Most hated Anaheim Ducks players around the league – Part Three. You know my name.
The Anaheim Ducks have more than their share of despised players on the roster. This is the final chapter in a three-part series, listing “The O.C.’s Most Wanted.” Today’s subject, the top of the list, will come as a surprise to absolutely no one.
Every team has a few players on their roster opposing fans just can’t stand. If you are a Ducks fan, what kind of emotions do the names Dustin Brown, Joe Thornton, or Connor McDavid stir up? The Anaheim Ducks are no different. If anything, Anaheim has more hated players on their team than anyone else.
In part one of this series, we counted down from five to three. More specifically, Josh Manson, Nick Ritchie, and Ryan Getzlaf. It was very difficult to differentiate between the top two. Instead, I made them #1B – Ryan Kesler (Part Two) and the subject of today’s piece Corey Perry, number 1A.
I mentioned Google in part two. Type in “hate Corey Perry” or “Corey Perry cheap shot” and look up the results. Just in the titles and descriptions of the results are words we can’t use here (for PG purposes). Someone who never heard of Corey Perry and did the search would think he embodies the worst traits of Darth Vader, Voldemort, and Hans Gruber rolled up into one evil package.
I could tell you how horrible Corey Perry is, as I did with Kesler. Today I went back to my colleagues around FanSided to get other opinions. These are things you should read for yourselves.
Blackhawk Up
Corey Perry and the Chicago Blackhawks know each other quite well. He’s had plenty of altercations with the Windy City’s hockey club. Two in particular ticked off our cousins at Blackhawk Up. First, there was his “cross check” of Marian Hossa in 2014 after the latter picked his pocket. Then there was a slash of Ryan Hartman in 2017. In response their contributor Shane Crosby wrote the following:
Corey Perry has quite the reputation outside of the Anaheim organization. His dirty play and borderline dangerous hits top the list of reasons why he is enemy number one in Chicago. There is no doubt that Corey Perry is a skilled hockey player. But all of that goes out the window when your style of play is to purposely injure opposing players.
For their part, neither Hartman or coach Joel Quenneville was particularly upset about the incident. Fans see things a little differently than players, but I can understand why Blackhawks supporters would be ticked off. There’s no doubt the Ducks and Hawks have had a heated rivalry this decade. It’s part of the game, but wow, they can’t stand him. This is from my counterpart, Samual Bolland:
“Chicago fans hate Corey Perry for the same reasons Anaheim and everyone else hates Brad Marchand. Having said this, I leave you with the simple fact that Corey Perry replaces the toilet paper roll facing in.”
Imagine how much they despise him when he scores an amazing goal:
Now that’s Malice with a capital “M.” Needless to say, Perry won’t be invited to the Blackhawk UP Christmas party anytime soon. Seriously, CP10 plays the game hard, and at times loses his cool. We can expect him to mix things up for the next few years against Chicago.
Flame for Thought
The site expert at Flame for Thought, the Calgary Flames FanSided site, Ramina Shlah has been very generous helping me out with this series. Division rivals will always have bad blood between them, but Perry seems to have rubbed the residents of the Scotiabank Saddledome the wrong way. Here are Ramina’s comments:
“As for Corey Perry, if you looked up “dirty player” in the dictionary, it would show a picture of him. He just has such a punchable face and he’s also given way too many cheap shots to even count. Just go on youtube and search “Corey Perry dirty plays” and you’re bound to find a bunch of highlight videos.
Also, I think a big factor in Flames fans hating him is the fact that the Flames couldn’t win in Anaheim for over a decade and the Flames and Ducks generally have quite heated games against one another. Especially back in the playoffs in 2015.”
What’s interesting is that Perry hasn’t squared off one-on-one with a Flames player very often. Last season he had a scuffle with Calgary’s Travis Hamonic. It was his first fight against the flaming C’s since a 2007 skirmish against Eric Nystrom.
In recent history, what has to really eat at Flames fans is the overtime winning goal Perry scored in Game 3 of the 2017 playoff’s opening round.
It would piss me off as well if say Mark Giordano had done the same thing to the Anaheim Ducks.
Puck Prose
So far we’ve had both a conference and a division rival chime in about the “dastardly” Corey Perry. My final stop was to Dave Stevenson, our site expert at Puck Prose for a more holistic view.
More from Pucks of a Feather
- Who could the Anaheim Ducks consider presenting offer sheets to?
- Is Pierre-Luc Dubois on the cards for the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks?
- Making the case for the Anaheim Ducks to trade with the Edmonton Oilers
- Anaheim Ducks might benefit tremendously by trading John Gibson
- How close are the Anaheim Ducks to becoming contenders again?
“Every sport needs villains. Players who are fun to root against it. Brad Marchand is the current gold standard, but for years, Corey Perry was a fun player to hate. And he still is. He’s a power forward in the style of Jarome Iginla. Someone just as likely to deliver a bone-crushing hit or punch as they are to score a goal. However, Iginla had an aura of class about him. His hits were well within the guidelines set by the NHL.
Perry tiptoes the guidelines and is not afraid to ignore them. Every Western Conference fanbase can recall at least one questionable at best hit delivered from him. It’s likely most Eastern Conference fanbases can as well. Perry has been suspended on multiple occasions. Just since 2009, he has three suspensions of at least four games.
Perry’s also an excellent agitator who knows how to get in his opponent’s heads. Much of the hatred directed at him stems from him being a guy who not only knows how to break the rules but get away with it when he does.”
Next. July Mailbag. dark
I like the term villain. Hey, without The Joker, there would be no Batman. Is Corey Perry the ultimate NHL villain? I don’t know. Is he the most despised player to ever wear an Anaheim Ducks sweater? Absolutely, every player and fan in the NHL knows his name.