Ice hockey fans flocked to a Flatlands sports pub on Aug. 30 to meet the famous Rangers player Stephane Matteau, whose outstanding performance in the 1994 playoffs helped the team clinch a Stanley Cup championship.
The event, which celebrated Bulls Eye Sports Pub’s one-year anniversary in its Flatbush Avenue location, drew more than 100 revelers and hockey fans, who threw darts and chatted with the Rangers alum about the legendary 1994 win.
“He’s one of New York’s heroes,” said Maurice Kolodin, a Sheepshead Bay resident who attended the meet-and-greet with his wife, Gloria.
Matteau made his mark on Rangers history during the 1994 Eastern Conference finals, where he scored two overtime goals, one of which ended the series, and inspired the iconic chant, “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!” But despite the player’s legendary status, partygoers reported that he was surprisingly down to earth.
“He’s a fantastic person,” said Kolodin, whose oldest daughter is a Rangers devotee. “He’s the type you’d like to just hang out and have a beer with.”
One die-hard fan — who had met Matteau as a starry-eyed 15-year-old after the team’s 1994 win — relished the opportunity to get to know his hockey hero.
“This time was more surreal,” said Marine Parker Jay Levin, who came clad in Rangers gear. Matteau signed Levin’s jersey, his DVD box set of the ‘94 championship, and a photo that the two of them had taken together 25 years ago.
The bar’s co-owners said that Matteau had traveled down from his home in Montreal plenty of times to visit the pub’s previous location on Quentin Road, after one of the owners befriended him at a Rangers alumni event at Madison Square Garden about eight years ago.
“I wanted him to come and see the bar, and he came and loved it,” said Lou Matteo. “He’s really a great person and a wonderful guy.”
