Former Islander throws John Tavares right under the bus.

Tavares gets tossed under the bus.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Former Islander throws John Tavares right under the bus.
David Kirouac/CSM/Zuma

I'm fairly certain that this is not a good way to ingratiate yourself to the hockey community, that is unless of course you're trying to ingratiate yourself to the New York Islanders fan base exclusively. 

As many of our readers will already know there has been a torrent of hate coming out of the Islanders fan base and directed directly at former New York Islanders captain John Tavares. The hate of course stems from the fact that Tavares made the very surprising decision last summer to test free agency, scout a number of teams, and eventually opted to sign with his home town team in the form of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although the decision has been universally popular in the Toronto market and has seen Tavares continue his run of success at the National Hockey League level , fans of the Islanders, or at least a vocal segment of that fan base, have reacted with vitriol.

It's one things when fans are lashing out at a player over a big decision such as the one that Tavares made, but things take on completely tone when the person firing shots at Tavares is a fellow player in the National Hockey League. It becomes even more serious and takes on an even more unfriendly tone when that player is a former teammate of the player that is being bashed, in this case John Tavares.

On Saturday one such player took multiple shots at Tavares after a publication from NBC Sports appeared to rub him the wrong way. Former 1st round draft pick and former New York Islander Rob Schremp for some reason felt the need to go in on Tavares Saturday. The comments from Schremp were proceeded by a graphic from NBC Sports that showcased two pictures demonstrating how much better the Islanders had performed under head coach Barry Trotz . The before picture unsurprisingly heavily featured Tavares, while the after pictured showed no sign of him. That was enough for Schremp to reply with the following:

"The ultimate “ I did my job “ kind of superstar. He wins when he goes to play for his country as they are loaded with players mostly equal or better. Other than that, he just collects HIS points and HIS awards."

Now the first thing I will say is that is pretty freaking rich from a former 1st round pick that only managed to play in a total of 114 NHL games and it's even more so when you consider that he only ever played with Tavares during the latter's rookie and sophomore season's in the NHL. I'm not sure that a guy who only played a handful of games with Tavares over the course of two full seasons can really provide any insight into what kind of man he is now 10 years later, but it's clear that Schremp has plenty to say on the subject of the former Islanders captain.

I suppose that it's entirely possible that in spite of his short stint with the Islanders organization Schremp has remained close to people within those walls, and perhaps he has heard things over the years that have reinforced his current view on things.

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