At 8:37 p.m., Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored to put the Oilers up by five in what'd wind up a 7-2 slaughter of the Penguins on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena, and the man didn't even bother to raise his arms for his 600th NHL point, given the blowout at hand.
At 8:38 p.m., the fans did raise something.
Have a listen:
FIRE HEXTALL pic.twitter.com/IQ3nmz1RsF
— J🍩ey Bag 🍩f D🍩nuts 🍩 (@joeybagovdonuts) February 24, 2023
Yep, that's 'FI-RE HEX-TALL!'
That was in the second period, and two other such sessions would occur in the third. Through all three of them, Ron Hextall was in his booth on the upper level of the press box, one he shares with his boss, Brian Burke, and his assistant GM, Chris Pryor. If Hextall had any reaction to any of it, I didn't detect it from my vantage point.
I utilized Twitter to ask fans inside the building where the chant originated, and the overwhelming answer was Section 210.
Terri Dorsch, a subscriber to our site and a longtime usher dating back to the Civic Arena, chimed in with this:
and it spread like wildfire. I've never heard so many negative comments about the team in my 23 years of ushering.
— terri dorsch (@usher81) February 24, 2023
Ouch.
Also of note, though not nearly as striking, was that the Penguins were booed off the ice after the second period. That's been a fairly common occurrence, though, in Pittsburgh's hockey history after a tough period. Whereas, a chant calling for someone's firing ... man, I'm drawing a blank, and I've been attending/covering the Penguins' games since the early 1980s. Didn't happen for Kevin Constantine. Or for Mike Johnston. Or for any other broadly unpopular figure I can recall.
Hextall wasn't available for comment -- no general manager is right after a game -- so questions about the scene, including the booing, were instead put to others.
Mike Sullivan: "I didn't really pay any attention to it, quite honestly."
Sidney Crosby: “I’ve heard boos before. It’s not something that’s happened very often. You definitely don’t want to hear that. It was a tough night for everybody. We don’t like putting on a performance like that in front of them. They pay for their ticket, and they want to see better. I understand that. It wasn’t a great night for anyone.”
Kris Letang: "It’s tough to explain right now. There's a lot of emotion.”
Tough night, tough to explain ... no tougher for anyone at the moment than Hextall.
