PHILADELPHIA — Trash talk happens in every NHL game. But when that NHL game is captured by HBO's cameras and microphones, that trash talk can become a matter of public record.
Just ask Michael Rupp of the New York Rangers.
In Episode 3 of "HBO 24/7 Flyers Rangers", the rugged winger verbally pummeled Philadelphia Flyers enforcer Jody Shelley during a game at Madison Square Garden (transcript via Broad Street Hockey):
SHELLEY: You lookin' for a fight? You lookin' for a fight?
RUPP: What are you gonna do, Jody?
SHELLEY: Are you lookin' for one?
RUPP: You're [expletive] irrelevant out here. You're [expletive] irrelevant out here. If you had any outcome on the game I'd [expletive] go with you. You don't. You don't.
SHELLEY: Goin after the 22 year old, Rupper?
RUPP: He's acting like a [expletive] idiot.
How did Rupp feel about that chirp ending up on national pay cable?
"I gotta be honest with you: I wasn't too excited to see it," he said, after the Rangers' practice at Citizens Bank Park for the 2012 NHL Winter Classic.
"You don't necessarily want anyone to see or hear those things. But there are mics everywhere, and there was a mic on me that game. In that moment, you just forget. You don't know. There's a different thing you're trying to accomplish."
Rupp said he hadn't reached out to Shelley to discuss the matter — he didn't have the Flyer's current phone number — but might address it with him down the road.
"I know Jody. I was teammates with him and I played with him. I wasn't very happy with myself for that. But it's just those kinds of things that are said in the heat of battle," said Rupp.