Even with trash talking, there’s a fine line one shouldn’t cross

The Jordin Tootoo-Alex Burrows incident last weekend illustrated the fine line in trash talking between what is acceptable and what is offlimits when players chirp each other, as they are wont to do.

Tootoo, the New Jersey Devils winger, has asked the NHL to investigate alleged slurs he said Burrows directed at him and his family while the two were in the penalty box after a fight in the second period of a Devils-Vancouver Canucks game Sunday.

We spoke with four former NHLers on what is acceptable or not when trash talking an opponent:

“All the harsh stuff on family is off-side, but I never heard a lot of that in the NHL. I heard more of it in minors than the NHL.” COLBY ARMSTRONG

COLBY ARMSTRONG

Acceptable: “A player’s style, that’s usually big. What a guy looks like, I got chirped a lot on that one. A lot of it is regular stuff, and if you know certain hobbies a guy’s into, that’s open.”

Unacceptable: “All the harsh stuff on family is off-side, but I never heard a lot of that in the NHL.

“I heard more of it in the minors than the NHL.”

Best line: “A guy we had was a fighter and he was going at it with another (enforcer) who had a huge head. And he’d say ‘What would you rather have — a million dollars or (the other guys’) helmet full of quarters?’ ”

KELLY CHASE

Acceptable: “Pretty much anything, like if you’re not a good player — and I wasn’t so I’d hear about it. So when you’re one of those players you have to be more creative than the next guy, and sometimes the best part of my game was my mouth.”

Unacceptable: “In my opinion, a lot of things are open, as long as you stay away from family and ethnicity. There’s no place for that stuff.”

Best line: “I had a guy who was very mad at me, he wanted to kill me when we were in the penalty box. And when I was asked what he was saying to me, he chirped back ‘I don’t know, I’m not fluent in cement.’ ”

JOHN POHL

Acceptable: “Anything that doesn’t include family.”

Unacceptable: “Family, race, religion.”

Best line: “It’s not so much a line, but I like when a player looks at the back of a guy’s jersey acting as if he has no idea who that player is.”

NICK KYPREOS

Acceptable: “There’s a grey area there, but we all know what society feels about (family and race.) I have three kids and I tell them, watch what you say and how you treat people.

“I guess in my day, what was acceptable would be unacceptable today, but you never really heard a lot of that.”

Unacceptable: “Family is a no-brainer — wives, kids, there’s no room for any of that.”

Best line: “I’ve been called souvlaki breath.”