Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports
Zenon Konopka has a pretty awesome name and is the kind of guy teams look for when they need some toughness–there were two different NHL seasons in which he was the most penalized player in the entire league. He’s with the Minnesota Wild now for the 2013 season, though he also recently spent time playing with the Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders.
Though he’s moved around a lot in the past few years–three different cities in three different states (well, two states and a province) since 2010–one thing in his life remains constant: the presence of his chubby black pet rabbit Hoppy. Yes, that’s his name. Hoppy is six and a half years old, fully litter trained, a connoisseur of organic vegetables and pretty darn cute.
When Konopka was with the Islanders, he and P.A. Parenteau shared the duties of caring for Hoppy, but now Konopka is the sole caretaker of the little guy. Here’s a feature from his Ottawa days about what he would consider his perfect day, which includes time spent playing hide and go seek with, and petting, Hoppy:
http://youtu.be/pCQq-BNdr9o
Now that Konopka is on Twitter, too, he’s decided to show Hoppy off to a wider audience.
https://twitter.com/ZenonKonopka/status/290656790159425537
Hoppy has followed his dad to many different locations:
https://twitter.com/ZenonKonopka/status/290667957770670080
These days, he wears the red and green of dad’s newest team because Konopka bought him one of those tiny sweaters generally worn by dogs.
Hoppy has even appeared to show concern for when his dad had to get 30 stitches from a stick to the face on opening night:
https://twitter.com/ZenonKonopka/status/292872733556092928
Then, when Konopka passed 10,000 Twitter followers, he decided he would celebrate with some champagne–in addition to hockey, he’s an entrepreneur and has his own wine business–but guess who caught the cork?
https://twitter.com/ZenonKonopka/status/294287738587447296
Most guys in the NHL, if they have pets, stick to dogs. Very rarely do they have cats, but even rarer still is the case where someone has a pet rabbit and dotes on him like a child. Check out Konopka’s Twitter for more about Hoppy because he will most definitely keep all his followers updated on the cute little guy.
