Jordan Subban had just scored to put the Vancouver Canucks up 1-0 in their exhibition game against the San Jose Sharks Tuesday night.

A photographer captured the moment in a photo as Subban celebrated with teammates. Someone — perhaps the photographer — also described the moment in a caption accompanying the picture, identifying Subban, who is black, as “dark guy in the middle.”

The photo and caption were used on the websites of the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province.

The description sparked outrage and disbelief — as well as an apology from the papers — on Twitter.

“I hate to seem like I’m trolling this . . . I know I’m late to the game. But I just saw it. SERIOUSLY!?,” tweeted broadcaster Eric Smith.

“Absolute classlessness from calling Jordan Subban the ‘dark guy in the middle’. Someone’s getting fired,” tweeted Jacob Noseworthy.

Wednesday, both papers issued abject apologies and vowed to investigate exactly how it happened.

“We are investigating an offensive photo caption that appeared on our website last night. I have also apologized to the Canucks and Jordan Subban,” tweeted Vancouver Sun editor-in-chief Harold Munro.

“We apologize to Subban, the Canucks and their fans for any offence. We are examining our process to ensure it can never happen again,” the Province tweeted.

Subban took the offensive caption in stride, telling the Province “it seemed like a pretty honest mistake.”

“Am I worried about it? No. If people should be talking about something, it should be the way I played last night rather than that. . . . It was just unfortunate. I don’t think there were any bad intentions. It is what it is and I’ve moved on and I’m sure everyone else will, too.”

With files from Star wire services