The dirtiest player in the history of NHL

[GJB]

Though, in terms of recent-ish players, wonder if Laddy Scurco counts.

Wow he is out of jail and back playing hockey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladislav_%C5%A0%C4%8Durko

That seems scary.

 

[billybudd]

One final word about Cooke. Cooke wasn't the only over-the-line grinder in his era and arguably not even the dirtiest on a shift by shift basis. He was just the most-prominent because he was the most successful and took out the most-successful guy who had his career ended. In addition, he's really, really not a nice person, so isn't going to have apologists in the media or the hockey community like Torres has.

Seems to me that, per-minute, Ryan Hollweg put more people face first into the glass. Per-minute, Varada probably kneed and elbowed more guys (Varada once injured two goaltenders in the same game on purpose). Webb was probably guilty of more chargings. And Torres has a longer list of blatant headshots. Colby Armstrong a similarly long list of head shots including one more forced retirement than Cooke has.

I agree with much of your post...

But, Marchment was hardly a punching bag. That was part of what made him so frustrating. He could actually fight. If he stayed in his class, most guys who wanted to kill him couldn't do it.

I don't remember Gilmour being especially dirty (I'm not saying he was or wasn't, just don't recall).

I vaguely remember Gilmour going low on guys a lot. But yeah. What was frustrating about Marchment, other than that he was trying to end your season, is that it wasn't a given that anyone on your team would be able to do anything that might entice him to stop. With someone like Derian Hatcher, if you had a heavy enough heavy, he'd start being a lot gentler.

We should almost break this down and do It decade-by-decade or something as the standards really vary.

Guys in the '20s were flat-out trying to kill each other... Whereas today, a guy gets three games for punching too hard.

Charles Masson (etc)

 

[DisgruntledGoat*]

Gilmour definitely had a mean streak and made up for his lack of size with a lot of stickwork. I wouldn't call him predatory, though.

 

[Boxscore]

Bryan Marchment and Dale Hunter were the dirtiest I've ever seen. Sneaky, nasty, violent.

That said, Bobby Clarke had him moments as well. The fame "Kharlamov slash" and this...

 

[GJB]

Bryan Marchment and Dale Hunter were the dirtiest I've ever seen. Sneaky, nasty, violent.

That said, Bobby Clarke had him moments as well. The fame "Kharlamov slash" and this...

Wow. Great clip. So, so dirty.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Terrible player, but in recent years, Rinaldo.

 

[IComeInPeace]

Someone else may be able to shed some light on this but an ex NHLer (from many years ago) was telling me there were guys who would sharpen the tops of their wooden stick blades and use it to slash the backs of guys legs.

There were reports that Bill Laforge used to have his guys do that, and also sharpen the bottom edge of their visors so their opponents would mess up their hands during a fight.

I want to say I don't believe a head coach in the CHL would ever do something like that; however with everything I've read about Laforge, it seems to fit with his character.

There's probably a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than the average fan would think.

Dave Brown having his jerseys fit extra tight in the shoulder/chest area so his opponents had nothing to hold on to.

Others put Vaseline on the same areas so their opponents couldn't get a good jersey grab. Others just made it so their jerseys would come off really easily (i.e. The Rob Ray rule)

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Matt Johnson.

 

[Boxscore]

Wow. Great clip. So, so dirty.

Good ol' Clarkie. It takes a twisted individual to purposely butt-end another player in the eye socket with full force. Clarke would do prison time if he played today.

 

[TMLegend]

First guy that came to mind was Ulf Samuelsson. Darius Kasparitis was 2nd.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

One final word about Cooke. Cooke wasn't the only over-the-line grinder in his era and arguably not even the dirtiest on a shift by shift basis. He was just the most-prominent because he was the most successful and took out the most-successful guy who had his career ended. In addition, he's really, really not a nice person, so isn't going to have apologists in the media or the hockey community like Torres has.

Seems to me that, per-minute, Ryan Hollweg put more people face first into the glass. Per-minute, Varada probably kneed and elbowed more guys (Varada once injured two goaltenders in the same game on purpose). Webb was probably guilty of more chargings. And Torres has a longer list of blatant headshots. Colby Armstrong a similarly long list of head shots including one more forced retirement than Cooke has.

This post fantastically underrates Cooke. He has his reputation because in addition to the Savard hit, he's been a multifaceted despicable hockey player for basically his entire career. You're basically saying "well, he concussed dudes but not as bad as the guy known for concussing dudes, and then he kneed a bunch of dudes but not as bad as the worst knee guy, and then also boarded a bunch of dudes but not as bad as the guy known for boarding, and was a remorseless, unlikeable puke on top of that, but people only dislike him for one hit."

Torres has apologists because he gets the freaking book thrown at him while Cooke gets to go on the phoniest forgiveness tour and still participate in playoff hockey after changing yet another game/series with a disgusting hit.

 

[billybudd]

This post fantastically underrates Cooke. He has his reputation because in addition to the Savard hit, he's been a multifaceted despicable hockey player for basically his entire career. You're basically saying "well, he concussed dudes but not as bad as the guy known for concussing dudes, and then he kneed a bunch of dudes but not as bad as the worst knee guy, and then also boarded a bunch of dudes but not as bad as the guy known for boarding, and was a remorseless, unlikeable puke on top of that, but people only dislike him for one hit."

Torres has apologists because he gets the freaking book thrown at him while Cooke gets to go on the phoniest forgiveness tour and still participate in playoff hockey after changing yet another game/series with a disgusting hit.

Get out of here with this. Torres came back from a 20 game suspension and just went right on elbowing everyone he saw. Phony regret or not (and it was definitely phony), Cooke came back from his own 20 gamer and behaved himself for 3 years. Both players had the book thrown at them; Torres simply refused to even pretend to budge on the behavior, so it kept getting thrown at him.

Sure Cooke was despicable. But I saw more dangerous hits from Hollweg during his short career than I saw from Cooke in his own overlap. And this is to say nothing of someone like Trevor Gillies, who was getting 10 game suspensions in his first shift back from 10 game suspensions, then heading over to Russia and assaulting wedding parties for standing a little too close to his car. I'd also venture a guess that Rinaldo is way ahead of Cooke on major penalties vs minutes played. Cooke just played for many more minutes on account of being way, way better. He's remembered as so bad not because he was dirtier than the rest of the line-steppers, but because he was more prominent than them and his hockey skills kept him in the game for 10 more years than theirs did.

Like Claude Lemieux before him, Cooke wasn't the dirtiest guy; he was just the most-successful dirty guy among his contemporaries.

Pronger might have been an answer you'd get to this question for the same reason. Pronger was dirty. But he was nothing compared to Purinton. Nobody remembers that because Pronger played 1100 games and Purinton played 180.

 

[Demon Eyes]

Bryan Marchment and Dale Hunter were the dirtiest I've ever seen. Sneaky, nasty, violent.

That said, Bobby Clarke had him moments as well. The fame "Kharlamov slash" and this...

dude didn't even act like he was shot

 

[sr edler]

First guy that came to mind was Ulf Samuelsson. Darius Kasparitis was 2nd.

Ya, those Europeans. They were nasty alright.

 

[sandercohan78*]

Ya, those Europeans. They were nasty alright.

Are you trying to say Samuelsson wasn't dirty?




I don't think Kasper was that bad though, more of a physical pest.

 

[sr edler]

Are you trying to say Samuelsson wasn't dirty?




I don't think Kasper was that bad though, more of a physical pest.

Of course Ulf was dirty, but a ton of players were more dirty than Kasparaitis.

 

[Boxscore]

Are you trying to say Samuelsson wasn't dirty?




I don't think Kasper was that bad though, more of a physical pest.

Ulfie and Kaspar were dirty and rough. But they are a 6 on the dirty scale compared to guys like Hunter who were a 10. Dale Hunter was a criminal who made a living playing hockey.

 

[Macman]

The Braodstreet Bullies were tough but "Hammerhead" took it to a whole new level:

He went out each shift looking for someone to hurt.

Yup. In the days before the instigator, he was a classic bully who would beat the snot of out even non-fighters. I just watched a video of him pummelling Dale Rolfe of the Rangers while grabbing a hold of his hair. He was a stain on the game.

 

[Boxscore]

He was a stain on the game.

Actually, Schultz and the rest of the Bullies were Ed Snider's brainchild due to the pummeling his Flyers received by the Plager brothers and the rest of the St. Louis Blues. Schultz was a pure pugilist, everyone knew what he was going to do... his playbook was transparent.

 

[MS]

Cooke's name coming up is just recency bias. There were a lot of guys just like him or worse from the 80s to 2000s, at least one of which is in the Hall of Fame.

Pretty much.

He just played a style of game that went completely out-of-vogue mid-way through his career as the league made illegal the sort of hit which had always been considered a great play and completely legal.

If he played 10 years earlier, nobody would mention him at all. Just like he was hardly mentioned on 'dirty player' lists through the first half of his career.

Bryan Marchment was the dirtiest I've ever seen in my lifetime. Andy Sutton was the most under-the-radar dirty player.

 

[Flyboy34]

This isn't the Marchment comic I was searching for, but it'll do. If anybody has the Marchment 'Flying Knees Pop-Up Book' comic, please post it.

I miss the Instigator..

 

[Poignant Discussion*]

Bryan Marchment. His knee-on-knee plays destroyed many.

He was suspended by the league 13 times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Marchment

And this is the correct answer of course

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

Marchment was brutally dirty.
Kasparaitis isn't getting enough credit for the sheer, amoral missile of a puke he was. He'd slash, spear, knee and then quickly rush away whenever had had the chance. Destested that guy.

Linseman was another guy that was all about the slashes and so on, fantastic faceoff guy though.

No love for Messier? Guy would put his stick in a guy's mouth, low-bridge another, slash and spear nonstop. Dirty as hell.

Fetisov was pretty scum as well. Spend a game just low-slashing people then asked to fight just run in fear.

 

[billybudd]

Pretty much.

He just played a style of game that went completely out-of-vogue mid-way through his career as the league made illegal the sort of hit which had always been considered a great play and completely legal.

If he played 10 years earlier, nobody would mention him at all. Just like he was hardly mentioned on 'dirty player' lists through the first half of his career.

Bryan Marchment was the dirtiest I've ever seen in my lifetime. Andy Sutton was the most under-the-radar dirty player.

Used to be a columnist for the score named Justin Bourne (son of Bob Bourne). Wing in the Islanders' system who never made it. Sutton took him out with a flying elbow during a practice drill in training camp one year. I mean, why are you going high in drills against your own team?

 

[jcbio11]

Bryan Marchment and Dale Hunter were the dirtiest I've ever seen. Sneaky, nasty, violent.

That said, Bobby Clarke had him moments as well. The fame "Kharlamov slash" and this...

Bobby Clarke's a piece of **** hockey player and should not be in the HHOF. The hall is the biggest joke anyway but still.