Booth And Matthias. Two Funny Guys.
By Frank Rekas
This past Wednesday evening at Duffy’s Sports Bar/Restaurant in Plantation, The Florida Panthers held their first of three “Live Events” with Panther Players. The idea is to bring a couple players out for some Q &A, give away some prizes, and sign autographs.
I attended the event with Little Miss Rat Trick and fortunately got ourselves there early enough to get a seat, as just after the 5:30 mark, it was standing room only. The event started at six, so next time, judge yourself accordingly. Here’s a quick recap of the answers to some of the questions that were shot at the boys.
Shawn Matthias who arrived with his parents in tow, was asked by announcer Steve Goldstein if he liked playing the different positions of wing and center, as well as the varying ice time that he gets. Matthias shot back “Yea, I’m starting on D next. This brought quite the chuckle for the crowd! Matthias was then asked what does he do is his off time. “Well, what most 22 year olds do. Lots of laying around, I don’t workout (really?), the usual stuff that guys my age do”.
Matthias was asked who his favourite player was and his answer was Mike Modano. One fan who knows Matthias from watching him in his hometown of Belleville, Ontario asked what the difference was between the game there and and here in the NHL. “The bigger players, faster game, different ice surface. NHL Ice is smaller than the ice surface in juniors”.
Matthias walked in wearing a Boston Red Sox hat, and was asked why? His answer, with a straight face, “Because I look good in it”. Matthias also says he’s the most popular guy in the room when both players were asked about team chemistry.
David Booth mentioned that his favourite players were Brendan Shannahan, Steve Yzerman, as well as Modano.
Goldie asked Booth if he had any rituals or superstitions since many hockey players are superstitious. Booth says, “no, I don’t have any rituals, and I’m not superstitious. I’m just a little stitious. Badum ching! The crowd roared with laughter on this one!
Booth with his handosme smile going ear to ear seemed to be calm in his chair, while Matthias seemed a bit bashful at times, which is maybe the reason for his humour. Both chaps were funny, but well spoken and seemed as though they enjoyed being there. I know that sometimes players while they know they need to do this kind of marketing, may not like it and it can show. Not this night as the boys did a nice job for the crowd.
Booth also commented on the team chemistry, which he said that for the time that he’s been here, this years team is the best he’s been on so far. Everyone gets along well, and things are really good in the room.
One little fan asked the boys quite bluntly, “Do you guys think you’re better than you’re record says”?. This one got a chuckle from the crowd as well, but both Shawn and David nodded yes we do. “We’re playing better, and other than a handful of games, we’re in most of them. We just need to capitalize on our chances”.
After the short Q & A, tickets for games were handed out, as well as an autographed stick and puck. Then Booth and Matthias signed autographs for everyone in attendance, which I thought was a cool thing for them to do.
After getting ours in which David Booth looked directly at Little Miss Rat Trick and asked her how she was doing tonight, we like most everyone decided to have a little dinner in the restaurant. After about a 30-45 minute wait, we passed a table with Matthias eating with his parents.
A nice night for all, and if you get a chance to go to the next one, get there early, and bring something to have them sign.
Fighting a bit of a flu bug, but should have a pregame post up by noonish.
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