Pest (hockey)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In ice hockey, a pest is a type of player who attempts to annoy, anger, or distract opposing players in order to reduce their effectiveness or cause them to take a penalty. Also referred to as agitators, they differ from enforcers in that although they do seek to anger their opponents, they are not primarily known for fighting with them.
Pests employ legal, illegal, or borderline tactics to accomplish their goals. Some common tactics include trash talk or slashing and hooking while referees are not looking. Also, they may sometimes employ the tactic of goading opponents into a fight but then backing off in order to draw a penalty against them. Some pests may not only use these tactics against opposing skaters, but opposing goaltenders as well.[1]
[edit] Examples of NHL pests
While exactly who is considered a pest may be debatable among fans, some players are so well-known for their pest behaviour that they are frequently referred to as such, both in the media and in hockey circles. They include:
- Sean Avery[2] NHL's superpest
- Matthew Barnaby[1]
- Alexandre Burrows[3]
- Dino Ciccarelli[4]
- Matt Cooke[5]
- Dan Hinote[6]
- Tomas Holmström[1]
- Darius Kasparaitis[1]
- Bob Kelly[1]
- Ian Laperriere[1]
- Claude Lemieux [7]
- Kirk Maltby[8]
- Tyson Nash[1]
- Ville Nieminen[9]
- Jarkko Ruutu[10]
- Esa Tikkanen[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Samuleson, Karl. "Best Pest in Show", Hockey Digest, 2001-02-01. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ Wentworth, Bridget. "Devils: Janssen plays head games with Lundqvist", The Star-Ledger, 2007-02-27. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ Wazny, Adam. "Versatile Rookie Shows Potential", Winnipeg Sun, 2005-03-19. Retrieved on 2007-03-07.
- ^ Dalla Costa, Morris. "Dino", Slam, 2006-06-04. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ Willes, Ed. "Cooke takes care of business his own way", Vancouver Province, 2007-02-02. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ ESPN Fantasy Hockey 2008: Player News Archive
- ^ Matt Crossman (2002-07-01). The villain: when the postseason pressure is on, Claude Lemieux enjoys the role of agitator. The Sporting News. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ MacLeod, Bruce. "Maltby Creates Power Plays", Macomb Daily, 2006-11-01. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ "Flames strike Lightning in Game 5", TSN, 2006-06-04. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ "He's a Ruutu Too", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2007-02-14. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
