NHL Lockout: 25 Best Player Tweets from the Lockout

Exactly one month ago, New Jersey Devils forward Krys Barch set a dizzying precedent by using Twitter as a means of weighing in on himself and his NHL peers being indefinitely locked out.

Using what must have been at least 24 individual tweets, Barch poured out a prose poem that left no relevant emotions unturned.

Before and since, handfuls of his 700-plus peers have taken the more conventional one-liner approach with their Twitter accounts. Some have gone all out for humor’s sake while others have made admirable points as to the lockout’s extensive consequences.

In alphabetical order―and with a few repeat occurrences―the NHL players who have combined for the 25 best quick hits against the impending and ongoing labor strife are as follows.

Paul Bissonnette

Essentially the Barch of the Phoenix Coyotes (in more ways than one), Paul Bissonnette has likely surprised no one by weighing in on the work stoppage. His most amusing update so far concerns the facial hair he has apparently turned loose since training camp was initially put on hold.

Paul Bissonnette

Bissonnette is among the least likely to ever have a multi-goal game, which incidentally seems to be part of the joke in this tweet. But he will strike twice in this slideshow, scoring a tongue-in-cheek look at a personal silver lining to the NHL’s lack of game action to date in 2012-13.

Paul Bissonnette

Okay, he’s got the hat trick here with his slightly more original take on fairness to the fans.

Jon Blum (3 Times)

Jon Blum himself packed a three-in-one punch with this sarcastic countdown to the start of the lockout, tweeting three times to update his followers on the CBA’s lifespan.

Matt Carle

Even for the most tech-savvy consumers, Matt Carle’s doctored photo of the scoreboard with the image of his puck-wielding pet has to impress with the obvious brainstorming and effort it required.

And it was all for the positive purpose of trying (albeit in vain) to avert a labor stalemate that officially struck roughly two weeks after this tweet was published.

Ryan Clowe

You have to commend Ryan Clowe’s efforts to find a delicate balance between propitiation and outright submission to his current, off-ice labor rivals.

Mike Commodore

The journeyman blueliner made a not-so-subtle reference to his sudden lack of preoccupation in the late evening and small hours when he otherwise would have been skating and unwinding up to three times a week. In turn, he offered a way―however jokingly it may have been―to familiarize himself with his fanbase while passing the time.

Tyler Cuma

Profundity is hard to produce with such a stringent character limit, but Tyler Cuma delivers just that about as well as any Twitter user could with his assessment of the situation.

Curt Gogol

The San Jose Sharks farmhand took to Twitter to offer his take on Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold’s apparent flip-flopping, which others have addressed elsewhere through blog posts or press interviews.

Andrew Gordon

This status update from a minor leaguer who could have been vying to crack an NHL roster appears, at first, to be going nowhere. Yet, somehow, Gordon comes through with a last-second game-changer by tacking on a “Pffft!”

Michael Grabner

This was Michael Grabner’s glum concession statement as the lockout loomed at the halfway mark of September. If properly read aloud to anybody who has not yet encountered it, his tweet packs a punch line bearing an ageless brand of sarcasm.

Mike Green

Much like the aforementioned Commodore, Mike Green has engaged his fans/followers by addressing the massive void in his agenda.

Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson does not get too cute with his lockout-related post. That is at least until he polishes it off with a billboard-type visual aid and a solid slogan.

Evander Kane

Unfortunately, this tweet triggered a discussion with a little bit of unsavory language underneath, just to warn those who follow the link.

For Evander Kane’s part, though, his initial post as well as his response to responders gives off a vibe of calm, collected class and a dash of harmless wit.

John-Michael Liles

The response thread to this tweet from the Maple Leafs’ defenseman also has an instance of unsavory word choice, so click with caution.

At any rate, John-Michael Liles did the unthinkable here by giving sportswriters (or at least this one) a reason to sympathize with commissioner Gary Bettman.

Note to Bettman: Do not get used to that sympathy. Leaving aside the less-than-credible notion that a modicum of athletic prowess automatically equals a modicum of sports knowledge, the three exponentially more catastrophic work stoppages on the incumbent commissioner’s watch speak for themselves.

Henrik Lundqvist

Was this post from the final days before the start of the lockout a subtle attempt to ensure that another mass assembly of NHL talent convenes in a few months, preferably in Columbus?

Only Henrik Lundqvist can say for sure, but this tweet from two days before the lockout’s official outset does inevitably help to stress the ongoing void in every hockey heart.

Joffrey Lupul

As it is with a few other entries, there is nothing really creative or clever in this post from Joffrey Lupul, but it raises a point that not many other public figures have raised.

Brett MacLean

If one is to stress the urge to end this lockout, there are few game plans more ideal than slyly underscoring one of the primal setbacks from the last lockout.

That was precisely what Brett MacLean did in expressing his hope to see his peers back in action even after he himself was forced to retire prematurely.

Mike McKenna

The prospective St. Louis Blues stopper offered a reminder of at least one group of lockout victims that are arguably forgotten even more than fans and NHL arena employees. Those would be players who are trying to ascend the professional ranks, but are bumped down the depth chart in bona fide domino fashion when NHL-caliber players are forced to take AHL jobs.

Teddy Purcell

The Tampa Bay Lightning forward made like many of his fans and sought an alternative form of sports-based entertainment elsewhere in the state. While he was at it, he made what one can assume was a joking threat, but do note that college football will be over by early January, at which point the NHL season will be on its thinnest ice if it is not already underway.

Tyler Seguin

Guess Tyler Seguin didn’t expect he would be on the other side of the great pond again for his big two-year anniversary, did he?

Anthony Stewart

In an obvious reference to Detroit executive Jim Devellano’s headline-gripping remarks, Anthony Stewart cut straight to the porch of the net and stuffed home a zinger.

Daniel Winnik

Sneak a lockout joke into a personal account of a Halloween costume party? Why not?