Ray Whitney wants the kids to quit texting their girlfriends at work

Dallas Stars forward Ray Whitney recently spoke with Mayor’s Manor about a variety of subjects — specifically, his ideas on how young players should conduct themselves.

Whitney, 40, is the NHL’s fourth-oldest player and is in the midst of his 21st season. He didn’t yell at the kids to get off his lawn or anything, but it’s still a good rant nonetheless:

In my day, if you were to walk around with your headset on and ride the bike with a cell phone in your hand – stuff like that pisses me off.

It’s the one thing I can relate to the young guys. I say, ‘Listen, when you’re at the rink it’s work time. You can put your stuff away, and you can worry about your girlfriend’s text messaging and stuff later. It’s time to get down to business.’

So there’s differences in the game now with how people are, how people act, and how they think they should be treated.

I’m still a little bit old school, where you get treated how you work and how you perform.

It’s gotta be tough for Whitney to relate sometimes. I mean, the guy made his NHL debut in 1992, the same year Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak was born. (Ironically enough, Oleksiak made his NHL debut this season.)

Dallas also has a bunch of regulars that are 23 or younger — Jamie Benn, Antoine Roussel, Brenden Dillon, Cody Eakin — so you can’t blame Whitney for occasionally snapping when they’re goofing around on their iFacepads or whatever. He comes by it naturally.

Anyway, the entire Mayor’s Manor interview is pretty good, so definitely go check it out. Be sure to read Whitney’s bit about how it’s important to crush a few beers with the guys after the game, so long as the wife is cool with it. Some solid life advice there.