The Montreal Canadiens attempt to celebrate reaching one million Twitter followers went terribly awry Tuesday night.
As explained on the team's website, fans who followed the team and tweeted using the hashtag "#CanadiensMTL1M" would receive a special video message from a player.
Adding "surprise" to the hashtag gave Twitter users the additional benefit of having their handles depicted on the back of a Canadiens jersey.
Unfortunately, the seemingly innocent promotion was trending for all the wrong reasons when users with racial slurs in their handles began replying, prompting automatic responses from the team's Twitter account.
The Canadiens celebrate one million Twitter followers with a few surprises for you! -> https://t.co/7f0QjBsLT7 pic.twitter.com/8HhIEkod5K
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) February 24, 2016
It was a situation similar to what happened with the New England Patriots in November 2014.
The Canadiens promotion kicked off before 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and offensive automated tweets were still rolling out almost 2 1/2 hours later.
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After scoring a late third-period goal to bring the Winnipeg Jets' deficit to one goal against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, Mark Scheifele simply wanted to jump into the glass in celebration - but he didn't see the referee.
In the end, it was Scheifele who took the worst of the collision, so he shouldn't be worried about facing any further discipline.
Here's a closer view:
Also, for the lols. Scheifele jumps onto the ref after scoring his goal. pic.twitter.com/xq3LKoJ1b8
— Dylan Nadwodny (@dnadders) February 24, 2016
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New Jersey Devils rookie Sergey Kalinin scored a goal, added an assist, and fought J.T. Miller on Tuesday as his team ended a three-game losing streak by beating the New York Rangers 5-2.
Though the 24-year-old Russian has certainly never watched Gordie Howe play, the significance of his goal, assist, and first NHL fight wasn't lost on him.
"I'm from Siberia, but we have the internet," he said, referring to his Gordie Howe hat trick. After spending parts of six seasons with Avangard Omsk of the KHL, Kalinin now has seven goals and six assists in his first season in North America.
Tyler Kennedy, Kyle Palmieri, Lee Stempniak, and Adam Larsson also found the net, while an unbelievable stick save was one of 17 made by netminder Cory Schneider as he recorded his 26th win.
The win brings the Devils within a point of the final wild-card spot currently held by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have three games in hand.
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