For the second year in a row, the NHL is taking preseason hockey to China, as part of its efforts to grow the game’s reach internationally. The Boston Bruins are seeing the Calgary Flames for a pair of games, and for the travelling players, that also means the chance to get in some sightseeing of a foreign country.
For Brad Marchand, that meant a trip to Beijing’s Silk Market — famous, or perhaps infamous, as the mecca of knock-off designer items. As he noted in his blog for NHL.com, however, things didn’t go quite as expected.
The lady asked if I wanted to see all the new clothing and everything they had in stock, so I said, "Yeah, sure." She said, "Do you want to come into our warehouse?" I said, "Yeah, take me to the warehouse."
So I walked with her to this elevator in this back room, went down -- it must have been three floors -- into the basement. We get out, it's all dark, back alleys. She leads me into this metal, beaten-down door. Opens the door and it's a closet. I thought we were going through there. We weren't. I walk in, she closes the door, locks it, calls somebody, and I was like, oh, man. I'm in one right now. She told me to sit down. I said OK. I sat down, but then she started to ask me what I was looking for, and brought me clothes and suits.
I was a little nervous about that one. Just me, all by myself. But she was a kind lady. It worked out well. I got out of there alive.
Nothing like being taken out of your comfort zone for the full cultural experience, right? We’re not sure what about shopping for counterfeit goods involves so much cloak-and-dagger, but of anybody in the NHL, it figures that Marchand has a nose for this kind of trouble. (Fortunately, he’s perfectly safe.)
While there’s no love lost among NHL fans for Marchand, they may find this video in which he stars as a mustachioed Zamboni driver to be strangely peaceful.
h/t NHL.com
