Paul Coffey accused of making gesture towards Canucks fan wearing turban

In case you missed it last night, the Vancouver Canucks made an exhilarating, improbable comeback against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their 2nd round playoff matchup. 

The Canucks were down 4-1 and managed to storm back with four unanswered goals to win the game 5-4. The atmosphere in Vancouver's Rogers Arena was absolutely electric when forward Conor Garland put the team up 5-4 with just six minutes to play.

Check it out:

Unfortunately, the festive atmosphere in the building was not shared by everyone.

During the 3rd period it's alleged that Oilers assistant coach Paul Coffey made a racist gesture toward a Canucks fan who was wearing a turban. Coffey reportedly turned toward the fan, pantomimed putting a turban on his own head and then sarcastically said, 'Nice hat!'

These are all unverified, unconfirmed allegations, so please take them with a grain of salt.

Here's how at least one fan saw things play out, however:

The incident is now reportedly under investigation from arena staff, it remains to be seen what sort of consequences come from the investigation, if any.

Needless to say that if these allegations end up being true then I'll be very, very disappointed in Coffey. He's not some young guy making a dumb mistake in a heated moment. He's a tried and tested veteran with more high pressure moments under his belt than a fighter pilot. For him to make a stupid schoolyard joke about someone's turban is truly disappointing. It's just stupid, lazy and it has no place in hockey. Take that bullshit elsewhere.

If it turns out though that Coffey did NOT make any racist gestures or mock the fan's religion/culture as is being alleged, well that opens up a whole other can of worms. It's not easy to come back from racist allegations, whether they're true or not. I sincerely hope that the person making these allegations can appreciate just how strong and damaging allegations like this can be.

Again, here's hoping we can get to the bottom of this so we can uncover what really happened last night.