Embarassing player encounters

[Soliak]

I had an awkward run in with Duchene at a bar/club in Vancouver a few years ago. He walks in with Giggy, Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Holden. As they walk up to the bar to order a drink I say g'day and start talking to them. Giggy sits down on a stool next to me and starts asking me if I like hockey, we talk about the Flames etc...he's a cool guy and we are drinking together - sweet.

After about 15 minutes he offers to buy me a shot and we power it down, then keep bantering for a bit longer. I'm feeling pretty comfortable and it's more just like hanging out with a mate rather than a pro - this is where I go wrong.

I let slip that it's an interesting group he has tonight, him being older and dressed completely different to the others. The other 3 guys all have shirts flared open with the top two buttons undone, Duchene has a ridiculous gold chain around his neck with a ring hanging off it, they look like idiots. At this point the other guys are a few meters away talking to some girls. Giggy inquires what I mean by the comment and I mention their get-ups and how much smaller Duchene was to what I expected. He starts laughing and starts yammering for Duchene to come over, Giggy is giggling saying "oh he's gonna love this...". Duchene comes over and he's got this what-the-####-do-you-want expression on his face like Giggy is always playing tricks on him or like I wanted an autograph or something? Giggy then tells me with a grin to repeat what I just said...."I wasn't trying to be offensive, Matt, but I was just telling Giggy here that you look much smaller then I expected".

Duchene looks at me deadpan for about 10 seconds, says nothing and walks away. Giggy howls with laughter and buys me another shot.

[Sr. Mints]

I was at Community grocery downtown, Andrew Ference and his wife/girlfriend were in line at the checkout either next to or ahead of us. I gestured to my then-fiance, and she said, "What? What's wrong?" Then I nonchalantly whispered, "That's Andrew Ference," and she replied, still having no idea what I was talking about, "Who's Andrew Ference?' and then Ference and his wife looked over at us like we were ###holes.

[ResAlien]

I passed by Ian Laperriere in the grocery store. I gave him the hey what's up head nod, he looked into my soul and I assume judged my worth. It was fun.

[curves2000]

I have plenty of interesting encounters but here are a few from the same weekend road trip I did with a bunch of friends during the lockout-shortened season in 2012-2013

The Flames had a unique schedule and went to LA/Anaheim to play 3 games in 4 nights. Anaheim on Friday and LA on Saturday and Monday.

I tried booking us at the Marriot/Ritz Carlton connected to Staples Center but they were sold out, I was furious cause I wanted to stay at the same hotel as the team so instead I booked us at the Biltmore which is an old fashion classic style hotel, think Fairmont Palliser etc.

In any event it turned out the team was staying at the same hotel for the entire weekend so we saw the players and management the entire time. After the Flames lost to the Ducks 4-0 on an insane performance from a nobody goalie named Viktor Fasth we went out and partied etc. The next morning we were furious and went to breakfast and stuff, some of us had Flames hats on and such. We shared an elevator a couple of times with guys like Hudler, Tim Jackman, Glencross etc No matter who we saw in our day to day dealings, nobody acknowledged us with so much as a nod.

For the Saturday night after the Flames got destroyed again we randomly met a group of gorgeous girls from Calgary who were also down in LA for the 3 game road trip. We had some drinks and everything was clicking so the big group of us wanted to go back to our hotel so we can chill, get some drinks and throw on some clothes for the bar. As we are about to walk in we here a voice say "Those are some dam good looking jerseys you have on" we all turn around and it was Ken King, Clay Riddell and Conroy geting out of a limo. The girls got excited and asked if the team was staying there and we said yes, well that was the end of that for us dudes, full ditched while they took pictures with Conroy and waited on the others to arrive.

We ended going out to Hollywood and had a blast, met some amazing local Cali girls who turned out to be hotter and cooler than the YYC ones and had a blast. We all ended up coming back around 6 am and guess who pulls up behind us, 3 sheets to the wind? Roman Cervanka. Guy was having a blast in America looked like.

The next morning Glencross had his luggage and was checking out for what we thought was a trade turned out to be an injury while some guys like Gio, Wideman and I think JBow got into Jaret Stoll's Range Rover with their golf clubs to play some golf on their off day.

On Monday the Flames got destroyed yet again for the 3rd time and that was it. We stayed a few extra days and we all had a blast. That was the weekend that the losses finally convinced ownership/management to start the rebuild cause a few weeks after Iggy and JBow were gone.

[chockfullofgoodness]

Originally Posted by Soliak

I had an awkward run in with Duchene at a bar/club in Vancouver a few years ago. He walks in with Giggy, Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Holden. As they walk up to the bar to order a drink I say g'day and start talking to them. Giggy sits down on a stool next to me and starts asking me if I like hockey, we talk about the Flames etc...he's a cool guy and we are drinking together - sweet.

After about 15 minutes he offers to buy me a shot and we power it down, then keep bantering for a bit longer. I'm feeling pretty comfortable and it's more just like hanging out with a mate rather than a pro - this is where I go wrong.

I let slip that it's an interesting group he has tonight, him being older and dressed completely different to the others. The other 3 guys all have shirts flared open with the top two buttons undone, Duchene has a ridiculous gold chain around his neck with a ring hanging off it, they look like idiots. At this point the other guys are a few meters away talking to some girls. Giggy inquires what I mean by the comment and I mention their get-ups and how much smaller Duchene was to what I expected. He starts laughing and starts yammering for Duchene to come over, Giggy is giggling saying "oh he's gonna love this...". Duchene comes over and he's got this what-the-####-do-you-want expression on his face like Giggy is always playing tricks on him or like I wanted an autograph or something? Giggy then tells me with a grin to repeat what I just said...."I wasn't trying to be offensive, Matt, but I was just telling Giggy here that you look much smaller then I expected".

Duchene looks at me deadpan for about 10 seconds, says nothing and walks away. Giggy howls with laughter and buys me another shot.

Who the #### is Giggy?

[Machiavelli]

Giguere?

[Cactus Jack]

My parents were friends of Gilmour in the late 80s/early 90s and by extension Fleury, Makarov and Roberts until the trade. I was around 7 or 8 at the time and my parents babysat Roberts´daughter who was maybe 3 at the time. Gary arrived and I gave him my Flames hat to sign. He took it and said he´d have the whole team sign it and get it back to me. I never saw that hat again, and ever since that day I labelled him a hat-stealing b@$t@rd although he probably just forgot about it....

[Oling_Roachinen]

Well could have been worse, could have been Gilmour's babysitter.