The New York Rangers came up short of their goal of reaching the Stanley Cup, falling to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals. And whether fair or not, a ton of the criticism after the series loss has been directed towards Rangers captain Jacob Trouba.
Much of the series hinged on Trouba’s ability to make an impact in games. He largely had an up-and-down series, scoring three combined points in the Rangers’ two series wins. But in games that the Rangers lost to the Panthers, he was largely neutralized.
As a defenseman, there is obviously far more that goes into the game than scoring points. But still, Trouba has received some flack for his play throughout the series. Particularly from the Barstool Sports podcast Spittin Chiclets.
The hosts of the podcast, particularly Pasha Eshghi, blasted Trouba for his play in a rant that was as much of a personal attack as it was a critique of his performance.
“Is there a bigger hypocritical scumbag in the league than Jacob Trouba? First of all, he sucks at hockey,” said Eshghi. “Whenever he is in the defensive zone, he runs around like a lost puppy. He just sees the puck and he chases it. If he didn’t have that ‘C’ and that contract, he wouldn’t be playing. If I was (Peter) Laviolette, I would rip that C off of his chest and stick it on Vinny Trochek right now. Because he is the heart and soul of that team. If Rangers fans knew anything about hockey, they would have been praying he got suspended for that Rodrigues hit. Just to get him out of the lineup. He’s that bad.
Eshghi then made things even more personal, criticizing the work that Trouba does outside of hockey with his wife, which resulted in Trouba winning the NHL Leadership Award.
“One of the reasons in the article that he won it. It says Trouba and his wife founded the Trouba Creative Expression Arts Program, which offers art services to adults with epilepsy and seizures. Well, you want to know the irony of the situation? Trouba’s wife is a neuroscience major. Maybe Jacob should go home and get a lesson from his wife about the dangers of concussions that can lead to epilepsy and seizures before he goes around concussing guys on a daily basis being the dirtiest player in the league. It’s like okay, you want to embrace the scumbag role? Fine, but the fact that they are parading him around as some sort of humanitarian is a joke. His agent of PR person should get a major raise for that.”
To publically call Trouba a “scumbag” because of how he plays his role on the ice is obviously completely uncalled for. And it’s an even worse look to completely discredit what Trouba and his wife do outside of hockey for people struggling with epilepsy and seizures, regardless of how Trouba may be perceived in his hockey career.
Trouba took notice of this critique, calling out Eshghi for his comments while referencing the recent tragic suicide of PGA Tour golfer of Grayson Murray as a reason why media members like Eshghi should refrain from these kinds of personal attacks.
“Suicide rates have doubled in the past 20 years in U.S. college athletes,” wrote Trouba on X, formerly known as Twitter. 11 days ago, a PGA Tour golfer tragically took his own life after a mental health battle and people asked how that was possible. We must do better than this.”
this.”
For those unaware of Murray’s situation, he tragically took his own life on May 25th after withdrawing from the Charles Schwab Challenge in the second round of action. Murray had previously discussed his public battles with mental health struggles and alcohol abuse.
Trouba is absolutely correct in that media members should think before getting too personal about someone else’s life outside of their respective sport.
Note: This article contains references to suicide. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please call the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the United States at 1-800-784-2433; 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
