Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry Involved in Nightclub Incident in Finland
Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks are over in Helsinki, Finland right now for the IIHF World Championship representing Team Canada (in fact, Getzlaf is team captain). After a 5-4 overtime loss to America on May 6, Getzlaf and Perry went out on the town with some of their teammates and reportedly things got heated between them and some Finnish fans.
Getzlaf allegedly waved his fist around and told the Finns that they didn’t want to deal with the idea of him using his fist, adding that he could knock everyone out in three minutes and proudly identifying himself as captain of the Ducks–but not as captain of Team Canada!
All of this happened at 3 a.m. but ended without incident. It sounds like tempers got briefly heated and people said things, but then the flames cooled down before anything more could happen. Brian Burke, who was in Helsinki as part of the U.S. Men’s National Team Advisory Group, left for the airport around 4:30 a.m. and ran into Getzlaf in the lobby of their hotel. Burke said Getzlaf wasn’t drunk or with a woman at the time, but that they did have a nice conversation before Burke left.
This didn’t affect Getzlaf or Perry on the ice, either, unlike when Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn of the Nashville Predators were caught out and about in Scottsdale, Arizona past curfew and were forced out of the Preds’ lineup for two games. Both Ducks remained in the lineup for Canada’s May 7 matchup with France, which Canada won handily 7-2 (the same score by which America beat France). Getzlaf had an assist. Perry scored and got an assist too.
