KHL team unveils statue to adopted cat outside arena (Photos)

To understand why a professional hockey team would honor a dead cat with a statue outside of its arena you have to go back two years to Dec. 2014 and inside a seafood store at Vladivostok International Airport.

As patrons shopped, a curious little cat was hungry and decided to have itself a meal.

That meal was a pricey one. About $1,000, in fact, as Stephen Douglas of The Big Lead detailed in June. It also landed the cat an offer to cozy up with a new home with the Communist Party. Instead, the feline took advantage of the newfound viral fame and was adopted by KHL side Admiral Vladivostok, which named it Matroska.

[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Hockey: Sign up and join a league today!]

Sadly, Matroska died in June and Admiral wanted to memorialize the cat in a unique way. They could have created an alternate jersey in its honor, or maybe even hung a banner in the rafters of Fetisov Arena.

No, the team decided to build a statue. Really.

Unveiled prior to Saturday’s game against Vityaz, there now resides a Matroska statue outside of Admiral’s home rink as (via Redditor LocksTheFox):

The power of Matroska’s memory helped Admiral beat Vityaz 5-4 later that day for their first win of the KHL season.

We now expect the San Jose Sharks to do the same outside SAP Center many years from now when Joe Paw-velski leaves us.

– – – – – – –

Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy