"Will's been working really hard lately," Schmidt said directly to the camera as part a sincere video message tweetd by the team. "I really think you ought to let him off the hook tonight."
Needless to say, Rothwell-Torres was stunned when the defenseman came to his rescue.
"I sat in my back office, at first, going through (the tweets) and I realized... it's Nate Schmidt!" Rothwell-Torres told NHL.com. "Holy... It's Nate Schmidt!"
Even more stunning it worked. One excused absence from his gig at Saks Fifth Avenue and a Lyft ride from San Francisco later, Rothwell-Torres, his girlfriend Emmeline Geyer and their friend Susie Caldwell were in section 107 at SAP Center taking in the game.