Dale Hunter Hit/Pierre Turgeon Injury (1993 Playoffs)

[Jim MacDonald]

Hey everybody!

This may be a lame/uneventful post but I'm curious. Dale Hunter's hit on Turgeon in the 93 playoffs....was there more to just Hunter being incredibly upset and made a bad decision "in the heat of the moment"? e.g. 1. Did Hunter have a bad series as a whole against the Isles prior to this action? 2. I wonder if Turgeon and Hunter were matched up against each other quite a bit in that series and Turgeon maybe really got the best of that matchup?

Just wondered if there was "additional context" that isn't widely/publicly known or it is was just simple as a stupid decision. Thanks!-Jim

 

[Staniowski]

Hey everybody!

This may be a lame/uneventful post but I'm curious. Dale Hunter's hit on Turgeon in the 93 playoffs....was there more to just Hunter being incredibly upset and made a bad decision "in the heat of the moment"? e.g. 1. Did Hunter have a bad series as a whole against the Isles prior to this action? 2. I wonder if Turgeon and Hunter were matched up against each other quite a bit in that series and Turgeon maybe really got the best of that matchup?

Just wondered if there was "additional context" that isn't widely/publicly known or it is was just simple as a stupid decision. Thanks!-Jim

I think it was just the realization that Turgeon's goal meant the series was over. Before the goal, Washington still had a slight hope they could come back. But Turgeon's goal put it out of reach.

And Hunter was embarrassed, I think, that he caused it...it was now out of reach because of him.

Plus, it was that bastard, Turgeon! Seriously, if it was Gretzky or Lemieux who picked him off, Hunter wouldn't have attacked them.

 

[Crosby2010]

This was the goal that put an official nail in the coffin for the Caps. Hunter actually had a good series for the Caps. 7 goals and 1 assist in 6 games. But the score was 4-1 in a deciding game and Hunter coughed it up and Turgeon made it 5-1 with 8 minutes left. That ends the game for sure. The slim chance the Caps had to win just went out the window. And this was a tight series. Lots of overtimes and the Isles won them all. It was definitely bad sportsmanship and frustration on his part because the Caps got eliminated that night. His suspension for a while was the biggest one in NHL history. Here is a lesser known fact. That game ended in a 5-3 win. The Caps made that game interesting, even after the Turgeon incident. They got a short handed and a power play goal to narrow it down. So when you think about it, that Turgeon goal was truly an insurance marker. It turned out to be rather important.

 

[The Panther]

I think it was mainly because (as noted) Hunter had coughed up the puck. When you do that, and the guy you're supposed to be checking scores on a kind of a 'gimme', it's embarrassing. He took out his embarrassment on the guy who did the natural thing and scored... What an idiot Hunter was there.

I wonder, too, if Turgeon's little extra fist-pump after the goal wasn't the final spark to set Hunter off. If Turgeon had played it cool, maybe he avoids being injured. Either way, Hunter was a grade-A ass.

 

[MadLuke]

I wonder, too, if Turgeon's little extra fist-pump after the goal wasn't the final spark to set Hunter off. If Turgeon had played it cool,

Probably, but felt like a playoff series clinching goal scored at home... quite under the code of thing that get celebrated.