Ontario boy gets hit with puck at Toronto Maple Leafs game

It isn’t the best way seven-year-old Hunter Beauparlant may’ve imagined assembly his idol.

“He was crying and bleeding on the time”, Hunter’s father Steven informed CTV Information Toronto.

It began in the course of the warm-up earlier than Saturday evening’s Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens sport at Scotiabank Area in downtown Toronto.

“My sons each made up some indicators for the sport,” Beauparlant mentioned,” to presumably get a selfie with Nick Suzuki.”

The signal was noticed by Habs ahead Nicholas Suzuki, who came to visit and tossed the younger fan a puck.

“He grabs a puck off the ice and tosses it over the glass” he mentioned. “And my son was sort of starstruck. He was simply observing it and he ate it proper on the lips.”

Nicholas Suzuki tosses a puck (Equipped by the Beauparlant household)

A puck within the face was not the interplay the boy hoped for, however Suzuki instantly tried to make it proper. The Canadiens assistant captain left the ice and came to visit to make sure the boy was okay. He took images and signed autographs with the boys, giving Hunter his stick as a memento.

The Beauparlant household had travelled from Nipissing to Toronto for the boys’ birthdays, and to absorb their very first NHL sport. After the incident, they watched the sport from their 300 stage seats, stick in hand. However, within the third interval, once they went to make use of the washroom, they mentioned they had been knowledgeable by enviornment workers that the stick was a prohibited merchandise, and must be checked at visitor providers and picked up after the sport.

Beauparlant says he requested if safety might escort them again to their seats, the place he mentioned fellow followers, together with many Leaf followers, had been excited and supportive of his son’s story and the stick, however that they mentioned no.

“I feel my son was simply over it” he mentioned. “It was sufficient of a sport and he did not wish to lose his stick, so we simply mentioned ‘Let’s name it an evening – that is it if we will not return to our seats.'”

The household left the world and went again to their lodge.

Beauparlant tweeted concerning the incident, which many on-line took to imply the household was compelled to go away the sport, however he insists it was their choice.

“My tweet wasn’t for any disrespect for any Leafs group or workers members, everybody’s obtained a job to do, I perceive that,” he mentioned.

In an announcement, an MLSE spokesperson informed CTV Information Toronto “with 10 minutes remaining within the sport, a fan was notified by safety as he was strolling within the concourse with a hockey stick, that as a consequence of fan security protocols, MLSE’s fan providers would help them to verify the stick till the top of the sport because it poses a security hazard for different followers. Whereas the fan on this case didn’t wish to verify the stick, and as a substitute made their very own choice to go away the sport.”

Beauparlant mentioned despite the fact that his household did not make it to the top of their first NHL sport, they did depart with some fairly first rate birthday items and reminiscences that can final a lifetime.

“Seven- and eight-years-old they usually obtained to satisfy their idol and you recognize not simply get a puck however they ended up with a stick, a puck, a fats lip, and an autograph,” he mentioned.

“It makes for a reasonably superb first NHL sport.”  

(Equipped by the Beauparlant household)