The three Maple Leafs made the 90-minute drive west of Toronto on Thursday to join Bieber and some of his childhood friends for a pick-up game in Stratford, Ontario.
"It was great, it was a lot of fun. I'd never been to that part of Ontario, so it was cool to see where he grew up and meet a lot of his buddies he grew up with," Matthews said. "It was a pretty fun experience."
Bieber and his father attended Toronto's 4-1 win against the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 25; they sat behind the Maple Leafs bench, with the
25-year-old singer wearing a Matthews jersey
. Marner said that since then, he and Matthews had been talking to Bieber, looking for an opportunity to get together for a game.
"He's been talking to me and Auston since the game he came to with his dad. He said he was back in town and had a shinny game with his buddies back in Stratford. He asked if we wanted to come along. We had nothing else going, and that's something you don't want to miss," Marner said. "Obviously we jumped at the excitement of that, so the three of us went down and it was cool meeting his friends as well."
Matthews and Marner played on a team with Bieber while Barrie skated on the other team in hopes of keeping the teams somewhat balanced. They played 4-on-4, with a few subs for each team.
