The decline in personalities

When I first started watching hockey, it wasn't just the game I fell in love with. I also loved the personalities of the players. They were amazing athletes, but they didn't brag about it. There was no other sport where players reached such high levels without become their own biggest fans. Whether you're talking about Michael Jordan (or any other NBA player), Michael Phelps, Mia Hamm, or the entire Yankees and Red Sox rosters, most athletes tend to be way too cocky for me.


This is yet another area where the NHL is clearly in decline. It was particularly tough when the Canucks during a three-year time frame were eliminated by the Blackhawks twice and the Bruins once. Both of those teams are filled with problematic personalities.

I don't want to dive into crap here. I'm not going to go through every single player that I have issues with. I also don't want to have to remember all of the problems that I encountered. I will provide a seriously reduced list of players that I simply can't stand from those two teams based off of their words and actions: Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron, Johnny Boychuck, Zdeno Chara, Brad Marchand. There is some good news for both teams. The combination of time passing and players changing teams has helped keep this list low. Also, I'm only listing the worst of the worst. There are a lot more players that I don't like that I'm not calling out. I could always list other teams (or even add players that joined those teams more recently) to pad my list.

There have always been a few rotten personalities. I never liked Gretzky, Lindros, or Roenick. However, these people were among the minority in the sport. If you want to find an example of a terrific athlete, look at Marcus Naslund sometime.

One thing that you might notice is that most players I have issues with are North American. My two favorite athletes right now are the Sedin twins. Like Naslund, they are Swedes (even from the same city of Ornskoldsvik). This has generally been one of the big divides in the sport. North American players are the worst athletes in terms of personality. Europeans are the best. Unfortunately, the NHL has been shifting more towards the North American game in recent years.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm not the kind of person who roots for horrible people just because they can win. I need more than that. I prefer to support great athletes that are also great people. You're never going to see me in the stands shouting, "Go Jerk!"