WASHINGTON — Yes, if you’re wondering, Warren Foegele has seen the comments.
He’s tried to ignore most of the noise after his late Game 4 hit injured Capitals “heart and soul guy” T.J. Oshie beyond the foreseeable future. But he’s a 23-year-old inhabitant of the social media age, and the comments telling him to “kill himself” among other slurs are everywhere.
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A former adult film star — turned … social media personalty? — with 15.3 million Instagram followers even tagged him in a video wishing him Erectile Dysfunction.
While the message was harmless in itself, tagging the rookie in a video 15.3 million people might’ve seen was part of the reason the death threats got to his own Instagram page. So he saw those ones, some of them underneath random pictures of him and his girlfriend.
“You try not to look at it,” he said after the Canes’ Game 5 morning skate. “But I’ve seen some. It’s out of my control what people are saying. I’m just worried about myself and our team. Our focus is on each other and winning tonight. You just try to ignore it. We know what’s at stake tonight, and my focus is on playing hockey and playing this game tonight.”
There was a two-minute minor for boarding called at the time of the hit after Oshie was visibly injured, and no matter if you consider the play clean or dirty, the outcome was unfortunate. Foegele said he plans to reach out to Oshie after the series and apologize.
It’s clear to Foegele’s teammates that he didn’t have malicious intent, but they know that doesn’t matter to the social media mob during playoffs. The ramped-up hate is another thing the many Hurricanes making their playoff debuts can cross off their Bingo cards. Just because it’s a rite of passage doesn’t make it OK, though.
“I actually think it’s kind of embarrassing that people attack everyone (on social media),” said Calvin de Haan, who is not one to shy away from Twitter chirps. “I think it’s stupid, to be honest. Warren is not trying to hurt anybody out there. There’s no need to throw death threats at him, but it’s part of the game. If you’ve actually played hockey and understand the game (that hit) happens 100 times a game and he just ended up going into the boards the wrong way. You never want to see anyone get hurt and I know that Warren wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. It just is what it is, I think (social media vitriol) picks up a little bit when the stakes are a little higher. But whatever, if someone is sitting at home being an armchair GM, you know they’d never say it to your face.”
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Players around the league have spoken up about the same thing recently. Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk told the Boston Globe’s Matt Porter on Friday that he deleted Twitter and Instagram altogether.
“It was getting a bit hectic,” DeBrusk said. “It was getting a little intense, and getting to family members as well.”
While Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho hasn’t gone that far yet, he’s taken measures to drown it out.
“I haven’t checked social media (during the playoffs),” he told The Athletic. “I’ll read news or something, and you can’t really block out everything people are saying, but I’m not going there looking to find something.”
Aho: Not a name-searcher.
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour has loved being able to use his playing experience to level with his players and empathize with whatever experiences they might have. This is especially true for the rookies — he’ll talk about how valuable it’s been having gone through those road blocks as a coach now. He remembers almost crying when he got benched at 18 years old.
Social media didn’t exist during his playing days. For once he can’t relate to his players, and they’ll have to deal with this one thing without his intel.
“I don’t have that stuff, you know,” Brind’Amour said. “I’m not really up-to-date on all that stuff. I know our guys do. We don’t even address it. We gotta stay focused on what we’re doing. One period. One shift. Go to the next one. That’s the way you have to approach it.”
The Hurricanes aren’t the first professional sports team to deal with social media threats, and they won’t be the last. Hopefully, we can all find a way to treat each other as human beings online at some point.
• Andrei Svechnikov skated with a full-face cage and a yellow non-contact jersey Saturday at Capital One Arena. He said he’s hopeful he can get into Game 6. As for the fight with Alex Ovechkin …
“It was back-and-forth all series, I mean, it was just a fight, sometimes it happens. I just stood up for myself. … he asked me first to fight, and you know, I’m not a superhero, ask for fight. I said yes. I just want to stand up for myself. He called me right after the game (he apologized) yeah, a little bit. I said sometimes happens.”
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• Aleksi Saarela is set to become the first player in Hurricanes history who makes his NHL postseason debut before his NHL regular-season debut. He’s racked up nine game-winning goals this season, but obviously isn’t expected to win this series on the fourth line. Here were the lines Saturday morning:
Nino Niederreiter- Sebastian Aho-Teuvo Teravainen
Warren Foegele- Jordan Staal- Justin Williams
Brock McGinn- Lucas Wallmark – Saku Maenalanen
Aleksi Saarela- Greg McKegg- Patrick Brown
Emojis later :).
(Top photo of Warren Foegele and T.J. Oshie: James Guillory / USA Today)