Ever meet a player and be disappointed/surprised?

[JFleegs]

I went to a signing yesterday with a few of my favorite nhl players, waited in line for 2 and a half hours just to be ignored completely and scribbled on my jersey while they drank booze and chatted with each other. Even the coach was oblivious to us instead talking to his buddy who just arrived. It was just overall disappointing to say the least.

So I am wondering if anyone else had some good or bad experiences with players they liked or disliked?

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Who did you meet?

 

[OilCanada92]

I used to take my sister to the Oilers signings. They were always pretty nice.

Steve MacIntyre stood out. You would have thought every fan was his new best friend.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I've seen Justin Schultz, Beau Bennett, Steve Olesky and Olli Maatta at bars before. It was funny with Maatta, he was under 21 and everyone was buying him drinks

 

[_habsfan9]

I ran into the ducks when i was a kid on the ottawa canal and corey perry was a complete dick. Teemu was super nice though.

 

[Montecristo]

Jason Allison was a pretty unenthused dude

 

[JFleegs]

Who did you meet?

Cooper, Palat, Panik, Gudas, Killorn, Johnson. To be fair johnson did take a photo with me but just seemed totally out of it. Gudas told me he wasn't happy to sign my lightning jersey and wasn't kidding. Should have just skipped him all together, I get it he's not a lightning player anymore but I was (key word was) a fan when he was on the team.

Conacher, and kostka were very pleasant though.

 

[Captain Controversy]

Taylor hall was a ******. Eberle was nice. Nail yakupov stood out.
I was able to chat with nail for a good 20 minutes while having a cigarette outside of cineplex south common. We just watched Age of ultron. He really liked the movie...lol

 

[MillarWithASave]

Cooper, Palat, Panik, Gudas, Killorn, Johnson. To be fair johnson did take a photo with me but just seemed totally out of it. Gudas told me he wasn't happy to sign my lightning jersey and wasn't kidding. Should have just skipped him all together, I get it he's not a lightning player anymore but I was (key word was) a fan when he was on the team.

Conacher, and kostka were very pleasant though.

Why was Gudas at a Tampa Bay Lightning signing?

 

[OilCanada92]

I hate small talk with people I don't know so I know I'd probably be known as a dick if people were keeping track too.

 

[Regal]

I've seen a couple players about town but never talked to any of them. The biggest thing that surprised me over the years was how big Ohlund was. Usually hockey players are a lot leaner.

 

[tarheelhockey]

On the positive side, some guys who have really impressed me with how they conduct themselves with fans:

Jeff Skinner - visibly anxious but super polite, like Peter Parker or something
Brian Boucher - total professional, he gets it
Jay Harrison - legit cool guy, I've seen him park his car in pouring rain to go sign for fans and stand there having a long conversation while getting soaked. Plus, he's a guy you'd want to have a beer with.
Eddie Lack - just a nice, funny guy who clearly enjoys people
Jaccob Slavin - sort of an All American personality, he obviously takes his influence on fans seriously.

 

[Wood Stick]

Not many. Paul Coffey and Dino Ciccarelli are two that stood out to me as complete *******s. Adam Oates was seriously one of the nicest dudes that I have ever met.

 

[CanadianPensFan1]

I met Mario lemieux in Montreal. "Met" .. we said hi. I said I was a big fan. I told him to score to beat the habs. He smiled and said "thats my plan."

Thats my only experience.

 

[Subbaman]

I meet a lot of Habs players each year at their annual blood drive. During the years, those that stood out the most were Mike Cammalleri (he actually remembered me from the last time we met, he even remembered what my job was) PK Subban, Shea Weber and Brendan Gallagher. Plekanec didn't seem to care at all, so did Max Pacioretty.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

I saw Crosby at Earl's and asked him kindly for a picture, but instead gave me such an angry stare and told me to 'p*ss off.'

I met Laine and Ehlers at Silver City. Both were super nice and friendly, but Patrik very awkward and thought Ehlers was more outgoing than Patrik.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I saw Crosby at Earl's and asked him kindly for a picture, but instead gave me such an angry stare and told me to 'p*ss off.'

Off all of the stories in here, this is definitely the first one I'd guess to be false. I have a really tough time imagining the face of hockey would be telling fans who asked for a picture to "**** off".

 

[Hogan86]

Was at the bars in downtown Ottawa after a Sens and Bruins game several years back. Who walks up the stairs, but Tyler Seguin, Brad Marchand and some random. My buddy who has no shame, walks right up the them and starts chatting. Our group ended up having a drink and some shots with them. Seguin was super friendly and easy going. Seemed like a real fun guy. Marchand and the random were dicks. It was a cool experience though.

I also did contract work at the Canadian Tire Centre for roughly two months. Got to see alot of the Sens players coming and going. The two biggest beauties and most friendly guys on the team at the time (this was a couple years ago as well), were Chris Phillips and Chris Neil (tough for me to say as a Leafs fan lol). Those two made sure to always say hi to ya. My respect went up huge for Neil. The guy is a legit tank. Saw him standing beside Zack Smith as they were doing some conditioning sprints in the hallways, and Smith looked like he had little chicken legs next to Neil (and Smith is listed at like 210lbs) Clarke Macarthur was another that was very friendly. Mike Hoffman seemed like a loner, never saw him walking around the arena with any of his teammates. Seemed real cocky. And Robin Lehner always looked like a disaster. Showed up the the arena in sweats and a wool hat everyday. Always looked like her had partied hard the night before. Mark Stone was a huge hipster. It was really neat to see some of the behind the scenes stuff. We even did work in the Sens lounge and dressing room. It's crazy how those guys get taken care of, with personal chef's there to cook them breakfast before the morning skate, and a snack or lunch afterwards. They got massage tables and chriopractic looking tables right beside the change room, with drink machines with unlimited whatever they want or need. A big 90 inch flat screen in their lounge and you would see the boys eating breakfast watching sportscentre. Made me real jealous haha.

 

[chatty4756]

wendel clark is a complete jerk, this is i know from personal experience and from stories i have heard from hockey coaches. He was suppose to skate a practice with a kids team and he stood out in the lobby selling copies of his book instead, on the other hand mark osborne, brad may, rick vaive are ok. probably the best one though i have met is johnny bower. He signs everything, is friendly and just an awesome person to talk to

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Why was Gudas at a Tampa Bay Lightning signing?

Because he used to play there.

 

[SI90]

A few years ago during an islanders prospect camp I was in an empty section st the coliseum. I noticed Ken Morrow and walked over and asked him if I could take a picture with him. It went like this.

Me - " Hey Mr.Morrow I'm a big fan sorry to bother you. I was wondering if I could get a pic with you?"

Morrow " Are you ****ing kidding me! Come on! No!"

I was shocked and didn't expect that reaction. These athletes are humans and can have bad days too.
I met Bossy,Snow , and Eric Cairins that same day and they were great!! Bossy is always great.

I was pissed because Morrow blew up on me and I was with my young daughter. All he had to say was " sorry I'm not taking pictures right now"

Over the years I've met a lot of hockey players (mostly Islanders) all are usually pretty great. I find that goons are usually some of the nicest ones.

 

[East Coast Icestyle]

Off all of the stories in here, this is definitely the first one I'd guess to be false. I have a really tough time imagining the face of hockey would be telling fans who asked for a picture to "**** off".

Yeah I don't buy that. Crosby is always around my town and the surrounding area in the off-season, it's not far from his home. He's a super nice guy who will talk to anybody. People don't go out of their way to bother him, but he always stops and has a good chat about basically anything. You'd swear he wasn't A Star sports player. I don't like him as a player, but he is a genuinely good guy.

 

[Oakstream]

The only one I've met is Ulf Dahlén. He is from my hometown. He was very nice and humble. Me and my friends played hockey (no league, just us). He and his son came by and joined us. We played outside and it snowed very much so every now and then we had to showel snow. He was the first one to do it. That was a nice experience. This was few years back when he coached HV71 in the Swedish elite league.

 

[clownshoes]

Met a bunch of ducks coming out of practice. Koivu was really cool, had a short 1 on 1 conversation. Getz,Bobby, we're nice. Perry fast walked ignored everyone. Another time at a kids event I asked him to sign a couple hats. He seemed annoyed by it. Perry is definitely a dick.

 

[Stand Witness]

A friend of mine is a bouncer at one of the bars here and he was saying today that Drew Doughty came by and tried to skip the line and not pay cover. My buddy said no sorry back of the line and he ended up going "you do know that I am Drew Doughty right?" or something along those lines and then proceed to tell him he didn't care and sent him to the back of the line.

Seen Lawson Crouse at the bars a few times and he seems like a cool dude. One of my best friends growing up is cousins with one of Crouse's best friends and we use to all play NHL together. He was a nice guy for sure.

I've heard ******** stories about Corey Perry but one of my Dad's good friends lives beside him at his London home and he apparently plays road hockey with the kids every once and a while. I've heard mixed about Kadri.