violence in hockey
...linesman in the head. Maurice was suspended for the rest of the season and for the playoffs by commissioner Clarence Campbell, virtually destroying Montreal’s chance at the Cup. French-Canadians were outraged. The real violence began the next night when Montreal was hosting Detroit and Campbell stupidly attended the game. During the game the heckling of Campbell kept escalating until a crazed fan threw a home made tear gas bomb at him and the game was cancelled. After this the riot carried out onto the streets and thousands of dollars of damage was done. Richard calmed the thousands of protesters the next day via radio broadcast. Probably the worst stick involved incident happened in the 1969-70 season in Ottawa in a pre-season game between the St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins. The altercation started when St. Louis player Wayne Maki knocked down “Terrible” Ted Green of Boston. Green responded by slashing Maki down into the ice. Maki speared Green who again knocked Maki to the ice. The two then exchanged blows with their sticks until Maki clubbed Green over the head, fracturing his skull, keep in mind that this was before anyone wore helmets. Green had to go undergo 3 major operations to save his life and had a steel plate inserted inot his head. Maki was suspended for 30 days and Green for 12 games when he returned 1 year later. Another infamous stick incident was in the 1975-76 season, in a match between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings. All-star Red Wings winger Dan Mahoney had been nursing a grudge against Leafs Brian Glennie for weeks since their last match-up, and during the game, he tomahawked Glennie over the head with his stick and knocked him unconscious, Glennie was rushed to the hospital, and Mahoney got charged with assault, being the first NHLer to receive punishment outside of the League. Violence is not only common in the top leagues, this was proved in the 1987 World Junior Championships. Canada was leading the Russians 4-2 in the gold medal game when a bench-clearing brawl erupted. The ice was covered with helmets, gloves, sticks and all other types of equipment. Even the two goalies went at it. After a matter of minutes the referees gave up trying to break the battle-royale up, and were forced to turn off the lights and yet the fight still continued in the dark. Eventually the match was cancelled and both teams were disqualified. While many some Canadians were proud of the squad (Don Cherry, for one) others were ashamed of the reputation it gave our national pastime. Dale Hunter is famous for being able to hurt the opposing team in more than one way. When he retired in March of 2004 he was the only player in NHL history to have scored over 300 goals and 1000 points while amassing over 3000 penalty minutes. However, he is also well known for his brutal cross check to Pierre Turgeon of the New York Islanders in the 1992-93 playoffs. After Turgeon scored a series-clinching goal, eliminating Hunter’s Washington Capitals, he skated up behind him and sent him crashing into the boards. Turgeon suffered a separated shoulder and was out for six weeks, while his team was eliminated in the next round without their star forward. Hunter was given a then-NHL-record 21 game suspension. The two most recent, most well known, and definitely two of the worst injuries occured in the last few years. The first occurred in 2000, when Marty McSorley of the Boston Bruins slashed Donald Brashear of the Vancouver Canucks across the head. McSorley had been challenging Brashear to a fight all game, with Brashear uncharacteristically declining. Brashear suffered a sever concussion and was out for months. McSorley received a 1 year suspension (which still stands as the longest ever) and was almost charged with assault with weapon, although the aged enforcer never played another game. No other incident in the history of hockey resonated so much outrage. The most recent violent outburst happened 10 months ago, in a similar fashion to the McSorley attack. Vancouver Canuck’s all star forward Todd Bertuzzi had been challenging Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche to a fight all game because of Moore’s cheap shot on Vancouver start Markus Naslund the previous game. Moore kept decli...