Duncan Keith has stirred up a bit of controversy with remarks to a female reporter that are being viewed as sexist.
The Chicago Blackhawks defenseman was talking to a reporter after his team’s loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday when he appeared to call her out for her gender.
Keith was asked by reporter Karen Thomson about a play in which he gave a solid slash to Canucks forward Daniel Sedin, who scored a goal on the play.
Here is the exchange:
Keith: “What did you see?”
Thomson: “Well, there it looked like there was a penalty that went undetected. You seemed a bit frustrated.”
Keith: “Oh, no. I don’t think there was. I think he scored a nice goal, and that’s what the ref saw. Maybe we should get you as a ref maybe, hey?
Thomson: “Yeah, maybe. Can’t skate though.”
Keith: “First female referee. Can’t probably play either, right? But you’re thinking the game, like you know it? Seeya.”
The remarks didn’t sit well with Greg Wyshynski of the Yahoo! Sports blog Puck Daddy . He wrote that it was “oafish and demeaning,” though he didn’t believe that was Keith’s intention.
“His intention was to do what many pro athletes backed into a corner do, which is to accuse the journalist pestering them of being a clueless moron because they ‘never played the game,’ ” Wyshynski wrote, adding “(Which must suck for science writers, who are summarily disqualified from opining about the Rover because they’ve never been to [expletive] Mars…)”
For her part, Thomson seemed to handle the Duncan Keith comments well, later tweeting:
So I think my exchange with Duncan Keith is renewing the #Canucks #Blackhawks rivalry! Lol #heldmyown
— Karen Thomson (@KJT1040) April 23, 2013
Ultimately, Karen Thomson didn’t seem too hurt by Duncan Keith’s remarks. She later tweeted, “hockey is an emotional game and things are often said in the heat of the moment,” adding that she had “moved on.”