Masterful trolling… of a literal troll.
PublishedAugust 9, 2025 3:14 PM EDT•UpdatedAugust 9, 2025 3:14 PM EDT
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One of my favorite stories of the last few weeks has been Seattle Kraken mascot, Buoy, getting charged by a bear while fly-fishing with center John Hayden in Alaska.
Why? Because just look at that sentence and imagine trying to explain this to someone who had no clue what you were talking about, and the questions that would follow:
“Why was the Seattle mascot in Alaska?”
“Why was a mascot fly-fishing in bear country?”
“Why does a team called the ‘Kraken’ have a mascot that’s a troll. Shouldn’t it be some kind of squid or other cephalopod?”
Fortunately, no one was hurt, and even those who were there were laughing about the incident.
To the team’s credit, they have leaned into the virality of the moment, and on Friday, Buoy’s X account requested that people give the movement the bear started barreling toward the mascot the meme treatment.
The best one of these came courtesy of the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears.
You might have an idea of where this is headed just from the Chocolatetown, USA-based team and Washington Capitals affiliate’s name. Still, I don’t think I saw the Bears changing their profile picture to the most-famous mascot-chasing bear in hockey.
That’s hilarious. I grew up going to Bears games and played hockey for the Hershey Jr. Bears house league for most of my childhood, so to say I felt a sense of pride in this meme is an understatement.
I love this kind of stuff, especially in the summer between the Draft and development camp and then the start of regular training camp. I have no clue how social media teams are supposed to make that work, so I’m sure they were all popping champagne when another team’s mascot got chased by a bear.
Heck, this worked so well, that I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw mascots across hockey getting chased by dangerous animals just so there’s stuff to tweet.