The Los Angeles Kings have formally apologized for issuing an official franchise tweet that read, “To everyone in Canada outside of BC ; you’re welcome” after beating the Canucks, 4-2, in Wednesday’s playoff opener. Given the animus towards Vancouver on the part of the rest of the country, The Vancouver Sun’s Harrison Mooney asks, “why is the outrage-o-meter bordering on aneurysmal?”
What blows me away is that the tweet touched on this phenomenon without deigning to any of the low-hanging fruit we’re bound to see and have already begun to see, and we lost it anyway. Provided the Canucks’ cup run goes beyond round one, we should expect to be inundated with sexist anti-Sedin arguments, absurdly slanted reporting, and lazy crap about Vancouver’s climate and geography not being Canadian (presumably from people that also want Hawaii and Alaska banished from the United States).
Vancouver fans are reacting (and I would say drastically overreacting) to a difference in approach. The Canucks’ social media presence is aimed at maintaining their fanbase and giving a massive, faceless organization a smidgen of personality. The Kings’ social media presence is aimed at growing their fanbase and attempting to drum up interest and appear relevant. And what’s more relevant than Canada hating the Canucks?