An apparent case of friendly fire nearly cost a Toronto Maple Leafs fan his prized fedora after Auston Matthews recently scored a hat trick against Philadelphia.
Season ticket holder John Hamilton, 73, was celebrating Matthews' three-goal win over the Flyers when a man sitting behind him took the liberty of grabbing his $300 brown Stetson and throwing it onto the ice at the Scotiabank Arena.
“I was surprised,” Hamilton told the Toronto Sun. “I thought it was a joke at first too until I saw my hat on the ice.”
Video of the incident has since gone viral and shows the younger fan blaming his friend and cameraman for his own exuberance.
“He told me,” the fan said, pointing to his friend off-screen.
Season ticket holder John Hamilton, 73, was celebrating Matthews' three-goal win over the Flyers when a man behind him threw his $300 fedora onto the ice
The incident went viral and sparked many negative reactions to the unknown perpetrator (right)
And as the Sun reported, the unnamed fan may have planned to throw Hamilton's hat onto the ice.
“After Matthews scored the second goal, the guy said to me, 'Are you going to throw your hat overboard if he scores the third goal?'” Hamilton said. “I told him, ‘No way.’ “I love that hat.”
“I have different fedoras for different games,” he added. “I would never throw away one of my expensive hats.”
Matthews' natural hat trick came in the second period of Thursday's win over Philly
The perpetrator has not been publicly identified and, according to Hamilton, “the guy definitely didn't apologize” even when witnesses began criticizing him.
“His mate kept apologizing and buying me and my guests a beer,” Hamilton, a season ticket holder for 40 years, told the Sun. “But nothing about the guy who probably got embarrassed and ran away after all the people yelled at him.”
There is a happy ending: Hamilton is reunited with his hat.
Maple Leafs staff apparently witnessed the fedora landing on the ice and quickly went to find its owner.
“Thanks to the amazing ushers in our department, I didn’t even have to look for my hat,” Hamilton said. “She told me, 'I knew you wouldn't have thrown it out there.' “I want to thank them all for getting my hat back so quickly.”
As it turns out, Hamilton is a fedora fanatic who owns 15 custom-made Stetsons.
He is also a forgiving man who does not want the perpetrator to be identified for fear that the man might lose his job or face some other punishment.
“My friends have told me in today’s world that if something makes the rounds on social media, they can lose their job,” Hamilton said. “I wouldn't want that to happen.” I would definitely accept an apology, forgive him and move on. “I got my hat back and we did stupid things in our youth.”
After Matthews' natural hat trick in the second period on Thursday, the Leafs' staff is clearing out their bets
Auston Matthews (No. 34) and his teammates leave the ice after his natural hat trick
Fans on social media were less forgiving.
“This deserves a cross-check,” one user wrote on X.
“These hats are also very expensive,” another pointed out.
Many fans insisted they had become violent, unlike Hamilton: “Someone does this to me, I'll either be thrown out or carried.”
The Maple Leafs would win the game in overtime on a goal from William Nylander and Matthews would record another hat trick in his next game – a 9-2 victory over the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
Luckily for Hamilton, his fedora was unharmed.