AHLer drinks beer thrown by angry fan following playoff elimination game

They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Well, apparently, one man’s gesture of dissatisfaction can be another man’s celebratory beverage.

After the Toronto Marlies defeated the Laval Rocket 3-2 on Saturday to advance to the North Division Final of the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs, the disgruntled home fans at Laval’s Place Bell began to throw beer cans on the ice. Marlies defenseman Dakota Mermis, who maybe was a bit parched after the game, picked up one of the tossed cans and waterfalled its remaining droplets of beer into his mouth.

Mermis, 32, has been a lot of things for the Marlies this season, including a veteran leader and important minutes eater. One thing we can now say for certain that he is not, is a germaphobe. Drinking beer from a can thrown on the ice by your opponent’s angry fan is no doubt funny, but it’s also, if we’re being honest, pretty nasty. If Mermis has to miss the start of Toronto’s next series against the Cleveland Monsters due to an “illness”, I think we’ll have a pretty good idea of where he picked it up.

On the other hand, this might be the most obvious sign that we’re over the COVID-19 pandemic as a society. If Mermis had have done this a few years ago, it would’ve been seen as a Rudy Gobert-level spillover event. Now, it’s simply the fun, eccentric behaviour of a minor-league hockey player.

Whether you’re a Marlies fan or just a neutral observer, you’e got to be rooting for the Marlies to keep advancing just to see how many more times Mermis will drink from angrily tossed beer cans. In fact, it could become the signature of the Marlies’ playoff run.

The Marlies are looking to win their first Calder Cup since 2018.