Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

When keeping it real goes wrong: Dan Ellis’ bad night on Twitter

Sometimes when you’re having a tough night and want to sound off to an always-willing-to-listen audience it helps to be aware of who makes up your audience. Last night, Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Dan Ellis was getting down about how much money he and other players in the NHL lose out on because of escrow and

Image (1) 33dellis1-thumb-450x248-19860.jpg for post 15210

Image (2) 33dellis2-thumb-450x248-19863.jpg for post 15210
Image (3) 33dellis3-thumb-450x248-19866.jpg for post 15210

All right so at the very least Ellis dials it down a bit and realizes that being a hockey player is nothing like being a soldier or a firefighter, so he’s got that going for him. What tends to really chap people’s asses is when you pull the “Gotcha!” move and claim you were just goofing around. At least Ellis didn’t go that route...

Image (4) 33dellis4-thumb-450x247-19869.jpg for post 15210

OK so he did go there. At the very least, Ellis realized that he may have grossly misjudged his very public audience that is now saluting him with either quotes from Biggie Smalls or a brand new hit Internet meme.

Image (5) 33dellis5-thumb-450x248-19872.jpg for post 15210

All right, so what is our lesson here. Fans don’t like to hear from guys that make more money than most people will ever see in their life talk about financial hardships. That’s a given. We’ve also found out that sometimes players forget how good they’ve got it and getting a dose of reality in a bitingly cruel and sarcastic manner can get both annoying and hilarious so long as you’ve got the sense of humor to handle things.

While Ellis got angry about things and said that he’ll keep things really, really boring if that’s what the fans want (they don’t and guys like Bobby Ryan and Paul Bissonette are proof of that) but this is more about knowing and respecting your audience.

Regular NHL fans aren’t generally rolling in dough and fans spend their extra cash to buy tickets, cable or satellite TV and merchandise while trying to keep a roof over their heads. NHL tickets and merchandise aren’t cheap and all those things go into the big pot to help their favorite teams have the money to spend on players.

It’s one thing to try and identify with your audience by talking about common issues,having Uncle Sam (or Uncle Gary Bettman) take a chunk of your money is a universal gripe, it’s another thing to forget your place in life and realize that you don’t have the same sorts of problems those folks have.