The 34th in our 118-part series.
Giveaways that make you go “Huh?”
Go to a few NHL games and you’ll find yourself the recipient of a giveaway. Everyone at some point in their lives has been handed a team picture, or a cap, or a pack of trading cards on the way out of the arena. And don’t get us wrong — we love those things, but what we’re talking about here, what we really, really love, is the crazy stuff. Like the commemorative coins we got at the 1996 World Cup that celebrated the inaugural event at the Flyers’ then-new arena, or those “beer mugs” the Devils gave us after a St. Patrick’s Day game against the Flyers that were little more than just plastic cups, or the badge holders we got when we traveled to Los Angeles to see the Devils play the Kings. It’s just so much fun to get a cheap piece of what would be considered nothing more than clutter if it wasn’t emblazoned with a team logo and handed to you by an usher as you shuffle out to the parking lot after a hockey game. The two items that stand out the most in our minds are the cereal bowls we got from the Devils after one late-season game against the Islanders (perfect for holding paint when we’re doing edgework while redecorating), and the famous, random, ridiculous inflatable Gulf blimp that didn’t even have a Devils logo anywhere on it. We don’t remember who the opponent was, or even what year it was, but we will always cherish that stupid blimp, just because it made absolutely no sense and was completely free.
