Zach Boychuck, who won gold medals with Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships in 2008 and 2009, is not happy with a photo Team USA took on the ice following their win over Team Canada in the final game Tuesday night.
"I don't care if that's a barrel or a trash can. You don't bring that out for your team picture," said Boychuck on Twitter, referring to the photo of the blue barrel with a Team Canada logo on it taken on the ice shortly after USA won the gold.
Boychuck also retweeted the photo in question with the Micheal Jordan "And I Took that Personally" meme.
"We pretty much had a barrel for each team we were playing," said USA's Trevor Zegras, who was named Player of the Tournament. "And, each game we just wanted to get to the next barrel. Today was our last barrel and we threw the Canada sign up there, brought on the ice and took a picture. That was kind of our thing."
Team USA's head coach Nate Leaman apparently felt he also needed to explain the reason behind it.
"Just to be transparent. It was barrel on the ice with our team after the game. It was motivation for our team to take the tournament one game at a time. I am sure every team had something of motivation. The barrel was ours. No disrespect to Canada who is a great team," said Leaman.
You'll find plenty of people on both sides of the issue on social media. Some call the move classless and disrespectful while others say it was all in fun and the US earned the right to make a statement after beating a team that appeared to be unbeatable in the gold medal game.
After being drafted in the first-round (14th overall) in 2008, Boychuck would go on to play 127 games in the NHL before moving on to the KHL for three seasons. He last played in the Swiss National League for HC Fribourg-Gottéron
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