Social media is a great tool to absolutely lose some hours sinking your teeth into disheartening profiles or simply uploading the same thing over and over again in some mind-numbing ritual to get all of those precious little bursts of dopamine. For hockey players, it’s simply a place to show off fish, dogs, blonde partners, and warm-up shots.
So I was not surprised to find out that Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov’s dog, Drake (a very good boy), is closing in on the top-pairing blueliner in terms of followers on Instagram. Simply who would opt to look at basic skating-around photos announcing contract extensions, knowing that he went to Mexico one time, or some creepy ass headshot, over looking at how goddamn cute this dog is.
Look at him!
Come on! What the hell!
I’m freaking the hell out!
Drake is the most perfect dog and if anyone reading this would pass over looking at him for the opportunity to see yet another hockey player holding up a fish with the face of an 8-year-old at an arcade, holding never-ending rolling hills of tickets, then, I mean, sure whatever. I’m still judging you.
And the general public clearly agrees with me, having opted to hand almost 50,000 followers in a very short amount of time, to compete with Provorov’s 53,800. It’s a competition now and we will need to keep you updated.
Of course, in the end, there is nothing but love in between these two. Who cares about the amount of people that care about what is going on in their individual lives? Hell, they even collaborate on content like a mid-2010’s pair of vloggers.
@nhl Ivan and Drake Provorov are the cutest teammates 😍🥰 @drakethepupstar #nhl #hockey #puppy
I am going to suffocate myself into a couch cushion, giggling and twirling around my feet at the amount of cuteness this simple video.
All I care about is this one dog and his hockey-playing owner.
“He’s awesome,” Provorov said. “I always loved dogs but, you know, a lot of times with the schedule and travel and currently living in the city in the apartment, [I was] thinking it wasn’t the right time or it wasn’t the best idea. But once we got him, we kind of settled in, and had the time to play around and go for walks, take him on the ice, or even run around the apartment … After that, it was all fun times and great moments.”
And the Flyers’ top-pairing blueliner can’t keep Drake off the ice.
“The first time, he was a little bit scared of the noise and the sound of the skates and the blades,” Provorov said earlier this year. “But I think by the third time he went, he was running all over the place. He was chasing the puck. He was chasing me.
“He’s so furry and so fluffy, so he really enjoys the cold. …I played with him while he was on the ice. And then a few times I picked him up and skated with him, holding him, and kind of let him slide all over the ice.”
If you’re still reading this, please let my editors know that I will not be able to write about anything else but Drake for the rest of the season. I apologize, but how is anyone expected to focus when there’s a new post coming shortly? I need to prepare and I cannot watch any hockey games.
Thank you for reading Broad Street Hockey and this silly blog.
