Or when then-Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux once famously cooed like a pigeon<\/a> \u2014 a literal chirp, with \u201cpigeon\u201d signifying a talentless, disrespected player \u2014 to slight the Toronto Maple Leafs\u2019 James van Riemsdyk. In the case of Giroux, now with the Senators, the chatter often extended to his teammates during games.<\/p>\n \u201cHe never stopped talking,\u201d said retired forward Wayne Simmonds, who played with Giroux in Philadelphia. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s stopped talking yet. I can still hear him talking in my brain right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Some players are blunter, taking their cues from Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty\u2019s viral chirp against then-Anaheim Ducks enforcer Pat Maroon during a 2014 outdoor game: \u201cBuddy, you suck at hockey. You\u2019ve been in the minors for how long?\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to The Athletic, Maroon commended Doughty for \u201calways\u201d having some good chirps in his arsenal.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing chirped is fun,\u201d said Maroon, who retired from the NHL in March with three Stanley Cup championships. \u201cAnd chirping back is funny.\u201d<\/p>\n Other players, such as Seattle Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour, can take that recurring chirp in stride.<\/p>\n \u201c(It\u2019s) just an easy one that you know guys don\u2019t obviously take serious because everyone in our league is pretty damn good at hockey,\u201d Montour said.<\/p>\n But as New York Islanders forward Matthew Highmore noted, even this basic barb \u2014 Buddy, you suck \u2014 can sting.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of guys like to use it because it does cut deep,\u201d Highmore said. \u201cI mean, sometimes it can be pretty ruthless. And that one, sometimes it rolls off your shoulders, and sometimes it hits you pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n However, given the number of players approached for this story who opted to \u201ckeep it PG\u201d in sharing specific chirps or declined to discuss the topic outright, two things are clear. First, that they likely get away with harsher in-game language than, say, NBA players, if only because of the muffling barrier of tempered glass panels that encase every rink. And second, that whatever is said between the boards generally stays there.<\/p>\n \u201cThe actions, the things that are said, your emotions, it\u2019s one of the coolest things about hockey,\u201d Marchand said. \u201cA lot of people that don\u2019t know the game or haven\u2019t played would never understand.<\/p>\n \u201cYou definitely cannot repeat the things that are said on ice.\u201d<\/p>\n If the NHL has indeed entered an era of excessively nice chirping, to paraphrase Cousins, several factors can help explain the shift, players said.<\/p>\n Omnipresent television and cellphone cameras at arenas, not to mention wireless microphones often worn for capturing league-sponsored content, have made them more cautious about what comes out of their mouths.<\/p>\n \u201cI just keep it light,\u201d Montour said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last thing anybody wants is for something to go viral and get in trouble, for something that could be taken out of context,\u201d Marchand said.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also greater consideration of a younger generation of hockey fans.<\/p>\n \u201c(Players are) like, \u2018Oh, s\u2014, I hope my kids don\u2019t hear that,\u2019\u201d Utah Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Panthers\u2019 Tkachuk, the evolving archetypes of modern NHL players help explain the current state of chirping. When he entered the league with the Calgary Flames in 2016, he regularly faced \u201cbigger, scarier\u201d opponents with admirable gifts of gab. But as talent levels around the league have dramatically risen, with fewer places on rosters for enforcers, the caliber of trash talk has fallen off.<\/p>\n \u201cAs guys grow up and they\u2019re the best players on their team and they\u2019re built in a hockey lab, I think that there\u2019s not as much game-within-the-game growing up anymore,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cI just think that players are different on how they make it. It\u2019s all, majority, skill (players).\u201d<\/p>\n \n Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand has been recognized by many of his peers as one of the league\u2019s best chirpers. (Timothy T. Ludwig \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n If any haven for chirping still exists, it is the Stanley Cup playoffs. According to TSN\u2019s James Duthie, last season\u2019s Stanley Cup Final rematch between Tkachuk\u2019s Panthers and the Oilers was defined by instances of \u201cpure verbal hate\u201d in which \u201ceverything (was) on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the playoffs, it\u2019s like no-holds-barred,\u201d former Sabres and Panthers forward Kyle Okposo said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter. You\u2019re just doing everything, anything, that you can to win, to get under anybody\u2019s skin.\u201d<\/p>\n Especially during the regular season, though, the preferred methods for entering opponents\u2019 heads have changed. And some of the chirps you do hear, as Gallagher said, are \u201cgeneric.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think guys are a little bit more careful and a bit more focused on the game,\u201d the Senators\u2019 Giroux said.<\/p>\n But some players still seek to use chirping as a way to throw opponents off their game \u2014 as evidenced in a recent back-and-forth in which Senators captain Brady Tkachuk called Nashville Predators forward Michael McCarron a \u201cfat f\u2014.\u201d<\/a> Months earlier, Marchand even called an unnamed Sens player \u201cso f\u2014ing fat.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s something about how they look or how they\u2019re playing, something like that that irritates them, it\u2019s still going to be effective without crossing any personal lines,\u201d Kraken forward Tye Kartye said.<\/p>\n And for a select few, the practice helps improve their focus on the ice.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes there\u2019s nights where I don\u2019t feel like engaging and guys come after me,\u201d Marchand said. \u201cAnd it drags (me) into the game. I think that\u2019s one of the things that I get from it. It gets you mentally engaged in the game and allows me to focus more sometimes. But that could work against you, too, if you don\u2019t keep your mind in the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Thanks to the likes of Marchand, Gallagher, the Tkachuks and others carrying on the supposedly dying art, it seems unlikely that chirping will ever disappear altogether, no matter how little is heard at some NHL games these days. Even so, there is no denying the shifting cultural winds. Just ask Ray.<\/p>\n Ray was once en route to an NHL alumni event when he ran into a pair of ex-opponents, Darcy Tucker and Shayne Corson. Seeing his fellow retired players, Ray was instantly transported back to when his on-ice chirps toward them had, in hindsight, gone too far.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27357204-2-scaled.jpg\")
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