Every Halloween, Melinda Karlsson comes up with brilliant couple’s costume ideas for her and husband Erik, which he dons without too much complaint.
“I signed this deal with my wife a very long time ago, and I’m sure that it will last until the end of time, unfortunately,” he quipped.
For this year’s team Halloween party, Melinda dressed as Austin Powers, with Erik glammed out as one of the Fembots from the movies. The teammates we spoke with singled out their getups as one of, if not the, best of the night.
“These boots are made for walkin’!” Spencer Stastney said with a grin.
Karlsson was pleased to hear that they were a hit.
“I used to look better when I was younger, when I had no facial hair. I was a little skinnier. All in all, I still think that they think I look pretty good. That's at least what, in my mind, I'd like them to think,” he said with a grin. “It's a fun thing, obviously. It's once a year where you get the chance to have everybody laugh at you a little bit.”
Another crowd favorite was the Happy Gilmore ensemble, led by Elmer Soderblom dressing as Mr. Larson.
“I thought Tree’s was just perfect. Perfect for him,” Sidney Crosby said.
“I thought that was pretty funny because he’s such a big dude. It was a good one,” Karlsson agreed.
Ben Kindel had the idea for some of the younger guys to dress as characters from that movie. He went as Ben Stiller’s character Hal, the sadistic nursing home orderly; Chase Pietila was Otto, Happy’s caddy; and Rutger McGroarty went as Happy himself. Thankfully, the costumes were easy enough to put together on short notice.
“I didn’t know about the Halloween Party until Friday, and we played Saturday,” said McGroarty, who got called up right before. “So, Sunday morning I had to rush around and find stuff. It was fun. I really liked Soderblom’s. That outfit was all-time. That was awesome.”
Rickard Rakell dressing as Jack Skellington and his wife Emmeli dressing as Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas also got mentioned by a few of the guys.
“I think Raks was probably the most professionally put together. Really cool outfit,” McGroarty said.
The Rakells were definitely on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Happy Gilmore guys when it came to preparation.
“Yeah, it took quite a while,” Rakell said. “We had a makeup artist come to our house. I think mine was not as complicated as my wife's was because hers was almost two hours. Putting everything on feels kind of weird, especially the eyeliner. I had a hard time getting it off. It might still be there, actually (laughs). So yesterday, I just put my sunglasses on the whole day because it was still black around the eyes.”
If anyone needs last-minute inspiration, here are more costumes. Big stick tap to Andie of @mintycubs on X for the thread! And of course, props to the Penguins’ significant others, the brains behind the operations.
Evgeni Malkin: NASA astronaut
Tommy Novak: Teletubby
Hendrix Lapierre: Shrek
Sergei Murashov: Neo from the Matrix
Egor Chinakhov: Chucky
Connor Dewar: Xenomorph from Alien
Blake Lizotte: Gru from Despicable Me
Nick Robertson: An Average Joe from Dodgeball
Justin Brazeau: Mr. Incredible from the Incredibles
Kaedan Korczak: The Grinch
Spencer Stasney: Forrest Gump
Bryan Rust: Bert from Sesame Street
Trevor van Riemsdyk: Astronaut
Sidney Crosby: Not totally sure, but I think his take on an elderly grandpa?
Ilya Solovyov: Han Solo from Star Wars
