Its no secret that John Tortorella hates twitter. He made that apparent with the media yesterday and had a talk with his team about it this morning. He says he won't ban the team from using it as long as information isn't coming out from the locker room. I think Torts can rest easy on this. The guys who do use twitter on a regular basis have used it responsibly and have controlled it without any problem.
David Booth, an avid hunter, was receiving some comments about his pictures of his hunts. So he did a wise thing. He realized that the hunter side of him doesn't really appeal to most of his fans but it is a part of him. So he created a separate account that deals with his hunting passion and people like myself, don't have to cringe and feel sorry for the poor innocent animal he just killed. I can concentrate on David Booth the hockey player, not the hunter.
Dale Weise had explored Twitter last year and found it wasn't for him. He very quickly got into trouble with fans after going crazy and adding every hot girl he could find the avatars that followed him. We haven't seen or heard from Dale Weise on Twitter since the incident happened. In fact, he ended up deleting his account. Some things just aren't worth it.
Ryan Kesler, who was the among the first Canuck to have twitter, used it largely to advertise his clothing line. But something changed the year he got hurt. He seemed to have a lot more time on his hands and started to explore twitter for himself and used it to connect with his fans, We see a lot more of the gruff centre displayed in his personal life and his professional one. It also helps that his best friend on the team, Kevin Bieksa, is also on Twitter. So is Alex Burrows, but Burr has mentioned that he's staying away from those two. It can only mean trouble for him.
Kevin Bieksa, the most media rallied player to be on Twitter. The "twitter needs juice" campaign was strong and Bieksa finally gave in on summer. Mainly thanks to Kesler who outed him and forced a tweet out of him after receiving over 10,000 followers within a couple hours. Bieksa uses his tweets to bring Mindcheck to the forefront and the keep Rick Rypien's memory alive thru events set up to raise money for treating depression. He's also become a leader in the community and was shining like a star throughout the past lockout with initiatives like the "Bieksa's Buddies" hockey tournament to raise money for the charities the Canucks would have normally been supporting. He also took the team who were still in Vancouver to Children's Hospital, also another initiative they would have done had they not been locked out. Bieksa uses twitter to get the word out about causes, his own initiatives as a leader in the community and to throw some digs at Kesler and Burr when he can. Nothing but professional.
Last but not least, Twitter has been essential to the rise and fame of Roberto Luongo. He's been our goalie in Vancity since 2006 but no one really knew him except for his team mates. Its thru twitter that Luongo emerged as the witty and charming personality he is to his fans. It made him more real to his fans. By using twitter to vent his frustrations through some of the most ingenious tweets ever, he has endeared himself to the fans of not only Vancouver, but to everyone and hockey as a whole. Here is an example of his witty mind tweeting on the first day of training camp, just eight hours ago.
Here's what Luongo said when asked about Torts and his hate for twitter.
“You have to respect everyone’s opinion,” said Luongo. “But at the same time, (Tortorella) didn’t say we weren’t allowed. We just have to be careful.”And with that said, Luongo sent out a tweet of being muzzled.
