Yes, those bears are really playing hockey

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A video of bears playing ice hockey has (again) gone viral recently. The two-minute clip (above) shows brown bears sliding around a rink, deking, shoving and slap-shooting.

The bears are outfitted with sticks and jerseys as a rather sizable crowd watches. The animals actually play the sport surprisingly well. But there’s no way this can be real, right?

Oh, it’s a very real.

Back in May, the New York Times’ Slap Shot hockey blog did a roundup of all of the crazy bear hockey videos floating around. We thought it was worth pointing out since there still seem to be questions as to whether a bear can be taught to rock the rink.

The video has been around for more than a year, yet people continue to doubt its authenticity. It appears there aren’t any bear-hockey-CGI effects going on. This is a real (crazy) Russian phenomenon.

We’re going to spend the rest of the day thinking of good bear puns. Like Wayne Grizzly. Or Mario Le Boo Boo. Or Sidney Crosbear. Or Jaromir Yogi. C’mon, help us out in the comments.

-- Mark Milian (Follow on Twitter @markmilian)