Ryan Ellis was traded to the Flyers on Saturday.
To be specific, Ryan Ellis the hockey player, who had spent the last decade with the Nashville Predators, was traded to the Flyers on Saturday.
The distinction is important, because Ryan Ellis, the race car driver, is a big Capitals fan. And that made for a hilarious reaction to Ryan Ellis, the hockey player, getting traded to the Flyers.
It wasn’t just the one tweet, though, and that’s where things took an even better comedic turn, as Ellis the driver followed up with a GIF of Gritty…
…which threw off the social team at Bleacher Report, who threw up a push notification that the “new Philly d-man” was “ready to fight Gritty.”
Part of what happened here is that Ryan Ellis, the hockey player, is not on Twitter, while Ryan Ellis, the race car driver, lists “Hockey Player” in his Twitter bio. Because he is a hockey player. A beer league hockey player, and also a former member of the ice hockey team and roller hockey team at George Mason University.
The other Ryan Ellises on Twitter did not have a reaction to the news of the trade. Not the editor and writer in Austin, not the tax lobbyist and Patriots fan, not the family man from Arkansas, and not the Chicago surgeon.
It doesn’t help that Ryan Ellis of the Flyers was born in 1991, while Ryan Ellis of the racetrack was born in 1989. Even more confusing is that another Ryan Ellis born in 1989 — in Canada, not California, as the race car driver was — played 39 games for the Durham Fury of the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League in 2006-07. He does not appear to be on Twitter, either.