Elliott's wife inspired Blues goalie's viral All-Star selfie
ST. LOUIS -- Brian Elliott's wife, Amanda, deserves the credit for making him the Internet's latest selfie sensation.
When they decided to cut short a beach vacation in Turks and Caicos last Thursday to get to the All-Star Game in Columbus, the couple suddenly had plenty of travel time to think of creative ideas for Saturday's Skills Competition. Elliott figured as the last goalie selected he'd be voted in for the Breakaway Challenge, since it's not normally a glamorous position for the guys in net.
"We started planning and trying to think up different ideas," Elliott says. "Got (Vladimir Tarasenko) in on it and he was more than happy to play along."
While facing the goal and with his teammate behind him, Elliott framed a perfect selfie that showed Tarasenko posing with his stick raised to shoot.
#NHLAllStar game Selfie!!!! pic.twitter.com/gWwGyT1kGa
— Brian Elliott (@KidElls1) January 25, 2015
It didn't take long for the picture to go viral on Twitter and the rest of the Internet. Fans in Columbus started requesting to be part of Elliott's next selfies, and his Twitter mentions show many others have done their best to imitate the pose.
Even NBC Sports Network's Jeremy Roenick got in on the selfie fun when he took a picture with Chicago's Patrick Kane on the bench during Sunday's game, calling it the "best selfie ever." The St. Louis Blues official Twitter feed disagreed, making a strong case that the original set the standard.
"It was awesome. I loved it," Blues defenseman Ian Cole says. "Moose is a really, really funny guy, great guy. So it's great to see that he first of all got the call, and second of all made a splash."
Elliott proudly says that splash reached all the way to the front page of the Toronto Sun, a big thrill for the Toronto native. He tweeted out the selfie himself shortly after it was taken Saturday night and again on Monday alongside a similar selfie with his wife from the beach.
What a difference a day can make! Thanks Columbus for making the @TheNHLAllStar game a great experience pic.twitter.com/5MQo4wYjzw
— Brian Elliott (@KidElls1) January 26, 2015
It's hard to imagine any goaltender has ever gotten nearly as much attention at All-Star weekend, an event generally devoid of any semblance of defense. That made Elliott's 20 minutes in net during Sunday's game something of a nightmare he just wanted to end, but he wouldn't mind the chance to return to the Breakaway Challenge and try out some other ideas.
"I was going to do a bunch of stuff," Elliott says. "Take off all my equipment and lay it down so he could deke around it and stuff, but only so much time and so many things you can think of at the time."
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
