Vancouver Canucks owner and chairman Francesco Aquilini took to social media on Friday night to celebrate his team’s series-clinching 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators.
The 55-year-old businessman has been known to hop onto Twitter after significant Canucks games, with some of his more esoteric tweets permanently entering the lexicon of a subset of terminally online fans.
Aquilini riffed on a particularly memorable old tweet of his after Friday’s big win, deadpanning a short message at 7:30 p.m. PT: “I better buy Silovs and Suter dinner after this one.”
Funny enough, it took Aquilini two tries to nail down his phrasing on Friday night. Around half an hour earlier, Aquilini tweeted out a slightly different message (and a more direct reference to his three-year-old post about Thatcher Demko): “Somebody better buy Silovs and Suter dinner after this one.”
As many people accurately pointed out in the replies to his original tweet, Aquilini has more than enough money in his coffers to pay for Pius Suter and Arturs Silovs to eat wherever they so desire (including, if they wish, at one of his own restaurants). Recognizing his error, the real estate magnate-turned-sports team owner quickly posted the revised message.
The divisive Canucks owner has now made metatextual references to two of his old posts during these playoffs. After Game 1 against the Predators, Aquilini brought back a classic: “So tight, almost like a playoff game.” That post has garnered more than 3,000 likes on Twitter since it was sent on April 21.
In any event, Aquilini had better follow through on his promise after the performances put forth by Silovs and Suter in Game 6. Silovs stopped all 28 shots he faced for his first career NHL shutout; Suter scored the game’s only goal with just 1:39 remaining in regulation to clinch the series for the Canucks.
After defeating the Predators four games to two in the first round, the Canucks will move on to face the hated Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference semifinals. It’ll be only the third meeting between the two teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the first since 1992; the Oilers won both times.
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