A Pittsburgh Penguins fan caused a stir on Sunday night after taking a puck from a young boy who wanted it, leading to a lot of anger from other fans.
The incident took place at PPG Paints Arena during a Penguins game against Tampa Bay. The game was tied 1-1 in the second period when the commotion happened. According to Kevin Acklin, the Penguins’ President of Business Operations, a puck had flown into the netting, and a young boy, who was seated about three or four rows back, shook the glass as the puck fell. An older man then reached down and grabbed the puck.
Fans in the arena were upset by this, and many began recording the scene on their phones. “They started booing this older gentleman fan who by his own right gave the puck to his granddaughter who was about a teenage granddaughter,” Acklin explained. Despite the man giving the puck to his granddaughter, the crowd did not approve of his actions.
After this, a girlfriend or wife of one of the Penguins players went over to the young fan and gave him a puck. “It was a great moment, they hugged. And as the wife or girlfriend was leaving, the grandfather got up and started getting into it with the fans around them,” Acklin said. The situation escalated, and in the viral video, the older man is seen shouting at another fan before walking over to the boy’s mother and arguing with her.
The situation grew tense, and Penguins fans continued to boo the man until security escorted him out of the arena. “At that point, it sort of got out of hand and there were some hand gestures, and the older gentleman was escorted out of the building….It’s unfortunate, a lot of passion.
I think the worst thing about it was during that whole iteration, Tampa scored on us, right in front of it and it was a little bit of an uproar,” Acklin said.
Although the Penguins didn’t win the game, both the boy and the man’s granddaughter left with a puck. Acklin reminded everyone that there were two sides to the story. “I just want to caution everybody that there’s always two sides to the story, and I credit our staff, we reached out to both families who both felt that they were in the right,” he said.
