Washington Capitals’ forward Joel Ward subjected to racial abuse on Twitter -NHL News
The Boston Bruins have sidelined themselves from racial attack on Washington Capitals’ forward, Joel Ward, who has been flayed on his Twitter page over his decisive goal that eliminated Bruins from the Eastern Conference playoff quarterfinals series.
Ward scored the goal into the third minute in overtime in the game against Boston and that was enough to oust Bruins out of the Stanley Cup race.
Following the results of the game, some of the diehard fans of the team attacked Ward with racial slurs and bashing through their tweets.
The player was unaware of all those posts until his teammate, Jeff Halpern, alerted him about them. He, however, seems to have managed the situation well and refused to let the attack ruin his goal celebrations.
He said:
"Halpern just took offense that people weren't talking about the goal, (but rather) getting into racist remarks."
Ward added:
"I think he was telling me he had my back, and felt bad that (some Twitter users) were talking about the negative side, instead of how we are moving on."
Meanwhile, Bruins, following confirmation of the incident, have issued an official statement offering condemnation of the attack, while sidelining themselves from those tweets.
The statement reads:
" (We are) very disappointed by the racist comments that were made following the game last night. These classless, ignorant views are in no way a reflection of anyone associated with the Bruins organization."
Ward is one of the black players playing the National Hockey League (NHL) but such an attack is very rare, and it also surprised the player himself.
It is not clear if family of the player has also been subjected to the racial abuse in the attack. The player is said to be happy that he has gained so much support from his teammates over the issue.
He said that he has never experienced such an attack before and apparently was not aware of anything like this coming as a result of his team’s win.
It is not certain if the National Hockey League (NHL) is going to investigate the matter. So far, there is no comment on any aspect of the attack from the office.
Tags: