Photo of Stressed Canadian TV Reporter Covering NHL Lockout Goes Viral

TORONTO – The bottled-up frustrations of Canadian TV sports reporters covering the NHL labor talks for a hockey-mad nation exploded Thursday -- on Twitter.

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TSN hockey analyst Darren Dreger was left torn between continuing to report on a possible NHL lockout resolution from New York City or avenging fellow hockey reporter Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com for making his Darth Vader-like photo go viral on social media.

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"I owe Dregs a big steak dinner. At least. Sheesh," LeBrun said on his Twitter account after he inadvertently sent out a photo of Canadian reporters covering the crunch talks between NHL team owners and their players on Wednesday night.

Once Twitter nation noticed Dreger in the photo -- fixing his tie with an intense glare -- it wasn’t long before the hashtag #Dregerface became a popular trend.

By Thursday morning, Dreger’s cutout mug was superimposed via Photoshop on a host of pop culture icons, including Scarface, the Brat Pack, the Hobbit, Che Guevara and Harry Potter.

The Canadian sports reporter was even captured dancing Gangham style in a Jibjab video.

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Dreger’s personal favorite so far is his presence at the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald.

But that didn’t stop the Canadian sports reporter looking for payback against LeBrun.

“What happens first, lockout ends or I exercise revenge on @Real_ESPNLeBrun for world wide humiliation? I'm cranky this am,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

The backroom shenagigans of the Canadian press pack at NHL headquarters in New York City came as media reports point to a possible resolution of the players lockout so the pro hockey league can have a slimmed-down 48-game season.