Earlier today we covered the firing of Vancouver Canucks anthem singer Mark Donnelly after he lost his job quite publicly, via a tweet put out by Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini. It was a pretty harsh move by the team owner, at least in my opinion, during these difficult times and I was very curious to see how the hockey community would react to the news.
Somewhat unsurprisingly the reaction thus far has appeared very mixed with some fans throwing their full support behind the team owner, while others have been quick to jump to the defense of Donnelly, and of course a healthy amount of people somewhere in between the two. The polarized response to the firing no doubt stems from the controversial decision that led to Donnelly's firing, Donnelly's decision to perform the national anthem at an anti lockdown protest in Vancouver.
As I said many supported the decision to fire Donnelly for participating in the event, here are just a few examples.
There were others however who did not view the decision to fire Donnelly in a positive light, or at least not the decision to fire the man in so public and humiliating a fashion.
There were of course my favorite type of responses as well, those simply choosing to laugh at the entire fiasco. One of the best replies I saw in response was one fan commenting how this may have been the best move the Canucks made all offseason, clearly intended to be a jab at the rather lackluster offseason the organization has had.
Another response in the same spirit as the one I just mentioned went a step further and took a picture of Donnelly, super imposing another team's jersey over the top of it. Again a shout out to the kind of offseason the Canucks organization has had.
At the end of the day though a man has lost his job for agreeing to sing the national anthem, something he does for a living and has very few opportunities to do these days, at a public protest. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Donnelly's decision to accept the gig, and no doubt endorsing the protest in the process by doing so, it is hard not to feel for someone losing their livelihood at such a difficult time for all of us.
