The Minnesota Wild apologized to fans after the NHL team faced criticism over a skit where the team’s mascot beat a rival mascot with a bat during an intermission on the ice.
During a gathering of NHL mascots at Thursday night's game against the Canadiens, the Wild were throwing a “birthday party” for their mascot Nordy, when he apparently took a pie to the face from the Chicago Blackhawks mascot named Tommy Hawk.
Then, when the blindfolded Nordy was supposed to hit a piñata held by Tommy Hawk, he instead took aim and swung the bat to beat his rival mascot like from some scene from The Sopranos — enthusiastically urged on by the arena announcer to "keep swinging."
After about 10 fake hits another mascot, the New Jersey Devil, stepped in and stopped the mayhem while other mascots worked to drag Tommy Hawk off the ice. Smile if you remember Office Space.
via GIPHY
via GIPHY
Some fans criticized the display of violence rarely seen at any hockey game (snicker) and thought the Wild was "promoting violence in front of thousands of people and kids."
Meanwhile...this happened at intermission. @NordyWild pic.twitter.com/UVxIFrMPrC— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 13, 2017
One Twitter mom asked, "How exactly should I explain this to my kids?"
So, of course the NHL contacted the Wild before the team issued a statement about the fake violence on ice:
"We apologize to anyone offended by the mascot skit Thursday night. It was certainly not our intention."
Maybe they should have added We'll leave that to the players.
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