Before playing for St. Louis and getting drafted into the SHL by the New England Wolfpack I was a bear chaser. You see there are many bears in my homeland of Russia and St. Petersberg is no exception. It would be my job along with a group of others when a bear was seen to go and chase him off. We didn't actually hurt the bears, we just grabbed some pots to bang together and ran after the bears. It usually went well, nothing but minor scrapes and bruises, but one bear we had problem with. He kept coming back, so the next time he came back we took him in and trained him into becoming our mascot. While he can't roll on a ball like they do at the circus, we did put him up on the visitors glass so they would have to walk by Ivan to get to the ice. The fans and players loved Ivan, the opposing team not so much.