A little girl walked up to the mystery bag station with her mother, hoping to find something good in the orange and black duffle bags stuffed with everything from t-shirts to remote control covers to the rare signed pucks. That’s when the little girl stepped up to the table only to see rookie sensation, Travis Konecny, greeting her with a bag in his hand. The two conversed. Konecny complemented her Flyers attire while the girl told the 19-year-old that he looked like Brayden Schenn. “That’s not a bad thing,” Konecny quickly replied.
It was a brief interaction at the Flyers Wives Carnival on Sunday, but one that neither he, she or the mother will forget.
“I enjoyed every station,” Konecny said afterwards. “I was having a blast, laughing and interacting with everybody.”
The 40th installment of the carnival was the first for the young forward. He spent the day bouncing around the Wells Fargo Center. He began his day playing washers on the mezzanine level at 1:30 before embarking on an autograph session followed by a photo booth. When he went up to the club box that was hosting his photo session, as soon as he stepped in, he was overwhelmed with a long line of fans, leading him to exclaim, “Wow, all of these people are here for me?” He finished his day up with a few games of cornhole, a quilt raffle station and the mystery bag table up until the event’s closing at 5:30 p.m.
Konecny says his favorite game was washers, more so because he couldn’t “figure out the sand bag one [cornhole].”
Corinne Nimey, a 26-year-old lifelong Flyers fan in attendance, was one of Konecny’s competitors in washers. She was taken aback by how friendly and outgoing he was. Even better, it was Nimey’s birthday so Konecny was all for taking some birthday selfies. As the two went back and forth playing washers, Konecny encouraged his competitor with each shot, yelling “get in there” with each of her throws. While Nimey was caught off guard with how social Konecny was, the same could be said for Konecny, who couldn’t believe how much support he was shown.
“That was something crazy, it was pretty cool to see the atmosphere in there,” Konecny said. “It’s good to know that the fans are diehard.
“Getting to see them in person and to meet them and you can actually tell it’s real, it’s not just a show they’re putting on [at games].”
The 19-year-old has been quite busy with the rigors of the first few months of his debut in the NHL. Having an entire day off to spend with the fans, perhaps, couldn’t have come at a better time. Konecny says it was nice to just shut the body down and relax for a change while hanging out with the people he always hears cheering him and his teammates on. “It’s good to see some familiar faces around the fans so when they come up and talk to you, you can kind of put a face to someone,” Konecny said.
Keeping Up with Konecny past diaries:
NHL Rookie Diary: Travis Konecny meets the fans, doesn’t like cornhole
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