The Penguins #AskNeal Hashtag Backfired Horribly

Getty Images On Monday afternoon, the Penguins official Twitter account decided to attempt to engage fans by requesting that they send questions for forward

Getty Images

On Monday afternoon, the Penguins official Twitter account decided to attempt to engage fans by requesting that they send questions for forward James Neal to the hashtag #AskNeal.

Have you always wanted to know Nealer's favorite thing about Geno? Ask him this (or anything else) using #AskNeal! pic.twitter.com/fyg3p5wRPR

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 24, 2014

It was an innocent attempt to spur conversation on social media that ultimately took no time at all to completely backfire. Neal, who one former referee recently called "the poster child for what is wrong with the NHL discipline system," definitely had a lot of people who wanted to ask him questions. The issue was that most of them weren't Penguins fans.

*wakes up from 1000 year sleep* *first thing read is #askNeal*
*cracks knuckles*

— Yo! (@FlyGoalScoredBy) March 24, 2014

Several of the questions were clearly related to the 5 game suspension Neal received for kneeing an opponent in the head in December.

@penguins #askneal what favorite memory have you robbed from one of the players you kneed to the head?

— Tom Cattaneo (@MrTomCatt) March 24, 2014

Hi, James! There are 206 bones in the human body. How many have you used to hit people in the head? #AskNeal

— Jawn Qui𝕏ote (@JawnQuixote) March 24, 2014

#AskNeal when you go to mt.rushmore do you get the overwhelming sensation to knee those huge ass heads.

— James N (@JlMinWC) March 24, 2014

Others dealt with the $5000 fine Neal recently landed for cross-checking an opponent in the head:

@jneal_18 A priest, a rabbi and a minister walk into a bar. Which one do you cross-check? #AskNeal

— Ty Wolf (@datusernameswag) March 24, 2014

Before long #AskNeal was trending... in Philadelphia, home of the rival Flyers.

#askneal is now trending in #Philadelphia http://t.co/Wbb75ktPzs

— Trendsmap Philly (@TrendsPhilly) March 24, 2014

Harsh tweets kept piling up throughout the day, the majority of which I probably shouldn't post, but you can read them for yourself on Twitter.