The Bearable
Tommy Hawk (Chicago Blackhawks)
The Chicago Blackhawks luckily stayed away from having a Native American themed mascot. Tommy is a black hawk (get it?!?!) who wears a team uniform. However, the play on words is a bit too cheesy for our liking. Also, Tommy’s face is just a little off. But otherwise, he’s cute and cuddly.
Stinger (Columbus Blue Jackets)
By itself, Stinger isn’t that great of a mascot. But he’s perfectly acceptable even with his freaky eyes and lack of a smile. The Blue Jackets get points for creativity. However, they need to bring back Boomer the Cannon and turn Stinger and Boomer into a comedic duo. Neither one is impressive enough by itself. But together, they’d form a very nice pairing.
NJ Devil (New Jersey Devils)
There’s so much to like about NJ Devil. Props to the Devils for finding a way to make a demonic figure look cute and cuddly, yet still keep it intimidating. However, its name is so lazy. Come up with a funny name for crying out loud.
Fin The Whale (Vancouver Canucks)
The Vancouver Canucks had to get creative to get a mascot since a “Canuck” is a slang term for a Canadian. And they couldn’t just trot Rush or Celine Dion out there as their mascot. So the Canucks came up with Fin, who is a whale.
Like any good mascot, he has a drum to beat and bites unsuspecting heads throughout each Vancouver home game. But he’s not quite cute enough. Give him googly eyes and he’s easily in the top five. No question.
Sparky The Dragon (New York Islanders)
As a huge fan of video games, I’m biased towards dragons. Sparky sort of resembles Spyro, which gives him bonus points. Only issue is kids are probably frightened by him (just look at those teeth!). He’s not quite cuddly enough.