Joe Thornton surprises son of family friend with postgame locker room visit (Video)
Joe Thornton surprised the young son of a longtime family friend by bringing him into the San Jose Sharks’ locker room following the team’s Sunday 4-1 win at the New Jersey Devils.
After the game was over, Thornton, who was still in his jersey, reached up into the stands next to the hallway that led into the Sharks’ Prudential Center dressing room, to pick up 3-year-old Colton Goddeeris and lead him towards the celebrating Sharks. Colton is the grandson of Thornton’s first coach Grant Goddeeris and was at the game with his father Cyril, who plays fantasy football with Thornton and used to play hockey with him as a youth. Thornton’s parents used to open up their backyard rink in the winter to people who wanted to play hockey and Cyril often jumped at this opportunity.
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“I thought he was going to come say hi and snap a quick picture before he went to the locker room and then he asked me if he could take my son into the room,” Cyril said via phone.
Before the game at warm-ups, Thornton threw a puck to Colton and when Thornton scored a goal, the television camera panned onto the Colton who was in his Sharks jersey.
“I think at first (Colton) was a little scared and a little timid. But once he got in the locker room, he got comfortable,” Cyril said. “He saw Brent Burns, I think he asked if somebody did an art project on him. He was talking about that on the car ride home. He was nervous when Joe first grabbed him, but I think the dressing room he looked pretty relaxed.”
Cyril works for Goldman Sachs and owns a very small part of the Vegas Golden Knights – hence why he was wearing a Golden Knights hat at Sunday’s game as seen in the video. Because of how Thornton treated Colton on Sunday, Cyril wondered if his son may end up being a bigger Sharks fan than Golden Knights supporter in the future.
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“He struggles,” Cyril laughed. “He has talked about his two favorite teams, one being the Golden Knights and the other being the Sharks because of Joe.”
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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