Tom Brady

Brad Marchand Somehow Was Voted the NHL's Best and Worst Trash-talker

NHL players all agree that Brad Marchand talks a lot of trash.

What they can't agree on, however, is whether the Boston Bruins winger is good at it.

The NHL Players Association on Wednesday published its 2018-19 Player Poll, in which it surveyed more than 500 players on 20-plus questions.

And in the most on-brand result ever, Marchand received the most votes for "Who is the game's best trash talker?" and "Who is the game's worst trash talker?"

We told you the guy was polarizing.

Marchand actually ran away with both categories: His 21.3 percent of votes for "best trash talker" nearly doubled those of Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (11.8 percent).

Meanwhile, his 12.5 percent of votes for "worst trash talker" easily bested the Vancouver Canucks' Antoine Roussel at 5.5 percent.

Our theory: Marchand is a very effective trash-talker, and those who voted him the worst just allowed the pesky forward to get under their skin. (That or they're just sick of all his tweets.)

Marchand's teammate, Patrice Bergeron, also got some love in the player poll, garnering a third-place 9.2 percent of votes in the "most difficult player to play against" category and a fourth-place 1.7 percent of votes for "Which player would you select to start a franchise with?"

Oh, and because everything comes back to the New England Patriots around here: 8.7 percent of NHL players named quarterback Tom Brady their favorite athlete to watch outside of hockey, behind only Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and LeBron James.

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