The NHL community poured in its reactions as Luke Gazdic berated Vancouver Canucks fanbase on the “Oilersnation Everyday with Tyler Yaremchuk” podcast. Gazdic claimed Canucks fans flooded his social media with hate messages after the ex-Oiler player tweeted out a congratulatory message to the Edmonton Oilers for reaching the Stanley Cup Finals.
Gazdic said his rant on the podcast was in response to those Canucks fans, whose messages he termed as “the most garbage, gibberish trash he has ever seen.”
The former NHLer, who is now an analyst on Sportsnet’s “Hockey Night in Canada”, ripped into Vancouver Canucks fans and had a fiery message for the British Columbia fanbase.
He said:
“Canucks twitter, you’re an absolute joke, your team’s a joke, you’re a bunch of losers. So, the Oilers are going to the Stanley Cup Finals, and I hope you guys are having fun watching it on TV and watching me on the panel because you guys are not there. Have fun with your little whining tweets.”
The NHL community on X/Twitter had mixed reactions to Luke Gazdic’s rant. While some agreed with him that some Canucks fans can be ruthless, others opined Gazdic should have had a more neutral response given his current stature as a hockey analyst on national TV:
“This loser wont be an analyst for long”
“@Sportsnet someone this bias towards a team should not be on a national broadcast.” @A_Steele2 wrote.
One fan brought up Luke Gazdic’s NHL numbers in the argument:
“Gazdic was a fringe NHL player who had 8 points.” @UncleLaleet wrote.
One Canucks fan stood against the hate messages Luke Gazdic allegedly received, but also had something to say about his comments:
“I dunno, he kinda came off as a crybaby here. I don’t support anything outside of general hockey trolling, but to go out of his way to comment on a fanbase that’s living rent free in his head is an extremely tough look.” wrote @canuckscapmess.
One fan said Gazdic spoke what’s on all Oilers fans’ minds:
“@lukegazdic just said what we are thinking and experiencing. He’s a true hero. Once an Oiler always an Oiler,” wrote CakeEater_84.
“The guy is so unprofessional. As a member of the SPORTSNET panel he’s supposed to impartial, but he constantly slips up and says “we” instead of “the oilers” Talk about being a joke? Look in the mirror pal,” wrote @Bricksauce.
Here’s the clip of Luke Gazdic’s beratement on Canucks fans:
Luke Gazdic called out Connor McDavid for embellishing
Sportsnet panelists NHLers Kevin Bieksa, and Luke Gazdic weighed in on the number of embellishment penalties during the Edmonton Oilers vs Vancouver Canucks series of Round 2 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Luke Gazdic was critical of multiple players on both teams, but singled out Connor McDavid while reviewing one of the plays, and said,
“It’s every single player, honestly, on both teams. Conor, I love ya, but that’s a dive.”
Gazdic claimed the NHL was undergoing an “embellishment epidemic” owing to the number of flops by players across the league, not limited to the Oilers-Canucks series.
Kevin Bieksa pointed out the players involved in the embellishment calls were on the powerplay units of their teams. The ex-player called on the current NHL players to have more integrity when it came to drawing penalties. Bieksa said,
“Do you notice the guys that are doing the embellishment are all Powerplay players, too? .., you gotta have a little bit of integrity.”
