Teddy Bear Toss Weekend saw the fur fly at several rinks (Videos)
There is no better promotion than Teddy Bear Toss nights in hockey. As the Calgary Hitmen showed us on Saturday night, thousands and thousands of stuffed animals (23,924 to be exact) flying to the ice is an amazing spectacle to watch.
The Hitmen may be the best at the event, but there are plenty of other teams around hockey that provide strong showings while helping local organizations.
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest now]
The AHL’s Bakersfield Condors held their Teddy Bear Toss night a few hours after the Hitmen on Saturday and their fans made it rain with 7,371 furry creatures. The United Way of Kern County will end up donating them to over 50 local organizations.
According to the Condors, they’ve now collected 110,846 stuffed animals in the 18 years they’ve held the Teddy Bear Toss.
A day before the Hitmen and Condors did their thing, over 8,900 Grand Rapids Griffins fans in attendance did their part:
And if you were curious, here’s the view from the Griffins’ bench:
Next up, the Hartford Wolf Pack saw collected 2,441 animals from the stands during their game against the Albany Devils:
It wasn’t just pro teams getting involved. Junior hockey clubs also made the fur fly over the weekend, like the Portage Terriers.
Finally, Alex DeBrincat’s first of the night got the party started for the OHL’s Erie Otters and their fans:
The Otters’ toss also featured a long struggle to get one particular teddy bear over the glass in the lower bowl.
Will we ever see this kind of promo in the NHL? If it hasn’t caught on yet, it probably never will, sadly. Who wouldn’t want to watch an exasperated John Tortorella sit on the bench for 15 minutes while an ice crew picks up thousands of teddy bears? We’d be down.
– – – – – – –
Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
