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Hockey Teams as Mythical & Legendary Creatures: (5/31)

Washington Capitals -> упырь (The Upyr) | Status: Mythological Creature | Origin: Slavic

In Slavic tradition, much stress was placed on proper burial rites upon an individual’s death to ensure the soul’s purity and peace as it separated from the body. The death of an unbaptized child, a violent or an untimely death, or the death of a grievous sinner (such as a sorcerer or murderer) were all grounds for a soul to become unclean after death. A soul could also be made unclean if its body were not given a proper burial. Upyrs are reanimated corpses possessed by unclean souls that kill living creatures to absorb their life essence. The Upyr drains each victim of blood, then, using its ironlike teeth, gnaws into their chest so that it may consume the heart. In fact, the teeth of the Upyr are possibly its greatest assets, as it uses them to chew through the ground that has frozen solid in the winter months so that it can escape its own grave.