Advertisement

The 10 best Twitter moments of 2013 (Puck Daddy Year In Review)

Roberto Luongo and his iPad relax on the bench.

Twitter isn't always a great thing for NHLers. Consider the curious case of Tyler Seguin, who, after a few public gaffes, decided it might be best for him to shut his account down for awhile, or Scott Hartnell, who used the service to snark at his ex-wife.

But it can also be used for good, and on many occasions in 2013, it was. Here are our 10 favourite Twitter moments of the year.

10. #Lumbus

The Blue Jackets and Kings have a special relationship, and not just because the Jeff Carter trade made LA's first Stanley Cup possible. It's also because of #Lumbus.

Lumbus began as a simple joke, as @LAKings decided they would be shortening Columbus to Lumbus for the foreseeable future, just because. But, much like the film "She's All That", the simple makeover spawned a full-blown bromance. And, as the Blue Jackets pushed for a playoff spot at the tail end of the 2013 season, the rest of the hockey world fell for #Lumbus as well.

9. Andrew Ference erases playoff beard

The Boston Bruins came two wins away from winning the Stanley Cup in 2013, which means they all had to undergo the painful process of removing four rounds of face forest, knowing they grew the beards in a losing effort.

Well, at least it's supposed to be painful. Andrew Ference made it look downright easy with one of the best uses of Vine, Twitter's six-second video program, that we've seen from an NHLer:

Bless you, Andrew. Also, gesundheit.

8. The rise and fall of #HelmetPardy

In one of the strangest moments of the NHL season, Adam Pardy of the Winnipeg Jets was checked through the glass during a game in Chicago, and a drunken fan seized the moment to seize Pardy's helmet and wear it as his own.

In honour of this bizarre event, Winnipeg radio guy Dave Wheeler suggested fans show up to the Blackhawks' next visit in Winnipeg fully helmeted. "Show the Hawks fans that we don't need to steal helmets, we have our own!” he suggested.

Soon, #HelmetPardy was trending on Twitter, and it seemed like it was going to be a fun night, until Jets chairman Mark Chipman nixed the idea, saying no fans wearing helmets would be admitted. Be cool, man.

7. Roberto Luongo reacts to draft day stunner

We could probably just do a top 10 countdown of Roberto Luongo's Twitter moments. Basically everything he shares from his unverified @strombone1 account is pure gold, especially when things aren't going his way, and for much of 2013, they weren't.

They definitely weren't on June 30, when the Canucks shocked the entire hockey world by giving up on moving Luongo's big-money contract and trading their other goalie, Cory Schneider, the one that hadn't asked to be traded, instead. Luongo's response was short and sweet:

Legend.

6. Mike Green autographs insulting fan tweet

Hockey players are proud dudes, and they relish they opportunity to make haters and doubters eat their words. So on March 30, when a Capitals fan named Amanda called out Mike Green, tweeting that the Washington defender looked "like he could care less" and that it was "beyond time for him to go", Green answered the bell later that day, scoring the game-winner with under a minute to go in a 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

And then he fired back at Amanda:

But the story doesn't end there. Amanda printed up the tweet and brought it to a Capitals' season ticket holder event for Green to sign. And he did.

5. The Buffalo Sabres debut the 'turd' jersey After the Sabres spent weeks teasing their new third jersey, Steve Ott decided enough was enough. In a back-and-forth with the team Twitter account, he threatened to break in and debut the damn thing himself. It was all very entertaining and clever, right up until people realized Ott it was a stunt. And also the jerseys around which the stunt was built were an absolute atrocity.

Worst. Ending. Ever. And I've seen Vanilla Sky.

4. Players celebrate the merciful end of the lockout

The NHL lockout ended the first week of January, as the league followed through on their New Year's resolution to play more hockey in 2013, and the first lockout of the Twitter era ended, fittingly, with some great tweets from the players. My personal favourite? Bobby Ryan's tweet from a train station somewhere in Sweden:

Although Alex Picard's was good too.

3. #OperationSaveWardo

One fateful morning in October, Joel Ward became trapped in a bathroom stall. No, this wasn't another instalment of R. Kelly's legendary hip hopera. It was real life, and we witnessed it in real time, as his dramatic rescue was live-tweeted by his delighted teammates.

John Carlson's a good teammate. Alex Ovechkin, on the other hand...

2. Stars win #ImGregoryCampbell with Avery zinger

The #ImGregoryCampbell hashtag arose as a sarcastic response to the platitudes about the heroism of Gregory Campbell, who remained on the ice to kill a penalty after suffering a broken leg blocking a shot. But it quickly morphed into tales of true perseverance, which was just fine, because it led to this incredible zinger, courtesy the Dallas Stars:

Burn. Also pretty great: Avery's response. I'd say that about ties it up. #ThankU both.

1. Leafs fans pollute #SeaOfBlue

It's probably never a good idea for an NHL team to give its fanbase full, unmoderated control over its website, but it's an especially poor idea when you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose fans are among the most disgruntled, cynical and mischievous in the league. The Leafs appeared to forget this earlier this week, when they turned their landing page over to any fans that added the hashtag #SeaOfBlue to their tweets. Once the bloggers figured out the trouble they could cause, well, they caused it. It got weird.

Lesson learned.