Star players that you never liked

[Normand Lacombe]

Tom Barrasso. Depending on who you ask, Barrasso was arrogant, haughty, surly, dour and never took responsibility if he had a bad game. From what I understand, he didn't have good relations with his backup goalies, most notably Daren Puppa in Buffalo. In Pittsburgh, he deemed J.S. Aubin not worthy of his attention until Barrasso had to relieve Aubin in a game the Pens were leading.

Vilified by the media, former teammates used the opportunity to rip. The best story about hockey's Albert Belle: Penguins goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin told a Montreal newspaper the first time Barrasso spoke to him was during a postgame rant last season. With the Penguins leading 2-0, Aubin left the game after he was elbowed in the third period.

Barrasso, moping because he was the backup, replaced Aubin and allowed two goals. Barrasso stormed into the trainers' room after the game and tore into Aubin, who was still dazed.

"[Expletive] coward," Barrasso reportedly said. "Finish your own [expletive] game."

BARRASSO'S WEARING THIN

 

[DitchMarner]

I also didn't like Heatley. I didn't and still don't like Phaneuf.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Yeah, Barrasso was a strange guy. It has been claimed that it was mainly media that bothered him but he seems to have been an a-hole to most people he came across. Very odd.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Bobby Clarke
Pierre Larouche
Billy Smith
Pete Peeters
Mark Messier (long before he came to Vancouver)
Paul Coffey
Ron Hextall
Brett Hull
Cam Neely
Petr Nedved
Eric Lindros
Todd Bertuzzi (long before the Moore incident)
Sidney Crosby

Would Neely have still made your list had he developed into an elite power forward in Vancouver?

 

[sr edler]

I've played a fair amount of physical sports including [ ... ] floorball.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Try playing it in the korpen.

 

[sr edler]

Aren't you a Canucks fan? You didn't like Bertuzzi during his peak?

Bertuzzi disappeared in the playoffs. Näslund at least put up some points.

 

[sr edler]

I never disliked Ulf Samuelsson, one reason being that he at least was honest about being dirty and never presented himself with a fake holier-than-thou aura like say Shawn Thornton or Messier.

 

[Tuna Tatarrrrrr]

Stevens on a Kariya could be classified as late. I get that. It was borderline. Other big hits though like against Willis or Francis or even Kozlov in 1995, were just hockey hits. No one is hurt if their head is up. Lindros probably bowls over Kaspar in 1998 if he isn't looking at his feet for several strides.

Yep, his hit on Kozlov was a beauty, perfectly synchronized, I just loved it. It does help that I hated this p***y Russian too. I really miss Stevens.

 

[streitz]

Jeez there's been a bunch. Some related to their personality, some their on ice play. Some I forgot



Players who I disliked their play AND personality
Tkachuk- Everything about him
Owen Nolan- Crappier Thachuk, wouldn't include him except some bozo put him on team canada in 2002 so he could avoid the career loser status
Housley- See Turgeon and Janney
Turgeon and Janney- Lump them together both just too soft in every way. Great talent though, both of them.
Claude Lemieux- Not a star, including him here because of his smythe. Self explanatory
Yashin- Just seemed very fake off the ice(like doing charitable deeds solely for attention), joke in the playoffs, greedy
Kevin Stevens- Stupid penalties. Cowardly, Dirty.

Players who's play I disliked
Sundin- Don't know, I think it's mostly due to leaf fans overrating him. I actually bumped into him(literally) once while visiting Toronto. Nice guy.
Forsberg- Great player, overrated, mostly here due to his diving.
Bure- Don't know, his play post 1995ish really soured me on him
Markus Naslund- Soft with a capital S
Bertuzzi- Same as Tkachuk, I actually bumped into him at a gas station once and he was a nice guy though.

Player's who's personalities I disliked
Chelios- Just seemed like a Douche
Belfour- Worth a million bucks
Roy- 2 rings
Mario Lemieux- Too self absorbed, the Quinn incident, ect.
Doug Gilmour- Just overall didn't seem like a good guy...At all. Great player though.
Gretzky- Too fake
Messier & Anderson- Lets just say no kids should of taken these guys as role models. Lots of stories floating around the peg back then, probably even more in Oil town. Great players of course.
Lindros- Like Lemieux without the accomplishments. I mean who gets an autobiography written about themselves before stepping foot in the NHL? No wonder players were so hot to put him out on a stretcher.
Bourque- Lack of patriotic spirit, always thought he was a bit overrated anyways.
Jagr- Seemed like a flake aswell.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

Every single player that wasn't/isn't a Red Wing, I dislike. I don't care how good they are, what kind of charity work they do, or if they're a good father. If they don't wear the winged wheel then they're the enemy. I feel this way across the board in all major US sports lol. I like one team in each league and if you do not play for that team then you aren't a player I respect. It's kind of an old school, anti-commingling approach but it's how I've always been.

I remember watching these baseball documentaries (slightly off topic here) called "When it Was a Game" and they had Enos Slaughter, now an old man, talking. He was saying how if a pitcher threw the ball at him or even a little too close he'd intentionally slide into first base and, "Try to take his legs off. It didn't bother me at all".

I miss that kind of mean-spirit approach in sports. I think ever since they started getting huge contracts (which is great for them, btw) and doing all these public events with guys from other teams it kind of took some hatred out of sports. It's like they all hang out now or train together in the summer. It's just not like what it was.

#makesportshatefulagain lol.

 

[Troubadour]

My reaction. I thought it was a non-contact sport.

As for the original topic, I can't come up with anyone besides Gretzky. For some reason, I never believe anything he says. I especially cringe whenever he gets emotional. He's a Mr. Crocodile Tears to me. Truth, he has more than made up for that with his play. But... Ugh.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

mario lemieux
keith tkachuk
markus naslund
patrick kane
rick nash
pierre turgeon
sidney crosby
joe thornton

 

[Tarantula]

While Scott Stevens was obviously a player you wanted on your team, I was uneasy about some of those big hits. He didn't target the chest, the torso. I get it was legal and a great hit before these rule changes but it seemed like head hunting to me.

Bobby Clarke, yes I know how he is elevated by his status during the 72 Summit Series, and I can not imagine playing pro hockey as he did with diabetes. Didn't like how he had a wall behind him in Philly and how he ran teams after when he became a GM. Tough SOB, on and off the ice. I know and appreciate cups and rings, but seemed even then stuck to the old ways.

Not a player but how about Imlach? I see him and Clarke as similar villians in terms of management. Very mixed feelings I have for Imlach as you would be hard pressed to argue with his Cups but something doesn't quite sit well, Big M, Brewer to name two.

 

[MXD]

I think I've always been pretty vocal about my distaste of Mark Recchi, MD.

 

[DitchMarner]

mario lemieux
keith tkachuk
markus naslund
patrick kane
rick nash
pierre turgeon
sidney crosby
joe thornton

Why Nash?

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

They may have rubbed you the wrong way because they were big hits in the playoffs perhaps? I like those other hits too that you mentioned, but one underrated thing about the Lindros hit in 2000 is that it was on a transition and Lindros was on a promising looking rush with Leclair to his side. It sort of caught the Devils off guard and about a split second later the puck would have been dished off to a streaking Leclair who could have walked right into the net. Go ahead, watch it, if Leclair gets that puck he's possibly home free. Stevens drilled Lindros just a second before that play could develop. The question is, would you want him to let up at a time like that?

Stevens on a Kariya could be classified as late. I get that. It was borderline. Other big hits though like against Willis or Francis or even Kozlov in 1995, were just hockey hits. No one is hurt if their head is up. Lindros probably bowls over Kaspar in 1998 if he isn't looking at his feet for several strides.

The Willis hit was in the last 5 seconds of the game. A predatory hit.

Not just a hockey hit.

 

[Big Phil]

The Willis hit was in the last 5 seconds of the game. A predatory hit.

Francis hit was right on the chin while he was battling for a puck in his skates with another player.

Not just hockey hits.

It was a statement hit. There is a reason Stevens has three Stanley Cup rings. When the chips were down it was well known that forwards would avoid his side of the ice. If that isn't impact, I don't know what is. He was a guy who played until the whistle. Who wouldn't want that on their team?

Also, Lindros probably finishes his career as a Flyer solely for the reason if he has his head up on the Stevens hit. What was Stevens supposed to do? Let him dish the puck off to Leclair and walk in on Brodeur alone? There is a reason Stevens has three Cups and Lindros none.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Why Nash?

fat and lazy

 

[Nick Hansen]

Interesting that Markus Näslund comes up, because he's not a guy that you'd think of as outright arrogant or whatever. But something about his play always rubbed me the wrong way, seemed so moody and I don't know...lacking passion? It's funny he grew up with and played with Peter Forsberg. Very different.

 

[VanIslander]

Never liked Naslund (am a big Canucks fan too);

Turgeon and Phaneuf neither.

Nor Gomez or Stillman, not exactly stars, but 700+ career points.

Goalies: Vernon, Barrasso, Osgood, Potvin.

 

[sr edler]

They may have rubbed you the wrong way because they were big hits in the playoffs perhaps?

I wasn't a fan or a foe of any of the teams or players involved, so no, it had nothing to do with the fact it was in the playoffs. I didn't like the way in which (most of) those hits were carried out, and that's that. I'm more a fan of body-to-body bodychecks, keyword kinda being body.

It was a statement hit.

Who decides what is a "statement hit" and how does it even matter in the context of perceived head-hunting?

What if Matt Cooke's hit on Savard was a statement hit? The statement being "don't come here sailing into our zone willfully unknowing of your immediate surroundings or I'll sneak in from the blindside and put a perfectly legal shoulder right in your face". Because it was perfectly legal at the time.

Mike Richards apparently was regretful for his (at the time) perfectly legal (head-hunting) hit on David Booth. Why would he be so regretful of a perfectly sound and normal hockey play? (unless he realized it really wasn't)

 

[sr edler]

My reaction. I thought it was a non-contact sport.

I really only played it recreationally when I was younger and in school, but my perception of the more serious (professional) competitive version of the sport is that it's fairly non-physical and skill/finesse based, yes. I guess it can be a bit more rough though if you play it a bunch of guys after work "non-rules" style, i.e. @Nick Hansen style. Someone may want to truck you from behind head-first into the wall bars?

(okay, I looked up wall bars now on the internet and apparently it's a Swedish invention, didn't really know that)

Floorball is a sport that's really fun to play, but perhaps not as fun (?) to watch as a spectator.

 

[The Panther]

There aren't too many star players I actively disliked... but there are a few:

-- Tim Thomas: Not specifically because of his politics, but just his overall aura of smug boorishness
-- Claude Lemieux: Off the ice he seems all right, but his on-ice behavior (esp. in the 80s) lowered the integrity of the Canadiens' franchise (Draper hit years later wasn't exactly all-class either)
-- Gary Suter (borderline 'star'): mono-syllabic personality meets (1) worst stick-violence I've ever seen at Canada Cup '87, (2) most tasteless hit ever on Gretzky at Canada Cup '91, and (3) worst late-90s cheap-shot to Paul Kariya. He managed to ruin 2 Hall of Famers' primes.

I'm not going to say I disliked Trevor Linden -- I respect him a lot, and I cheered for him when he was a rookie and a young player -- but good gravy, could the guy crack a smile or enjoy himself just once? Every time he's interviewed he looks like he's trying to make a stool sample on a bran-free diet. It's just a game -- enjoy it!

(Not listing obvious doorknobs like Avery, Cooke, and Ribeiro... because they weren't "star players".)

 

[Big Phil]

Who decides what is a "statement hit" and how does it even matter in the context of perceived head-hunting?

What if Matt Cooke's hit on Savard was a statement hit? The statement being "don't come here sailing into our zone willfully unknowing of your immediate surroundings or I'll sneak in from the blindside and put a perfectly legal shoulder right in your face". Because it was perfectly legal at the time.

Mike Richards apparently was regretful for his (at the time) perfectly legal (head-hunting) hit on David Booth. Why would he be so regretful of a perfectly sound and normal hockey play? (unless he realized it really wasn't)

I would say a "statement hit" would be the one like Willis' which meant you aren't safe coming into my zone at any time. Look, hockey is not supposed to be for the faint of heart, I know there is a big movement that has gained more steam over the years to turn it into a game where no one can look each other the wrong way but all sports have their intimidation. This is hockey's. It worked didn't it? This was at the end of Game 2 and the Canes got shut out in Game 3 at home. Was it on the mind of the Canes' mind? Who knows, but it was talked about a lot.

These players don't want others getting hurt, so that is why they feel bad afterwards, but they aren't doing their jobs if they don't hit the opposing players, Stevens especially because that was his bread and butter.