There's no love lost between Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler and Nashville Predators star Ryan Johansen, and the hockey world was entertained by a series of tweets the two sent each other's way earlier in the offseason.
Thanks to Eric Stephens of The Athletic, we have some more insight on this exchange between the two superstars.
Per Stephens, Kesler frequently goes up to Vancouver to work with trainers in the offseason. Johansen lives and trains in Vancouver during the offseason, coincidentally enough. Kesler then explained what the exchanged tweets were about.
"People don’t understand. We were passing each other in the gym for a week there," Kesler said. "I think we caught each other’s eyes. … It’s just letting everybody know I’ll be back."
Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly Kesler's way of telling Johansen to get into a fight with him when the teams meet again. How kind of the 34-year-old Kesler to let us all know what the tweets meant.
RELATED: RYAN JOHANSEN COMMENTS ON RYAN KESLER CONTROVERSY WITH PREDATORS
Johansen was heard telling Kesler during the 2017 playoffs that "nobody likes him," and that he's an (expletive) "loser." Kesler replied with "Yeah, good one." The two superstars also dropped got into a fight during a game in March, after nearly a year of building up their feud.
Kesler struggled coming back from hip surgery last season, and it's unknown when he'll hit the ice again. The Ducks and Preds will first square off on Nov. 12 in Anaheim, before facing off again in Nashville on the 25th. Their final meeting will take place on March 12 in Orange County.
Johansen and Kesler are two of the game's elite two-way centres, and the latter is known especially for his ability to get under the skin of his opponents. For his own sake and for the sake of the entertaining rivalry with Johansen, we can only hope Kesler gets back on the ice before long.