New York Post hockey writer Larry Brooks has been the recipient of some epic tirades over the years, and he was again Tuesday. This time, it wasn’t a coach like John Tortorella yelling at Brooks, but a player: the New York Rangers’ Dan Boyle. The 39-year-old Boyle, who’s a pending unrestricted free agent, met with reporters during the team’s locker cleanout day Tuesday, but started his comments by telling Brooks to take off in no uncertain terms. Here’s the video (language warning):
Yahoo’s Greg Wyshynski has the transcript:
Before speaking to the media scrum, Boyle said he wanted Brooks to leave the interview area, offering a personal criticism of his work as well.
“I don’t want him here,” said Boyle.
“What?” Brooks said. “You know, the feeling’s mutual, man.”
“Nobody likes you. Nobody respects you. Just so you know,” said Boyle.
“OK,” said Brooks.
“At least I’m leaving here with the respect of my teammates,” said Boyle. “Instead of [expletive] someone like you, who tries to bury somebody. That’s all you do. It’s not a critique. I’m telling you I don’t want you here. I have no respect for you. I want you to get the [expletive] out.”
“I don’t care what you think,” said Brooks.
“I can tell you to get the [expletive] out if I want to!” said Boyle, his voice now raised.
“You can, but I don’t have to listen to you,” said Brooks.
“Yeah, ya do!” said Boyle. “I want him out. And that other [expletive] clown, Brett, or whatever the [expletive] his name is. Where’s he at? Everyone else is fine. I want him out. It’s my right.”
Rangers staff stepped in to calm the scene down, and suggested Boyle not speak to the media at that time.
“Can they not all stay here? I have tons of respect for some of these guys. I just don’t want him here. That should be fine,” said Boyle.
At this point, Brooks hadn’t left yet.
“Can you just [expletive] leave?!” Boyle asked again, loudly.
“If you had asked me politely, I might have,” said Brooks.
Boyle: “POLITELY? Why would I be polite with you? Are you kidding me?”
Brooks then told Boyle to “grow up,” Boyle laughed that off and Brooks walked off to another interview.
Boyle has been a frequent target of Brooks and Post colleague Brett Cyrgalis, who wasn’t there Tuesday, but later tweeted about this:
Response to Dan Boyle? I did my job. Not sure he ever did his.
— Brett Cyrgalis (@BrettCyrgalis) April 26, 2016
It is notable that some of the advanced stats have Boyle playing much better than his defensive counterparts, though:
https://twitter.com/Josh_Khalfin/status/725028547010646016
Those numbers do suggest that Boyle might be able to keep playing for another year or two, but there have been reports that he may retire. If so, this was a pretty memorable way to go out.
