Gritty is bringing violence to the playoffs with his personal vendetta against the Penguins mascot: ‘Tick tock, little bird’
The feud between the Flyers’ chaotic mascot and Iceburgh the Penguin dates back to Gritty’s first day. There’s been no letting up since.
There are many similarities between this year’s first-round matchup featuring the Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins and the last time the two met in the 2018 postseason. They’re meeting at the same stage, the first round, of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The same deep-rooted rivalry and passionate fan bases remain. The rosters even still feature names like Travis Konecny and Sean Couturier; Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.
But there is one key difference, something that was missing from the 2018 series but will leave furry orange fingerprints all over this one: Gritty.
The Flyers’ chaotic mascot was introduced on Sept. 24, 2018, just a few months after the Penguins eliminated the Flyers from those playoffs. And since his origin day, Gritty has had it out for his cross-state rival, Pittsburgh’s mascot Iceburgh the Penguin.
While fans were trying to figure out what Gritty was or where he came from, Gritty was busy already making threats toward the “bird.”
“Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird,” Gritty tweeted when he was just hours old.
Before he was a year old, he was beating Iceburgh with a T-shirt cannon in a Pokémon inspired video for National Video Game Day.
And now, a few months shy of his eighth birthday, Gritty hasn’t backed down, especially not with state-pride and the second round of the playoffs on the line.
Gritty has taken to threatening the “bird” again. This time, it’s through a video of Gritty looming ominously behind the Penguins mascot as the camera pans to a close-up of Gritty. The caption accompanying it reads, “tick tock, little bird.”
But Penguins fans aren’t exactly an innocent party in this off-ice Battle of Pennsylvania. An Iceburgh parody account on X has pinned on its profile a video of Gritty getting beat up by Mike “The Miz” Mizanin for a WWE promo, with a photo of Iceburgh and a status that reads, “Deep thoughts… Happy thoughts…”
Does that excuse Gritty throwing a sheet cake at a man in a Penguins sweater at Tuesday’s last regular season game? Maybe not, but anyone who has been to a game at Xfinity Mobile Arena knows that’s just Gritty being Gritty.
While Gritty wasn’t in the building for the Flyers’ 2020 playoff run due to COVID-19 restrictions — that was played in a bubble in Toronto, Ontario — he still brought the same mayhem in the form of billboards and an accidental trip to Toronto, Ohio.
Now, with Gritty in attendance when the Flyers return home to play Game 3 on Wednesday (7 p.m., NBCSP), it’s hard to predict exactly what the orange creature will get up to. But fans can be sure to expect chaos, cake, and probably a little bit of violence too. Just don’t say he didn’t warn you.
As for his battle with Iceburgh? That’s for the players to take care of on the ice, and you can bet it’s going to be fast-paced, competitive, and well, downright gritty.
Game 1 of the Flyers-Penguins first-round will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena.
Game 1: Flyers at Penguins, 8 p.m. Saturday, NBCSP/ESPN
Game 2: Flyers at Penguins, 7 p.m. Monday, NBCSP/ESPN
Game 3: Penguins at Flyers, 7 p.m. Wednesday, NBCSP/TNT/truTV/HBO MAX
Game 4: Penguins at Flyers, 8 p.m. April 25, NBCSP/TBS/truTV/HBO MAX
*Game 5: Flyers at Penguins, April 27 (Time TBD)
*Game 6: Penguins at Flyers, April 29 (Time TBD)
*Game 7: Flyers at Penguins, May 2 (Time TBD)
*if necessary