Dear Answer Man,

 

I read recently that some Phruit Euros, as you call them, have a bit of a rivalry going.  It is between Grabovski from the Leafs and Sergei Kostitsyn. They are both from Belarus and were quite open about going at each other again. My point is this, you normally don’t hear anything like that in the press. I enjoyed it. Any chance there is going to be more trash talk like this? I’d love to get more quotes from Janssen and the like.

 

Nathan (St. Peters-MO)

 

Nate Dog, what are you doing reading other hockey publication besides Gametime? The beef between those two Phruits was not reported in this paper or on the website. Tisk tisk on you Sir.

 

Now that your scolding is over, I will address your questions. Yeah man, the league needs more trash talk like this but it should be controlled a bit. We all saw what trash talk did for Sean Avery and his “sloppy seconds”. That was a real black eye for the league.  The beef between these two from Belarus was funny.  Kostitsyn’s brother plays on the team as well. I’m fairly certain Sergei is the uglier of the two (super fem too).

 

I read the article as well and Grabovski got suspended for roughing up a referee. What a tough guy. My impression after the article was that it was like listening to two broads making fun each other’s brand of tampon. Since they are Euros I figured they settle it with a 100 yard dash in high heels. We’ll have to wait and see.

 

I think it is great for the game and builds the entertainment factor. Trash talk has always been around and always will be around.  It is integral to the game. No matter what level of play, trash talk is there. That is one way to mind-screw your opponent. I get it constantly in the leagues I play in. Now thanks to the inter highway, I get tons of e-mail about it.  It ranges from pills I can buy to make my “member” larger to getting game day threats from my opponents. 

 

My opponents can be funny at times. They usually question my sexuality, my relationship with my mother (which you never mess with, got it?!) and my ability to handle them physically. One guy I played against a few weeks ago freaked out about the trash talk I was exchanging with his goalie. What did he do? He crosschecked me from behind and when I rolled over he slashed me in the mouth. I was unable to get my hands on him during this game and was tossed out for throwing a ref down to get out of my way. I will absolutely trash talk this guy next game (already marked on my calendar and training very hard for it). I may not even hit him the first game. I just want to tell him that he better not forget me because I haven’t forgotten him. All he will worry about is me and not the play. It is awesome watching them squirm and be my bitch. Then I’ll address it like a man and beat him face to face.

 

What’s worse? Getting hit or constantly worrying about getting hit? Exactly. Trash talk will give me the advantage immediately and this dick head knows I’m coming for him.

 

Nate, you also talked about getting a steady line from Cam Janssen. I am obviously a big fan on this guy. His presence is very well known and he is double tough. The impression I gather from his teammates is that the guy is a chatter box. On and off the ice. Usually the tough guys have the good one liners. The other thing you should notice is when the tough guys talk about their role, there is few words that need to be said. This is the separating factor at times. If you are tough, you don’t have to say much. People will know. Then there are the ones who can back it up but also like to talk shit to get into people heads and get them scared. These are the crafty bastards.

 

The immortal Garth Butcher was king at this. He would go up to the toughest guy on the opposing team while he’s on the bench and talk trash. One time he asked Stu Grimson if his parents named him Stu because his parents were too dumb to spell “stupid”.  Brilliant!  How ballsy do you have to be to go up to the other team’s toughest guy and break his marbles in front of his teammates? All you are doing is baiting the guy and you know that a power play is headed your way. Such a tactician that Butcher was.

 

Final verdict, more trash talk we hear about the better. Watching dudes back it up is even better. This is a great way to draw people into the games and get them hooked.