White House hasn’t attacked Dallas Stars for Trump joke (yet)

The Dallas Stars have used their Jumbotron as a beacon of caustic humor over the years.

There was the time Kim Jong-un “hacked” it. There was the Toronto Maple Leafs guilt by association with Justin Bieber. And there was, perhaps, their masterpiece: “Non-existent girlfriend of Manti Te’o caught on Jumbotron at Dallas Stars home opener.”

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On Saturday, the Stars may have had their most viral Jumbotron snark in franchise history. Kate Morrison, a baseball blogger in Dallas, snapped a photo of this incredibly timed joke about White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s “alternative facts” regarding the size of President Trump’s inauguration crowd:

The photo was viral over the weekend and crossed way over from the hockey world: Entertainment shows like INSIDE EDITION and cable news programs picked it up.

Despite the well-known thinness of the current administration’s skin – the Spicer press conference, after all, was provoked by a tweet – there hasn’t been a reaction from Trump’s Twitter feed. Yahoo Sports has learned that, as of Monday morning, the White House hasn’t reached out to the Stars about the joke yet, either.

We explored the whimsy of the Dallas Stars’ game operations in a Dec. 2014 feature, speaking with Jason Walsh, who was the team’s assistant vice-president for broadcasting and creative. He spoke about the team’s current Jumbotron master, Jason Danby.

“He’s a guy who should get all the credit for taking this in-arena presentation from where it used to be to where it is now,” said Walsh at that time. “There is a bit of a group of people who come up with different things. He spearheads a lot of it, but there are other individuals as well.”

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The Trump joke, for example, was one that was work-shopped before the game. The inspiration actually wasn’t political – it was actually because the Washington Capitals were in town, and the team wanted to take a Washington, DC-centric shot.

The Stars declined public comment on this latest viral sensation. “We prefer that our Jumbotron speak for itself,” said Tom Holy, the team’s senior director of communications.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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