Freep: Superior Fish will of-fish-ally close next week

This isn’t hard-hitting news, but it’s still Red Wings-related in an eight-legged way. The Free Press’s Robert Allen reports that the “Of-fish-al” supplier of octopi will close:

A decades-long source of octopuses for Detroit Red Wings fans is drying up.

Superior Fish Co. on 11 Mile near Main Street in Royal Oak is closing. The last day of full service is Saturday, and there’s to be a sale on frozen fish — and pieces of the store “just as they sell the seats to to Joe Louis (Arena)” — the following week.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have that relationship with our Red Wing fans,” said co-owner Kevin Dean. “We became known as the ‘O-Fish-Al Octopi Supplier,’ and we came up with the ‘Octoquette,’ which is the proper etiquette for propelling a cephalopod.”

They’d even provide a kit, with the eight-legged sea creature in a plastic bag, along with a pair of rubber gloves and hand wipes. The store, which opened at a different location in 1940, had by the mid-80s become a popular place for gutsy hockey fans who would sneak octopuses into Joe Louis Arena under their jerseys, hats or even in baby carriers, and throw them on the ice after a goal — especially during the playoffs.

Continued

Update: The Free Press also posted a primer on the Cusimano brothers’ establishment of the octopus-throwing tradition, and Kirkland Crawford offers other fish suppliers.