Former New York Rangers goalie Steve Valiquette is making more of a name for himself as an analyst than he did during his playing days – and not in a good way.
Valiquette is getting roasted on social media after calling out New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes for attempting a one-handed deke on a breakaway against Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin on Monday night.
The MSG analyst said during the first intermission of the game that Hughes was trying to “embarrass” his opponent and that the ‘Forsberg’ deke is an act of “blatant disrespect.”
“That should send a shockwave to everybody on the bench. I know in my day, Colton Orr would have been hanging over the bench banging his stick saying, ’I’m coming after you because you tried to embarrass us,’” Valiquette said. “And that’s blatant disrespect and I’m sort of surprised I didn’t see a response from the team that way.”
The former goalie, who played 46 games over seven NHL seasons, went on to say that it was more “Instagram hockey than intense hockey.”
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“He’s had success against Igor playing him straight up and I thought he slowed down. He wanted to put a fancy move on. It was more Instagram hockey than intense hockey,” Valiquette said. “There wasn’t much of a back check, so that allowed him to do it.
“But I’m looking at him going like this and doing what in practice a goalie would get mad at a teammate for doing, saying that would never happen in the game. When was the last time you saw somebody one-hand score … in a game? And I think that the Rangers should be upset about that.”
When asked about Valiquette’s comments after the game, which the Devils won 5-1, Hughes gave a classic response.
After being told the broadcaster thought Hughes was trying to embarrass Shesterkin, he looked befuddled before responding.
“I don’t even know what that means,” Hughes said, looking back at the reporter to ask him “What does that even mean?”
Users on social media had a field day with Valiquette’s ice-cold take.
“I still cannot believe that Jack Hughes didn’t just dump and change on that breakaway last night. Instead he totally broke the NHL players code and tried to embarrass a top goalie in the league in Igor Shesterkin,” one user joked.
“Someone should go and beat up Jack Hughes for … missing a breakaway attempt? What are we even doing here?” another X user responded.
“One of league’s most skilled players attempts to skillfully score a goal. Film at 11,” a third user wrote.
While Hughes didn’t bury the breakaway attempt, he did end up scoring twice in the game and adding an assist.
The two teams meet again on Dec. 23 and you can bet that the Broadway Blue Shirts will be keeping a closer eye on the Devils star.