Hockey has a lot of great traditions like the handshake after a hard fought playoff series. Unfortunately another of hockey’s traditions is also racism. Several times in the past have racist remarks by players and fans, marred an otherwise awesome and honorable game. In September of 2011 a fan threw a banana peel onto the ice just as Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds was about to attempt a penalty shot. Simmonds is black and has been involved in other racial controversies in the past. The banana incident was solved and the guy who threw the peel was charged.

Last night during the game 7 overtime, Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward, who is black, scored an overtime goal to eliminate the defending champion Boston Bruins from the playoffs. What followed is nothing short of disgusting. On Twitter the racism started spewing from Boston fans about Ward. Saying things like “Of course it’s the f***ing n***er. White power!” and “that n***er deserves to hang.” This is real unfortunate because it puts hockey into an unfortunate light. These days it seems like the only time the NHL is on the news is when there is a head injury or some talking head is trying to get fighting banned. This is so much worse than that though. This racism came from Boston fans in the US, other times it has happened in Canada.

I am a huge hockey fan, I have been a New York Rangers fan since 1996, this makes me sad because I want hockey to be the #1 sport.I cannot believe that people still do that! Listening to talk radio it seems that people in boston tend to be a little racist. I don’t really buy into branding an entire town or people as any one certain thing, but I do have to say that this is not the first time that I have heard the racist thing and Boston thing in the same sentence.

Below are some of the offensive tweets.

Be warned

that they are graphic and do contain racial slurs. There is a site called Chirpstory that compiled a lot of the tweets if you want to see about 50 of them. The majority of the offending Tweets have been taken down, but here are some that are still up: