Steven Stamkos sends hockey Twitter into a tizzy

Does anything fuel professional sports' rumors like Twitter? It appears that even a "liking" a post can start a whole tidal wave of trouble.

Enter the Tampa Bay Lightning's Steven Stamkos: He is a pending unrestricted free agent who isn't saying much about rumors that he wants to going play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. That is, until his thumb glided over the keyboard and gave a post from TSN about the potential move to Toronto one of those "Twitter hearts." Then later, he went back and "unliked" said post.

The social media move sent hockey Twitter into a tizzy on Wednesday.

According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times:

Social media was abuzz Wednesday afternoon when Stamkos, a Markham, Ontario native, hit "like" on a tweet by TSN of a video asking if the Maple Leafs should go after the All-Star center. Seemingly minutes later, Stamkos unliked the tweet. 

Stamkos indicated he didn't realize he hit the "like" button. 

"It was accidental," he said.

Smith suggests that dubbing Stamkos' move a sign he is looking to be signed by the Leafs is unwarranted and "grasping for straws," particularly with the 25-year-old captain keeping talks between him, his agents and Lightning GM Steve Yzerman private.

Then again, Stamkos isn't a stranger to creating chaos in the Twittersphere, as Josh Cooper of Yahoo! Sports pointed out:

"Stamkos is no stranger to creating firestorms with liking/favoriting Tweets. During the summer of 2014 he favorited a Tweet of a story from The Hockey News wondering if any young NHL superstar would be like the NBA’s LeBron James and return to his hometown team." 

Interesting still is that the Lightning and Leafs play each other Dec.15. It's anyone's guess what shenanigans will strike Twitter on game day.