Hockey players are tough, except when a giant condor freaks them out

Like every pro team, the Bakersfield Condors have a kid-friendly, costumed mascot — two, in fact. But sometimes you need inspiration from the real deal, so the minor-league hockey club invited a handler to bring his condor to perch majestically during the national anthem before a game against the Las Vegas Wranglers. And it didn't go well, maybe because it was an Andean condor and not a home-grown California bird, or maybe just because big-ass condors don't belong in bright, noisy, icy arenas. So it headed for the locker room, but not before scaring the bejeezus out of the home team, which promptly laid an egg in a 4-1 loss.

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