Worst Hockey Cheap Shot? Dale Hunter’s Dirty Hit

On April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, playoff pockey turned brutal when the New York Islanders were facing off against the Washington Capitals in Game six, where the Islanders were attempting to put away the Capitals. But that is not what this game is known for. It's known for the Capitals. Dale Hunter, feeling his chance at another Stanley Cup was slipping away, delivered a hit that sent shock waves through the NHL, leaving the Islanders Pierre Turjon injured and forever tarnishing his own legacy, possibly keeping him out of the Hall of Fame in one of the dirtiest cheapest shots ever given in sports. Join us today where we find out was it the heat of the moment or to deliver violence as this one single play defined both men's careers and impossibly is the cheapest shot and earns to us. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reeves, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge as we dive into Dale Hunter's cheap shots on Pierre Tourjon. So nineteen ninety three, hockey was different back then. It was more violent. Checks were more violent, fighting was more prevalent. It's just a little bit of a different game, just like in other sports. In the nineties of the game was just a little rougher and more physical, and we'd come a long way for safety reasons. But it's also in moments like what happened in nineteen ninety three playoffs that led us to this point. See the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders were in a fierce contest in the Patrick Division and the Capitols would finish second in the division with ninety three points over the Islanders, who trailed by six points in the standings. And the Capitals were led by Dale Hunter, their captain and the leader of their team. He was known for being relentless and gritty. He had skills, but he was also enforcer, and he accumulated over thirty five hundred penalty minutes, with his second most in the league history, and it tallied over eight hundred points in his career. And in the regular season that year, he had sixteen goals and forty seven assists in eighty four games, demonstrating he was a dual threat as an agitator and a playmaker and really gave the Capitals that edge when they played of physicality, and they were facing off against the Islanders, who were led by Pierre Tourjeon, who was a smooth, humble superstar. He had been acquired in a blockbuster trade and really rejuvenated the franchise. He had compiled over one hundred and thirty points, fifty eight goals and seventy four assists, being a true playmaker on the ice, and he wasn't flashy. He was just very smooth in everything he did and really endured himself to the fan base quickly. But with these two teams being in the same division, it created a rivalry and they had a lot of epic battles, including a famous one called the Easter Epic in nineteen eighty seven where the Islanders prevailed in quadruple Game seven. And through the next few years the rivalry had intensified and many of these players had been in this rivalry for years. So in nineteen ninety three they faced each other in the first round, and three of the first four games when it's overtime, shows you how close these teams were and how much they were battling with each other. But the Islanders kept coming out on top and had a series lead heading into Game six three to two on April twenty second, things in large part to Pierre Trjon's offense helping lead them during the clutch times they needed to win, and with eight minutes left in the game, the Islanders were on the verge of winning this decisive game and heading on to the next round of the playoffs. They were up four goals to one, and the Capitals could feel the game in the playoffs slipping out of their hands when Dale Hunter was trying to make something happen and had a costly turnover where Pierre Treujeon stole the puck from him and got an easy, effortless goal, pushing the lead five to one, essentially sealing the game. And as he did this, he skates away in celebration, as we all do goose core. In anything he's celebrating, he's not paying attention to what's around him. His arms are in the air in excitement. He essentially has just won the series for them, being up four goals with less than eight minutes, it's almost a nail in the confident. The chances the Capitals come back is so so small. So he's celebrating. He's excited, then out of completely blindsiding Turjon Dale, Hunter checks him into the wall at full speed. Now Turjon shuffered a separated shoulder, which would go on to sideline him for all but one of the remaining playoff games the Islanders would play. Everyone in the stands erupted in anger. Chaos ensued, the bench from the Islanders was cleared. Officials had to rush to intervene. Hunter was assessed a game misconduct and injected from the contest, and the hit really marred the Islander's victory as they would go on to win this game, but it catch a shadow over their Cinderella run as they would have to play without their best player and emotions were high. Actually, two Islander enforcers, Mike Hatta and Rich Piland, actually we're getting together to see how they could take Hunter out before he left the building. One of them was even hiding and waiting for him just to walk by, when their coach came by and stopped them from what they were doing. Because if they were to attack Hunter in that way, not only would they be fined and they would lose even more players for the rest of the playoffs, but they could face criminal charges. That's not on the ice. When are on the sporting field or the sporting ice, what you do there is not criminal, but when you get off that can be come criminal. So what ended up happening from this, Well, the NHL wanted to crack down on this. There have been a lot of incidents where violence was taking this a little too far. In the following day, the league suspended Dale Hunter indefinitely for unsportsmanlike and excessive contact, and suspension would later be set at twenty one games, the longest ever for an on ice incident, and this would go on to be served the next season, and Hunter would be fined one hundred and fifty thousand dollars that was a quarter of his total salary. The league wanted to make sure the hockey would not tolerate this type of violence now. The Islanders wanted them to suspend them for entire year, or at least make his suspension go into the playoffs, as he took playoff games away from Turjon and having regular season games taken away was not the same. But that didn't happen. He served his time and Dale does show remorse. He later admitted that he went too far and this one would have a lasting impact Now, for Turjon, he had a separated shoulder and a concussion, and this first forced him to miss the first six games in the series versus the Pittsburgh Penguin, and he would return for Game seven, helping the Islanders get past them go on to the Conference finals facing off against the Montreal Canadians, but Turjon wasn't the same player and only had five points and would fall to the Canadians in five games, ending their Cinderella run. It would be interesting to see how big they could have done if Turjon was healthy the entire time. Now. Luckily, Turjon came back from this and was able to have a still successful but he never matched what he did in the nineteen ninety two ninety three seasons. The following season, though, he did end up having the second best season of his career. That started the downside of his career, and he would eventually go on to get inducted into the Pro Hockey into the Hockey Hall of Fame after he scored over thirteen hundred points in his career. But he rarely publicly speaks about the Hunter incident, focusing instead to move on and focusing on his future and how he enjoyed life and still had a exceptional career after being victim to such a cheap shot. Now this cheap shot. Many believed Dale Hunter has a resume that would be enough to get him into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but many think he never will be because he gave this cheap shot in this in the cheapest shots ever in sports, this is one of them, along with Mike Tyson's biting Evander Holyfields, the year Albert Hayingesworth stopping on Andre were There in the face, and Kermit Washington punching Tom Jonovich sending him to the hospital. These are some of the cheapest shots we've covered Tyson, We've covered Kermit Washington's punch some of the worst, and it's debatable which one is the worst. They're all their own situations in their own sports. This one came not in the heat of passion or anything. This one came after a celebration. A celebration's kind of sacred thing in sports. It's an unwritten rule. When someone celebrates, you let them celebrate alone. You do not attack them, You do not talk to them. They celebrate, you go sulk on your own. But to hit someone while they're celebrating and injure them. It's a whole different story. And if you want to learn more about the Islanders and be involved in what is all going on with the Islanders, check out Hockey Night in New York where host Sean and Stefan give you a unique brand of New York Islanders therapy, so live on Sunday night on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook, and they cheer for their team over and over. So we'll put a link in the description below for you to check them out so you can catch up on all your Islanders content. And if you enjoyed today's Daily Sports History, please make sure you are subscribed wherever you're listening. That way you do not miss a single episode and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History