Chirping 101: Leafs explain the ins and outs of exchanging verbal barbs

Matt Martin was skating backwards when he caught a rut and fell. He was with the New York Islanders at the time, in a game against New Jersey, and Devils forward Andy Greene approached him with words of encouragement a few moments after his tumble: “Hey, we found the sniper and kicked him out of the arena for you.”

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It was a textbook example of a proud and noble hockey tradition: Chirping.

At its highest level, chirping rises above mere trash talk. It is not about profanity-laced tirades — the true artists use profanity as a tool, rather than a crutch — as much as it is about making an impact.  A good chirp is often a combination of humour, barbed observation and timing. It is science, it is art, and it is something The Athletic thought was worth exploring:

What makes a good chirp?

Eric Fehr, the veteran NHL forward on loan to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, stressed creativity: “It’s somebody that doesn’t just go to the well and can individualize his chirps with players.”

“If you can find a way into the guy’s kitchen and you can see you’ve pissed him off a little bit, that’s all kind of in it,” said Ray Ferraro, the retired forward now working as an analyst with TSN. A good chirp, he said, must be both funny and direct.

“If somebody knew something about me or my game, I’d hear about it,” said Ferraro. “They’d say something about my height or whatever. You can easily rag on a guy’s skating or lack of goals or anything more personal than that if you wanted to.”

Is anything off-limits in chirping?

Short answer: Yes.

“You never bring someone’s family into play, first and foremost,” defenceman Erik Gudbranson told the Ottawa Citizen. “Well, that and race. You never bring race into it, either.”

Two players — Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf and Chicago’s Andrew Shaw — were caught using homophobic slurs on the ice. In 2015, Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows apologized for inappropriate comments made to Patrick O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan suffered verbal and physical abuse from his father and Burrows taunted him because of it.

Right to my face, twice actually. Once in the minors and once in Vancouver early in my career. https://t.co/HmoMg8bZKp

— Patrick O'Sullivan (@realPOSULLIVAN) December 17, 2015

Martin points to the increase of cameras and microphones around the game as another reason for players to exercise caution.

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“This day in age, you have to be very careful what you say, especially when you’re heated,” said Martin, now a forward with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “You pick one wrong word and it can come back to bite you in a big way. So now I wonder what the point is and whether it’s worth it because you run the risk of getting yourself in trouble over something maybe that you didn’t mean.”

Do players chirp as often as they used to?

There was a time, Martin said, when he would see players chirping each other from the red line. When he was with the Islanders, he said Cal Clutterbuck would proudly announce he was going to start chirping a player. That does not happen as often anymore, Martin said.

“The game has changed in so many different ways,” he said. “It’s become more about skill and speed. It’s in people’s personalities or it’s not. If you’re a smaller, skilled guy, you generally don’t run your mouth as much. If you’re a feisty, tough-nosed player you probably talk a little more. There’s less and less of those gritty-type players.”

At its best, a good chirp can get under an opponent’s skin during a game, then be washed away before the post-game meal.

“I don’t want that part of the game to be gone at any point,” said Fehr. “That’s one of the beauties of the sport. You can battle and have so much hatred towards the guys and then after the game you’re buddies.”

Why not?

As NHL teams trend toward favouring skill and speed over size and strength, they also appear to be trending towards favouring youth over experience. As such, some Leafs expect to see less chirping in the game as a result.

“You can’t really be running your mouth if you haven’t played very long,” said forward James van Riemsdyk. “Guys will shut that down pretty quick.”

Van Riemsdyk recalls his early days playing for the Philadelphia Flyers and having teammates that would constantly engage the opposition verbally, with veterans such as Arron Asham, Ian Laperriere, Dan Carcillo and Chris Pronger.

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Now, van Riemsdyk said there’s “less chirping than there used to be.”

Ferraro, who played from 1984-2002, said most chirping occurred during scrums in front of the net. But now, with fewer scrums comes less chirping.

“You used to be in front of the net and would be basically wrestling with a guy for position,” he said. “And then the whistle blows and you’re in a confrontation and you’re chirping back and forth. And there were no penalties. That initial confrontation doesn’t happen now because that’s not the way guys clear the net anymore. It’s not the same.”

Who is the best modern chirper?

When it comes to one of the better chirpers in today’s NHL, Martin cites Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand, simply because he is “clever.”

“Marchand will chirp a lot of times about how good he is,” said Martin. “I don’t think he chirps too much about knocking the hell out of guys.”

Late last season, Marchand and Leafs forward Leo Komarov were engaged in a heated discussion from their respective bench when Marchand showcased that cleverness: He offered to send a signed stick over to Komarov after the game.

"I'll send a stick over after the game" pic.twitter.com/AtsRYRZWUC

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) March 21, 2017

When many of the Leafs were asked which of their teammates carries the torch as the club’s best chirper, there was an overwhelming winner: Nazem Kadri.

Last season, Kadri was caught verbally engaging opponents on multiple occasions, including taunting Sabres defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen after scoring against the Sabres. Kadri said a good chirp is about doing your homework and understanding a player’s background as well as knowing how the player has been playing recently.

Kadri’s said that physically and verbally engaging other players leads to him being more productive.

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“I’ve never been a shy person on the ice,” he said. “A lot of things I don’t initiate and I can’t just shy away from in terms of verbal altercations. Some guys allow it to get them off their game. For me, it’s the exact opposite. When you see me talking, you know I’m engaged.”

Defenceman Connor Carrick said the Leafs are not the type of team that engages in as much chirping as other teams. Carrick said he’s had certain coaching staffs who will instruct players to “go irritate” the opposition, while some coaches instruct their teams to keep their mouths shut.

“There’s only so much brain space you can use during a game,” said Carrick. “I prefer to talk to my teammates and say ‘Hey, we’re doing this on this play’ versus talking to their team.”

(Top photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)

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