Deep Blue Sea: Gritty’s Big Day, Part 2

Gritty’s first week of existence has been absolutely wild.

First, the viral sensation was on Good Morning America:

He then set the tone for what having a Philadelphia Flyers mascot is going to be like by uh... dumping a giant bag of popcorn on some New York Rangers fans during a preseason game. And somehow Gritty is the one with a security crew.

After that, he made his way onto Jimmy Fallon where he showed up just to fight Ricky Gervais?

The Gritty fever after that seems unending. Someone got a tattoo of Gritty’s face. Then Gritty met Philadelphia’s other iconic mascot, the Philles Phanatic, and did what might be some sort of bizarre mating ritual with him.

This all culminated in Gritty being roasted by Colin Jost on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, being described by Jost as “the first mascot ever based off the crayon drawings of a five-year-old who saw their parents murdered.”

Will the Gritty hype ever end? Can I please be free of this? I haven’t slept in a week.

News & Notes

• Someone actually got a tattoo of Flyers mascot Gritty
• In a related and very fun article, Mark Lazerus of the Athletic asked his known-mascot-loving 6-year-old daughter to rank all of the mascots. You will not be disappointed: Where does Gritty rank among NHL mascots? Ask a mascot-obsessed 6-year-old.
• In the new Champions Cup, featuring the Isobel Cup winning Metropolitan Riveters and the SDHL champion Luleå Hockey, Luleå took home a 4-2 victory. In Epic Battle, Luleå Defeats Riveters to Claim Historic First Champions Cup
• Here’s a preview of all of the specialty jerseys worn across the league all season: The Uni Watch NHL season preview
• The hits keep coming for the Bruins: Bruins D Krug leaves game with LBI
• The top line isn’t quite clicking yet. Between injury and age, should Joe Thornton’s workload be cut back this year?
• The Barracuda split their preseason series against the Colorado Eagles: BARRACUDA FALL TO EAGLES 4-2 IN PRESEASON FINALE

Scores & Recaps

• Arizona Coyotes 4, Vancouver Canucks 1 [Five For Howling, Nucks Misconduct]
• Philadelphia Flyers 4, Boston Bruins 1 [Broad Street Hockey, Stanley Cup of Chowder recap]
• Toronto Maple Leafs 1, Detroit Red Wings 5 [Pension Plan Puppets recap, Winging It In Motown]
• Tampa Bay Lightning 3, Florida Panthers 2 [Raw Charge, Litter Box Cats recap]
• Montreal Canadiens 0, Ottawa Senators 3 [Habs EOTP storystream, Silver Seven gamethread]
• Columbus Blue Jackets 1, Chicago Blackhawks 4 [The Cannon, Second City Hockey recap]
• Anaheim Ducks 3, Los Angeles Kings 0 [Anaheim Calling, Jewels From the Crown]
• Calgary Flames 3, Edmonton Oilers 4 [Matchsticks and Gasoline, The Copper & Blue gamethread]