Hockey Teams

Fun Facts About Hockey Teams

• The Nashville Predators accidentally became the subject of an Saturday Night Live joke in 2025. A comedy sketch poked fun at the team's "Preds in the Community" outreach slogan, turning its innocent message about helping children into an awkward double-entendre. The team even joined in on the joke!
• The Calgary Hitmen are famous for their annual Teddy Bear Toss, where thousands of stuffed animals rain down onto the ice. Players actually help collect the toys, which are then distributed to children's charities. It's one hockey game where bringing a teddy bear is practically mandatory!
  
• Hockey's Teddy Bear Toss can create absolute chaos! At one San Diego Gulls game, fans threw 16,520 stuffed animals onto the ice after a goal. Volunteers needed trucks and even an ambulance to transport the enormous collection of cuddly donations!
• The Pittsburgh Penguins have been spreading Christmas cheer at children's hospitals since the early 1980s. Players and their penguin mascot, Iceburgh, dress in Santa hats, deliver presents, sign autographs and visit children who must spend the holidays in the hospital.
• The Hershey Bears have a sweet holiday tradition called the Teddy Bear Toss. Fans throw stuffed animals onto the ice after the team's first goal, and the toys are donated to children in need. In 2019, fans donated an astonishing 45,650 stuffed animals in a single game!
  
• The Hershey Bears don't just deliver stuffed animals to children; their players also visit schools, join gym classes, play at recess and help with science projects. Their mascot, Coco, even makes special appearances to hand out plush toys to delighted students.
• The Seattle Kraken mascot, Buoy, had an unexpected encounter with a real-life brown bear during a promotional video shoot in Alaska. The bear charged toward the blue-haired troll mascot before turning away. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, and the team used the footage in its promotional video!
• One San Jose Barracuda Teddy Bear Toss featured a stuffed bear so enormous that it needed help getting over the rink's protective glass. A photo of the giant toy went viral, with fans joking that someone had taken their Secret Santa gift budget a little too seriously!