Hamilton's Krys Barch takes shot at NHL owners on twitter

Hamilton's Krys Barch plays a tough game for the New Jersey Devils on the ice. He doesn't pull punches off the ice either.

NHL players have been locked out by owners since September 16. Barch gave NHL owners a piece of his mind over twitter in a rant that spanned 26 posts.

“I wonder if the owners of Boston, New York, Washington, etc., etc., have endured any of the injuries that I or any other player in the NHL have endured,” Barch wrote on his Twitter account (@krysbarch).

"Still they probably sit [there] smoking the same brand of cigar, sipping the same cognac and going on vacation to one of five houses they own while we sit here knowing [they] want to take 20 per cent of our paychecks. One half to three-quarters of my peers will have to work, for the next 50 years of their lives."

“I haven’t been a first-round pick, bonus baby or a son of a Hall of Famer,” the Hamilton native wrote, describing himself as an NHLer in a position no different than a truck driver, farmer or [factory] line worker, who has worked for each second of his hockey service.

“I have made it through sweating, bleeding, cut Achilles, broken hands, concussions, broken orbital bones, eight teeth knocked out, etc.”

Barch’s agent, Scott Norton, told ESPN that the player stands by his comments.

“Krys was saying ‘This is what my heart says, I’m going to say it,” said Norton of Barch, who signed a two-year deal worth $1.5 million US contract in the summer. “I think he was certainly emotional and speaking from the heart.”

Recently, Barch also spoke out against the Ontario Hockey League’s decision to start suspending frequent fighters.

Barch was born in Hamilton and played his junior hockey with the London Knights. He has 12 goals, 31 points and 669 penalty minutes in his NHL career.