The tribute was paid to his late 30-year-old son Garrett by fulfilling his wish of trying to start a new tradition at Vancouver Canucks' games — throwing salmon on the ice.
Garrett was killed in an ATV accident and had always wanted this to be a version of the Detroit octopus toss, or the catfish of Nashville. The fish was tossed late in Saturday's game.
You can see a quick video of the fish on ice here.
You can read about the toss here. There were actually three fish brought into the arena that night, but two were abandoned in the bathroom in favor of just the one.
The Canucks released the following statement:
"As an organization we encourage passionate and responsible fan behaviour. We ask all fans to refrain from throwing any object on to the playing surface for the safety of players, officials, guests and staff."
I agree with the Canucks.
Really, I don't like the idea of tossing things on the ice outside of a hat trick. I neither agree with nor condone the octopus toss, but accept it as a part of the game. I would not be sad if it didn't happen anymore, but I'm not exactly writing letters to the NHL asking for its ban. It is a little hypocritical of me, I know.
I have my reasons for not liking the octo-toss (or similar incidents, like the sharks or whatever). Safety is a big one. Copycating with more dangerous objects is another. Sanitation is in there, as is the animal rights things. I'm not a fanatic about animal rights, but senseless death is just that: senseless. Animals should not be killed nor should their bodies be used for entertainment. Hunting? That's okay if the animal is used for food or the skins used for something productive. Not just mounting them, that's kinda pointless to me. I think the same thing about throwing a fish on the ice. It could have been used for food or SOMETHING beyond a momentary thrill for hockey fans.
Nothing directly against the late Garrett Paquette or anything specific against his father or his friends that carried out the toss, but I disagree with their actions.
The group actually carried about the toss in a fairly responsible manner. They tossed it away from players and carefully thought about it. But not everyone will be so thoughtful in the future. Plus, even if every toss was done safely, it slows down the game. Not a fan of that either.
Speaking of honours: big thanks to Puppatoons and Loosetoon for the awesome Hockey Cop shirt! Photo to come. And to honour you, I did not embed the video so you won't have to see the fish video if you don't want to.
