The Teddy Bear Toss is a time-honored tradition in Calgary. Every year, around the holidays, several hockey teams through several leagues hold a special game in which fans are encouraged to bring stuffed animals – all who fall under the helpful “teddy bear” moniker – to the rink with them.
Then, when the home team scores its first goal of the game, all those bears go flying, destined for charity.
And nobody is better at this than Calgary. The Hitmen set a new Teddy Bear Toss record with 28,815 bears this year – nearly 2,000 more than the 26,919 record they set back in 2007. And as you can see in the video above, it’s Travis Sanheim – who takes that first shot from the point, and has that awesome deke around the defender – who’s the star in setting up the draft-eligible Jordy Stallard’s teddy bear goal.
Last year, Radel Fazleev sent 25,214 bears flying with his first period goal, on which Sanheim had the secondary assist:
Before Fazleev it was Pavel Padakin, currently in the Flyers‘ system, who got two Teddy Bear Goals for the Hitmen in a row – so maybe keep your eyes on Stallard, because the Flyers might have a thing for impressive teddy bear goal scorers.
