Vancouver Golf Course Celebrates Marchand's Concussion Via Twitter Before Deleting, Apologizing
BOSTON (CBS) -- Rivalries are part of what make sports so great, but they can also lead to people saying very stupid, awful things.
And sometimes, randomly, they make the Twitter account of a golf course say stupid things, too.
We all learned that for the first time on Thursday night, when Northlands Golf Course of Vancouver tweeted out a message that seemed to express great joy in the brain injury suffered by Brad Marchand, an injury which came thanks to the flying elbow of Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov.
"Anton Volchenkov received free golf for the rest of the year [at Northlands Golf Course] because of this," the course's account tweeted, including a link to a video of the illegal hit.
Finding jubilation in any sort of injury is a sick practice to begin with, but considering Marchand suffered a concussion on the play, it's an even more disgusting statement. Jokes are jokes, not intended to be taken seriously, but mocking another man's brain trauma is just sick.
The "joke" spread pretty rapidly on Thursday night, thanks to blog posts like this one from NESN Nation, and people may have ventured onto the course website to find the "Contact Us" page. Shortly thereafter, the golf course deleted the tweet. The course then issued a half-hearted apology.
"Apologies to those offended by our previous Tweet," the course said via Twitter. "It was meant to be tongue in cheek however we recognize it was done in poor taste ... We wish Brad a speedy recovery."
The bad feelings from the Vancouver area toward Marchand stem, of course, from the Stanley Cup Final in 2011. Marchand not only scored five goals with a pair of assists in the seven-game series against Vancouver, but he also spent plenty of time agitating the Canucks' stars, most famously with a series of jabs to the face of Daniel Sedin. Last year, in the Stanley Cup rematch, Marchand dangerously hit Sami Salo in Boston (a move Marchand may have learned from watching Mason Raymond, but nobody in Vancouver ever mentions that part of it), and Marchand was issued a five-game suspension.
In this lockout-shortened season, the Bruins and Canucks have not played each other and won't play each other, unless they make it to the Cup Final again. So leave it to some nitwit from a golf course to try to make up for the lack of hockey by basking in the glory of another man's brain injury.
Read more from Michael by clicking here, or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
