Andrew Berkshire and Zach Hyman have something in common.
They just don’t back down.
In the face of mounting criticism over his questionable take that Hyman’s “insanely rich” upbringing played a role in his 50-goal season, NHL analyst Andrew Berkshire refused to backtrack, instead doubling down in a reply to his video that went viral.
And he brought a chart that looked straight out of an elementary school math class with him.
In a reply to his original video, which had been viewed on X (formerly known as Twitter) 6.7 million times as of Thursday morning, Berkshire expanded on his original thoughts about Hyman, the media and privilege in the sport of hockey.
“Thanks to (Terry McGurrin) I realized where I went wrong here. Clarification, no backtracking. I think this is a serious issue that needs to be on the forefront.”
“A lot of people are upset and I realized my mistake and I gotta correct it,” he began the video. ” I come at everything as an analyst, that’s what I do, that’s how I write about hockey.
“But the video I was doing talking about Zach Hyman wasn’t about analysis, it was about media criticism.”
He explain that his personal reservation about Hyman and his career affected his initial video as opposed to letting proper analysis tell the story.
After that, things kind of went off the rails.
“A lot of people pointed out, you know why talk about Zach Hyman?” he said. “I read a couple of column that had this hero work hard, bootstrap-style narrative going on around Zach Hyman. He just scored his 50th, he’s the topic du jour.
“Yeah, Sam Reinhart also just scored his 50th, but he plays in South Florida, I don’t read as many columns about the Florida Panthers.
“But we can talk about Sam Reinhart. Does he have the same level of wealth in his family that Zach Hyman does? No, but his dad was a former player, it’s a different kind of privilege.”
Reinhart’s father, Paul, played more than 700 total games with the Flames and Canucks organizations, netting 560 points over his 11-year career. While salaries weren’t the same in the 1980s as they are now, the Reinhart family probably wasn’t slumming it.
And then there was the chart.
Berkshire used a bar graph the likes of which grade school teachers likely have nightmares about to break down the Canadian population into class tiers based on income. Then, with no statistical backing, claimed that most NHL players came from the top tiers of the chart.
As one person replied, “This screams…. Source: Trust me bro.”
And with the chart, any sort of “clarification” fell on deaf ears from his followers, who once again couldn’t help but chide Berkshire and his questionable artistic skills.
“It’s crazy that you got the crayola markers out for this. Just let it go,” one user replied.
“Andddddddd this is where you officially lost me. This take already sucked enough but the five year old drawing was the last straw,” another posted with a screenshot of the makeshift chart.
One user couldn’t help but poke a little fun at the situation with the help of the NHL’s video review tweets.
McGurrin, a voice actor and comedian from Ottawa, had replied to the original video, pointing out a flaw in Berkshire’s thesis.
“Hockey’s a rich kids’ sport. Fees, schools, equipment, travel/hotels/tournaments… but McDavid and Matthews had many line mates who never got 20 goals let alone 50. Yes “hard work = success” IS A LIE but targeting Hyman here seems odd when 99% of the NHL has the same story.”
Somewhat predictably, he was not very thrilled with being tagged in the reply, saying “Damn Berkshire, why’d you gotta tag me in this? I just woke up to a bloodbath of notifications!
“No lie, the crayon graph did crack me up. At this point you’re probably better off deleting than course correcting.”
After yet another round of rebukes and jokes at his expense, maybe Berkshire should follow that last bit of advice.