[1] Sobotka is known for collecting octopuses thrown onto the ice during Red Wings playoff games, a tradition among the team's fans.
[5] Sobotka is also famous for being the employee responsible for handling any octopuses thrown on the ice during Red Wings' games.
In the April 2006 edition of Sports Illustrated, Michael Farber wrote: The first face-offs [of the Stanley Cup tournament] were in Ottawa and Detroit at 7:12 p.m., although the unofficial commencement occurred two minutes earlier when an octopus landed on the ice with a splat during 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the Wings' Joe Louis Arena.
Octopus-tossing is officially proscribed, but arena superintendent Al Sobotka tacitly encourages it by twirling octopuses over his head as he chugs off the ice after cleaning them up.
In this year's playoff innovation, some Oilers fans threw hunks of prime Alberta beef onto the ice in response.Sobotka said in 1996 that an unofficial record of 54 octopuses were thrown during one game of the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals series between Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils.
As Frank Brown, the league's vice president for media relations, once said: "Every so often, an octopus slips out of someone's hands, and Al is right there to take care of the matter.
[8] However, it was announced on May 7, 2008, that the NHL would allow Sobotka to twirl the octopuses, provided that he does so only at the Zamboni gate and not on the ice surface.
[9] On March 30, 2022, Sobotka was fired by Olympia Entertainment, after he was reportedly seen openly urinating into a drain at Little Caesars Arena.