Shirtless Man's Proposal at Hockey Game Appears to Go Wrong as Crowd Gasps: 'Painful to Watch'
There appear to have been two defeats Thursday night when the New York Islanders played the Florida Panthers.
On the ice, the Islanders lost 3-1. But in the more captivating moment at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, it appears that a man who took off his shirt as part of a very public proposal of marriage lost as well.
The action commenced in the second period of the NHL game. The man, who was shirtless, sat on the stairs proposing to a woman who did not seem fully into the spirit of the concept as the crowd gasped, applauded, jeered, cheered and offered advice to either accept or reject the proposal.
He held out a ring box. She spoke to him, grabbing his hands, but the fate of the conversation appeared unclear, according to the New York Post.
Dan Rosen, who was covering the game for NHL.com, said he thought the man’s shot was a miss.
“Kiss cam time and a guy takes off his shirt and written on his chest is ‘PLZ SAY YES YES YES.’ He gets down on one knee and proposes. Camera cuts away. But I could see them from the press box. The girl got up and left. She flat out left. And the Panthers scored. Can’t make it up,” he tweeted.
— Roger Farina ❌ (@roger_farina) October 13, 2022
This one doesn’t feel obvious. Because they cut away on the Jumbotron before she said no. If you’re staging it, why are you not showing it?
— James B. Terry (@terryjt1) October 13, 2022
One person, Keith Irizarry, said he thinks that proposals such as this “must be staged.”
“Who asks someone to marry them when they aren’t sure that person will actually say yes,” Irizarry tweeted. “That being said, if that was real: that was painful to watch.”
David Marcus, 17, was a nearby witness who said he doubts the proposal was staged, according to the Post.
He said he was advised by a worker at the arena not to make a face as the couple came up on the arena’s KissCam.
“The guy takes his shirt off and it says, ‘Please say Yes Yes Yes,’” Marcus said. “And she was shocked. I heard her say, ‘What? What’s happening? We can’t do this!’ And then he yells, ‘Oh f–k!’ Everyone was taking a video, and the crowd was going crazy. When she started walking up the stairs, everyone yelled, ‘Awww …’ It was crazy.”
I always feel like these must be staged. Who asks someone to marry them when they aren’t sure that person will actually say yes.
That being said, if that was real: that was painful to watch.— KeithIrizarry (@keithirizarry) October 13, 2022
The woman left the shirtless man behind, Marcus said.
“After the woman ran up the stairs, the guy told my father, ‘Wow, I’m sitting here in front of 20,000 people without a shirt. This is pretty embarrassing.’ Right after this happened, the Florida Panthers scored a goal. The guy told my Dad, ‘Wow, this is really a bad omen.’”
Marcus said the man seemed stunned.
“He was holding the ring. He was tearing up, and he was very embarrassed. And then he just ran up the stairs with her purse — she left her purse there — and then we never saw them again,” Marcus said, per the Post.
A report from the Daily Mail implied the proposal was rejected, showing the shirtless man sitting alone with a beer, with the seat next to him empty.
Game analyst Butch Goring wasn’t quite so sure, saying, “It took her a long time; she was thinking.”
“She’s still thinking about that; I’ll tell you what,” said Brendan Burke, who does the play-by-play for the broadcasts.
A reporter, however, offered a different, light summary of the venture.
“To put a bow on that, the woman did say, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ to the proposal,” Shannon Hogan said. “But I’m not sure it’s the happiest moment since their team just went down by one right after he proposed.”
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