No more octopus swinging! Dammit

Anyone who is from Michigan, or is a hockey fan for that matter, knows to what this headline refers:

NHL bans octopus swinging; $10,000 fine for offenders

For those of you that do not know, fans throwing octopi onto the ice is a regular feature of a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. But this I did not know: Apparently the guy who plucks them off the ice was in the habit of swinging them around his head.

Details were scarce Friday, but the Wings have been told by the NHL that head octopus wrangler Al Sobotka no longer may swing the mollusks over his head while removing them from the ice at Joe Louis Arena. If he (or anyone else) does, the team will be fined $10,000.

This is from a story in the Freep, or as it is also known, the Detroit Free Press.

And according to the NHL, too much "matter" flies onto the ice when the octopus is swung. I gather from this that no matter gets onto the ice when the mollusk lands on the rink after being flung from the stands, or when someone whacks it with their stick:

Ducks general manager Brian Burke complained about Sobotka's swinging last year. Before Friday's game, an octopus landed on the ice, as usual, and Nashville defenseman Greg Zanon whacked it aside with his stick.

I don't think anyone swung them when I used to watch the games with our friend Al, an avid Wings fan. btw, I watched the Wings games because I liked Ron Duguay. Oh, how his hair would flow while he glided over the ice (before mandatory helmets, I guess). How nice his bare shoulders and chest looked in the post-game interviews ... what a show-off!

More about this tradition from About.com:

The first octopus landed on the ice during the Red Wings' 1952 Stanley Cup run, courtesy of brothers Pete and Jerry Cusimano, who owned a fish market. If you know your cephalopods, you will know that an octopus has eight tentacles. In those days it took eight playoff wins to claim the Cup, hence the supposed symbolism of the gesture.

The Red Wings were perfect in the '52 playoffs, sweeping the semifinal and the final in straight games. The octopus has been a good luck charm ever since.

By 1995, the team had adopted the tradition by introducing a mascot, Al the Octopus. Al is raised to the rafters of Joe Louis Arena before every home playoff game, and used in team merchandising and promotion.

Our friend Al is neither the offending mollusk swinger nor the mascot (as far as I know, that is), but he sure knew how to swing.

But, that aside, it sure does seem that whining gets you a long way these days.