11/21/24
September 16, 2009
30 dirty players in 30 days: "I have finished my 30 Dirty Players in 30 Days feature. Over the month of August, we featured the all-time dirtiest player from each NHL Team - From Anaheim to Washington.".....
18. CHI Bobby Hull - Nice guy on the ice. Too bad his wife didn't play hockey.
22. VAN Todd Bertuzzi - In this case, one cheapshot does make you a dirty player.
29. FLA Brian McCabe - This "Flying Ass" was the inventor of the "Can Opener".
30. COL Steve Moore - Of course he didn't deserve it, but his hit on Naslund was dirty.
And 26 others ...
What a load of shit.
Steve Moore? Seriously ?
There was no penalty called on his hit on Naslund, and the league did not suspend him.
Steve Moore was anything but a dirty player. Tough and gritty, yes. Dirty? No.
Lemieux was enough of a chicken shit to be the dirtiest player on 2 teams.
Claude Lemieux on Victor Kozlov, Claude Lemieux on Kris Draper (both when he was with Colorado).
Tucker wasn't even the dirtiest player when he played with Toronto. Tie Domi gets that prize. Ryan Hollweg is the worst recent dirty player.
The list is lazy, very few players, owners, or agents from before 1990.
He did get one right. Dale Hunter of the Capitols.
posted by tommybiden at 03:19 PM on September 16, 2009
Bobby Clarke over Dave Schulz?
posted by mjkredliner at 04:36 PM on September 16, 2009
Bobby Clarke over Dave Schulz?
Oh, absolutely. Schultz was a goon, a one dimensional fighter, but he fought. A lot. And not all of them were patsies. And yes, he picked on some weaker players too -- that whole damn Flyers disgrace of a team did.
But Clarke was dirty in a way that Schultz was just rough.
Clarke is Jeffrey Dahmer to Schultz' Mafia hitman.
Clarke was a dirty little stick-weasel, a hacker, a spitter, a whiner, a spearer, and ultimately, a cowardly little subhuman piece of vindictive shit who hid behind Schultz, Dupont, Dornhoefer and the rest of that embarassment to Philly.
posted by rumple at 06:08 PM on September 16, 2009
Also, they forgot Matt Cooke.
posted by rumple at 06:10 PM on September 16, 2009
I agree with tommytrump. What a lazy list.
Selecting Pocklington for the Oilers? Sure, the guy's scum - in fact, a short article like that can only skim the surface - but we have actual players here. Some of them were even cheap.
Consider Craig Muni, the skating knee injury. He'd be suspended all the time if he played now. I was glad to see him go.
Mark Messier could be a real cheap shot artiste when he wanted; just ask Joel Otto. McSorley's spear of Gilmour in the playoffs was so subtle, no one saw it until the third replay.
posted by alex_reno at 08:43 PM on September 16, 2009
Clarke was a dirty little stick-weasel, a hacker, a spitter, a whiner, a spearer, and ultimately, a cowardly little subhuman piece of vindictive shit who hid behind Schultz, Dupont, Dornhoefer and the rest of that embarassment to Philly.
So rumple, tell us how you really feel.
You forgot gutless piece of shit.
posted by tommybiden at 08:43 PM on September 16, 2009
You forgot lazy, no good, and worthless.
No go make me a turkey pot pie.
This list blows, by the way.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 09:19 PM on September 16, 2009
Clarke was a dirty little stick-weasel, a hacker, a spitter, a whiner, a spearer, and ultimately, a cowardly little subhuman piece of vindictive shit who hid behind Schultz, Dupont, Dornhoefer and the rest of that embarassment to Philly.
Dude, I couldnt have said it better myself. Been bottling that up have you? :)
Now, as a lifelong Ranger fan I would like to put forth a question.
Was Nick Fotiu (1970's era New York Ranger) protector or a goon?
I ask because he was one of my favorite players as a child. My Dad and I would go to the Garden early for Rangers games as often as we could. After each warm up Nick would grab a handful pucks and throw them high into the upper decks. He would say that as a kid he could only afford those cheap seast and that he watched as the kids in the expensive seats would get all the pucks from the players. He was also one of the few American players in the NHL at the time.
I know he wasnt a great player and I watched him brutally beat guys on the ice, but my Dad would defend him saying he was protecting the Swedes(Ulf Neilsen etc.) from the other goons. In all honesty it seemed at the time that at least he fought big guys. I mean I never saw him drub a little guy or a defenseless guy but he sure did more fighting than shooting. I now wonder if my childhood view was jaded by his off the ice demeanor. What is the perception of other hockey fans who can remember back that far :)
Oh and Rumple, I never got to see Nick kick the everloving shit out out of Bobby Clarke but I always dreamed of watching it.
Of course I did watch him deliver a systematic beating to Stan Jonathan which, in my book, was the next best thing :)
posted by firecop at 10:41 PM on September 16, 2009
no one has even mentioned the obvious. Bob Probert and Ty Domi. not including them is just sacreligious
posted by Debo270 at 09:22 AM on September 17, 2009
Bob Probert and Ty Domi
I did mention Tie Domi.
I don't regard Probert as a dirty player. He was a tough player, a fighter, but not dirty, at least as far as I recall.
posted by tommybiden at 10:26 AM on September 17, 2009
Hell no, Fotiu wasn't a dirty player. As I recall he was a typical "enforcer". I am not a big fan of fighting in hockey, especially nowadays when it is hyped as a theatrical exhibition. "Back in the day" more players would fight to protect themselves, especially from dirty stickwork. I'm guessing 3/4 of the players in the league would pick up a fighting major every year, compared to, I dunno, 15% now? And if you used a dirty stick you knew you might be called to account, and were expected to fight, by the opposition and by your own team-mates. They had a sense of honour, so to speak.
Enforcers were tough guys who could play some and fight some --- but really, the "enforcer role" of boxer on skates was pretty much a response to the Philadelphia goons of the 1970s, who cynically protected their own dirty players with specialist goons like Schultz. Their dirty players, who wouldn't be tolerated by their own team-mate on other teams, got all emboldened knowing they could get away with anything, and they did. Pretty soon, all teams had to be able to mix it up with the Flyers whose unashamed gameplan was to carve you up, not beat you at hockey. Meaning they were willing to compromise hockey skill much more in favour of fighting talent and aggression. So, Fotiu, I don't blame him or teams who employed him because the real blame lies with the Flyers. Everything after was self defence.
I don't even blame players like Schulz, particularly, because he was out there fighting some pretty touch SOBs, though he did lay excess beatings on some pacifists too.
Eff me, I remember being about 10 and watching a Flyers goon, Dornhoefer I think, pummelling Borje Salming endlessly during a brawl, with Salming turtled on the ice, and even then, I thought, you asswipe, what must Salming be thinking, is this what he played hockey for on the outdoor rinks of Sweden, welcome to Canada, I am ashamed. [And I hate the Leafs as much as the Flyers].
And a long term legacy of the Flyers was that Gretzky had to play most of his career with guys like Cementhead and McSorely as one of his wingers - someone not just tough, but ridiculously tough and dirty because the idea was not that Gretzky needed protection from normal hockey but that he needed protection from cheap shot artists who followed in Bobby Clarke and Ken Linseman's wake. Imagine Gretzky in the prime of his career playing not with Kurri and Semenko, but with Kurri and, say Anderson.
Only now, with two referees helping a lot, I think, is the dirty stick leaving the game and the players are playing, ironically making the specialist enforcer a bit of a dying breed. Now, if before they died out, some of those dinosaurs would please lay a beat down or three on the middleweight gutless pieces of shit like Matt Cooke and Ruutu and Avery.
I've said before that I hate the Flyers, and I am sorry if your favorite team sucks, but they will never in a million years of pacifism and kissing babies overcome their legacy of spineless and reprehensible bullshit and the 30 years of damage they did to the game through their cowardly and dishonourable tactics.
Though Rick MacLeish was ok.
Anyway, anyone who tags a Flyer like at the end of this fight is ok with me.
posted by rumple at 11:50 AM on September 17, 2009
And yeah, Probert was a throwback, a tough guy who could play, brought down by booze. I love the SOB even though he was an SOB and never played on my team. Not dirty as I recall, just a big lunky two fisted punch drunk on skates.
posted by rumple at 11:52 AM on September 17, 2009
Sorry i missed that tommy. Tie domi was a thug. I guess the more i think about it, Probert wasnt dirty, just a killer and a tough guy. Wasnt he banned at one point from playing games in Canada because of his arrests there?
posted by Debo270 at 01:38 PM on September 17, 2009
Probert wasnt dirty, just a killer and a tough guy.
Killer? No. You must be thinking of Rob Ramage.
Probert had numerous run-in's with the law. Most related to drugs and alcohol.
According to Wikipedia, there's nothing about being banned from playing in Canada.
posted by tommybiden at 01:55 PM on September 17, 2009
I know he didnt kill anyone, figure of speech, no hookers hidden in trunks or anything. but he would knock your head off on the ice.
I just thought at one point because of his drug arrest, he could not get a passport or wasn't allowed into canada one season. Maybe I am wrong on that one.
posted by Debo270 at 02:59 PM on September 17, 2009
This profile skips past his All-Star game and his leading the Wings in playoff points to focus on the important legal issues and outstanding pugilistic record (including video highlights) of "The Greatest Hockey Player of All Time."
posted by rumple at 04:18 PM on September 17, 2009
if you read the link rumple posted, it mentions that Probert needs a special waiver every time he crosses the border cause oif his arrests. amybe thats what i was thinking of.
posted by Debo270 at 01:15 PM on September 18, 2009
if you read the link rumple posted, it mentions that Probert needs a special waiver every time he crosses the border cause oif his arrests. amybe thats what i was thinking of.
posted by Debo270 at 01:15 PM on September 18, 2009
Can Nealy thinks Ulf Sammulson should have been higher up the list. Ulf pretty much ended hit career with a low hit. Eric Lindros would (if he remembered)but has still yet to recover from the concussion ULF gave him on one of the most brutal open ice hits I have ever seen. Lindros missed half a season with that concussion and that pretty much finished him off too.
Ulf will be coaching they Coyotes this season depending on what you read about Gretzky. If you are playing a team coached by him, better keep that head on a swivel