Nashville Predators fans are famous for tossing catfish on the ice to celebrate their team. One fan felt the fish were also a disgustingly memorable way to protest a controversial call against the Predators, shipping two of them to NHL headquarters in Toronto this week.
Like many Nashville fans, Briley Meeks was angry. The NHL's Situation Room in Toronto had overturned a last-second, game-tying goal for her team Tuesday night, using video review to claim that Viktor Arvidsson had jostled Florida Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo before Filip Forsberg scored. The Predators lost the game 2-1.
Meeks was inspired by the rants from fans on the Predators' Facebook page, as one of them posted the NHL's address and suggested someone send a catfish in protest.
"I was like, 'OK, I will,'" Meeks said. "One minute I was sitting on my couch, the next minute I was going to buy fish and shipping it to Canada. It wasn't the refs in the game that made the call. It was Toronto. So they deserve the dead catfish."
As Meeks was on her way to pick up two catfish from Little's Fish Market in Germantown, she began to wonder about the legality of her protest. So she called UPS, which then called Canadian customs to make sure it was OK to send two dead catfish across the border to protest a disallowed goal in a hockey game.
It was, and soon Meeks had sealed up the fish in a cooler -- having written "YOU SUCK" in block letters inside its cover -- and shipped them off for a total cost of $150 for materials, postage and deceased sea creatures. She chronicled it all in a Facebook video that went viral among Nashville fans and spoke with a Predators website to detail her protest.
As of 8 a.m. ET Thursday, the package had cleared Canadian customs and was en route to NHL headquarters in Toronto. An email to the NHL for comment wasn't returned.
"I hope they're not mad about it. It's just a prank. But we got robbed," Meeks said. "The players were stunned. Even the Panthers players and fans knew it was a bad call too.
"I do want to clarify that there was no ice in the cooler. I wanted it to be disgusting."