Chicago Bat-Hawks: Winged Rodent Invades Blackhawks Game

The Chicago Blackhawks faithful haven't had much to cheer about this season, but at least they got a little excitement ahead of the team's Wednesday night clash with the Edmonton Oilers.

The game had a bit of an unusually late start time with puck drop scheduled for 8:30 in the evening Chicago time, and, apparently, that was late enough in the evening for nocturnal animals to start dropping out of the rafters.

Fans noticed a bat doing its thing down at ice level in the United Center.

Alright, somebody get some tennis rackets and pool skimmers, stat.

They definitely wanted to get that bat under control before the players hit the ice and someone goes all Manu Ginóbili on the poor thing, and that's precisely what they did.

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The bat-catching duties fell on a member of the ice crew named Lucas, who did an incredible job catching it with what looked to my untrained eye like an old-timey dog catcher's net, which I guess was lying around in the bowels of the United Center.

Impressive work from Lucas. Hopefully, someone got him a hotdog and a Pepsi on the house as thanks… or at least heavily discounted.

I've talked about it before, but I'm the designated wildlife handler in my home (with the one caveat being I don't do birds. One of those comes inside it's every man, woman, and French bulldog for themself). 

Anyone who handles those duties knows the immense pressure that comes with it. We've all had sweat collect on our brows while we prepare to trap a gecko in a Ziploc container or smash a spider with a flip-flop.

Now imagine having to play Steve Irwin in front of a crowd of hockey fans who have had some bonus drinking time thanks to the late start.

That's a tough spot to be in, but our guy Lucas has what scientists call, "the Clutch Gene."

Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, the bat wasn't a good omen, and they dropped the game to the Oilers in overtime by a score of 4-3.