I didn’t write the following, nor did Michal Rozsival. 
But it’s the funniest thing I have read in a long time and I agree with it 100%. Simply put, New York Rangers fans are the absolute WORST when it comes to criticizing their players. Many players have said that the New York Rangers are the toughest team in the league to play for, and the main reason is because of the constant criticism from the fans. They criticize the players with the best statistics as being “soft” or the worst players on the team, even if they post the most goals on the team, or the best plus/minus record on the team.
Each year, there is a defenseman that takes the biggest chunk of criticism from the fans. This upcoming season their target is the #1 defenseman for the NYR, Michal Rozsival. How is it that the #1 dman is all of a sudden the worst player on the team? For most people looking into the box from the outside, we really think NYR fans are nuts for saying something so untrue about a player, because they are making their assessments based on passion and emotion, not based on true performance or statistics.
Here’s the blog:
STOP HATING ME, YOU ASSHOLES
Look, I have a computer. I browse the internet. I see what some of you say about me. And I’m sick and tired of it. I have played my ass off for this team for three years. I’ve played through serious injuries, I was the glue that held the defense together during the desperate stretch run to the playoffs and beyond in 2007, I play nearly 25 minutes a game, every game, injured or not. It’s not my fault I was the #1 defenseman here, that’s just how things worked out. I’m no offensive dynamo, I know that, yet I had to take that role on the defense since no one else could. And, hey, I did alright at it all things considered. Oh, and I also had to take the role of #1 defensive defenseman since no one else could take that role, either! Not a bad bargain for two million bucks a year. We also made the playoffs three years in a row with terrible, awful me as your #1 defenseman. So stick that up your ass.
Why do you hate me, anyway? I mean really, some of you sound like you’d flay my skin off and boil me in oil given the chance. What did I ever do to you? Yeah, I didn’t have a great season last year, but I was hurt for the last couple months. Seriously injured with a tear in my hip! I had surgery on that hip as soon as the season ended. SUR. GER. Y. Do you know what it’s like trying to play professional ice hockey night after night after night with a bad hip? No, of course you don’t. You throw your back out for a week bending over to pick up the Powdered Donette you just dropped on the floor, you grotesque beach ball.
But useless hip or not, I don’t complain. I don’t ever complain. When have you ever heard me complain or not do what the coaches ask me to do? Your hero, Sean Avery, that spaz was crying about a new contract and threatening to bolt to other teams in January for christ sake. But me, I just quietly played out my contract without lobbying to the press, sat patiently by the phone in July, didn’t even accept calls from any other teams never mind their offers, and came running back to the Rangers when they said they wanted me back. I like it here. I like this team. I like the city. Half of you would probably turn gay for Avery if given the opportunity, and he bolts for Dallas and badmouths the Rangers on the way out. Me, I tell my agent not to listen to any calls except from the Rangers this summer, and you hate my guts. And this despite my supposed best friends in the world (according to you people) Jagr and Malik not re-signing here. What’s up with that? You guys endlessly whine about free agent mercenaries ruining your hockey team, then you go all FARGing postal when Sean “Spotlight” Avery tries to hold up the team at gunpoint and they don’t give in. Could you at least try for a little consistency? I know a few teenage girls who have their shit together more than some of you do.
And let’s explore this a little further — why do you hate me so much, anyway? Is it because I rarely hit people? The same reason why you mouth-breathing goons hate every defenseman? Look here, you hockey wizards you, you know why big hitting defensemen are so rare these days? Because they can’t keep up. They can’t catch what they want to hit in the first place. The game has changed. For every good skating banger who can keep up like a Dion Phaneuf, there are twenty bangers who skate like concrete shithouses like Derian Hatcher and Darius Kasparaitis who are forced to retire or play in beer leagues. The game gets faster and more streamlined every year. Puck control and outlet passing is prized now, not whalloping some turd at the blueline. Hey, sorry, Ace, but that’s just the way it is these days, no matter how much you complain about it. Hang on to your Don Cherry Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Hits ‘87 VHS tape because that’s about as close as you are to ever seeing that style of hockey become dominant again.
Hey, I don’t want to completely ruin the relationship between us. I’ve got a new 5 year contract here and it would probably be a good idea if we tried to get along. So, sorry about the “beach ball” bit and all that. I won’t get on your case if you complain about me passing too much because you’re right, I am a pass-happy little freak. But let’s tone it down with the “Rozsival is the son of satan and is raping my favorite hockey team” stuff, huh? A little over the top.
Yours,
Mike
2 Comments
August 29, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Rangers fans are pretty bad in terms of criticizing their own. Some players do deserve some grief though for playing soft, Marek Malik. But I think it’s exaggerated the majority of NYR fans have a good amount of hockey knowledge. Anyways, I dont think that Rozsival is going to be the guy under the microscope in the Garden. The lucky player with that distinction is going to be Wade Redden. He’s coming off a bad year and was given an extremely bloated contract. Rozsival is taking the backseat, he’s no longer the number #1 defenceman. Redden has a lot to prove in the mind of the average fan, beven before he steps on the Garden ice for the first time in Ranger blue.
August 30, 2008 at 11:50 pm
The reason why I agreed with this person’s blog was because various players have told me about how they feel about the constant criticisms they receive from fans. I was flabbergasted when one player told me what fans had said to him. [They do hear the critics down on the ice.] It actually broke my heart to see how he had absorbed all of that negativity into his psyche and he began performing poorly. Why? Because everybody hated him, so why should he give a shit?
The answer to him was leaving the NHL. Now he’s happier then he’s ever been, because he doesn’t have to be surrounded by all of this negativity.
When I see these guys in the locker room, I feel bad for those (like Marek Malik) who get the most criticism from fans. Fans seem to forget that they are human and they hear what you say. If you were in his shoes, how would you feel hearing your own fans talk shit about you every single night loud enough for you to hear? After a while you start to believe that you are what they say you are. Even if the fans are completely wrong.
Nobody likes to have negativity screamed at them while they are working. Fans forget that they are human beings, just like them. So it does hurt when you hear people saying bad things about you and to you. Fans can go a little overboard.
Fans complain about players being ‘too soft’ because they don’t do hits. Those days are over. The game has changed. Sather has said it over and over again to fans, the game has changed. It’s faster and younger now. Anyone over 35 is either retiring or heading overseas. That’s the new hockey for the NHL. Get used to it.
There’s nothing in this blog post (or what I said) that would suggest that NYR fans don’t know their hockey. They do. But their discussions can be very emotional and part of a collective ego. A lot of times their opinions on certain players are not truly based on statistical performance and what the coach believes as far as how the player performed. That, in itself, weighs more heavily then a fan’s opinion. That’s why Marek played every single time. The coach’s vision is more important then a fan’s opinion.
If you have to ask why a player is playing that you think should be off the ice, then you should ask yourself what exactly is the vision that the coach has in mind. You start to see the game differently when you look through the coach’s eyes.
For those who are hockey writers trying to make it in the big world of hockey writers…when you learn to look at the game outside of the box, without your passions for the team, that is when the real hockey writing jobs come and you’ll be considered as serious hockey writers by the NHL. If you can’t divorce the passion for your team, then you will always be an amateur.