Early in the first period of Game 3 between the Nashville Predators and the Phoenix Coyotes, someone threw a catfish onto the ice. A linesman used a towel to cart it away. A few minutes later, just after David Legwand opened the scoring, someone threw another one. This time, an ice girl skated out to scoop it up.
With her bare hands. Because she is awesome.
Not only does she forgo any sort of slime prevention -- gloves, a shovel, getting someone else to do it because it's not her job -- but this young lady scoops the fish up with glee, then even waggles it at Coyotes' goalie Mike Smith for good measure as she comes off the ice.
With the amount the catfish's tail is moving, some have suggested that it was alive. I think the young lady's exuberant clean-up is the source all the motion here, but my experience with catfish is minimal. You are invited to speculate wildly.
Either way, the ice girl is the star here.
If you're wondering what could possibly have inspired her to such brazen fish-handling, well, it's sort of a thing in Nashville now. Think back to the second round of the 2011 postseason, when one of her predecessors achieved legendary status for the way she handled a catfish during a game versus the Vancouver Canucks:
It's like being awesome while cleaning up catfish is a part of the Predators' ice girl training course.