Darcy Tucker A Bench Chatterbox

You’ve heard the expression ‘all talk and no action makes a Jack a dull boy?’

Well, meet the real Jack, the Leafs’ Darcy Tucker.

It turns out he’s both all talk and all action.

One of the team’s best scoring threats is also one of the Buds’ best talkers.

In fact, his mates admit they can’t shut him up on the bench.

He’s always mouthing off about something – the referees, other players, even himself.

Is anybody listening?

“He’s into the game,” shrugs coach Paul Maurice. “He’s either running somebody or getting run. He likes to have a chat with the referee once in a while. So we don’t have to do it as a bench.”

Mats Sundin is typically unwilling to talk about all that talking.

“He brings a lot of energy, you know,” he begins. “Everybody’s different. Some guys prepare mentally, they really don’t say anything on the bench. Some guys like Darcy, it keeps him in the game.”

But when pressed, Sundin admits all that chatter can sometimes get annoying. Still, that’s a good thing.

“It keeps him focused on what he’s supposed to do. It keeps him angry. And he usually plays better when he is a little angry.”

Travis Green has seen various incarnations of Tucker during his frequent stints with the Leafs. He thinks the guy has changed.

“He’s became a better player,” he attests. “He’s been put in a spot to where he’s been given a chance to play some positions that he hasn’t before and he’s taking the ball and running with it.”

As in running at the mouth.

So what does the man at the centre of all this gabbing have to say about the assessments of his verbal volleys?

He doesn’t really care what they think. “As you get older things like looking good and feeling great seem to go out the window,” he explains. “You try to survive and get by and do the things it takes to survive.”

Now that’s worth talking about. And you can be sure that come game time, Tucker will be.