Hockey fans and social media go hand in hand. We all have tweeted during games, whether giving play by play analysis or just stating our opinions on anything hockey related. I guess the same could be said for any topic or sport, but when it involves hockey, you know it’s about to get heated really fast, and it’s also about to get exciting. I always thought to myself, what if social media, such as twitter, for example, existed in other generations of the NHL? Many people may imagine what would be brought up, because they lived through it. As for the rest of us, it’s fun to think about, so that’s what I did and this is what I came up with.
Hockey and Twitter in Another Era
You always see the now infamous, “RT for Crosby, Fav for Ovechkin” posts floating about on twitter. If hockey fans had twitter in the past, I think a fitting example of one of these posts would be “RT for Gordie Howe, Fav for Maurice Richard”. Fans of both the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens would surely have fun with this, and you would of course get your other fans who would say neither, perhaps naming former Boston Bruins star Johnny Bucyk as their favorite. Having favorite NHL players is something that will obviously always generate fun debates, it’s something us as hockey fans all enjoy. And it’s also something that would have been talked about on twitter if twitter had existed in those times.
Have you ever came across a hockey fan who overly and excessively uses hashtags? I guess I could be considered one of those people. But the one hashtag that sticks out in my mind most used in the hockey community is #Detroitsucks. Yes, coined by Chicago Blackhawks fans because of the bitter yet emotional rivalry between Detroit and Chicago for years. That hashtag would actually probably exist back in the day in my ‘made up twitter land’. As for other hashtags? I’d think they’d go something like this:
- #PotvinSucks
- #BroadStreetBullies
- #OriginalSix
These for sure would be just three examples of a hockey fans mentality back In the day. Let your imagination wander, because honestly the creativity of the hashtags the could be used back then is never ending.
Even though the Hockey community as a whole is strong on twitter and in my opinion one of the best, you still will always encounter those fans who ruin it. Or try to I should say. They’re the fans that cannot handle a real legit hockey debate, or the fans that only believe their opinion is right and nobody else. If twitter existed in the 70s, can you imagine the amount of love and or hate a guy like Bobby Clarke would receive? The former Philadelphia Flyer was a tough guy, a leader, a warrior, and to many he was also simply a ‘goon’. The war between Montreal fans and Flyers fans on twitter would be worse than what it’d be like today I’d think, considering those two teams dominated the NHL back then. Some fans would surely take things too far, but others would also take the high road, something that goes on everyday in current times using social media.
Overall, it’s fun to think about the ‘what-if’. What if twitter existed back in other era’s of hockey? Maple Leafs fans today suffer through a Stanley Cup drought, so Red Wings fans back then would basically be the Leafs fans of today on twitter. Social Media and Hockey have been an amazing experience for fans like myself, and as I asked my mother who has been a Hardcore Detroit Red Wings fan for years, she says she’d love if social media existed back then so hockey fans would be able to do what they do today. Whether it’s debating, or talking about who’s going to be traded, or speculating what team will win the Stanley Cup. It’s all something fans from all 30 NHL teams have fun with, and it’s fun to think what twitter would be like if it existed in the golden years of hockey.
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