NHL's Most Notorious Cheap Shot Artists

[NyQuil]

Surprised nobody has mentioned Pronger yet. That Dean McAmmond cheapshot was brutal.

Looking back Dean McAmmond has been on the other side of some real ugly cheap shots.

He famously said:

I don't have concussion problems. I have got a problem with people giving me traumatic blows to the head, that's what I have got a problem with.

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

f*** Matt Cooke

 

[1Dimensional2WayFrwd]

When I look at all the other names in this thread, this post confirms (if it ever was in doubt) that Boston irreparably broke Vancouver in 2011.

Yes there are worse offenders like Cooke, Samuelsson and most likely bunch of guys from the 70's who predate my birth.

But all the clipping and slewfooting are definetly cheapshots in my book and Marchand sure as hell has more than fair share of such antics on top of all the other weird shit over the years.

Also, not a 'nucks fan. There's something serioulsy rotten in that organization. f*** Cooke. f*** Marchand and f*** the canucks.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

It’s crazy to me that Messier’s reputation for dirty play has managed to stay so small. The dude was absolutely ruthless (and according to many, he sucks as a person as well).

I think the thing with Messier, and Stevens was that they both played to the "rules of the era".
Intimidation was a HUUUGE part of the game back then. So was understanding where the line was, and played right on the line (while frequently going over).

Blindside hits were legal. Headshots were legal. Elbows were 2mins.

We can look back now through the lens of what we know regarding player safety, but those 2 were both 1st ballot HHOF who intimidated the entire league and bullied their way to multiple Stanley Cups.

Neither were considered dirty back in the day.


We look back on them now with disdain, but the saying back then was "keep your head up".


Marchments Knee-on-Knees were dirty as f***.
Gary Suters crosscheck in the face of a player who celebrated scoring a goal was dirty as f***.


Messier and Stevens skirted the line, but weren't considered dirty by the standards of the game back then.

 

[Number8]

Yes there are worse offenders like Cooke, Samuelsson and most likely bunch of guys from the 70's who predate my birth.

But all the clipping and slewfooting are definetly cheapshots in my book and Marchand sure as hell has more than fair share of such antics on top of all the other weird shit over the years.

Also, not a 'nucks fan. There's something serioulsy rotten in that organization. f*** Cooke. f*** Marchand and f*** the canucks.

My mistake on the Canucks.

I'm not defending Marchand by any stretch of the imagination. He's deserved all the hate he gets. He's just a minor leaguer in terms of the leagues real villains.

How he got targeted for his slew foots (deservedly) while PK Subban made a career of it just shows how stupid the wheels of NHL justice are.

To me the real cheap shot artists are those many have mentioned:

Head hunters: Torres, Cooke, etc,
Hackers and slashers: McSorely, Cicarelli, Clarke, etc
Knee hunters: Marchement, Samuellson, etc.

 

[Number8]

I think the thing with Messier, and Stevens was that they both played to the "rules of the era".
Intimidation was a HUUUGE part of the game back then. So was understanding where the line was, and played right on the line (while frequently going over).

Blindside hits were legal. Headshots were legal. Elbows were 2mins.

We can look back now through the lens of what we know regarding player safety, but those 2 were both 1st ballot HHOF who intimidated the entire league and bullied their way to multiple Stanley Cups.

Neither were considered dirty back in the day.


We look back on them now with disdain, but the saying back then was "keep your head up".


Marchments Knee-on-Knees were dirty as f***.
Gary Suters crosscheck in the face of a player who celebrated scoring a goal was dirty as f***.


Messier and Stevens skirted the line, but weren't considered dirty by the standards of the game back then.

Messier was a truly dirty piece of shit on the ice.

I'm amazed that nobody ever Bobby Clarke'd his ankles.

Easy to do and more than deserved.

 

[Toby91ca]

Dale Hunter has gotten a lot of mentions here deservedly so, he actually is responsible for some of the biggest cheapshots in league history in my mind (hit on Turgeon, hit on Nieuwendyk and elbow on Murphy).

Bobby Clarke has only been mentioned once or twice, probably deserves some more here.

Gary Suter I've only seen once...his cross check to the face was mentioned, but he's also blamed for ruining Gretzky's back and his two hander at the head of a Russian in Canada Cup.

 

[Deadpool8812]

Shocked there's no mention of "captain" Mark Messier

This guy could feed an entire homeless population if he served them his elbows

Probably because the avg user here is too young

 

[thewookie1]

Ovi was a dirty hitter in his youth; boarded Danny Briere after he'd just returned from an injury.
Chris Neal's flying elbow on Drury caused a literal brawl for the ages.

Kaleta was a mixed bag; started off dirty, tried to reform but got dinged anytime he hit someone questionably and had both his hands practically destroyed which left him with almost no puck handling skills; and then finished his career soon after.

 

[57special]

Never quite understood the Reaves argument. He's thrown 3 bad hits that have led to supplementary discipline. Guess how many total hits he's thrown? Over 3000. It's actually impressive that he's been able to stay clean compared to many of the other big hitters around the league for as long as he has. He doesn't belong in the same sentence as Hartman or Wilson.

Agreed.Reaves throws crunching hits, but goes out of his way to keep his arms in, and seldom gets penalized for his hits. He seems very conscious of the fact that he could easily be targeted by refs for calls, and has tailored his physicality so that it does not cross the line, for the most part.

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

Mark Messier

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

It’s crazy to me that Messier’s reputation for dirty play has managed to stay so small. The dude was absolutely ruthless (and according to many, he sucks as a person as well).

I hate Messier so much.
For all the 'love' he gets it blows my mind.
Garbage.

 

[Toby91ca]

Messier was a truly dirty piece of shit on the ice.

I'm amazed that nobody ever Bobby Clarke'd his ankles.

Easy to do and more than deserved.

Hard to say, back in the day, an elbow to the head wasn't seen as crazy bad like it is now. Guys back then thought they might knock someone out with it or give them a bit of pain, but no one knew the actual damaging effects it actually has. I think the further back you go, the greater the %age of the league would be considered dirty.

Richard is another one.

 

[frisco]

Milan Lucic
Tom Wilson
Tie Domi

My Best-Carey

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Pronger was the master of camouflaging his hits where you would think it’s just a hockey hit but really he’s one of the dirtiest players in the league.

If he was in the league now fans of his team would defend his hits and just say "he's too big".

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Messier was a truly dirty piece of shit on the ice.

I'm amazed that nobody ever Bobby Clarke'd his ankles.

Easy to do and more than deserved.

If it was easy to do, then why didn't anyone do it?

Messier was clearly one of the most effective players of that era.
Why didn't everyone else do what Messier did?

Oh right, because they were scared little chicken shits.
Which is why Messier has 6 Stanley Cups, 2 Harts, and a Conn Smyth over Gretzky on the Oilers.

Players were legitimately scared of Messier.


You can complain about it all you want in hindsight, but that's HOW the game was played back then.
He literally played exactly like Gordie Howe did (although he clearly wasn't at Howe's level).


During his heyday, Messier wasn't considered to be a dirty player on the level of Marchment, Ulf Samuelsson, and Gary Suter. The narrative of Messier being dirty POS really started taking off after the 2005 lockout. Just like Scott Stevens.

 

[Favster]

This guy

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Bertuzzi, Hunter, and McSorley would have the claim to the three most notorious incidents. Darius Kasparitis, Chris Simon, Claude Lemieux, Bryan Marchment, Ken Linseman some others that just spring to mind.



Downie, Shaw, and Carcillo were all kind of the same brand of contemptible gutter trash. They're just in the general scumbag bin for me rather than notorious.



When you throw as many hits as Ovechkin has there are going to be some questionable ones. He's not even the most notorious cheap shot artist on his team. Would have Malkin as the dirtier player between the two.

I still think "Kasparitis" sounds like some kind of f***ing STD that doesn't ever go away or something

 

[miscs75]

Dale Hunter and that garbage he pulled on Turgeon in the 93 playoffs.

Stevens is the worst because he calls other guys predators for legal hits now and never comments on the shit he did.

We had a fanbase (from the same division) do that up until they traded one of the main culprits away.

 

[AvroArrow]

Guys who stood out to me as genuinely dirty players that try to injure opposing players with dirty hits/plays

Matt Cooke, Raffi Torres. These 2 belong in their own category in my opinion, worst of the worst.

Some others

Radko Gudas, Jamie Benn, Nikita Kucherov, Brad Marchand, Claude Lemieux, Jacob Trouba, Darcy Tucker, Tom Wilson, Sam Bennett, Todd Bertuzzi, Tie Domi

I see people mentioning Scott Stevens, but that doesn't make any sense to me. Most of his hits were legal in the era he played in, same with Pronger. We cant judge them based on todays rules.

 

[HighNote]

Scott Stevens is good too. right?

Um. No? Why would you think that?

 

[yeaher]

Dale Hunter and that garbage he pulled on Turgeon in the 93 playoffs.


We had a fanbase (from the same division) do that up until they traded one of the main culprits away.

trouba

 

[miscs75]

trouba

And the other guy they still have that’s too big to keep his he lows down.

 

[Number8]

Hard to say, back in the day, an elbow to the head wasn't seen as crazy bad like it is now. Guys back then thought they might knock someone out with it or give them a bit of pain, but no one knew the actual damaging effects it actually has. I think the further back you go, the greater the %age of the league would be considered dirty.

Richard is another one.

Oh, I agree. Different times.

I just know that if someone elbowed me in the head like he did regularly, I'd take his ankles out at some time in the near future. And when I say take them out, I mean a slash without any regard whatsoever for whether it breaks a bone or not.

Just because they didn't know about CTE back then doesn't mean an elbow to the head shouldn't have gotten a very harsh response. It's amazing, really.

 

[Number8]

If it was easy to do, then why didn't anyone do it?

Messier was clearly one of the most effective players of that era.
Why didn't everyone else do what Messier did?

Oh right, because they were scared little chicken shits.
Which is why Messier has 6 Stanley Cups, 2 Harts, and a Conn Smyth over Gretzky.

Players were legitimately scared of Messier.


You can complain about it all you want in hindsight, but that's HOW the game was played back then.
He literally played exactly like Gordie Howe did (although he clearly wasn't at Howe's level).


During his heyday, Messier wasn't considered to be a dirty player on the level of Marchment, Ulf Samuelsson, and Gary Suter. The narrative of Messier being dirty POS really started taking off after the 2005 lockout. Just like Scott Stevens.

Ease off on the anger, buddy. Take a breathe or two.

My point is simply that if someone elbowed me in the head like Messier did, I'd take a number and get payback somehow. Whether you would or not is irrelevant to me. I don't care.

If you think that delivering an elbow to the mush isn't a cheap play good for you.