A hockey win, through a social media lens

Winnipeg Free Press

06-05-2025

Opinion
Regardless of what happens for the team in the rest of the NHL playoffs, Sunday night's win by the Winnipeg Jets over the St. Louis Blues was an epic hockey game.
One for the ages.
To go into the last three minutes of the game trailing 3-1 and manage to not only score a tying goal with less than three seconds left on the clock, but also win in double overtime in Game 7 of a playoff series?
Fred Greenslade / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Winnipeg Jets' Adam Lowry
It was, simply put, an astounding turnaround.
But it was also an interesting object lesson about social media, the pressure we put on top-ranked athletes and the regular lack of anything approaching common courtesy.
Don't read the comments: it's something that editors in the media tell new reporters and even people submitting letters to the editor or op-ed pieces.
There's a simple reason for that advice: the world seems to be full of people with nothing better to do than belittle and insult anyone who puts themselves out in the public sphere.
It's without a doubt worse in professional sports.
With the third period winding down and the Blues seemingly in control of the game, online bile began to drip steadily on social media sites like X. Not just from one hateful troll happily spreading trash online, but from poster after poster.
'Winnipeg Jets ultimate choke job of the century?'
'Blues got this in the bag.'
'Wow the Winnipeg Jets really going to choke this away. Hellebuyck just couldn't get it done and the offence disappeared this game.'
'Winnipeg should be named choke city. Bombers choke on the (Grey Cup) and jets choke on the first round.'
'Being a Jets fan must suck, you have to watch your team lose at home in a game 7 because your goalie has the yips and then you have to live in Winnipeg.'
'It's like the Jets want to lose so they can spend time somewhere other than Winnipeg.'
The internet commenters had a hate on for Connor Hellebuyck, for all the players on the Jets, for Winnipeg itself — even for the anthem singer before the game.
Those sentiments began to turn after Winnipeg pulled the goalie for an extra attacker with minutes to go in the third period, and Vlad Namestnikov scored a goal to draw within one goal of the Blues with less than two minutes left.
When Cole Perfetti scored with less than three seconds left on the clock to tie the game, hate turned to hope, and the X feed following the game was filled with fans hoping for the best.
Then, Adam Lowry scored for the win.
Suddenly it was the Blues players being excoriated online.
'Blues fan here. It was never in doubt. This is what St. Louis does.'
'There is a golden rule to live by the St. Louis Blues suck just like the whole city of St. Louis.'
'So happy to see St. Louis blues lose, I hate St. Louis and loved watching that choke job.'
Weekday Mornings
A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day.
'Nothing beats the playoff tradition of a St. Louis Blues 1st round exit…'
To be fair, not all of it was hate. But far, far too much was.
It's hard enough to play professional hockey in a hard-core hockey town — the pressure of playing in a city like Toronto or Montreal has made more than a few players buckle under just the media glare, and Winnipeg is no different.
But it's particularly so with the new world of social media, where everyone, however petty and small, becomes an armchair expert in hockey with the ability to reach right into a player's phone.
It's just another example of the way social media, a great tool to share information quickly and easily, has collapsed under the sheer weight of the hate it more often spreads.