The Detroit Red Wings have their octopus tradition. Calgary Hitmen fans toss teddy bears. And now the Toronto Maple Leafs have . . . waffles.

Yes, waffles. They made yet another appearance during the third period of Monday night’s game. The Leafs were losing to the Atlanta Thrashers and fans were getting restless when a fan ran down the aisle to pitch several waffles and an Eggo box onto the ice.

He was met with a mixture of boos and cheers and, on his way out of the stands, two security guards. He has been banned from all three Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment arenas.

Toronto police charged Joseph Robb, a 31-year-old Oakville man, with mischief.

The breakfast-food saga began Dec. 9 when a man threw a handful of waffles onto the ice after the Leafs lost to the Philadelphia Flyers. Someone tweeting under the name @EGGO_BOMBER, identifying himself only as Jack M., took responsibility for the ruckus and vowed to strike again.

Then the waffle craze went West. At a game in Vancouver between the Canucks and the Leafs, Vancouver’s infamous green men taunted Leafs centre Tim Brent in the penalty box by tossing Eggos into the air in a frenzy.

Entrepreneurs have picked up on Waffle Nation’s marketing potential. Matt Johnson, a designer and Buffalo Sabres fan who lives near Rochester, NY, designed a T-shirt with a Maple Leaf-shaped waffle.

“It took around an hour at the most to design it and it only took that long because I was laughing at all of the coverage on Twitter the whole time,” Johnson said in an email.

Bob Hunter, executive vice-president of venues and entertainment for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, said a frozen waffle could actually do some damage.

“The fact is if he missed the ice and hit somebody he could hurt a patron, and obviously that’s a little more of an issue than it is worrying about a frozen waffle getting through on the rink.”

Hunter said the team had a tough game.

“We lost the game and the fans are showing their frustration. But only one person in 19,000 threw anything on the ice.”

Waffles may be one of the most absurd items to be thrown onto a hockey rink, but they definitely are not the first. Once a year the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen invite fans to throw thousands of teddy bears on the ice for a charity fundraiser. Octopi have been making appearances during Detroit Red Wings games since 1952, the eight tentacles representing the number of wins it took to claim the Stanley Cup.

But why waffles? The original waffle tosser, “Jack M.,” said in a published report that the Leafs “need to wake up and eat some breakfast.” Apparently that logic was as good as any.

At the Detroit Eatery on Danforth Ave., a headquarters for Detroit Red Wings fans that serves all-day breakfast, owner Chris Antaras laughed and said he would consider adding a Maple Leaf-shaped waffle to his menu. “We would make fun of the Leafs, no problem.”

Robb, who intends to fight the charges from Monday night, said he was not the original waffle thrower but just a copycat expressing his frustration with the Leafs. He says “real fans” can’t even afford game tickets — his ticket was a gift — and they are tired of empty promises from management.

“I didn’t mean to cause no trouble.”

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Robb tossed the waffles — which were thawed and soft — “just to say ‘wake up’ or something. Stop treating your fans like Eggos.”

The Leafs themselves are sufficiently baffled. “I still don’t even understand the whole joke about the waffles,” rookie forward Nazem Kadri told the Star’s Kevin McGran on Tuesday. “Some fan throwing Eggos on the ice during the play, I don’t know what to think about it.”