Panthers Vice Chairman Suspended After Getting Into It With A Troll On X

The second round series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers has been about as physical and nasty as expected, but the surprising thing is that after some big, questionable hits in Game 4 — which the Panthers won to even the series at 2-2 — the only person suspended is Florida vice chairman, partner, and alternate governor Doug Cifu.

Following Game 4, Cifu got into an argument on X with an account known as @mrgrozz, which The Toronto Sun describes as a "Toronto fan account" that has been known to troll opposing owners in the past, and that's exactly what they did with Cifu. He took the bait.

Screenshots of the exchange were shared by the account, which all started with a shot at Cifu about the war between Israel and Hamas.

And keep in mind, this all came after a Stanley Cup Playoff game…

As you can see, Cifu engaged with the troll, and then followed up with another shot, and that's the one that got him in trouble.

On Monday night, the NHL decided to suspend Cifu indefinitely for his posts.

"The NHL has concluded that Mr. Cifu’s X posts were unacceptable and inappropriate. As a result, Mr. Cifu has been suspended indefinitely from any involvement with the Club and the NHL," the league said in a statement. "An in-person meeting will be scheduled with Mr. Cifu and the Commissioner at a date to be determined."

On one hand, I hate to see people suspended for speech, but Cifu should've just put the phone down on this one. You've got to be aware that the league isn't going to be super happy about a high-ranking team executive getting into it with random, anonymous X accounts, no matter what you end up saying.

Well, hopefully, he learns from this one, and if any other owners or team executives are seeing this, maybe it's time to ignore your @ mentions during the playoffs.