Oh YES! It's Teddy Bear Toss Season And Business Is BOOMIN

ESPN - In hockey, some goals are more memorable than others. The ones that break records. The ones that win championship games. Or in the case of Bakersfield Condors center Brad Malone, the ones that send 10,549 stuffed animals flying from the stands to the ice in a single moment.

It was a straightforward goal: forehand, backhand and through the five hole of Rampage goalie Spencer Martin for a short-handed, breakaway tally. Except that this one gave the 8,862 fans at the game in Bakersfield permission to toss their bags of stuffed toys onto the ice, as is tradition.

The final count for the toys was 10,549 stuffed animals thrown on the ice — a new record for the team. The total count through the 19 seasons of the event is 121,395 stuffed animals donated to local nonprofit organizations through the United Way of Kern County.

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I probably blog 2 or 3 of this per Teddy Bear Toss season, and every single one makes me grin ear to ear. I love Teddy Bear Toss. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a very big AHL/minor league hockey tradition where fans bring stuffed animals to the game and make it rain after their team scores it’s first goal of the game. All the stuffed animals are then donated to charity. The Condors kicked off the season, and man, watch this video from inside the net and tell me your heart doesn’t grow 3 sizes:

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And a few videos from inside the arena:

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The Calgary Hitmen always have the biggest Teddy Bear Toss of the season, which will be in a couple of weeks. Will they break 30,000 this year? It’ll be close. Can’t wait to see.