Not too much about Mat Smith's life is known, other than the fact that he's a goalie that plays for the Quebec City Citadelles of the SMJHL and the Chicago Syndicate of the SHL. So when it was announced that he would be representing Team Finland internationally, that scratched a lot of heads. How can a player named "Mat Smith" be Finnish. Many people called out Finland and Smith, saying that he isn't a Finn at all, and they're just cheating by taking a British goalie and calling him a Finn. Well we were able to sit down with Mat Smith in an exclusive live interview and clear some things up, as well as find out a little bit more about the background of the person behind the goalie mask.
The interview started well, as the interviewer asked Smith for a definitive answer for why he would be representing Finland, Smith responded that while his official birthplace is in England, his family moved to Finland when he was very young, and he just doesn't remember anything about living in the UK or have any ties there.
After this though, things got confusing. When asked if Mat is short for Matthew, Smith said that is not, and in fact it isn't short for anything. It's just Mat. With one T. When the interviewers were puzzled about this, Smith said "what do you want from me, that's my name." It created an awkward silence, and so Smith gave up a little bit more information, almost seeming to feel guilty, saying that his friends back home know him better as "Matteus." He then wrinkled his face and said "wait I shouldn't have said that, can we take that off the record?" But this was live, and had just been broadcasted to over 60 people.
The interview went on, and Smith seemed to shut down, sharing less in favour of giving standard hockey player answers. One interaction in particular was interesting, where the interviewer asked Smith about the beginning of last season when he would just randomly bark like a dog sometimes at opposing players, if this was still happening and if he was able to keep the demons away. Smith's face turned to confusion and horror like he thought that wasn't real, and he whispered "keep pucks out of the net," then more loudly he said "well you know, you gotta keep em out and stay focused, that's your job as a goalie."
Eventually, after these strange answers went on for awhile, the interviewers told the viewers that they could call in with some questions before they ended the interview. Well as it turned out, one caller, who's caller ID was "ei8ht" found Smith's reaction after giving the name "Matteus," as well as his change in attitude afterwards to be strange. He did some digging, and as it turned out, there was a man with that name and the same description as Mat Smith who was wanted by the Interpol for stealing jewels of the unused crown that was meant for the proposed king of Finland in the early 20th century. Matteus Seppälä, who's last name translates to Smith from Finnish.
Though Smith seemed to try his hardest to keep his composure at first, but then he finally cracked, saying "you Oceans 11 a museum for some old shiny rocks one time and all of a sudden it's the end of the world?" Smith then stood up, thanked the interviewers for their time and promptly ran out the room. When one interviewer looked out the window behind him, he noticed Smith sprinting full down the street.
As it turned out, with more digging people found that "Mat Smith" was actually born in Finland as Matteus Seppälä, but fled the country after he was spotted on a museum security camera posing as a wax figurine for 12 hours straight of the first president of Finland, then after the museum closed pocketing various artifacts and valuables, including the jewels off this crown.
Smith hasn't been heard from publicly since this interview, but he did reportedly order a new goalie mask, predominantly featuring a design of that crown, with little indents where the jewels are supposed to go. This has led fans to speculate that he's going to insert the stolen jewels into his goalie mask and wear it for the game that he's scheduled to play tomorrow.
Whether this is actually true, we still don't know, nothing's been confirmed, so if you want to be the first to see what happens you'll have to tune into Team Finland's next game against the British Isles.
Update: Smith has just sent out a Tweet featuring this gif:
Matteo![[Image: 60738a9b951dac79babefdd05f76104a.gif]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/60/73/8a/60738a9b951dac79babefdd05f76104a.gif)
![[Image: Mat10Man.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Mat10Man.gif)
![[Image: bhLfeta.png]](https://i.imgur.com/bhLfeta.png)
![[Image: UbL0bdg.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UbL0bdg.png)
![[Image: AnnualConstantHellbender-small.gif]](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AnnualConstantHellbender-small.gif)
