In 2004 I was working in a Japanese restaurant in downtown Calgary. It had an open kitchen with a sushi bar/counter so the chefs could chat with the customers. One afternoon it was very slow with no customers. There was only the head chef and myself working for kitchen staff, and Marcus Nilson walks in and sits at the sushi bar. I should say that besides myself, all the kitchen staff were from Japan and had no idea about hockey. They had no name or face recognition of any players beside Iginla.
Anyway the head chef starts chatting up Marcus like he's any other customer. Asks him his name and where he's from. He says he's Marcus from Sweden. Then the chef asks him if he's in Calgary on business, haha. Marcus looked kinda shocked for a second then looks over at me and I just shrug my shoulders. Then he said "Actually I'm a hockey player." at which point I inform the head chef that he plays for the Flames. Then the chef says in broken English, "Ohhhh, so how is your hockey this year?" Both of us start laughing and he tells the chef that it's pretty good. It was really funny to see the shocked look on Nilson's face as he realized that this guy had no idea who he was and didn't know much about the Flames. The finished their convo in 2 different styles of slightly broken English and as he got up to leave the head chef said thankyou, and "Be careful, hockey is dangerous sport. Don't get hit by puck!" Marcus laughed it off and said thanks as he left. He actually seemed really nice and genuine, and was a pretty soft spoken guy. I was laughing from listening to them chat and totally forgot to ask for an autograph.
Also Iggy came there a couple times, and I'd just like to say he is as awesome as any story you've heard or encounter you've had with him. He was always really humble and nice to everyone and signed autographs for all the staff after he ate. Kudos again to the captain.
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