The surest sign has arrived that the NHL trading deadline is a week away: people are tweeting from fake accounts.
All the famous broadcasters, Darren Dreger, Bob McKenzie, Nick Kypreos, now have a perverse alter ego, one that can take the Twitter world and turn it on its head.
Here are a few tips for weeding out these guys:
1) Pay attention to the full username. If it has a _ or any punctuation that isn't normally there, block it. Don't just ignore it, block it and report it for spam.
These professionals work hard to establish their credibility and they shouldn't have anyone making up rumors using their name. Credibility is everything for a journalist and with Twitter, it is all the more precarious since things happen instantaneously. Just do everyone a favor and block it.
2) Check the followers. @DarrenDreger has 233,481 followers. If the Darren Dreger posting the rumor has less than 1,000, just keep moving on and pay it no mind. Just block, report for spam and see if the REAL Darren Dreger has anything smart to say, which he usually does.
3) If the rumor is Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog for Pavel Datsyuk, please commence laughing. These made up rumors are just hilarious. Let's just face it, they are at their heart a funny joke and nothing more. Ryan Ellis for Ales Hemsky (or Alex as some have written) laugh harder.
Just have a laugh at these pathetic made up rumors and move on to real news, real stories and someone who is actually paid to write about rumors, one who actually knows what they are doing.
Yes it is funny to once in a while see that the Kings are trading Kopitar for James van Riemsdyk but honestly Darren Dreger or any of the other respectable writers out there won't touch a rumor like that because they know that 999,999.99 times out of a million it will never happen. When it does everyone is shocked, even up to the broadcast booth with McKenzie and Dreger.
We are heavy into the rumor mongering time leading up to the NHL trade deadline, most of the rumors are either made up or murky at best. Just block and ignore the fakes and let the real professionals get on with their business.
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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