It may be the hockey off-season, but it’s very much the wedding season. As a result, we’ve seen Tyler Toffoli and Jake Evans play in the LSHL on Tuesday, and on Friday, there were a lot of players on the ice in Brossard.
Jaku Dobes and Ivan Demidov were first on the ice before the Zamboni had even finished its job. Many Habs soon joined them; Patrik Laine, Samuel Montembeault, Alex Newhook, Juraj Slafkovsky, Alexandre Carrier, Mike Matheson, Arber Xhekaj, and Jake Evans were all on the ice, joined by Laval Rocket players Florian Xhekaj and Lucas Condotta.
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Three mystery guests turned out not to be so mysterious at all; Jack and Riley Hughes were on the ice, just like Jack Gorton. The VP of Hockey Operations’ son and the GM’s sons had some quality training partners.
There was no Nick Suzuki on the ice on Friday, since his wedding party is tomorrow, it’s fair enough. The players seemed to be in good spirits, though. I don’t know who it was, but one of them had written “M. Evans” on tape on Evans’ jersey, in addition to fashioning a “C” out of tape for the front of his jersey. No captain? No problem with this crew.
The players warmed up for a while before playing a brief three-on-three game on a shortened ice surface, then switched to a two-on-two format spanning the full width of the ice. Poor goalies had no time to breathe as the attacks came fast and furious.
While he wasn’t on the ice, another former Montreal Canadiens arrived today. Jeff and Julie Petry touched down for the wedding and hurried to Mandy’s salad for some sustenance. According to makeup artist Claudia Vitorino, the Suzukis got married in June in Turks and Caicos, but judging by the fact that Slafkovsky told Miroslav Satan, Team Slovakia’s GM, that he couldn’t attend Slovakia’s team-building activity for the captain’s wedding, all signs point to a big wedding bash on Saturday.
There was a welcome to town cocktail on Friday night according to Mrs. Suzuki's Instagram before the official celebrations kick off on Saturday.
Photo credit: Karine Hains
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