Biggest hit in NHL history

[The Professional]

What is the biggest hit(that we have footage of) in NHL history?

Here are a few nominees that I could dig up on YouTube. I'm sure there are several that I am forgetting about. Feel free to add your own choices to the thread.

Scott Stevens on Eric Lindros, 2000
Brian Campbell on RJ Umberger, 2006
Pat Quinn on Bobby Orr, 1969
Trevor Linden on Jeff Norton, 1995
Niklas Kronwall on Jakub Voracek, 2012
Chris Neil on Johnny Boychuk, 2012
Larry Robinson on Gary Dornhoefer, 1976

 

[Habsfan18]

Larry Robinson checking Gary Dornhoefer into the boards in 1976 was described by a few people as the hardest hit they had ever seen. A maintenance man actually had to come out and nail the board back into place. Ken Dryden discusses the hit in “The Game.”

 

[The Professional]

Larry Robinson checking Gary Dornhoefer into the boards in 1976 was described by a few people as the hardest hit they had ever seen. A maintenance man actually had to come out and nail the board back into place. Ken Dryden discusses the hit in “The Game.”

Good one. Here is the footage:

Robinson hit Dornhoefer

I'm gonna add it to the poll.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Subban on Marchand and Byfuglien on Stone are two of the biggest collisions I recall seeing

 

[The Panther]

On the OP's list, that Campbell on Umberger hit always makes me shudder. That is absolutely brutal. I would not have been surprised that Umberger was dead after that one...

 

[The Panther]

Subban on Marchand

That's another great one! Holy hell, that was a nice hit. (Good to see Marchand get what he deserved on that one, too!)

 

[The Panther]

I've always enjoyed this Messier - Clark collision from 1987. (I remember watching this game live when I was a tyke.) Two good guys with a very clean open-ice hit on each other. Don't see this much anymore:

 

[scott clam]

Ovechkin on Jagr in the '06 Olympics deserves an honorable mention.

 

[Buffalowing1988]

On the OP's list, that Campbell on Umberger hit always makes me shudder. That is absolutely brutal. I would not have been surprised that Umberger was dead after that one...

He tried to fight Campbell for that the following season and for Campbell it seemed like he was just doing the honorable thing and getting it over with but you could tell Umberger was livid. He'd go on to try and fight him with Columbus in 08 as well. Something about that hit did not sit well with him but maybe I'm biased because I thought it was clean.

I'll vote for Robinson's hit as the hardest/biggest, though.

 

[hacksaw7]

Wendel Clark on Bruce Bell. About as perfect and clean a check as you'll ever see. Stopped him dead in his tracks. The impact of this is absolutely earth shaking

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

Several in this compilation. 1:05, 3:54, and 4:28 in particular.

 

[hacksaw7]

There was another hit that unfortunately I can't find a good video of, bit it was Kyle McLare on Petr Cajanek. A vicious and perfectly timed hip check. Wish this was clearer...it's a beaut

 

[VMBM]

Messier on Modano, anyone?

 

[Zanex]

Messier on Modano, anyone?

You beat me to it lol. Worst hit I ever saw. Damn Messier was dirty!

 

[alko]

Darcy Tucker to Sami Kapanen - sure nomination for a top 10 spot.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Robinson's hit was meaningful as a passing-of-the-torch moment between the goonish Flyers to the elegant Canadiens. It has my vote.

Stevens on Lindros was a huge hit historically, but a lot of that is based on Lindros' name power. I know it was an important playoff game too, but nobody cares about that. The real story was the death of the Lindros Terminator, like prime Mike Tyson getting knocked out by a single devastating punch.

I'm sure there were very significant hits from earlier eras, but none specifically come to mind right now.

 

[sr edler]

Messier on Modano, anyone?

This isn't much of a hit, or a hit at all, it's an elbow to the head. This is a bit of a peeve of mine, but hits are bodychecks. Messier doesn't throw an ounce of body into Modano, he just chicken wings him.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Konstantinov on Hawerchuck in the 97 finals.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

This isn't much of a hit, or a hit at all, it's an elbow to the head. This is a bit of a peeve of mine, but hits are bodychecks. Messier doesn't throw an ounce of body into Modano, he just chicken wings him.

That’s most of Messier’s career. He was a really dirty player.

 

[57special]

 

[57special]

Bobby Baun used to be a big hitter, and a proponent of the hip check. Curt Giles was the last guy i can think of who preferred the hip check. Little guy, but thick, and his timing was impeccable. Some of the old school guys like Kurtenback, Howe, Horton, and Lindsay were ridiculously tough, and must've laid out all sorts of people.

 

[The Professional]

Ouch. I had forgotten about that one. Definitely a candidate for hardest hit of all time.

Personally, I voted for Chris Neil on Johnny Boychuk. But it might be because I was actually in attendance for that game. Hardest hit I've ever seen live, you could hear the thud sound all the way up in the 300 section. The definition of stopped dead in his tracks and a clean hit to. One of the only hits I can think of where both the guy who threw the hit and the guy receiving it went down.

Chris Neil was definitely a freight train and one of the best hitters of the 21st Century NHL. He absolutely laid out a bunch of guys throughout his career, and always clean as well as he was never suspended.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Also this

 

[GMR]

Stevens' biggest hit was on Kozlov

Kronwall's biggest hit was on Havlat.