Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson saw his 15 minutes of social media fame extended by at least another day thanks to coach Luke Richardson.
Richardson, who’s becoming known for his interesting T-shirt selections, opened rookie camp at Fifth Third Arena with a black “Kyle from Chicago” shirt.
If you haven’t heard already, “Kyle from Chicago” became a meme during NHL draft week after a Penalty Box Radio host grilled Davidson about hockey Wednesday morning while doing man-on-the-street interviews on Broadway in downtown Nashville.
The interviewer had no clue that the backward-hat-wearing tourist — who introduced himself as “Kyle from Chicago” — was actually an NHL executive.
The faux pas set up Davidson for some humorous exchanges such as, “Fan of the sport. I don’t know, some people say I don’t know that much.”
As of Saturday evening, the Twitter video had 6.8 million views.
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Richardson gave the running joke more life Saturday with his T-shirt homage.
“My wife found it online and it’s Kyle’s (35th) birthday today,” he said. “I thought I’d wear it. He saw me a few minutes ago and he’s like, ‘Oh, no.’
“The guys were having fun with it over there. He asked if I was wearing it here (to the news conference) and he said, ‘Oh, no,’ again. Stretch it out as long as you can.”
Like a lot of people, Richardson wondered whether the mistaken identity was just too good to be true.
“At first I thought it was set up and I started getting texts from friends and family saying, ‘That’s got to be set up,’” Richardson said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, it’s got to be.’
“Then he was busy and I heard him say something at the draft table. So I asked our PR department and they said, ‘No. It was just random. Guy didn’t maybe know hockey well and didn’t know Kyle.’ Just walking around a different city with his hat on backward, just incognito a little bit.
“I think Kyle was trying to hint the guy along when he started saying the whole Stanley Cup roster of the Chicago Blackhawks. It was pretty funny. I thought it was great. I had to go back and text everybody that it was real.”