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Marty Turco as “The Gambler”? Hawks goalie makes bet with fan during game

TurcoBet-Lang2727

Chicago backup goalie Marty Turco is known to be a pretty personable and likable guy. Last night in Montreal, he was caught being just that having some fun with the fans seated next to the Chicago bench in Montreal.

Montreal’s Team 990 AM show Game Points with Matthew Ross (audio) received a call about an apparent bet that went down between Turco and a fan seated next to the Blackhawks bench. As things go in this instance, things went immediately abuzz about this. After all, the Maple Leafs got in trouble earlier this year for exchanging cash for the “money on the board” matter that went on in San Jose earlier this season for coach Ron Wilson, so anything like this is going to catch your attention. The arrangement of the bet was explained on Ross’ show and it’s pretty fun.

A fan named “Robert” called into Montreal radio station Team 990 on the “Game Points with Matthew Ross” show and said he bet Turco $5 that the Hawks wouldn’t score after Michael Cammalleri had given the Canadiens a 1-0 lead in the second period. After Patrick Kane tied it a short time later, the fan gave Turco a $5 Canadian bill with the words “Habs Rule” written on it.

As the game continued, the bet apparently increased that the Canadiens would win the game. After P.K. Subban won it for Montreal in overtime, Turco allegedly handed over some bills, including the original with the word “Habs” crossed off and “Turco” added so it read “Turco Rules.”


It would seem rather unbelievable that this would actually go down, but Moe Khan from Ross’ program shared a photo from Twitter user Jeremy Lang then tweeted a photo of the alleged money exchange courtesy of Shawn Greenstone (yeah, it’s a bit convoluted) and instantly turned Turco into the fan’s best friend for having some fun mid-game. You can see the photo right at the top of our story here.

Of course, as things go in matters like this the league will look into the whole deal, but given that the money was only traded back and forth from the fan to Turco and back to the fan, there’s no actual harm being done. Besides, with Turco’s place firmly on the bench and not having any affect on the outcome of the game at all this is just fantastic fun.

Say what you will about Turco the player, but he’s been nothing but aces since playing in Chicago. He was brought in to be the starter at the beginning of the year, stepped back in the wake of Corey Crawford’s breakout season, and he’s been a great figure in public relations around Chicago going out of his way to help with team events and PR. You can’t ask for anything better from a veteran player. Now let’s just hope the NHL doesn’t get too worked up about this “bet” and instead chooses to point to this as a reason why NHL players are some of the best pro athletes in the world when it comes to dealing with the fans.

(Thanks to @MoeKhan19 and @Lang_2727 for the great photo)