Detroit Red Wings Octopus Toss Backfires As Playoff Drought Hits Ten Years
That's what you get for being impatient...
It's pretty crazy that despite once having the longest active streak of playoff appearances, the Detroit Red Wings have officially been eliminated from playoff contention, meaning it will be the 10th straight season in which they have failed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That's the longest active streak in the league now that the Buffalo Sabres are playoff bound.
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It wasn't a bad season for the Red Wings, and they certainly threw everything they had at it.
Including an octopus.
Of course, we all know the tradition. They chuck an octopus on the ice because the eight tentacles used to symbolize the eight wins needed to win the Cup back in "The Day."
Remember that one Zamboni driver would helicopter it over his head, until he got fired for peeing in a drain?
No… seriously.
On Saturday, the Red Wings hosted the already eliminated Devils, and after Justin Faulk got the scoring started, an octopus splatted on the ice.
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I don't ever remember seeing the Octopus make a regular-season appearance. I guess since it has been a decade since the last time the Red Wings were in the Playoffs, someone was really jonesing to airmail a cephalopod onto the Little Caesars Arena ice.
Unfortunately, there weren't enough octopuses (octopi?) in the world to help the Red Wings.
They lost to the Devils 5-3 and are officially out of playoff contention.
So, now that whole octopus thing just seems embarrassing, right? Someone got a little trigger-happy, and while I'm not superstitious, the hockey gods could not have looked too kindly upon that premature octopus-throwing.
Which now makes me wonder: is that tradition dead? Did whoever smuggled that octopus in just kill one of the greatest traditions in sports?
I sure hope not.
Florida might throw rubber rats, Nashville might throw a catfish, and the Kraken might throw fake salmon, but the octopus will always be the original and most powerful fake/dead animal that people throw onto the ice.
Until now, apparently.