The Florida Panthers next face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 5 on Wednesday. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
By Louis Keene May 13, 2025
An NHL team executive’s heated online exchange with a pro-Palestinian hockey fan has earned him a brisk forecheck from the league’s commissioner.
Doug Cifu, a minority owner of the Florida Panthers and the team’s vice chairman, has been suspended indefinitely pending a meeting with Commissioner Gary Bettman after tweeting “eat s— 51st state antisemite loser” to a Canadian fan that compared the Panthers’ aggressive play to Israel’s war tactics.
“The NHL has concluded that Mr. Cifu’s X posts were unacceptable and inappropriate,” the league said Tuesday in a statement. “As a result, Mr. Cifu has been suspended indefinitely from any involvement with the Club and the NHL. An in-person meeting will be scheduled with Mr. Cifu and the Commissioner at a date to be determined.”
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Sunday marked, for many ordinary people, Game 4 of the Panthers’ second-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. But it was just another day online in the everything-is-Gaza culture wars, with Cifu, the co-founder and CEO of fintech firm Virtu, serving as the main character.
The online face-off began around the same time as the game did, when an anonymous Maple Leafs fan account that goes by “Dr. Grizzo” replied to a Cifu post with a question: “Hey what’s worse, using headshots” — that is, illegal above-the-shoulders hockey hits — “to win a series or using starvation as a weapon to win a war?”
Israel’s blocking of aid to Gaza, part of its campaign to destroy Hamas and reoccupy the territory, has helped spur widespread famine, with 1 in 5 Palestinians in Gaza facing starvation, according to a U.N. report published Monday.
After the Panthers finished off a 2-0 victory that evened the series, Cifu — who is Jewish and had five Israeli flags in his X bio — responded to the question.
“Actually being a whiny dope anti-semite is clearly worse. Loser,” he wrote.
Dr. Grizzo shot back: “Not approving of using starvation as a weapon makes me a bigot?”
Cifu replied: “Eat s— 51st state anti-semite loser. Israel now and forever. Until ever [sic] last Hamas rat is eliminated.”
As the back-and-forth circulated on social media, Cifu made his X account private, then deactivated it.
Cifu called the posts “regrettable” in a statement Tuesday.
“Two days ago, I posted regrettable and inflammatory comments on social media,” Cifu said. “My behavior does not reflect the standards of the Florida Panthers organization and the Viola family. I sincerely apologize to all those affected by my comments. I am committed to working with the NHL to amend my actions.”
Though it was possible cussing out a fan and invoking the pejorative “51st state” reference to Canada alone crossed the line, some Jewish fans noted that the NHL’s statement did not make clear how Cifu’s Israel-related comments factored in its decision.
“Outrageous that Doug Cifu has been suspended for posting ‘Until ever last Hamas rat is eliminated,’” one wrote. “He’s 100% right, and the NHL needs to develop a backbone and not side with murderers whose sole aim is to kill civilians.”
Dr. Grizzo celebrated Cifu’s ban on X Tuesday by posting a video of President Donald Trump telling a crowd, “We do a little trolling. It’s called, we do a little trolling.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated that Cifu is a billionaire. He is not.
Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York magazine and Vice. He is based in Los Angeles.
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