Dougie’s Hat Trick

BOSTON, MA - Have you ever heard of a 6-foot-5 leprechaun?

Well, 19-year-old Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton took on that role Friday afternoon, as he visited Boston Children’s Hospital to spend time with the patients and make St. Patrick’s Day arts and crafts - all while donning some festive hats.

When he was younger (which wasn’t all that long ago), Dougie used to think it was pretty amazing to always see professional athletes and NHL players helping out and being able to give back to their communities.

With the schedule this season, that hasn’t allowed a lot of down time for the B’s to be as active around Boston, but Dougie was certainly excited to get the opportunity to visit Children’s following Friday’s practice.

“It’s been fun to be able to meet them and spend some time with them,” he said on meeting with the kids. “I’m pretty excited to be here.”

And for the visit, he was given a few hat options to try out (watch a pretty funny video of that here), including one that matched his hair pretty well (pictured above with the pippi-longstocking-esque hat)….

“It matches my hair, so it works out well for me,” he joked, before adding that he received a few kidding comments about the hat.

“There’s been a few,” he said. “It’s kind of funny, but it’s been fun and the kids like it, too.”

Having seen others out in the community before, the defenseman was happy he could get the chance to brighten some days.

“You just put a smile on their face and help out…they’ve been doing well today,” he said, on the patients being vibrant and having a good time.

The arts and crafts included decorating rainbow hockey pucks (no tell-tale sign if they’ll lead to golden goals for the D-man, though…) and Hamilton joked that he doesn’t think he’s as good at arts and crafts as he is at defense.

Dougie also talked about how important the outreach is for Boston, and how happy he is to get to be a part of it and represent the spoked-B.

“It’s pretty exciting to be able to do this and give back.”

-Caryn Switaj ^CS