Kyle Hay wore a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey to Game 2 of the Leafs-Bruins series at Boston’s TD Garden and was knocked out by a Bruins’ fan’s punch.
On Wednesday night at Air Canada Centre for Game 4, the 23-year-old should be safe.
“I’m no hero I was just a unfortunate leaf fan supporting our team and got suck punched,” Hay tweeted Tuesday.
His message was in response to fellow Leafs fans, who were happy to find out that the Toronto hockey club is helping soften Hay’s blow by giving him two free tickets to Wednesday’s home game.
Hay told CBC News that he was wearing a jersey, a blue mask and a white-and-blue Mohawk when he was sucker-punched Saturday and is still feeling some concussion symptoms.
“Words can’t describe how pumped I am. There’s the two tickets and I’ll be taking my younger brother, who’s on Cloud Nine as well,” Hay told CBC Tuesday. “I’ll be wearing my traditional Wendel Clark jersey and my Leafs hat — very superstitious, I’ve worn it to five games this season so far and we’ve won three out of the five and one of them was in Boston.
“So, either wear that or wear a Leafs jersey and make my own name bar and put ‘knocked out in Boston’ (on it).”
Leafs blogger Steve Dangle spoke with Hay Sunday, and fellow Leafs bloggers brought enough attention to the incident that Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment took notice:
“After the game I was blind-sided with a sucker punch while I had my mask on,” Hay told Dangle of the blow that required three staples in the back of his head to mend. “Honestly, I do not remember what happened.”
