoustache For This Useful Post:
Which brings us to Gritty, the new, demented-looking, googly-eyed Flyers mascot who could only have divided America more deeply had he been nominated to the Supreme Court.
Quote:
Originally Posted by N-E-B
Gritty is #2 in the NHL after Harvey. #3 overall after Harvey and Scorch. I’m still pissed they killed off Scorch. The Flames should resurrect him.
I agree. Scorch had a lot in common with Gritty. If they brought him back now they could capitalize on all this mascot controversy and attention. I do think the Thunderbug deserves more props for shooting fans with silly string.
Honourable mention to Gnash for his constant trolling of Blackhawks fans on twitter. Gotta appreciate a mascot who strives to keep a rivalry going.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
