How Super Mario became Predators' unofficial mascot

CALGARY, Alberta — What's a team to do with two hours of unexpected free time?

Predators players wrestled with that decision Friday. The team's charter plane, headed from Nashville to Denver that afternoon, had been grounded by a mechanical issue.

Already delayed by two hours, the Predators decided to deplane, and several players organized a field trip to the Dave & Buster's restaurant at Opry Mills.

That's where they met their new unofficial mascot — a large Super Mario plush doll.

“We were stuck there, delayed a little bit and had a little extra time, so we picked up another teammate," Predators forward Harry Zolnierczyk said. "He seems to have made his way on this road trip.”

Obtaining Mario, which cost 15,000 tickets, required a collective effort. Predators forward James Neal was the primary breadwinner, a few teammates said.

“He was pretty sharp on this one timing game," Predators forward Colton Sissons said. "He was banging out 1,000 tickets at a time."

The Predators finally left at 7 a.m. Saturday, and Mario had his own seat on the early morning flight. When the team left the doll behind at the Denver airport, it called an Uber to chauffeur Mario to Pepsi Center, where he waited in the locker room as Nashville overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat Colorado 3-2.

Players passed Mario around, with the doll even receiving some screen time when Zolnierczyk held it up behind new forward Cody McLeod during the latter's post-game interview.

"It's just kind of a fun thing to have along for the ride for a few games just to mix it up," Sissons said.

An unconventional object transforming into a meaningful symbol isn't uncommon in hockey. In this particular case, Mario represented the bright side of an unfavorable set of circumstances and provided a respite from the monotony of a long season.

“It’s not that things get stale, but it’s nice for something fresh to come around," Zolnierczyk said. "Whether it lasts for days or weeks or months or the rest of the season, I think something like that, it’s just a situation where we were able to bring some fun out of an (unusual) situation.”

The Predators are a "pretty superstitious bunch," Sissons said, so as long as they continued to win, Mario would tag along.

But Nashville lost to Vancouver on Tuesday. What does that mean for Mario?

"Right now, we obviously have a good thing going," Zolnierczyk said before Tuesday's game. "More importantly, we’ve got to make sure that we keep winning games.

"Whether Mario is around for it all, we’ll just have to wait and see."

Reach Adam Vingan at avingan@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamVingan.

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