Some hatin'

We here at the Unofficial Mathieu Schneider Homepage pride ourselves on being fair and balanced. And truly so, not in the Fox News we-say-we-are-balanced-but-really-we-are-just-tools kind of way. We seek out alternative viewpoints, and bring them to light rather than bury them as if they never existed. Here are two such viewpoints:

Here's something from Ken Socrates:

Mathieu Schneider aka The NHL’s Most Effeminate Defenseman. No one seems to have notice his attempted spear on Marc Savard near the end of the last game, though you may have noticed Savvy’s willingness to drop the gloves and Schneiders shrieking, womanly fear of doing so. You’d think a veteran like that would have been in a scrum or two in his life and not have to resort to using his stick to keep himself safe. I dunno, I guess you do what you have to when a monster like Savard is coming at you. A girl’s gotta protect herself in a situation like that.

Normally, I'd read that and say, "yup, sounds like Mathieu." But this time, not so much. I actually saw that play (I won't brag about that because it was via an illegal feed before it went belly up), and while there may have been some stickwork from Mathieu (I didn't see any, but I wouldn't doubt it; he's resorted to stickwork rather than glove dropping many more times than not in his career), he didn't run shrieking. I know this because I sat slack-jawed at my computer thinking "WTF, is that Mathieu having to be held back? Does he realize he'd get killed?" I was amazed at what I was seeing. I don't think I'd seen him riled up like that in ages. Usually he starts scrums, and then wiggles free and skates away whistling when other players push and shove.

Then there is this from general borschevsky:

Mathieu Schneider is the only ex-Maple Leaf who creeps me out as much as Glenn Anderson. Maybe it's his rat-face, or his rat-like tendencies on the ice, or the fact that in his 3 seasons as a Leaf, they missed the playoffs twice and the one year they did make it, they lost in the first round to St. Louis and Schneider had twice as many penalty minutes(8) as points(4). I'll give him this - he's been in the league for a long, long time. Since 1989-90 he's played for 8 different teams and is back for his second go round with Montreal. He makes me want to puke. I hope they get demolished. In the opener against Boston, Schneider had zero points and was a minus 2.

Personally, I think he looks more like a ferret, but I can concede that his Toronto years were not his best years. They were some of his worst actually. In many ways. Not much more to say than that.

So there ya go, some hatin' for your Sunday.