BOSTON — The Boston Bruins and Mayor Marty Walsh condemned racist slurs that appeared on the social media site Twitter shortly after Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban scored the winning goal in the second overtime of their NHL playoff game Thursday night.

Subban, who is black, scored twice as the Canadiens won 4-3 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.

Bruins President Cam Neely issued a statement Friday calling the tweets targeted toward Subban “racist” and “classless.” He said they came from an “ignorant group of individuals” who do not reflect the organization.

Walsh said in a statement that the tweets were “a disgrace. These racist comments are not reflective of Boston, and are not reflective of Bruins fans … There is no room for this kind of ignorance here.”

Boston Coach Claude Julien and several Bruins condemned the tweets.

“It’s just poor judgment, poor taste, and we don’t associate ourselves with people like that,” Julien said Friday, “and people who think that way are not what we call our fans. They may think they are, but we certainly don’t support that at all. It’s a shame that this is still going around in this day and age.”

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Bruins forward Brad Marchand told ESPN he did not hear racist comments at TD Garden Thursday night. “I didn’t hear anything from the fans – at all. It’s all Twitter.”

“Obviously, we have to apologize for that coming from our fans,” Marchard said, “but hopefully there will be no more of that stuff.”

Bruins forward Patrice Begeron also criticized the tweets, saying, “there is no room for this in 2014.”

Subban was not made available to the media by the Canadiens on Friday, but Montreal forward David Desharnais told reporters, “Nobody deserves to be treated like that. It has nothing to do with sports or anything,” according to CBC Sports.

Subban’s play has hurt the Bruins over the years and he has long been unpopular in Boston.

His brother, Malcolm, is a goaltender with the Bruins’ AHL affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island.


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