When former Blackhawks forward and two-time Stanley Cup champ Dave Bolland was haunting Vancouver during its rivalry with Chicago from 2009-2011, his Canucks connection was far from over.
As a Hawks winger, he would be able to throw their best players like the Sedin twins off their game and contribute some offensive fire power as well. As a former player, Bolland has been providing entertainment to Hawks fans for the past year or so, retaliating against seething Canucks fans and sometimes baiting them into the exchange on Twitter.
On Thursday, the Toronto native kindly sparked an amusing battle on the social media site while stuck in Vancouver after visiting a friend that supplied a great deal of enjoyment to many hockey fans sequestered in their home trying to avoid the coronavirus. Dave noted the Vancouver airport seemed oddly normal despite growing concerns with the pandemic.
"My flight was delayed going home and it was just funny that I was in Vancouver and I just know how much Vancouver fans hate me, so I thought it'd be pretty funny just to go on and say, 'Hey, I'm stuck in Vancouver, please get me out of this city,' to see the reaction from all the Vancouver fans," Bolland said.
Just like the other times the No. 32 overall pick of the 2004 NHL Draft sparked scraps with Canucks fandom, he knew what he was getting into and what would transpire over the next two hours his flight was delayed.
"I kind of knew that once I started that it was going to be war," Bolland said. "So I was waiting to see what was coming up."
NHL
Some people may wonder what a two-time Stanley Cup champ who earned a good payday in the NHL and owns one of the best moment's in an Original Six team's rich history (17 seconds) is doing wasting his time with nameless and sometimes faceless Twitter trolls.
"I think it's fun," Dave said. "I think Twitter people want to hear back from me too and they get a rouse out of me, 'Dave Bolland's joking around with me. He's pretty cool.' I'd be the same way I think.
"I'm just a normal person, but I tried Ryan Reynolds' Aviation gin. I just tweeted a picture of it and he just sent a like back. So he's a big Canadian actor and he's actually from Vancouver.
"So it was pretty funny. I think fans can get a kick out of it, interacting with a player. You don't really see much of that, right?"
His social media habits may also have to do with the way he's wired and the way he played hockey.
"Yeah, that too," Dave confessed. "It was funny getting under people's skin during the game. Probably doing it off the ice as well. I don't do it at the bar or anywhere else, maybe just on Twitter."
Those who've followed his body of work on the Twitterverse for an extended period of time may have noticed Bolland's use of visuals. Sometimes rather than explain why he has an advantage over a particular Vancouver fan, as well as the franchise's history, he shows them by tweeting a photo.
"I know Vancouver doesn't have a Stanley Cup, so whenever their fans kind of get at me or try to say something that really gets to me, or they'll always say, ‘Nice grammar,’ or ‘You can't do this..." I was like, 'Well, I know I got two Stanley Cups and that's all I really need, more than grammar,'" he said.
Getting called out on a misplaced apostrophe here and there doesn't matter much to the former NHLer.
"No. I don't really care," Bolland said. "I don't really care what people say to me. I didn't go to school to become an English teacher, I went to school to be a hockey player, but I know what I'm writing."
He doesn't let the more venomous participants get to him either. The most sinister of comebacks to Bolland have brought up his career getting cut short with an ankle and back injury.
"I played. I won two Stanley Cups," he said. "I've got a Memorial Cup and I've got a World Junior (championship). And I went on long-term IR because my back, my ankle. I was getting paid. So things happen in the league and that's just the way it went.
"It's not really a sore spot or anything. I'm pretty sure if I didn't have any Stanley Cups or any championships, it probably would be a sore spot and it probably would get to me, but the way my career went, not at all."
Perhaps a lesson to be learned from Bolland's twitter interactions is that for those who dare type and send to any well-know figure, you never know who'll answer you back.
"Yeah," Bolland agreed. "Even Chicago fans. I love replying to some Chicago fans if they ever ask me questions or anything. It's always fun to reply, to give back to Chicago for sure, but to chirp the Vancouver fans more than anything."
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