James Guillory-Imagn Images
Last month, Canadiens center Nick Suzuki and his wife welcomed their first child when she gave birth to a baby girl. The couple has not publicly shared any picture of their new addition, but you wouldn’t have known that was the case if you tuned into a Sportsnet segment that featured multiple A.I.-generated images of the family.
The rise of artificial intelligence has created plenty of issues thanks to the many, many people who do not feel particularly motivated to determine if a photo or video they come across online is actually real before accepting it as authentic.
The proliferation of platforms that make it easy for anyone to generate clips and photos that have literally no basis in reality has served as a crippling blow to people who preach the importance of media literacy, and media outlets have to do more due diligence than ever while navigating an ever-growing minefield of fabricated content to avoid falling victim to a hoax.
You might think the risks of being duped are fairly low when you’re a sports network working on a puff piece involving an NHL player you have full access to, but Sportsnet somehow managed to botch the landing after putting together a Mother’s Day segment involving Nick Suzuki and some pictures he never actually posed for.
Sportsnet deleted an interview that used multiple A.I.-generated images of Nick Suzuki, his wife, and their baby
Sportsnet launched in 1998 in an attempt to go toe-to-toe with TSN (which had already cemented itself as Canada’s version of ESPN), and it emerged as a very legitimate competitor after securing the rights to NHL and MLB games in the country.
On Mother’s Day, the network shared an interview that veteran hockey journalist Elliotte Friedman conducted with Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki, who discussed his relationship with his mom and his role as the husband of a new one after his wife, Caitlin, gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Maya, on April 15th.
People who watched it may have been under the impression they got their first glimpse at Maya, as the piece featured a picture of the proud parents posing with their baby along with a couple of others that were seemingly snapped during the pregnancy.
? https://t.co/g3L2EnFmFV pic.twitter.com/oocLxirH01
— xz – fae (@stars4slaf) May 10, 2026
I would like to give you the chance to watch the segment yourself, but I’m unable to do that due to the fact that it was deleted on Monday after a number of people realized the pictures in question were generated by A.I. and rightfully took the network to task for the fairly inexplicable oversight.
Sportsnet has not officially addressed the situation as of this writing, and it’s unclear where the pictures in question were sourced from.
Nick and Caitlin announced the pending arrival in an Instagram post last December, but they have opted for privacy since the delivery. A quick search shows multiple Canadiens-related fan pages on Facebook posted fake images in the wake of the birth (including one that falsely claimed they welcomed twins), but they are not the same ones that were used by Sportsnet.
However, one thing is clear: that’s not a great look.