Henrik Zetterberg knocked over a fan’s beer during warmups, but he came through with an incredible gesture which made the fan instantly forget about his wasted drink.

But first, some quick advice for all of you hockey fans out there.

There’s two rules to remember if you ever find yourself in the front row at a hockey game: Don’t bang on the glass and don’t put your drink on the dasher boards.

The first rule should be an obvious one (it’s annoying as hell for the people around you), but the second rule is often ignored, forgotten or not obvious to newcomers. The dashers, boards and glass are all pretty flexible. That’s to help protect the players on the ice who crash into them, but that also means that your drink on the dasher isn’t safe and will likely splash into your lap after a big check.

So, when Zetterberg was warming up prior to the Detroit Red Wings’ game against the Ottawa Senators, you can probably guess what happened to the beer a fan put on the dasher board.

Here’s the experience hockey fans Mike and Ryan had when Zetterberg knocked over their beer, courtesy of the Ottawa Citizen:

“My buddy Mike and I were down against the glass for the warms ups last night in the Red Wings end… he had his beer sitting on the up against the glass as we were taking pics. When Hank was done stretching, he got up and banged into the boards a couple times.

In doing so, Mike’s pint went smashing to the floor. We knocked on the glass to show him what happened as I got a kick out of it. Zetterberg started laughing! A few minutes later, he went over to the bench, grabbed one of his brand new game sticks and autographed it saying: “Sorry! I owe u one! (with his signature.) He skated over and tossed it over the glass to us! How classy is that guy!!! Amazing!”

You can see the signed stick in the photo at the top of the page. That’s a pretty amazing gesture from Zetterberg. Even though drinks get dumped regularly when fans leave them on the dasher during a game, Zetterberg probably felt bad it happened during warmup and to a Red Wings fan who was attending a game in Ottawa.

As for Mike and Ryan, that’s a great trade. Who wouldn’t ditch an overpriced stadium beer for a priceless stick and personalized message from a hockey great?

About David Rogers

Editor for The Comeback and Contributing Editor for Awful Announcing. Lover of hockey, soccer and all things pop culture.