A Horribly Mis-Worded Johnny Gaudreau Quote Creates a Lot of Heat for NHL Insider Frank Seravalli
Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli took some significant heat on Monday for a missed grammatical error in reference to the passing of Johhny Gaudreau.
Every season, Seravalli releases his '32 Bold Predictions' article that details some wild predictions for the upcoming season that most often don't come to fruition. His thirteenth point on his list is something that could very well happen with Seravalli suggesting that the Lady Byng Trophy be renamed in honour of Johnny Gaudreau who tragically passed away after being struck by a drunk driver at the end of August.
Unfortunately, in his fourteenth point, when the article was initially published, there was a grammatical error that was not picked up on, which caused immediate backlash.
Seravalli faced lots of scrutiny when it was first published with that error, which made it sound like Gaudreau's death would actually benefit the Blue Jackets. Obviously, this was not his intent and the article has since been updated to say "With a little help from Gaudreau in heaven..."
While no one is pleased with the initial publishing or subsequent edits, some understand what Seravalli was trying to say.
Following an continuous attack on social media for his wording, Seravalli issued the following statement on 'X' Monday afternoon.
What I wrote and how my poor choice of words was received was not intended to create any hurt or anger. Especially as a member of the Philly hockey community, I've been absolutely gutted by John and Matty's passing - like so many around the hockey world. This tragedy is a difficult topic we're all grappling with and what I wrote was never intended to add to that. Simply put, I should not have tied the two together. I am sorry and I promise to be better."
It goes without saying, that there was a more appropriate way to say the Blue Jackets would win the draft lottery for the first time in franchise history, and something that all of us as writers can learn from; double, triple and quadruple check your work to avoid incidents like this one.
