Maple Leafs Division Rival Faces Fan Backlash After Controversial Tweet

The rivalry between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators has been one that fans anticipate yearly and with how both teams are fighting for supremacy in the Atlantic Division, it makes the stakes even higher when these two face off.

But it seems that recently the Senators have acted in poor taste, and fans are not happy.

On a post on social media, Ottawa posted a picture of Brady Tkachuk with a caption that initially gave fans a serious fright.

When you first hear "Please keep x in your thoughts" the immediate reaction is that either something serious happened to a) the player himself or b) his family. While the Sens were trying to have some fun and throw praise at Tkachuk, they went about it the wrong way.

But it seems the backlash was something they weren't expecting.

A lot of people pointed out that the post was in serious bad taste, and the team should have just let this one go.

It was a stunning lack of awareness from the Senators social media team, and perhaps they will think twice about posting something like this in the future.

Well, besides the fact that it's in poor taste in general, and it's never fun to mess with fans' perception of things, it's extremely distasteful if you look at last season.

The hockey world lost Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, and a couple years prior lost Adam Johnson overseas to a horrific accident; these were young players who were taken too soon legitimately, and it left a lot of fans and teams heartbroken.

To joke about Tkachuk potentially in danger, even at the expense of a switcheroo, is very very bizarre, and you can seriously alienate your fanbase by making them feel like something seriously bad happened.

Some may pass it off as a joke, and don't see the implications behind such a post. But when your own fans are screaming at you that it's wrong, and you have real life precedents for events like this:

Maybe it's best you click discard post next time Sens.