All eyes are on Philadelphia hockey this post-season as they need one more playoff win against Pittsburgh to advance to the second round, but something rather large and orange (and slightly unhinged) may be holding viewers' attention even more.
Ah yes, Gritty. What are the Flyers without the crazy-eyed mascot that is always getting up to some shenanigans — like tossing a plush version of his opponents' mascot down the stadium stairs mid-game.
Curious about Gritty, his origins and whether he's made a playoff appearance before? Well, keep reading.
Gritty was first introduced in 2018 and has been turning heads ever since.
In an October 2018 City Council resolution, Gritty was officially made the new mascot of the Flyers.
"Gritty may be a hideous monster, but he is our hideous monster," the resolution stated.
As far as Gritty's looks and overall vibes are concerned, he was also described as "a 7-foot tall orange hellion, a fuzzy eldritch horror, a ghastly empty-eyed Muppet with a Delco beard, a cross of Snuffleupagus and Oscar the Grouch, a deranged orange lunatic, an acid trip of a mascot, a shaggy orange Wookiee-esque grotesquerie, a non-binary leftist icon, an orange menace, a raging id, and an antihero," by the council's resolution, as well as, "huggable but also potentially insurrectionary, ridiculous, horrifying, unsettling, and absurd."
While this isn't technically Gritty's first appearance in the playoffs, the last time the Flyers made it to the post season was in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in what the NHL called "the bubble," so the Stanley Cup tournament looked much different than the fan-packed stadiums we are seeing now.
Gritty did try to infiltrate the locked-down Toronto arena where the games were played, but was told by NHL officials that there was no COVID testing available for him.
The Flyers made it to round 2 of the 2020 playoff season, where they then lost to the New York Islanders.
With the Flyers back in the playoffs for the first time since 2020, Gritty is making the most of the opportunity.
And the mascot's drive to entertain fans on and off of the ice through stadium shenanigans and a hilarious social media presence is unmatched.
Aside from beating the stuffing out of a life-sized penguin plushie, Gritty has mocked — and stalked — the team's fans.
"Get home safe," Gritty captioned a video of sprinting Penguins fans before the camera pans to him chasing them in one social media post. An on-screen caption reads, "Helping random penguins fans get home safe pt 2."
Of course, commenters online are loving the mascot's antics, feeding into the chaos.
"'I can smell you' - Gritty probably," one user wrote alongside a photo of the orange monster.
Another asked, "gritty how was ur first playoff game," to which another commentor replied, "He murdered a penguin and then threw it from the upper deck so I'd say good."
The Flyers will play on the Penguins' turf in Pittsburgh tonight at 7 p.m.
Currently they lead the best-of-seven series 3-1, needing just one more win to advance and take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
Kaitlyn McCormick is a Philadelphia-based reporter writing all things trending, breaking and city-related for USA TODAY's Philadelphia Metro Connect Team.