Elliotte Friedman’s Social Media Abbreviations: What’s the Deal?

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Before the historic USA/Canada matchup at the 4 Nations Face-Off, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman took to X, as he normally does to preview a game.

Related: Guide to the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off

“CAA” as the abbreviation for Canada? “UTICA” for the United States? What in the world?

The American Hockey League’s Utica Comets decided to have some fun with it, responding, “We’re in. McDavid, come see us,” along with a boxing glove emoji. (Coincidentally, the game saw three fights in the first nine seconds following the Tweet)

Anyways, this is far from the first time Friedman has posted wildly inaccurate abbreviations prior to covering a game. Some recent ones include: “BFO” for Buffalo, “SJE” for San Jose, “TOTO” for Toronto and “FOA” for Florida. But why?

History Behind The Abbreviations

In all actuality, nobody truly knows. But it’s been going on for over a decade. When Paul Byron was claimed off waivers in 2015, his wife was initially confused as Friedman used “MON” rather than “MTL”. Not nearly as egregious as “UTICA”, sure. But it still happened. “VCR” for Vancouver, CAL for “Calgary” and “WIN” for Winnipeg were mainstays for years, with the occasional egregious one thrown in. 

Then, it seemed the joke was over as he announced its’ retirement in 2019. In true Friedman fashion, he went out with “PEPA/PIGH”, of course, to preview a matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins. Not to be confused with the British children’s show “Peppa Pig”.

There were some mixed opinions on Reddit when it was put to rest. “He’s just straight up run everything into the ground lately and overdid it. About time,” said one Redditor. Another said, “Sad, (it) was fun to see how angry people got over 3 letters.” One more added, “This was honestly a decent joke that went on far, far too long.”

One fan loved it so much that they created a working “Elliotte Friedman Acronym Generator”, that created egregiously wrong abbreviations based on the NHL team you select. Unfortunately, the link is now down, but we still have screenshot proof of its existence.

After a few years, it was likely that most people forgot about the joke. In that span, the internet changed immensely. “Trolling”, or messing with an audience, became more popular, even amongst credible reporters in all sports. In the wild and sometimes cruel world of social media, it’s always good to garner a laugh from your audience.

So the past couple seasons, Friedman has slowly inched his way towards bringing it back. First, it was softer ones like the return of MON and VCR. Now, it’s become an all out catastrophe. “CIA” for Chicago. “NJY” for New Jersey. “EON” for Edmonton. The list goes on. And it’s seemed to get worse over time, especially in recent weeks.

One fan on Reddit quipped, “Maybe we should call Elliott Friedman ‘ELFMAN’ and see how he feels.”

To kick off the 4 Nations tournament, he announced the Canada/Sweden matchup as “CAA/SEDE”. Puck Report NHL replied, “YOU ARE INSANE!” and his comment got 556 likes.

Then Friedman pushed his luck again, announcing Finland/United States as “FIND/UMA”. Puck Report then replied, “FIND/JOB,” a lighthearted jest suggesting that Friedman’s abbreviations are so egregious that he should be fired. All in good fun of course. His reply got over 3,400 likes – which cleared Friedman’s original post by over 1,500. Friedman liked the reply almost immediately.

The owner of Puck Report told The Hockey Writers, “The joke came to my head instantly, it was a tap-in. It might be my favorite Tweet ever. Still don’t know if I love it or completely hate it, but it’s a good bit and it gets people going. He knows what he’s doing.”

So, that’s where we are today. If you look at the replies anytime Friedman pulls these shenanigans, it’s clear that it gets people riled up (for better or worse). If you were looking for a concrete answer behind the logic, Friedman hasn’t seemed to crack too much, but any good prankster won’t reveal their secrets. At this point, you could only hope it doesn’t ever get as bad as “PEPA/PIGH” again…unless you truly enjoy chaos.

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