Ever meet a player and be disappointed/surprised?

[Chrisinroch]

A friend talks about the time he and his buddy (who had a cup of coffee in the NFL) tried to talk to Zach Parise at a bar when he was sitting with mutual friends. Let's just say, it soured him on the guy. But then you hear lots of people talk about positive interactions with him. Maybe he's just a mean drunk. His dad was a notorious jerk when he was younger. He used to share the story about how a teammate set him straight on a flight, and how it changed his life.

 

[Louie the Blue]

I saw Tarasenko walking his dog in St. Louis. I was able to park and talk with him for a bit. He was very nice and generous with his time and I was fortunate to be able to take a picture with him. I probably spoke with him for 5 minutes or so.

Not a player, but a coach. I saw Ken Hitchcock in a grocery store parking lot of all places laugh. I was surprised at how short he is. He was also generous with his time.

 

[Wild-Sabres]

Hockey players in my opinion seem to be the most awkward athletes when it comes to the Big 4 sports whether it's interviews or other interactions with people so it's not surprising if some meet and greets don't go all that great.

 

[Ceremony]

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.

Did he?

 

[JackSlater]

Only met one player who left a negative impression, and it was Corey Perry. Was neither surprised nor disappointed though. All other players encountered (HHOF to scrubs) were pretty cool.

 

[LeafChief]

Why was Gudas at a Tampa Bay Lightning signing?

It was a 5 year reunion of the Norfolk AHL team (Tampa Affiliate at the time) that won the Calder Cup.

 

[LeafChief]

I saw Alexei Yashin outside of the ACC (this was 15+ years ago).

I asked him for his autograph and he straight up said no and kept walking.

I met Johnny Bower at York University and he couldn't have been nicer. Signed my jersey and a hockey card and signed a whole lot more for other people. He was there to watch a relative play and still took the time to do so.

 

[crowi]

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.

Laine is a Finn though. This is how our culture is.

 

[stempniaksen]

Hockey players are usually great guys, which is which is why they tend to stick out a bit if it turns out they're dicks. Can confirm that Perry and Yashin are **********, everyone else I've met has been great.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Met James Neal at an autograph signing a few years back. Dude was super cool and chatted with me for like 10 minute even though there were other people behind me in line.

He even gave me a thumbs up when I left.

 

[MaskedSonja]

Met stamkos in Sarnia shortly after jr gold. Approached him end of night as he was leaving, shook his hand, told him I enjoyed his play. Asked him to describe his jr experience in one word. He smiled and said "gold!" Total class act.

 

[lancer247]

I met Zezel and Tocchet in 1987 when they were in full mullet, teen heart throb mode in Philly. We were playing street hockey and they started heckling us then came over, took some shots and hung out for a while.

I was Simon Gagne's chapperone for an autograph session at my job. It was his rookie season. He was super quiet but really nice and signed everything. He even stayed past his time to sign autographs for the staff. I have chaperoned a lot of athletes and hockey players were always the most accommodating.

Craziest encounter was with Karl Dyhuis. I was with my buddies at Plough& the Stars in Philly. We saw him at the bar and I still don't know how we reciginized him. We had a bunch of girls we knew around us and he hung with us like we knew each other forever. He drank with us all night and threw money in for the tab we ran. We left at closing to go to an after hours club and Karl jumped in our cab. He hung with us until about 4am then he disappeared into nowhere when guys started giving him crap about losing money on the Flyers In the playoffs.

 

[Stad]

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.

This is so ****ing made up

I've never heard one bad thing about him when it comes to meeting fans, I've heard he's actually really nice.

 

[izzy]

nicest : sheldon souray, tim thomas

rudest: miroslav satan

 

[LeafChief]

This is so ****ing made up

I've never heard one bad thing about him when it comes to meeting fans, I've heard he's actually really nice.

I would agree. Seems made up.

 

[RiceCooker]

Met Adam Graves at a bar I used to work at , he was very nice.
Talked a bit with Chris Pronger at a hotel in NYC, he was nice to me and my 2 sons .
I got to meet Wayne Gretzky's dad at one of my sons hockey games , he was super polite and a true gentleman .

 

[Bexlyspeed]

I have never had a bad experience meeting a player, Chico Resch stood out though.

met him at Nassau Coliseum a few years ago, we asked to take a photo with him and he said he would but needed to have a talk with somebody from the network.

5 minutes later he came back over to us and was the nicest guy, he took pictures with us and talked for like 20 minutes about the moulson/vanek trade, lol

My favorite comment from him was " I like Garth, I think he's doing a great job, but I'm not sure what he's thinking with this one"

Class guy all the way

 

[Morpheus]

Kelly Buchberger, met him twice. I would suggest that once was enough. No personality and aloof. Avoid at all costs.

 

[Unsustainable]

Disappointed: Chris Chelios
Surprised: Chris Osgood

Osgood is just as cool as they come. Captain Kirk loves to talk also, Brind'Amour is pretty serious, but he was nice.

 

[Wood Stick]

Disappointed: Chris Chelios
Surprised: Chris Osgood

Osgood is just as cool as they come. Captain Kirk loves to talk also, Brind'Amour is pretty serious, but he was nice.

Yeah as a Wings fan I've heard some questionable things about Chelios off the ice. Recent ones.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

I have been able to meet a lot of the Wings over the years.

I think the thing fans need to keep in mind is these guys are human beings. They have good days and bad days like anybody else. There are some jerks there but by in large it is rare if you have met them more than once that they are like that all the time.

A big thing here is I have never once asked one of them for an autograph or picture or anything like that. Now I don't like that personally, but also I imagine it gets extremely old and there are times it just cannot be accommodated.

The nicest hockey player I have ever met is Mr. Hockey. Gordie Howe was an even more special person than he was as a hockey player in my opinion and as we all know he was an all-timer there. An exceptional human being and a wonderful man to have a conversation with, just so excited to meet people and to talk about virtually anything. He is missed but not forgotten.

 

[sepHF]

I got to play on the ice at Northlands Colliseum between intermissions as a little kid. The Oilers were playing the Kings (who had Gretzky at the time)

When I was waiting to go onto the ice the Kings walked past us and I saw Gretzky, who of course was my hero being a kid in Edmonton in the 80's. I tried to say hi to him but he just ignored me and kept walking. I was sad.

In hindsight I dont care at all, he was in the middle of a game and was probably focused.


Kovalenko and Czerkawski were super nice to me as a kid, so there's that.

 

[OG]

I haven't had a bad experience meeting anyone.

I met Glen Wesley in a grocery store and he was really nice. Nathan Horton was really cool too. Josef Vasicek was friends with my neighbor and I got to meet him a few times when I was younger. His english needed some work but he was an awesome guy and always signed things for people. RIP

 

[Remington 700]

Not NHL but Dan Marino was a dick. Him and my dad weren't friends but they were both star baseball players growing up in Pittsburgh in the late 70's early 80's so they knew eachother. We were at a mall in Fort Lauderdale and ran into him around 1994 when I was 13. My dad said "Hey Danny" Marino said "Hi, bobby I'm in the NFL now, go **** yourself." From that day forward I was never allowed to wear number 13 on any sports team. Although to this day when my Dad is *****ing at me for something I'll say "Go **** yourself bobby, I'm in the NFL now." He'll go off on a old man rant about how big of an ******* Marino is and forget why he's *****ing me out.

 

[ickie*]

the nicest player i ever met was johnny boychuk. the least nicest player i ever met was andrej meszaros.