Did You Catch This?

Ah…the off-season.  What a great time for hockey players (or agents) to get themselves into some trouble.  Here’s what happened in case you missed it…

1.  Mike Richards Is Not a Happy Camper.  Last week, Philadelphia Flyers Captain Mike Richards was traded to the LA Kings.  In exchange, the Flyers received prospect Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and an undisclosed draft pick. 

Trades happen all of the time.  It’s part of the business…oops…but don’t tell that to Mike Richards.

He may be a little pissed off that he was traded.  His bio on Twitter changed to: “EX-Philadelphia Flyers Captain, LA King forward now.”  I like how he put the EX- in capital letters.

He tweeted last night, “@MRichie18: Really starting to get annoyed by everyone keep saying to me that “it’s just business””  Of course, this was a few days after the shock subsided and the reality sunk in.  At first, he tweeted, “Thanks to everyone in Philly for a great 6 yrs. What a great city and an awesome place to play. #NHL #flyers”  But after last night’s tweet, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some ramifications for tweeting his annoyance.

Just ask Alex Burrows and Sean Avery about speaking so freely, or Aaron Voros about tweeting pictures of a half naked Henrik Lundqvist.  They got in trouble.

2. Sean Avery 2, Uptown Hockey -1.   While New York is celebrating the new law allowing for same sex marriage, Uptown Hockey has lost a client because of their anti-gay comments.

Last month, Sean Avery became part of the campaign to legalize same sex marriage in the State of New York.  Whether you were a fan of Avery or not, this was a good thing.  Sean became the first professional athlete to support gay marriage rights in the State of New York.  The New York Rangers followed suit in support.

But don’t think the bigots didn’t come out of their shell to speak up against Avery.  On their official twitter feed, Uptown Hockey tweeted:  “Very sad to read Sean Avery’s misguided support of same-gender “marriage.” Legal or not it will always be wrong.”

The hockey realm and gay rights advocates went into an uproar over these comments. 

Not only did fans and media spit on Uptown Hockey and everything they represent, but they have now officially lost their first client BECAUSE of their remarks about Sean Avery.  Andrew Brunette has FIRED Uptown Hockey citing the Sean Avery mess as THE REASON.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGGH3M9NKBI]

Way to go Brunette!  Now, if the rest of their clients would step up and make the same decision.

It’s one thing to have a personal opinion, but quite another to tweet it on the agency’s official Twitter feed as if that is your company’s stance…and then stand by the comments when you’re questioned by the world.

3.  Montreal Is Not Done With Chara Yet.  Oh boy, the Naked NHLer still has legal problems in Montreal for his hit on Max Pacioretty.  The Montreal police have launched an official investigation into the hit, now that the season is over and they can contact the players that were there when it happened.

They will take the information gathered and submit it to the Crown prosecutor who will decide if a formal accusation will be made against Zdeno Chara.

According to the ‘victim’ Max Pacioretty, he tweeted this: “@MaxPacioretty67: Last comment on this: I hope Chara is NOT prosecuted. I have moved on from my incident and I hope everyone else can do the same.”