As a Ranger fan, I saw plenty of Stevens over the years and truth be told, the majority of his hits were clean and by the book. I was at a game in 1993-94 season when Joey Kocur and Stevens both saw each other coming and lowered their shoulder, neither gave an inch and you could see them both wince as they skated away. Garden crowd gave them both a standing O.
My favorite player of all time was stevens die hard nj devils fan! Just about all his hits were clean but meant to clean clocks at the same time! Lindros was never the same after that hit but hey ya know what ya signed up for back then n be aware of your surroundings with stevens around😂😂
The a couple of those hits would have been a for sure suspension, but there are a lot of clean hits in there too. He was a master at cutting across the ice and getting guys with their heads down. You play against a defenceman like that, you will not try things in the neutral zone. I think he is party of why New Jersey was so good and won the cups they did, and also having Marty in net didn't hurt either :)
It would be a suspension in the pathetic nu NHL that basically forbids any sort of hitting as they're petrified of negative press from concussions. Removing the physical aspect of the game also makes it more accessible to smaller players.
Different eras, Steven's was a different breed than hitters today. Closest to him since was Chara and there probably will never be another Chara ever again
@@andrecheats what about Tom Wilson I know he’s considered dirty now but if he were playing back in the early 2000s he would be remembered the same way we’re remembering Stevens now
wow if shoulder is for you elbow you must don't know how human body is bulid. Only top 2 hits are suspecious. It's hard to recognize cuz of shitty quality.
@@PolishCarbonagreed most are shoulders but the last two were bad 😂 Steven’s and Lindros had a personal vendetta against eachother and you can tell he was intentionally trying to hurt him on that one. Very sad that was basically the end of Lindros’ career. All his other hits are pretty legit though and so tough 😂🙏🏼
I remember that Eric Lindross hit. It was in the playoffs. Dude that hit to Lindross changed his whole career after that hit by Stevens. Stevens Devils Legend
he shortened a lot of peoples stay in the nhl but it was a simple thing you want to keep your head up now he would be run out of hockey as would half the people in the game back then its a shame don cheery called it all these players coming from another country changed the way the north american game is played its sad soon it will be like watching soccer or basketball no fights no hits no nothing just 60 minutes of extreme boring to watch hockey
+Kevin Mcneilll Ehhhh, Niklas Kronwall disagrees with you. Don Cherry and comments like yours conveniently leave out the dozens of "good ol' Canadian boys" who dive, embellish and whine to the refs night-in and night-out. Or the Canadian crowds who think every little tap is a penalty. Or Canada's golden boy Sidney Crosby's whining impact early on in his career altering the way the game is officiated ("Gotta protect stars like Crosby!" they said)...
#3 the Kozlov hit: The Redwing players were yelling at Stevens after that hit and the camera focused on Stevens and you could see him mouthing the words: “You’re NEXT, you’re NEXT. Devils won in four!
Guys, remember that back when Scott Stevens played, these hits weren't illegal. We don't know if he would hit like this if he played in the NHL nowadays.
This is what people dont' realize. That was the name of the game in the nineties. You knew what you were getting into. This is why I think the nineties hockey was the greatest era.
@@CMike44 that’s sad to hear..but as a Devils and Stevens Fan...some of these hits were not necessary...they were ment to injure people...you wouldn’t want to see a great legend like Kariya end his career like this
That elbow on Lindros did permanent brain damage...he wasn’t even trying to bump him with the shoulder..seemed like it was part elbow...that one deserve a suspension even with the old rules in my opinion
@@tristan7844 yeah Rule 48 was a big change to the way the NHL deals with head contact. Hits like the Matt Cooke play that ended Marc Savard's career used to be legal
@@pdogg1079 Scott Stevens was a good skater my friend. Half these kids would get bullied by the Wings, Devils, Avs from back in the day. Men against boys.
@jessc1979 I totally agree, right from the NHL rules: "Possession of the Puck: The last player to touch the puck, other than the goalkeeper, shall be considered the player in possession. The player deemed in possession of the puck may be checked legally, provided the check is rendered immediately following his loss of possession." His hit on Kariya was definitely NOT immediately following the loss of possession.
Notice how after Stevens lays them out, there's no scrum. No fighting. It was common knowledge to keep your head up and don't admire your pass, and deff don't get caught in the tracks playing against Stevens. Hockey has been totally pussified thanks to the yanks.
Watching this again, it's definitely a product of the time. However players put themselves in those vulnerable positions trying to do too much. Lindross tried to stick handle through 3 players instead of dumping it in. You put yourself in a in a bad position the more likely you are to get hurt.
CanadianBacon I would slightly alter your comment to "back when there were hits"! but yeah, not every clean hit needs a fight after. sadly, no more hitting, nor fighting anymore :(
Too bad the NHL doesn't produce these types of players anymore. The guy was a beast, fearful of noone, fairly skilled, though seemed like a polite, quiet, Canadian lad off the ice.
As always,it was the times. . . . those hits, for the time, were a considered clean. Rule #1 with Scotty . . . . keep your head up when going through center ice or take your chances of getting hit.
these are all legal hits back then. no head hunting he leads in with his shoulder and during contact pushes them off with his arm to help maintain his balance. even Paul Kariya said he should of been paying attention and not of skated full force across the ice towards Stevens and looking the other way. Stevens was a very clean hitter he was just massive and and had alot of force going in. the lindros hit was all lindros going in with your head down which is well understood in hockey to not do. Stevens is also huge and decently tall so if a player has his head down and goes into his elbow that's not Stevens fault. he got paid to play exactly like how he did and he's a hall of famer. you cutt across the neutral zone against Stevens you were most likely going to get wrecked and that was understood
no they aren't lol. he tucks his elbow in. they end up being head shots because players put their heads down, which is one of the first things they ever teach you in hockey to not ever do. the ones that got head shots only got headshots because of themselves. even ask Paul Kariya..he said the exact same thing.
if you look at the Kris King hit you clearly see his force go through his elbow. Oh and if you f-ing arm is up after a hit your asking for a minor (head contact)
They're all shoulder hits, Stevens tucks his elbow in and then when contact is made he uses his forearm to push them off and maintain his balance. These are all legal hits. Rule #1 in hockey. Don't put your head down. Look at several of the hits where heads were not down. They got rocked because of Stevens sheer size and force. Alot of them would just run into Stevens shoulder. They're is a reason he's the best checker in NHL history and a hall of famer. He knows how to hit clean. But he's also a freight train. Rule # 2. If Stevens is on the ice stay out of his way, his presence on the ice was felt and you'd feel bad for the offense of the other team having to try and get through him. The only player who put up a huge stink about Stevens was lindros because he was always a whiny bitch.
Stevens hits with his shoulder first, if they have their head down or not is not up to him. his shoulder makes the initial contact. even the players to this day say he's a clean hitter.. he just hits hits hard and the position their in when he hits them, just entered the defensive zone, cutting through the middle. also look at his size? he's 6'2 and 215 pounds.. he's built like a brick shithouse. shoulder makes initial contact and he pushes them off to maintain balance with his forearm.. he's a hall of famer because of his CLEAN hitting and other stats of course. but hitting he's the best of all time bar none, all clean legal hits during the time.
No more hits to the head. the nhl is facing a concussion lawsuit that won't go away. The lawsuit is the nhl's chronic and constant big headache now. excuse the pun.
+quorfu ... Flawless is not flawless if you made it that late. The reason it is worthy of a suspension nowadays is because Kariya couldn't expect the hit cause he didn't have the puck anymore ... I find Stevens was one of the best defensemen in the game but that hit was not to stop the forward play it was simply for the showcase reel and top ten hits list
+bpeaceful87 That was a clean hit, even if Stevens could've seen Kariya back hand the puck over the blue line, that missile had already been fired too late to stop the hit. Reasons for that hit, 1 separate the man from the puck and 2 make opposing player think twice next time he has the puck
As a professional athlete most of the guys who got hit put themselves in that vulnerable position, it's your own responsibility to take a hit properly so if u have ur head down or sticking out its partly your own fault for getting hurt.
Jon Miles Several of his hits are on men that were his partners guy. Think you're going 1 on 1 with someone? Nope.. Stevens cleans up the mess. Only questionable one is #7 for me but once you're committed you're 100% committed.
Scott Stevens had a gift of being a brick wall that made it look like you ran into him. I was one of his famous center ice checks when he played for the Capitals against the Flyers at the Capital Center. The Flyer player lived up to his team's name because he went flying at least 6 feet in the air and landed hard. The entire FULL Capital Center erupted in cheers and everyone got on their feet just for one Check. It was Amazing.
+mike today's hockey doesn't suck, the sport is faster and it's made for people from around the world who can play the best hockey out there, some dude coming in hitting a guy 2-3 seconds after he gave the puck is not really showing skills. Nowadays players have to show some timing skills, check out Chris Kunitz, Dustin byflugien, brooks orpik to name a few.
As Horatio states at the end of Act 5 from Hamlet: "Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. " Wouldn't it be funny, if Stevens said something like this to Kariya or Kozlov, after one of these hits?
@chyeaaaboyy On a second look I believe you're right not to suspend Stevens at the time for the Kariya hit. Nowadays that is 100% a suspension though. A blindside, lateral hit on an unsuspecting player in a vulnerable position is exactly what the new rules penalizes. The hit was borderline late also which would not be ignored today.
Did anyone else notice how many times Stevens not only crushes the guy he's lining up but one of his own teammates as well? Seriously, on half these hits he crushes the opposing player and one of his own guys at the same time. So. Awesome.
And listen, I am a Flyers fan.. A huge Lindros fan, so I am not biased at all in my opinion. I hated seeing Lindros lose his career to Stevens. But Hockey back then with these hits was just so F-ing awesome and great. And honestly, most of the real injury from these hits came from the terrible helemt technology back then when their heads would hit the ice. Nowadays there wouldnt be half the concussions from hits like this. Helmets are way better with so much better protection.
You can still lay a good open ice hit on someone without targeting the head. That was the problem I had with Stevens, his blatant targeting of the head, as opposed to body on body. If the guy bounces and hits his head, than that's just bad luck.
steven vogel Keep you head up. When your targeting a guy like a heat seeking missile it's hard to land a perfect clean hit. I'm of the belief that these guys signed up to play hockey, their making millions of dollars, players should be able to hit in the most effective way possible. The league is almost unwatchable nowadays.
If these hits were made in today's version of "hockey." 10. Tossed for hitting the knee, suspended for three games without pay, and labeled a repeat offender. 9. No penalty or suspension, but Internet complains hit was "unnecassary." 8. Suspended for five games, ten if this hit came after Hit #10; I forget the chronological order. 7. Probably nothing but scorn and articles from the ridiculous NYC media. They'd likely spend most of their time referencing the Daneyko and Bassen hits and using this hit on King as a call to have Stevens expelled from the league. 6. This hit caused a huge uproar THEN - when people weren't pussies - so I can only imagine what it would be like now. 5. Stevens would never have had a chance to hit Lindros because this would have gotten him tossed for the remainder of the series. 4. I bet he'd have been tossed from the game but nothing more other than, again, getting ridiculed and re-labeled a repeat offender. 3. Some fan would have died from going into cardiac arrest arguing over this one. We'd have a huge discussion about elbows, leaving feet, physics, etc etc. Probably suspended one or two games. 2. I honestly think that, in today's hockey, Stevens would have been suspended for a season for this one. The catch is that Kariya would not have returned to playing, maybe not for the series, and that the NHL would have suspended Stevens indefinitely. 1. The City of Philadelphia would have recommended bringing Stevens up on charges.
+bpstyles I would have to agree with all of these but I couldn't see the league suspending him indefinitely if they hadn't already suspended cooke and torres indefinitely.
Kariya, Francis and especially Lindros hits were elbows to the head. The rest were great. My fave is the one on Daneyko. Those hip checks are merciless.
@TJWhitey38 I guess we have different ideas of what "Immediately" means. I go by proper definition which is "Without delay" or "Without an intermediary". There was clearly a noticeable delay between release of the puck and the hit. Stevens had plenty of time to abort the hit, which to me means he did not do it "Immediately" after.
by today's rules: #10: clean #9: clean #8: dirty #7: clean #6: clean #5: dirty #4: dirty #3: clean #2: dirty #1: dirty its 50/50 for his hits certainly not all of them are dirty.
Such a dirty player. Leads with his elbow and hits high. Some of his hits are good, but the Kariya and Lindros ones are insanely dirty and dangerous. Fucking brutal.
stevens dirty? lmao did you not see the time tie domi elbowed the shit out of one of the devils players and got suspended. i doubt stevens ever got ejected from a game.
First off...these are the highlight reel hits from the guys career, and the best ones are when he caught some dummy crossing left to right around the blue line without paying attention to where he was going and who was coming. Second...please slow these down and take a look before you start babbling about head shots and elbow. He never targets the guys heads. These are body checks. Guys heads may have been involved in the follow-through, but he doesn't target the head. He also keeps the elbow tucked and it only comes up on the follow through. If these shots were so dirty, why didn't anyone go after him after he makes them? Because guys know a clean hit even when it blows somebody up, and they respect it. It's also worth noting that every one of them happens either complete in or with a stride or two of the defensive zone. Headhunting? Get real. Best open-ice hitter ever.
@KidA914 doesnt mather if you target the head or not.. the typical stevens hit he comes in as a 3rd of 4th person when the player has all his attention on something else and bam!!! shoulder in the face. watch them in slowmotion and you can see that very often the first thing he hits is the head. and it still doesnt answer my original question, "everytime a player turns, breaks or skates fast its ok to hit the head?" is it ok to take someones knees out if they are skating with their legs wide?
Please....actually NONE of them were elbows. They all led with the shoulder and the arm comes up on impact due to the kinetic energy of the follow thru. You can castigate the guy for looking for people who were getting funneled into a narrow space where he could blast them, but that was and still is within the rules. You can also talk about headshots but if you REALLY look at them, he doesn't target the head. He's looking to body check these guys and if the head comes into play on the follow through...that was the game.
Bullshit, Stevens was always aiming for the jaw. If he actually would have aimed to body check then i would not have a problem with this, but he totally and intentionally tried to injure his opponents. Almost everyone of these so called "Greatest Hits" are disrespectful ugly hits.
stevens is definitely a legend but he was also a career ended. a lot of these were clean but god the guy could have toned it down a little. lindros had his career basically ruined because of that hit. sad to see exciting hockey players have to exit so soon from the league due to recurring injuries like concussions. he should have kept his head up though. both sides had part in that one
The new rules are silly. Consider that these rulings are coming from Brendan Shanahan. Who was one of the roughest/toughest players in the league. You cant let players skate around with their head down. When I played hockey in high school and middle school my coaches told me to hit anyone with their head down twice as hard. Even in practice we were told to hit our team mates if their heads were down (obviously not as hard) but it was for their own benefit they learned to play correctly. Hockey is a physical game and I would argue its lost a little of that element. Big open ice hits were exciting to watch...even playing it was satisfying to line up someone with their head down that just got a long pass and wasn't paying attention to where the defense was. The audience would cheer. The bench would clap the boards. You knew that guy wasn't going to test you like that again and it sent a message to the other team. From then on they knew we'd hammer them if they played head down.
Dirtiest hitter of my lifetime. Been watching and playing since the early 60's. What a piece of shit. For every good solid hit he laid out he hit 2 in the head. It's too bad. When he hit clean it was awesome. Usually it was a cowardly late blindside. Legal at the time or not it was intent to injure.
I'd just like to say I'm not anywhere near the east coast and scott Stevens is my fav player and frankly if u have ur head down when a big hitter is out on the ice, u get hit. It's all the players own faults and not Stevens fault
+Rick James keep living in ur devil glory days how many times u watch old devil videos a day lmao whats funny is devils have no chance of winning a cup in the near future enjoy being mediocre
@TJWhitey38 I guess I'm trying to say that there has to be a loss of possession scenario that is not clearly written. Even if a player dumps the puck in and the goalie plays it, you would get a penalty for hitting him 5 seconds after the release of the puck even though he is technically in possession according to the written rule. Something just doesn't add up.
Let's be real here stevens is a legend rightfully so but almost all these hits he's putting forearm or elbow to face he was always head hunting lol but fuck it was legal he'd be locked away in a jew dungeon in bettemans mansion if he played today
He was hitting to hurt you can say. But lets be honest. If your going to line someone up like that today, you're still wanting to hit the guy as hard as you can. These aren't real dirty hits either. A few you can argue he jumped before the contact but screw it. This is one of the best videos on RUclips!!
The best body checker in the game ever had. Played almost every game. I miss that intense look he had. He did they thing clean. Forget about Kariya hit. The game is so fast you can't change your stance in a fraction of a second.Anyone saying he was dirty is a moron! Know nothing about hockey. I'm glad he's in the hockey hall of fame.
I like how people will comment “if that was today he’d be suspended” yeah no shit the rules have changed but back then they had to keep people watching and Stevens hits did that
tminusc23 Oh my god how many times do I have to say this. KEEP YOUR FUCKING HEAD UP IF YOU DONT WANNA BE HIT!! And also idk where the fuck you get this "Every player he hit was small" idea from. Eric Lindross was the number one power forward in NHL history. That son of a bitch was a brick wall that could skate.
Guys like Kariya are the ones that fill the rinks! They should not get hit like that… Kariya was a clean player, and most guys in the NHL had bigger salaries because of players like Kariya… I play hockey, and I like it when it gets a little rough, but hits to the head are cheap shots!
utterly disguisting, those hits were legal in the 90s. Put him in todays hockey league and you have a mediocre player that does not deserve to be in the HHOF
The league has pretty much outlawed fighting and taken the physicality out of the game. Goalies are mechanical and all play the butterfly style which is extremely boring to watch. I miss goaltenders like Hasek, Brodeur, and Belfour. Big hits constantly cause players to get fined and suspended even though the hits are legal.
thefives7ar I guess its all a matter of opinion. I dont like how the enforcer role is disappearing. But I also like that their is no clear cut best player in the world. So it is that much harder to pick the MVP and the numerous other trophies as well. For example, look at the art ross competition. No one is reaching 100 points this year, but it makes it more exciting when everyone in the top 20 has a chance to win the art ross. I believe the leading points producer right now has 74 points and the person in 20th place has around 60. Thats a minimum of a 14 point difference. All it takes is a good point streak now and anyone can jump ahead the competition with ease. I agree with most of the points you made though, defensive systems and goaltending are too perfect for my taste. And its unlikely we will ever see a goalie like Hasek again.
It's still hard for me to watch the Lindros hit after all these years.
if u watch the slow mow its clear stevens hit him with the chicken wing
@@soran27 Head up
@@flagtheoffenseelbow down
Don’t forget. Kariya came back and scored the game winner that night.
Stevens was one of my favorite to watch, but when Paul came back and scored, there was nothing else to say.
@@Corpus11of10 also Kariya lost memory of that moment he scored in that game
One thing you always learned with playing with or against Scott Stevens: Keep your head up
And never change sides entering offensive zone.
Yup always keep head up and eyes moving
NEVER EVER do what Lindross did and assume you'll be safe to get cute and fancy.
Maybe not lead with an elbow to the neck/head?
1:25 "Daymond Langkow, who has 2 assist tonight, doesn't remember either one of them right now." Fucking epic call.
I got to watch this in real time for years! For a Jersey boy it was a magical time!
same
That squad was so sick!
Yes it was I went to MANY home games met the whole team have all their autographs was the best time of my life.
Ended many careers
common theme "he is slow to to get up"
I swear lindros got like three concussions in that hit! His head went Bounce bounce bounce
Dave Stonley lindros had a bad habit of keeping his head down. All 3 concussions happened the same way
Absolute beast. I hated to see the guys get seriously hurt, but loved to see Scott lay the damn hammer on the opposition.
Lindros is hands down one of the biggest reasons i skated with my head up when i played hockey
wise men learn from others mistakes
to be fair you dont have scott stevens circling around you like a giant vulture lol
I elbowed kids in the head, but always got kicked out of games 😢
God, the amount of times stevens knocks his own players to the ice while hitting is mind blowing.
It was only twice though
Haha right?
As a Ranger fan, I saw plenty of Stevens over the years and truth be told, the majority of his hits were clean and by the book. I was at a game in 1993-94 season when Joey Kocur and Stevens both saw each other coming and lowered their shoulder, neither gave an inch and you could see them both wince as they skated away. Garden crowd gave them both a standing O.
My favorite player of all time was stevens die hard nj devils fan! Just about all his hits were clean but meant to clean clocks at the same time! Lindros was never the same after that hit but hey ya know what ya signed up for back then n be aware of your surroundings with stevens around😂😂
damn, i'll take scott stevens as my free safety
Greatest hitter ever and will remain so given the pussification of the NHL.
The a couple of those hits would have been a for sure suspension, but there are a lot of clean hits in there too. He was a master at cutting across the ice and getting guys with their heads down. You play against a defenceman like that, you will not try things in the neutral zone. I think he is party of why New Jersey was so good and won the cups they did, and also having Marty in net didn't hurt either :)
Well said! 6 years later
It would be a suspension in the pathetic nu NHL that basically forbids any sort of hitting as they're petrified of negative press from concussions. Removing the physical aspect of the game also makes it more accessible to smaller players.
Different eras, Steven's was a different breed than hitters today. Closest to him since was Chara and there probably will never be another Chara ever again
@@andrecheats what about Tom Wilson I know he’s considered dirty now but if he were playing back in the early 2000s he would be remembered the same way we’re remembering Stevens now
that last one, was borderline a criminal charge, that looked like an elbow, at 40kph
Miss this guy soooo much! NJ needs a new Stevens asap!
Gelinas could be just like him, especially if he bulks up
yup DRAFT WHERE YOU AT
most of these hit would be at least 5 game suspensions nowadays!
That last one on Lindros seem a little like an elbow...but that’s just me
If you watch the replay of the Lindros hit, it's his shoulder all the way
Very true, today's players don't even attempt to protect themselves.
Scott Stevens was the king of clean hard hits in his prime. He put fear in the opposing offense. This is from a time when men were men.
@@tristan7844 all shoulder.
Ah, Eric Lindros moving in on Marty Brodeur and getting decked by Scott Stevens... Like the 90s all over again.
Always with elbow... great job!
wow if shoulder is for you elbow you must don't know how human body is bulid. Only top 2 hits are suspecious. It's hard to recognize cuz of shitty quality.
elbow was after idiot
@@PolishCarbonagreed most are shoulders but the last two were bad 😂 Steven’s and Lindros had a personal vendetta against eachother and you can tell he was intentionally trying to hurt him on that one. Very sad that was basically the end of Lindros’ career. All his other hits are pretty legit though and so tough 😂🙏🏼
Can't believe NHL allowed this continue for that long.. nowadays it would be a 5 mins major
cuz you got women plaing now
@@thejuiceman1190the skill is insane now. You just like to watch men diddy with each other.
Dude was nasty thats when the devils were tough
I remember that Eric Lindross hit. It was in the playoffs. Dude that hit to Lindross changed his whole career after that hit by Stevens. Stevens Devils Legend
*Eric Lindros
he shortened a lot of peoples stay in the nhl but it was a simple thing you want to keep your head up now he would be run out of hockey as would half the people in the game back then its a shame don cheery called it all these players coming from another country changed the way the north american game is played its sad soon it will be like watching soccer or basketball no fights no hits no nothing just 60 minutes of extreme boring to watch hockey
+Kevin Mcneilll Ehhhh, Niklas Kronwall disagrees with you. Don Cherry and comments like yours conveniently leave out the dozens of "good ol' Canadian boys" who dive, embellish and whine to the refs night-in and night-out. Or the Canadian crowds who think every little tap is a penalty. Or Canada's golden boy Sidney Crosby's whining impact early on in his career altering the way the game is officiated ("Gotta protect stars like Crosby!" they said)...
+TheMarc1787 you clearly must be a whining American
+Nik Eddy I don't know dude, he makes some good points...
Scott Stevens = the ultimate hitting master
Huge Scott Stevens fan here. I admit the Kariya one was a little late and the Lindros one is a little iffy but all the rest clean clean hits
It's a miracle Paul Kariya is alive today after getting hit by that bus he didn't see coming.
I love how most of them ended with "he is slow to get up!"
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks most of these are dirty
@julesmagda6175you sound like a homosexual
Holy crap what a monster.
I can't imagine the fear that every player experienced when they played the NJ Devils.
#3 the Kozlov hit: The Redwing players were yelling at Stevens after that hit and the camera focused on Stevens and you could see him mouthing the words: “You’re NEXT, you’re NEXT. Devils won in four!
DO NOT - NEVER - SKATE ,..... anywhere diagonally near the middle of the blue line or neutral zone when Stevens is out there !!! LIGHTS OUT !!
Guys, remember that back when Scott Stevens played, these hits weren't illegal. We don't know if he would hit like this if he played in the NHL nowadays.
Judging by his hit on Schenn a few days ago, he doesn't mind hitting this hard still. That man is a steamroller.
Larks Tongues Um, what?
This is what people dont' realize. That was the name of the game in the nineties. You knew what you were getting into. This is why I think the nineties hockey was the greatest era.
@@hellsambassador666 youre comment was 6 years ago, stevens retired in 2004 lol
@@abc.-----------1894 Yup best era for sure
He would have been the most suspended player in history if he played today. Most of these are Torres level suspension hits
Has the game changed that much?
@@tristan7844 yes.
@@CMike44 that’s sad to hear..but as a Devils and Stevens Fan...some of these hits were not necessary...they were ment to injure people...you wouldn’t want to see a great legend like Kariya end his career like this
That elbow on Lindros did permanent brain damage...he wasn’t even trying to bump him with the shoulder..seemed like it was part elbow...that one deserve a suspension even with the old rules in my opinion
@@tristan7844 yeah Rule 48 was a big change to the way the NHL deals with head contact. Hits like the Matt Cooke play that ended Marc Savard's career used to be legal
Who else is watching this because of 0hnquist
Me
Haha me
Guilty
@Trevor Levine hockey channel
@Trevor Levine no problemo 👍
The greatest hitter I ever did see.
Would love to see Stevens lay hits like these on some of the newer stars in the league today.
Me too. It would be fun watching him try and keep up!
@@pdogg1079 Scott Stevens was a good skater my friend. Half these kids would get bullied by the Wings, Devils, Avs from back in the day. Men against boys.
You can tell he is aiming for the jaw everytime lol.
He was literally a middle linebacker on skates.
Top 10 concussions
fuckin right buddy, this a mans game, new generation just wanna get paid and look pretty, aint men playing sports no more
@jessc1979 I totally agree, right from the NHL rules: "Possession of the Puck: The last player to touch the puck, other than the goalkeeper, shall be considered the player in possession. The player deemed in possession of the puck may be checked legally, provided the check is rendered immediately following his loss of possession." His hit on Kariya was definitely NOT immediately following the loss of possession.
I bet all of these hits today would be suspendable
A great tribute to a great player. Long live Captain Crunch!
"And if you don't believe me, ask Kozlov" LOL
Notice how after Stevens lays them out, there's no scrum. No fighting. It was common knowledge to keep your head up and don't admire your pass, and deff don't get caught in the tracks playing against Stevens. Hockey has been totally pussified thanks to the yanks.
I totally agree.. I miss the days of probert, domi, and of course Stevens.. Hockey today is like watching f'n soccer
+sawtanang I agree 100%
Sir You mean the Europeans
Will Riley Actually I mean the likes of Gary Bettman and co.,
Ok, good. I'm from the deep South but I grew up with Stevens, Rob Blake, and Peter Forsberg. Wish hockey could go back to these days
Scott Stevens is the SOLE reason I became a fan of Hockey.. I still love the Devils to this day!
Watching this again, it's definitely a product of the time. However players put themselves in those vulnerable positions trying to do too much. Lindross tried to stick handle through 3 players instead of dumping it in. You put yourself in a in a bad position the more likely you are to get hurt.
Ahhhh back when there wasn't a fight after every hit.
CanadianBacon I would slightly alter your comment to "back when there were hits"! but yeah, not every clean hit needs a fight after. sadly, no more hitting, nor fighting anymore :(
spietroify not impeding on your comment, but I love fights. I just hate when there is a fight after a huge clean hit.
I completely agree...but there's not really even big hits anymore unfortunately.
Too bad the NHL doesn't produce these types of players anymore.
The guy was a beast, fearful of noone, fairly skilled, though seemed like a polite, quiet, Canadian lad off the ice.
As always,it was the times. . . . those hits, for the time, were a considered clean. Rule #1 with Scotty . . . . keep your head up when going through center ice or take your chances of getting hit.
Keep your head up! Kind of miss that type of Hockey.
these are all legal hits back then. no head hunting he leads in with his shoulder and during contact pushes them off with his arm to help maintain his balance. even Paul Kariya said he should of been paying attention and not of skated full force across the ice towards Stevens and looking the other way. Stevens was a very clean hitter he was just massive and and had alot of force going in. the lindros hit was all lindros going in with your head down which is well understood in hockey to not do. Stevens is also huge and decently tall so if a player has his head down and goes into his elbow that's not Stevens fault. he got paid to play exactly like how he did and he's a hall of famer. you cutt across the neutral zone against Stevens you were most likely going to get wrecked and that was understood
Do you know the rules? you can't lift your elbow on a check. that is basically the definition of how to head hunt. majority of these are head shots.
no they aren't lol. he tucks his elbow in. they end up being head shots because players put their heads down, which is one of the first things they ever teach you in hockey to not ever do. the ones that got head shots only got headshots because of themselves. even ask Paul Kariya..he said the exact same thing.
if you look at the Kris King hit you clearly see his force go through his elbow. Oh and if you f-ing arm is up after a hit your asking for a minor (head contact)
They're all shoulder hits, Stevens tucks his elbow in and then when contact is made he uses his forearm to push them off and maintain his balance. These are all legal hits. Rule #1 in hockey. Don't put your head down. Look at several of the hits where heads were not down. They got rocked because of Stevens sheer size and force. Alot of them would just run into Stevens shoulder. They're is a reason he's the best checker in NHL history and a hall of famer. He knows how to hit clean. But he's also a freight train. Rule # 2. If Stevens is on the ice stay out of his way, his presence on the ice was felt and you'd feel bad for the offense of the other team having to try and get through him. The only player who put up a huge stink about Stevens was lindros because he was always a whiny bitch.
Stevens hits with his shoulder first, if they have their head down or not is not up to him. his shoulder makes the initial contact. even the players to this day say he's a clean hitter.. he just hits hits hard and the position their in when he hits them, just entered the defensive zone, cutting through the middle. also look at his size? he's 6'2 and 215 pounds.. he's built like a brick shithouse. shoulder makes initial contact and he pushes them off to maintain balance with his forearm.. he's a hall of famer because of his CLEAN hitting and other stats of course. but hitting he's the best of all time bar none, all clean legal hits during the time.
these hits were all clean and allowed at the time, not in todays league.
No more hits to the head. the nhl is facing a concussion lawsuit that won't go away. The lawsuit is the nhl's chronic and constant big headache now. excuse the pun.
If Stevens was still playing today he would be having disciplinary meetings with Brendan Shanahan on a regular basis
I’d love to see Matt Cooke hit by Stevens
@NBON113 so everytime a player turns, breaks or skates fast its ok to hit the head?
Omg, that is absolutely insane! wut a nut case
he sent kariya to korea
...with a hit that was late by a week.
+Jassi Duudelson yes it was late, but so devastating and flawless
+quorfu ... Flawless is not flawless if you made it that late. The reason it is worthy of a suspension nowadays is because Kariya couldn't expect the hit cause he didn't have the puck anymore ... I find Stevens was one of the best defensemen in the game but that hit was not to stop the forward play it was simply for the showcase reel and top ten hits list
+Jassi Duudelson should have watched were he was going instead of watching the game
+bpeaceful87 That was a clean hit, even if Stevens could've seen Kariya back hand the puck over the blue line, that missile had already been fired too late to stop the hit. Reasons for that hit, 1 separate the man from the puck and 2 make opposing player think twice next time he has the puck
As a professional athlete most of the guys who got hit put themselves in that vulnerable position, it's your own responsibility to take a hit properly so if u have ur head down or sticking out its partly your own fault for getting hurt.
Jon Miles Several of his hits are on men that were his partners guy. Think you're going 1 on 1 with someone? Nope.. Stevens cleans up the mess. Only questionable one is #7 for me but once you're committed you're 100% committed.
Thier not blowing kisses for a living."Beware of the suicide pass and keep your head up"Don Cherry.
Number two is surely questionable on Kariya. Really late and just a cheap shot really.
Baaccckkkk in my dayyyyy when hockey players were men... not pop-stars
Scott Stevens had a gift of being a brick wall that made it look like you ran into him.
I was one of his famous center ice checks when he played for the Capitals against the Flyers at the Capital Center. The Flyer player lived up to his team's name because he went flying at least 6 feet in the air and landed hard. The entire FULL Capital Center erupted in cheers and everyone got on their feet just for one Check. It was Amazing.
Holy shit...NOW THAT'S A HIT!
Every one of them would be penalties today. Penalties and 10 game suspensions
Yeah and??? whats your point? Todays hockey sux compared to back then
Too bad these are not from today's NHL.
+mike today's hockey doesn't suck, the sport is faster and it's made for people from around the world who can play the best hockey out there, some dude coming in hitting a guy 2-3 seconds after he gave the puck is not really showing skills. Nowadays players have to show some timing skills, check out Chris Kunitz, Dustin byflugien, brooks orpik to name a few.
skills? Scott Stevens has over 900 points in his career. Do you even watch hockey?
@@Smokealotofblunts There were 2 or 3 clean hits.
all wonderful powerful hits... it's a shame that those hits are all now illegal
obviously you haven't mastered the art of understanding sarcasm
here is a bit more sarcasm... fuck off!
Scott Stevens too me is one of - if not the greatest Defensemen of all-time in the NHL especially in the hitting category. ✊💪🌘🛸👽
Many of these hits would cause a player to be suspended under the new rules...but they're still amazing hits to watch. Great video.
Player: Cuts across the center heading into the offensive zone
Stevens: I'm gonna do what's called a pro gamer move
As Horatio states at the end of Act 5 from Hamlet:
"Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. "
Wouldn't it be funny, if Stevens said something like this to Kariya or Kozlov, after one of these hits?
Is there a thespian in our mists?
@chyeaaaboyy On a second look I believe you're right not to suspend Stevens at the time for the Kariya hit. Nowadays that is 100% a suspension though. A blindside, lateral hit on an unsuspecting player in a vulnerable position is exactly what the new rules penalizes. The hit was borderline late also which would not be ignored today.
How he never got suspended for that elbow is beyond me.
Scott Stevens was vicious! I wish the Caps never traded him away
They didn't the Blues signed him and gave up 5 1st rounders!
Did anyone else notice how many times Stevens not only crushes the guy he's lining up but one of his own teammates as well? Seriously, on half these hits he crushes the opposing player and one of his own guys at the same time. So. Awesome.
And listen, I am a Flyers fan.. A huge Lindros fan, so I am not biased at all in my opinion. I hated seeing Lindros lose his career to Stevens. But Hockey back then with these hits was just so F-ing awesome and great. And honestly, most of the real injury from these hits came from the terrible helemt technology back then when their heads would hit the ice. Nowadays there wouldnt be half the concussions from hits like this. Helmets are way better with so much better protection.
You can still lay a good open ice hit on someone without targeting the head. That was the problem I had with Stevens, his blatant targeting of the head, as opposed to body on body. If the guy bounces and hits his head, than that's just bad luck.
steven vogel Keep you head up. When your targeting a guy like a heat seeking missile it's hard to land a perfect clean hit. I'm of the belief that these guys signed up to play hockey, their making millions of dollars, players should be able to hit in the most effective way possible. The league is almost unwatchable nowadays.
thefives7ar then dont fucking watch it. the NHL is just fine.
If these hits were made in today's version of "hockey."
10. Tossed for hitting the knee, suspended for three games without pay, and labeled a repeat offender.
9. No penalty or suspension, but Internet complains hit was "unnecassary."
8. Suspended for five games, ten if this hit came after Hit #10; I forget the chronological order.
7. Probably nothing but scorn and articles from the ridiculous NYC media. They'd likely spend most of their time referencing the Daneyko and Bassen hits and using this hit on King as a call to have Stevens expelled from the league.
6. This hit caused a huge uproar THEN - when people weren't pussies - so I can only imagine what it would be like now.
5. Stevens would never have had a chance to hit Lindros because this would have gotten him tossed for the remainder of the series.
4. I bet he'd have been tossed from the game but nothing more other than, again, getting ridiculed and re-labeled a repeat offender.
3. Some fan would have died from going into cardiac arrest arguing over this one. We'd have a huge discussion about elbows, leaving feet, physics, etc etc. Probably suspended one or two games.
2. I honestly think that, in today's hockey, Stevens would have been suspended for a season for this one. The catch is that Kariya would not have returned to playing, maybe not for the series, and that the NHL would have suspended Stevens indefinitely.
1. The City of Philadelphia would have recommended bringing Stevens up on charges.
+bpstyles I would have to agree with all of these but I couldn't see the league suspending him indefinitely if they hadn't already suspended cooke and torres indefinitely.
+bpstyles #9 was so fucking good
my favorite defenseman of all time
Kariya, Francis and especially Lindros hits were elbows to the head. The rest were great. My fave is the one on Daneyko. Those hip checks are merciless.
@TJWhitey38 I guess we have different ideas of what "Immediately" means. I go by proper definition which is "Without delay" or "Without an intermediary". There was clearly a noticeable delay between release of the puck and the hit. Stevens had plenty of time to abort the hit, which to me means he did not do it "Immediately" after.
You must be a "NEW NHL" guy.
Try watching the sport of Hockey that existed when men played the game for the 80+ years before the "NEW NHL" happened.
Many of those ‘men’ have debilitating mental health issues because of playing like that.
Maybe a few more Chris Benoits on the way.
by today's rules:
#10: clean
#9: clean
#8: dirty
#7: clean
#6: clean
#5: dirty
#4: dirty
#3: clean
#2: dirty
#1: dirty
its 50/50 for his hits certainly not all of them are dirty.
Such a dirty player. Leads with his elbow and hits high. Some of his hits are good, but the Kariya and Lindros ones are insanely dirty and dangerous. Fucking brutal.
stevens dirty? lmao did you not see the time tie domi elbowed the shit out of one of the devils players and got suspended. i doubt stevens ever got ejected from a game.
+mcdangles89 you're a pos like Stevens too apparently
+lolh4x You know how many elbowing penalties Stevens got in his career? FOUR.
Your argument is invalid.
+Eric bud you couldn't be more full of shit if you were a diaper.
I get excited that in the afterlife Scott Stevens will be judged.
#8 was the best. thats the definition of a hit.
Best pure defenceman ever! Nobody intimidated his opponents and could change the momentum of a game like SS#4
He was a great hitter but best defenseman ever? Lol
Hate seeing Paul Kariya hurt like that :/
Thought he was dead
First off...these are the highlight reel hits from the guys career, and the best ones are when he caught some dummy crossing left to right around the blue line without paying attention to where he was going and who was coming. Second...please slow these down and take a look before you start babbling about head shots and elbow. He never targets the guys heads. These are body checks. Guys heads may have been involved in the follow-through, but he doesn't target the head. He also keeps the elbow tucked and it only comes up on the follow through. If these shots were so dirty, why didn't anyone go after him after he makes them? Because guys know a clean hit even when it blows somebody up, and they respect it. It's also worth noting that every one of them happens either complete in or with a stride or two of the defensive zone. Headhunting? Get real. Best open-ice hitter ever.
you deserve a medal for this comment
+JUstMove Agreed.
Finally a comment that actually didn't make a comment on about how dirty these hits are.
How is the dirty elbow to Lindros the top one ?
@KidA914 doesnt mather if you target the head or not.. the typical stevens hit he comes in as a 3rd of 4th person when the player has all his attention on something else and bam!!! shoulder in the face. watch them in slowmotion and you can see that very often the first thing he hits is the head. and it still doesnt answer my original question, "everytime a player turns, breaks or skates fast its ok to hit the head?" is it ok to take someones knees out if they are skating with their legs wide?
most of them were albow and headshots
BS,Shoulders, and speed.
Elbow? Headshots? You're enjoying some weird ass porn, mate.
Please....actually NONE of them were elbows. They all led with the shoulder and the arm comes up on impact due to the kinetic energy of the follow thru. You can castigate the guy for looking for people who were getting funneled into a narrow space where he could blast them, but that was and still is within the rules. You can also talk about headshots but if you REALLY look at them, he doesn't target the head. He's looking to body check these guys and if the head comes into play on the follow through...that was the game.
Bullshit, Stevens was always aiming for the jaw. If he actually would have aimed to body check then i would not have a problem with this, but he totally and intentionally tried to injure his opponents. Almost everyone of these so called "Greatest Hits" are disrespectful ugly hits.
Sebastian Karlsson Stick with figure skating.You certainly don't know hockey.
stevens is definitely a legend but he was also a career ended. a lot of these were clean but god the guy could have toned it down a little. lindros had his career basically ruined because of that hit. sad to see exciting hockey players have to exit so soon from the league due to recurring injuries like concussions. he should have kept his head up though. both sides had part in that one
ender*
The new rules are silly. Consider that these rulings are coming from Brendan Shanahan. Who was one of the roughest/toughest players in the league. You cant let players skate around with their head down. When I played hockey in high school and middle school my coaches told me to hit anyone with their head down twice as hard. Even in practice we were told to hit our team mates if their heads were down (obviously not as hard) but it was for their own benefit they learned to play correctly. Hockey is a physical game and I would argue its lost a little of that element. Big open ice hits were exciting to watch...even playing it was satisfying to line up someone with their head down that just got a long pass and wasn't paying attention to where the defense was. The audience would cheer. The bench would clap the boards. You knew that guy wasn't going to test you like that again and it sent a message to the other team. From then on they knew we'd hammer them if they played head down.
Dirtiest hitter of my lifetime. Been watching and playing since the early 60's. What a piece of shit. For every good solid hit he laid out he hit 2 in the head. It's too bad. When he hit clean it was awesome. Usually it was a cowardly late blindside. Legal at the time or not it was intent to injure.
Keep your head up and you wouldn't have had to worry about Scott
Not on my team, but ruined a lot of careers. A coward, just like the posters here with big balls behind a keyboard.
socialchiguy By the way. Just curious. What is the ?. for and the spaces between the words and periods. Is that the nj school system at its finest?
I'd just like to say I'm not anywhere near the east coast and scott Stevens is my fav player and frankly if u have ur head down when a big hitter is out on the ice, u get hit. It's all the players own faults and not Stevens fault
+Rick James keep living in ur devil glory days how many times u watch old devil videos a day lmao whats funny is devils have no chance of winning a cup in the near future enjoy being mediocre
one of the best; cool video
@TJWhitey38 I guess I'm trying to say that there has to be a loss of possession scenario that is not clearly written. Even if a player dumps the puck in and the goalie plays it, you would get a penalty for hitting him 5 seconds after the release of the puck even though he is technically in possession according to the written rule. Something just doesn't add up.
Let's be real here stevens is a legend rightfully so but almost all these hits he's putting forearm or elbow to face he was always head hunting lol but fuck it was legal he'd be locked away in a jew dungeon in bettemans mansion if he played today
if you watch the majority of these, he's actually using his bicep/arm , it only looks like an elbow because of the follow through
Head hunting for sure but his elbow was ALWAYS tucked at the moment of contact. Perfect hits in those days.
He was hitting to hurt you can say. But lets be honest. If your going to line someone up like that today, you're still wanting to hit the guy as hard as you can. These aren't real dirty hits either. A few you can argue he jumped before the contact but screw it. This is one of the best videos on RUclips!!
Mike Perry no, ask your mother. :-)
The best body checker in the game ever had. Played almost every game. I miss that intense look he had. He did they thing clean. Forget about Kariya hit. The game is so fast you can't change your stance in a fraction of a second.Anyone saying he was dirty is a moron! Know nothing about hockey. I'm glad he's in the hockey hall of fame.
Pretty much all of them were dirtt as fuck lol
At that time it was sacrilegious to keep head and eyes in the wrong place even in the shower after a game
I like how people will comment “if that was today he’d be suspended” yeah no shit the rules have changed but back then they had to keep people watching and Stevens hits did that
Stevens was the best NHL hitter ever. It's indisputable.
every one of these hits came from the blind side and on a much smaller player, stevens was a goon. low class coward who wouldn't fight domi.
tminusc23 Oh my god how many times do I have to say this. KEEP YOUR FUCKING HEAD UP IF YOU DONT WANNA BE HIT!! And also idk where the fuck you get this "Every player he hit was small" idea from. Eric Lindross was the number one power forward in NHL history. That son of a bitch was a brick wall that could skate.
tminusc23 Are you aware of how large Eric Lindros is??
Hockey is a dying sport because of the rule change on hitting.
1986toronto peasant
1986toronto I'm just kidding it is expensive
+jayson m
It is expensive. Through exorbitant ticket pricing, they excluded the one group of people that built the sport: the working man.
+maxcohen13 that's every sport now unfortunately... Hell, every aspect of entertainment in general 😥
How is it dying if the revenues are up? It's more popular, not less.
A bulk of those hits were to the lower jaw...
Kariya bot the worst of them...
Scott Stevens deserves the worst fate in life.
Guys like Kariya are the ones that fill the rinks! They should not get hit like that… Kariya was a clean player, and most guys in the NHL had bigger salaries because of players like Kariya… I play hockey, and I like it when it gets a little rough, but hits to the head are cheap shots!
guys own fault. All he did was admire his pass like it was heaven. Stop looking at ur pass and have visual awareness
then they should keep there head up at all times
@@plasmiteman6474He was actually trying to play the game and keep his focus on the play while Stevens was just out there headhunting as usual
I remember him well. His hits were so devastating it would take out the offensive player and one of his own players And he'd still be standing.
That hit on Kozlov is cleanest and best I have ever seen.
utterly disguisting, those hits were legal in the 90s. Put him in todays hockey league and you have a mediocre player that does not deserve to be in the HHOF
Nasloxieh Rorsxez Today's NHL is horrible, garbage league.
thefives7ar Why do you say that? Defensive systems to perfect? Not enough goals? No players that Stan out from the rest? Not as physical as before?
The league has pretty much outlawed fighting and taken the physicality out of the game. Goalies are mechanical and all play the butterfly style which is extremely boring to watch. I miss goaltenders like Hasek, Brodeur, and Belfour. Big hits constantly cause players to get fined and suspended even though the hits are legal.
thefives7ar I guess its all a matter of opinion. I dont like how the enforcer role is disappearing. But I also like that their is no clear cut best player in the world. So it is that much harder to pick the MVP and the numerous other trophies as well. For example, look at the art ross competition. No one is reaching 100 points this year, but it makes it more exciting when everyone in the top 20 has a chance to win the art ross. I believe the leading points producer right now has 74 points and the person in 20th place has around 60. Thats a minimum of a 14 point difference. All it takes is a good point streak now and anyone can jump ahead the competition with ease. I agree with most of the points you made though, defensive systems and goaltending are too perfect for my taste. And its unlikely we will ever see a goalie like Hasek again.
***** lol