It seems a strange hill to die on, yet former Detroit Red Wings forward Bobby Ryan was opting to stake out ground there. And when the heat was turned up, he was choosing to dig in and become firmly entrenched it what is undoubtedly an extremely unpopular opinion.

Making a foray into a thread excitedly extolling the popularity of women’s college basketball on X, the social media sight formerly known as Twitter, Ryan was opting to play devil’s advocate.

“Name 7 players,” Ryan posted. “Not 1. Not 2…5-7. First and last names…go for it.”

It’s not hard. Caitlin Clark. Angel Reese. Flau’jae Johnson. Paige Bueckers. Aaliyah Edwards. Juju Watkins. Cameron Brink. Kamilla Cardoso. Kiki Rice. List goes on bud.

— Tristan (@tristangrfx) April 2, 2024

As poster after poster came up with the requirement of naming seven female college basketball players, Ryan would simply be insisting that they merely took to Google to find the names and in fact, weren’t actually true fans.

That logic certainly flies in the face of the fact that the ratings for Monday’s Iowa-LSU Final Four game featuring college basketball superstar Caitlin Clark of the the Hawkeyes drew a television audience of 12.3 million viewers.

By contrast, the average viewership for the 2023 Stanley Cup final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers was just 2.6 million viewers.

Red Wings Player Getting Ratioed

Refusing to budge on his stance, Ryan was only opening himself up for attacks from all sides. Some were merely puzzled by Ryan’s response.

“Weird take Bobby,” noted @mikeIsaak.

“What’s the endgame here?” asked @bigglesofficial.

You’re better than this, Bobby. Blowing out someone else’s flame doesn’t make yours burn brighter. She’s interested in the game. That’s where interest starts. You don’t have to be interested and that’s fine, too. See. Simple

— Matt Richard (@AlbinoSuomi) April 2, 2024

Others weren’t nearly as polite or tactful in their criticisms of Ryan’s unpopular stance. Some even went as low as to point to Ryan’s troubled past with alcohol abuse issues. That addiction saw him end up in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program.

Ryan spent the 2020-21 season with the Red Wings. It would prove to be his last campaign as an NHL player. He would be gaining an invitation to Detroit’s camp in the fall of 2021 on a PTO. However, the Red Wings would be giving Ryan his release on the eve of the season.

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