Nick Cousins is rapidly becoming the most unpopular player in the NHL. Earlier this season, he was the top pick in The Athletic’s player poll for who’s the NHL’s most punchable player. And it wasn’t surprising, given the season Cousins had.
The Panthers’ forward was involved in a controversial incident with Erik Gudbranson in the early stages of the season. Cousins had delivered two poor hits during the game, and eventually, Gudbranson went after him. But Cousins would turtle while Gudbranson was going at him, making fans furious.
Not long after that, he continued his streak of cheap hits with a nasty-looking one against Coyotes’ Jusso Valimaki, who was on his knees close to the boards. The hit from Cousins led to retaliation from Jason Zucker, who even got a suspension for his hit on Cousins.
Now, the Panthers’ forward is at it again, infuriating fans with his behavior on the ice. In Tuesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, Cousins got a tap in the head by Jordan Greenway’s glove.
Cousins acted like something way worse had just happened as he dropped down to the ice, acting like he had a severe injury. No one paid attention to Cousins, and as a fight broke out just next to him, Cousins flew up from the ice to join the action – just a couple of seconds after he went down, pretending to be injured.
Nick Cousins’ reputation isn’t improving with things like this happening, and to no one’s surprise, he was absolutely slammed for his diving on social media.
”This would be a perfect opportunity for players safety to throw the book at embellishing, but it aint gonna happen cause player safety is a joke in the NHL,” one said.
”And proceeds to jump the smallest dude on the ice, from behind,” another said.
”That is the most soccer thing ive ever seen on ice,” a third said.
