Scottie Upshall on how he made Michel Therrien “lose his marbles.”
Scottie Upshall reveals what he said to make the veteran NHL head coach go ballistic.
The relationship between players and coaches in the National Hockey League has always been a fascinating one, with many having very much a love/hate relationship with one another. On top of that there are coaches who will be beloved by some of their players and despised by others, but when it comes to the relationship between former NHL head coach Michel Therrien and former NHL player Scottie Upshall there's no doubt about which side of the coin their relationship falls on.
That will come as relatively little surprise to fans from the Pennsylvania area given that both men were on opposites of the intrastate rivalry between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers from 2006 until 2009.
On a recent episode of the Missin Curfew podcast however, Upshall revealed how he got under the skin of the veteran head coach, an incident that Upshall says caused Therrien to 'lose his marbles.'
"I had that Michel Therrien chase me across the ice one time," revealed Upshall. "I called him like a French f*** and he completely lost his marbles."
In fact Therrien became so enraged by the comment that the officials informed Upshall and the Flyers that they would be launching an investigation into his comments.
"The ref came to [Paul] Holmgren after the game and said 'I don't know what Upshall said to this guy but we're probably gonna have to look into because I've never seen a coach lose his mind so much.'"
You can hardly blame Therrien for being upset given that he was being insulted on the basis of his identity as a French man, something of a low blow from Upshall, but the rivalry was so intense that the Flyers weren't about to reprimand Upshall for getting under the skin of a bitter rival.
"So Homer I'm getting on the bus and he's like 'What did you say to Therrien?'" said Upshall with a laugh. "I called him a French f***, and he's like 'Perfect' as in good."
That likely wouldn't go unpunished in today's NHL, but from what I can tell it appears Upshall was never reprimanded for his comments.
