Marchand gets locked in a closet in China

The Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames will play the second of two games at the Cadillac Arena in Beijing on Wednesday, but there is already a lot that has taken place during the trip... During the first contest between the two team, the Bruins managed to come out on top. Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk scored in the shootout to lead the Bruins to a 4-3 win over the Flames in the NHL exhibition season-opener on Saturday in Shenzhen, China.

Marchand found other sort of excitement in China, and this time, it happened outside the hockey rink. During the trip, Marchand wanted to make sure he could head out and experience the Beijing’s Silk Market — famous, or perhaps infamous, as the mecca of knock-off designer items. 

However, it did not go as planned. Marchand told this incredibly entertaining story in his latest blog for NHL.com. Of course, he did not think things would go down this way: 

"The lady asked if I wanted to see all the new clothing and everything they had in stock, so I said, “Yeah, sure.” She said, “Do you want to come into our warehouse?” I said, “Yeah, take me to the warehouse.”

So I walked with her to this elevator in this back room, went down — it must have been three floors — into the basement. We get out, it’s all dark, back alleys. She leads me into this metal, beaten-down door. Opens the door and it’s a closet. I thought we were going through there. We weren’t. I walk in, she closes the door, locks it, calls somebody, and I was like, oh, man. I’m in one right now. She told me to sit down. I said OK. I sat down, but then she started to ask me what I was looking for, and brought me clothes and suits.

I was a little nervous about that one. Just me, all by myself. But she was a kind lady. It worked out well. I got out of there alive."

We are pretty sure some NHL fans across the league, and even maybe Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan, would have minded if Marchand had gone missing... :P 

This is the second year the NHL has played exhibition games in China. The Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks made the trip last season.