All-Star Weekend is a serious event that showcases the game’s best players. But it hasn’t been all business down in Tampa.
As players arrived in Tampa on Friday and participated in Media Day on Saturday, the players were greeted by puppies and a giant parrot.
Also: pirates. Did we mention pirates?
Puppies
What’s better than an onslaught of NHL All Stars? An onslaught of puppies – that’s what! All the dogs are adoptable and provided by the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.
While most of the puppies had names unrelated to the NHL, Nathan McKinnon was handed a pup named Palat, which of course was joked upon being named after Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ondřej Palát.
Parrots
If the cute puppies weren’t enough, Saturday morning the players were joined by a parrot named Cheerio. I have no idea where Cheerio came from, but I have never seen Brent Burns more at home than he appears holding a parrot.
While Brad Marchand made friends with Cheerio, he joked that the parrot had a bigger nose than he does. 😂
Brock Boeser is the only player that seemed super uncomfortable and tried to hold Cheerio as far away as possible.
Pirates
The weirdest part of the day, however, has been the arrival of pirates. As the All Star weekend takes place the same weekend as Tampa’s Gasparilla Pirate Fest, some pirates have taken the Stanley Cup hostage, asking for a random for it’s safe return.
Don’t worry, though, as Victor Hedman and real life pirate Erik Karlsson are the two guys up for the task.
You're the real treasure @ErikKarlsson65 & @heds77. #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/NvjVlExVjI
— NHL (@NHL) January 27, 2018
Karlsson even kept his pirate hat on during the Skills warmups.
Overall, what a weird two days and it’s sure to get even stranger during tonight’s Skills competition.
Headline Image: @nhl and @TBlightning
