The Chicago Blackhawks love their nicknames, but you’d be hard pressed to find any that could be considered great.
The longtimers, Kaner, Tazer, Seabs, Hammer, Krugs, Hoss, they’re all basically just each dude’s name, but just changed very slightly. There’s Bread Man, which is because Panarin kinda sorta sounds like Panera, and they sell bread, and, well, sure, bread is delicious if you can handle the carbs. Campbell is Soupy because Campbell’s sells soup, which is basically the same origin story as Bread Man but done with Tobey McGuire instead of Andrew Garfield.
But then Mark Lazerus got some quotes from Trevor van Riemsdyk that uncovered the Blackhawks’ new nickname king.
Related: Most #Blackhawks still call Trevor van Riemsdyk “Travis” even though Trevor Daley is long gone & there’s no need to differentiate.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 26, 2017
Oooooo baby. We might need to make TVR the new chief nickname maker for the entire organization.
First, van Riemsdyk has taken Soup or Soupy, which is a solid-if-boring nickname, and fully upgraded with a quality reference to one of America’s most beloved hip hop artists and generally chill personalities. Is Campbell anything like Snoop Dogg? They both seem like pretty laid back people, so maybe, but even if he’s not, Soup Dogg is clearly a cool idea. Is it a dog that loves to rap about soup? You bet it is.
And then we discover that Travis van Riemsdyk is alive and well. Bryan Bickell started calling him that in October 2015 when Trevor Daley was on the roster, and I assume Daley’s seniority meant he got to keep his first name. TVR became Travis, however, and apparently that didn’t stop even after Daley got traded in in December 2015.
You imagine some guys probably wouldn’t be such good sports about that, so we need to give TVR credit for upping the Hawks’ nickname game. We love nicknames here at Second City Hockey, where we have many of our own, and appreciate his services.