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Hockey is the only team sport where you’re essentially allowed to punch other people if they rub you the wrong way, and it appears there’s no player in the NHL who has a bigger target on his back (or, more accurately, face) than Nick Cousins.
The NHLPA has been conducting an annual poll of its members since the 2017-18 season that primarily focuses on positive superlatives when it comes to evaluating the various talents of the best hockey players on the planet.
Last year, The Athletic decided to get in on the action with an anonymous survey that gave guys in the NHL a chance to sound off on some topics the players’ union probably wouldn’t go out of its way to have them address.
The initial poll only featured 55 respondents, but the outlet took things to the next level this year by getting close to 200 players to share their thoughts on the ten questions they were asked to respond to.
You probably won’t be too shocked to learn Connor McDavid was firmly named the best player in the league, Andrei Vasilevskiy is viewed as the most talented goaltender, and no referee has a better reputation than the widely beloved Wes McCauley.
With that said, it’s a bit hard not to be surprised by the name that took the top spot when players were asked to pick the guy with the face they want to punch more than any other.
If you’re like me, you were probably expecting Brad Marchand to win that vote in the kind of landslide we haven’t seen since Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale in 1984. While he did manage to end up in third place with around 15% of the vote (behind the second-place “Other”), Florida Panthers center Nick Cousins took home the prize with 28.57% of the total tally.
Cousins has a pretty clean disciplinary record, although plenty of fans (and, it would seem, players) would tell you that shouldn’t be the case thanks to his reputation for throwing some very questionable hits (including one that led to Erik Gudbranson getting the chance to live out the dream of some of his peers earlier this season when he dropped the gloves to get revenge for a check hit into the boards).
He’s also known for going down onto the ice a bit too easily and ducking fights when he does get challenged; if you need some insight into how he’s viewed in the NHL, it’s hard to top the quote from an unnamed player who told The Athletic “I’m buddies with him and I’d still say him” while answering the question.