We are all hockey dudes. You sir, sitting on the glass, banging on it like a manic are a hockey dude. You too miss, screaming from section 222, you’re also a hockey dude. As hockey dudes, we love to drink some beer! Lucky for us, today is International Beer Day.
Our boys in gold, they’re definitely hockey dudes and if the budding brewmaster Ryan Reaves is any indication, they drink some beer! In honor of International Beer Day, we need to pair a few fine brewskis, with our favorite Golden Knights.
A good beer has personality and the Golden Knights’ locker room may lack a few things, but personality isn’t one of them. Without further ado, let’s tip one back and get this show on the road.
Nate Schmidt: Natural Ice
Nate is a bro. A bros bro. He doesn’t need fancy beer. He doesn’t need a glass. He needs something that will get the job done, go down smooth, and give him a cool, icy feeling deep down in his teenage heart.
Nate is a high-energy jokester, but at the same time, he means business when it’s time to buckle down. When the funds are tight, does Nate give up and go with water? No! Nate’s a hockey dude, he figures it out, and grabs the Natty Ice, which usually comes with “FREE” Natties in the big case.
If you’re down to party and don’t need to try to impress the crowd, you’re a Nate Schmidt, you’re a Natty Ice!
Ryan Reaves: Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy
Confused yet? Good.
Summer Shandy is a wonderful creation, especially for a long, hot Vegas summer. Is it lemonade? Is it beer? Is it both? One thing’s for sure, it’s delightful and inviting.
Know who else is delightful, fun, and inviting upon first glance? Ryan Reaves. Reavo is a prankster with a larger-than-life personality. He’s a real locker room guy, just about everyone wants to be around. If only this water bottle was a beer.
Similar to Summer Shandy, if you hang around the beast a little too long, you get the horns. What was once a nice, sweet, tasty beer could quickly become your enemy.
This also sums up the Grim Reaver. Get a little too close to No. 75 or overstep your boundaries (or forget to restrict your water usage) and it could be lights out for you, my friends. If you need proof, just check out hockeyfights.com when you get some free time.
Now, we all know Ryan has his own brewing project and his 7Five Training Day beer, but that would have been way too easy and a bit of a cop out. You deserve hard-hitting analysis and that’s what you got, with Ryan Summer Shandy Reaves.
Marc-Andre Fleury: Stella Artois
We’ve all seen the new Stella Artois commercials with “The Dude” Jeff Bridges and Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the City. These are fancy, prestigious figures, but they also like to party. That’s my man Marc-Andre.
Fleury is the “Prank War Champion” to steal a line from DJ Pauly D (I’m young and hip fam), but he still has this air of class and prestige to him. He has won multiple Stanley Cups, is as good-looking as all get out, and performs at an exceptionally high level. Even more impressively, he seems to age gracefully, despite playing in over 800 NHL games.
A fun-loving, high-class, distinguished player needs to be paired with a fancier, prestigious brew. The man they call Flower is a Stella Artois.
Jonathan Marchessault: Red Stripe
Not too big, not too small, a handsome little devil (sorry, too soon?), and still has a little bite to his game. That’s Marchy in a nutshell. Only one beer could properly fall into those parameters. Marchy is obviously Red Stripe.
You know Red Stripe: the fancy little glass bottle, funny commercials, strong personality, and no-nonsense label. What you see is what you get with Red Stripe. No bells and whistles, just good beer, with high-quality taste.
Marchy is more of the same. He’s very high-quality, with the skill to become a truly elite player in the NHL. He’s not exceptionally flashy, like Red Stripe, but he certainly delivers. His personality is wide-ranging from funny to fiesty and that’s where the real connection occurs.
Red Stripe’s small 11-ounce bottles are like a little Marchy. He’s smaller than most, but he has some feistiness to him and isn’t afraid to mix it up with the big boys. Don’t mess with him because he doesn’t shy away from a scrum when the time comes. He’s what any team or party needs as a change of pace, to pick up the slack of the boring Light Beers sitting around the rink.
“Hooray Beer!” “Hooray Marchy!”
Alex Tuch: Sam Adams Lager
“Sam Adams: America’s World Class Beer”. Need I say more? Alex Tuch is a big, strapping,east coast, American-born fella worthy of the “World Class” billing.
Both Tuch and Sam Adams Lager represent America, freedom, dignity, and prestige. If you’re drinking a Sam Adams, you’re probably also petting your bald eagle, while wearing the American flag as a cape, shirt off, glistening in the hot summer sun.
Tuch’s perfect mix of strength and finesse links up perfectly with a frosty Sam Adams. On first sip, it hits your taste buds strong, with a bitter bite, but once you get past that size, that strength you get to the finesse and the sweet undertones of a Sam Adams. Tuch hits you with that size, but Burns you with the finesse, in prototypical Sam Adams fashion.
William Carrier: Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR)
William Carrier is the resident wildman. He will slam his body into anything that moves on the ice. He enjoys the outdoors. In a team video, his own teammates voted him “Most Likely to Survive in the Wilderness.” Carrier is a PBR at heart.
PBR isn’t fancy, by any means. There’s no glitz, no glamour, but it gets the job done and it’s there for you when you need it. PBR isn’t scoring 40 goals a season and making the All-Star Team, but it’s mucking and grinding, doing the dirty work your fancy IPAs and craft beers don’t want to do. If push came to shove, PBR could fill in at a classier joint, but it’s home is the country bar, the dive joints, the fourth line.
Carrier is tough, he’s rugged, and he’s relentless. It’s not always what you’re looking for, but holding true to the slogan he’s simply, “What You’ll Have: Pabst Blue Ribbon”.