The hatred between the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers is alive and well, both on and off the ice.
While the players on the ice were busy cross-checking each other in the dying minutes of Saturday night’s game, one fan was stealing the show off it. Instead of donning a Canucks jersey like just about every other fan in the building, this one decided to go as one of Connor McDavid’s worst fears: Ketchup.
someone’s dressed as ketchup because mcdavid is terrified of it. this is golden #Canucks pic.twitter.com/5Rpgs3wWq2
— stephanie (@Stephabues) January 19, 2025
For those unfamiliar, the NHL’s best player may be able to do just about everything on the ice (including cross-checking Conor Garland in the face), but there are a few off-ice activities that are off-limits for McDavid.
It was revealed during Amazon’s FaceOff: Inside the NHL docu-series last Fall that the Oilers captain has a phobia of ketchup and refuses to use it in any of his meals. He was later asked about this by ex-NHLer-turned ESPN broadcaster PK Subban.
“The ketchup thing is a funny thing,” McDavid laughed. “My brother and I both, just grew up that way, it’s more of a phobia, I wish I could tell you more about it, I don’t know why it is that way.”
It looks like the ketchup man also had some pretty good seats, giving him ample opportunity to make sure McDavid saw him in the stands.
Never seen McDavid as rattled as he was yesterday due to the Ketchup Man. This will turn around the Canucks season pic.twitter.com/L7usflZr9T
— Ebs (@RaiderEbs) January 19, 2025
The story 0f his ketchup phobia got so big that even Heinz got in on the fun, trolling McDavid with a social media post that saw their iconic “57” bottle change to a “97” in an attempt to appeal more to the Oilers superstar.
“How about now, Connor,” the ad read.
It appears the attempt to knock McDavid off his game was only partially successful for this Canucks fan. The Oilers lost the game, but not without McDavid scoring his 20th goal of the season in the second period.
Considering how things have been going for Vancouver, it’s safe to say that this fan will take the win over anything else.