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Dale Hunter Hit/Pierre Turgeon Injury (1993 Playoffs)

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Jim MacDonald

Jim MacDonald

Registered User
Oct 7, 2017
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183
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
 
Jim MacDonald said:
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
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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MadLuke said:



Probably, but felt like a playoff series clinching goal scored at home... quite under the code of thing that get celebrated.
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I always admire Cherry's loyalty and his comment on "you never bail on a friend" type of thing. I agree with that, and he's talking about Hunter here. It was always consistent with how Cherry went about his business. But I do remember when he did say about Turgeon "hot dogging" on that goal. To be honest, I never felt it was a hot dog what Turgeon did. Even as he is about to fist pump, it doesn't matter, because Hunter is already on the verge of attacking him. He was going to hit him regardless and it more or less coincided with Turgeon starting the fist pump. So I never thought that was the reason. It was poor sportsmanship by Hunter and he lost his temper and was going to do it either way. Nothing I saw from Turgeon made me think he was rubbing anything in. He wasn't that type of showboater.
 
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And if you do not celebrate a playoff series goal clinching goal, what would be ok ? (it was not 5-0 late in the third, the game was still in play until that goal), only overtime goal that win the cup ?

The crowd was singing nah, nah, nah goodbye just before, which did not help, but it is pro-sport...
 
Yes, nothing wrong with Turgeon having a 'hot dog' there if he'd wanted (not saying he did so).

My point (yesterday) was just to say that maybe (who knows?) if Turgeon hadn't gone to the fist-pump, Hunter might not have boiled over to psycho-maniac level (from his normal mere 'maniac' level of play).

When I saw it in slow motion yesterday, it appears that Hunter sees the goal go in and just stands there, and then as Turgeon starts to fist-pump, Hunter rushes him from behind and delivers his violent cheap-shot.

I foresee 10 pages of analysis of this video in slow motion, akin to the JFK assassination.

Back.. and to the left.... Back... and to the left....
 
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MadLuke said:



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

Not Cherry's finest 2 minutes. Though he did point out Ulf getting nothing for his actions. Still amazing that the Turgeon-less Isles upset the 2 time defending Stanley Cup champions next round, with the little Ferrara guy leading the way.
 
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Let me preface this by saying that at the time this happened, it was by far the most shocking thing I had ever seen during a hockey game in terms of thuggery. I was 15 at the time. Hunter was a player who used physicality and intimidation as part of his repertoire, but this was beyond the pale.

Since OP is asking, I’ll add my speculation that Dale Hunter was also an “old school” hockey guy. Watching Don Cherry campaign should be enough evidence of that. Additionally, Turgeon was not an “old school” guy- as evidenced by his lack of involvement in Piestany. I believe that disdain also factored in to Hunter’s decision- if it can be classified as a decision.
 
Don Cherry never makes that comment if Peter Sturgeon scores that goal.
 
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