When Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punched Steve Moore last year, it made news even outside the hockey world, confirming an opinion that's widely held by non-fans: that the game is nasty, brutish, and short on finesse. They even discussed it on THE VIEW -- and you can bet the clip of Bertuzzi riding the unconscious Moore to the ice was the only hockey those ladies watched all season. Thanks, Bert, for the extra PR! Your feat takes its place on the list of candidates for hockey's all-time cheapest shots:
TODD BERTUZZI ON STEVE MOORE, 2004
Here's
the video of the attack as it happened. The FOX commentator (whose voice I don't recognize) is a little hard on Canucks coach Marc Crawford, saying "Crawford's laughing about it! He's got a smirk on his face!" It seems to me that Crawford is just weathering the justified fury of Avalanche coach Tony Granato.
MARTY McSORLEY ON DONALD BRASHEAR, 2000
With two seconds remaining in a meaningless game between the Bruins and Canucks (the playoff picture was coming into focus, and didn't feature either team), veteran goon Marty McSorley skated up behind Donald Brashear and high-sticked him in the side of the head, baseball-style. Brashear fell, unconscious, backward onto the ice. A Canadian court found McSorley guilty of assault with a weapon, though he didn't go to jail. Todd Bertuzzi, Brashear's teammate at the time, called for justice: "What can you really say? It's disgusting, what happened. And, uh, it's unfortunate, and uh, the league's gotta do something about it." As you can hear in the above video clip, Bertuzzi's assault on Moore was drawing public comparisons to the McSorley/Brashear incident less than two minutes after it happened.
CLAUDE LEMIEUX ON KRIS DRAPER, 1996
Hey, look: another dangerous and illegal cheap shot from one of Marc Crawford's players! Coincidence? Yes, actually, I think so. There was nothing a coach could do about the Claude Lemieux problem except bench him. The creep was a dirty player in every uniform he ever wore, from Montreal to Dallas. During the 1996 playoffs, Red Wing Kris Draper was headed off the ice for a line change when Lemieux (wearing his visor, by the way) boarded him facefirst onto the top of the open boards in front of Detroit's bench. Draper was hospitalized for a fractured jaw, broken nose and facial lacerations. With unapologetic and obnoxious comments afterward, Lemieux provided fuel to stoke the hatred that continues to burn for him across North America.
BOBBY CLARKE ON VALERY KHARLAMOV, 1972
For years, Bobby Clarke's toothless sneer was the emblematic face of rough, physical, North American style hockey. In the 1972 Summit Series, the dazzling skills of the fast skating, brilliant puckhandling left winger Valery Kharlamov embodied the Russian style. Harry Sinden, Team Canada's head coach said of Kharlamov: "All of us were impressed, but none of us wanted to let on. I've seldom seen anyone come down on two NHL defensemen and beat them to the outside, go around them and then in on the net. It just isn't done." With his all-star squad on the ropes, and unable to match Kharlamov's skill level, Clarke simply chased him down in game six and slashed him on his injured ankle hard enough to break it. Violence was always part of Clarke's game. Commenting years afterward, he said: "If I hadn't learned to lay on a two-hander once in a while, I'd never have left Flin Flon."
I'm sure every fan remembers a cheap shot or two that stands out because it was directed at a member of his favorite team. What are some low blows that still get your ire up to recall? Hunter on Turgeon '93? Suter on Kariya '98?