Canadiens Host Spontaneous Try-Out

I'm not sure if there is a roster spot open, but the Canadiens wound up permitting an obviously confused fan a chance at a spot try-out during morning work outs.

Sneaking his way onto the ice, a fan identified only as 28-year-old "Raphael", crashed the Montreal Canadiens Verdun Auditorium practice having already been dressed in full gear, took a few open ice shots at goaltender Jose Theodore.

"I didn't really know what was going on until the guy came on," a grinning Theodore said. "He came at me with his head down so I just wanted to say 'Welcome to the big boys.' I poke-checked him to say, 'You have to keep your head up.' When he came back, I thought about going out of the net and not playing into his game, but then I thought he had the (courage) to go on the ice, so I let him have a free shot at me."

Kudos to Theodore for humoring the poor guy. I wonder what would have happened if he indeed did score.

The police opted not to get involved in the matter, but one would have to how many kooks would be emboldened to try a similar stunt.

"For many years I wanted to play high-caliber hockey," (Raphael) said. "I had nothing to lose."

Nothing to lose? Like the chance of your freedom or something even worse?

Raph, why don't you just be like the rest of us and blog? There's plenty of us in the blogosphere that think we can just jump in and play at the NHL level.

[Via: USA Today with a hat tip to Off Wing Opinion]