Who is the best pest of all-time in the NHL

      by Brandt Corbin 

      Who do you love to hate? Immediately some of you say Sean Avery, Daniel Carcillo and others will say Matt Cooke. But, who else is there that you would deck if you had the opportunity.  Some of you Calgary Flames fans would say Esa Tikkanen, Oiler fans would say Theo Fleury. I can guarantee you my buddy Mark right now would say Patrick Kaleta, while several Canuck fans would say David Bollland.

        Who was the first pest?

        Back in the 80’s there was many nasty, dirty SOB’s from Kenny “Rat” Linesman, Pat Verbeek you can go back to the early 80’s and you had Mario Tremblay (as many Nordique fans can attest). In the late 80’s and 90’s you had three main pests, and these three did anything and everything to win.

Third worst is Ulf Samuelson one of if not the dirtiest defenseman of all time. The former, Whaler, Penguin and Ranger had classic run-ins with Bruin power forward Cam Neely. Many would argue, Samuelson was the main reason Neely’s career was cut 5 or more years short. Near the end of his time as a Ranger, Tie Domi KO’d ok he sucker punched Samuelson knocking him out cold.

Second biggest pest of all time would have been Claude Lemieux. Again Neely had a few run-ins with Lemieux. But, the veterans most classic encounters were with the Detroit Red Wings. In 1995 game 6, the former Av hammered Kris Draper directly from behind, that hit ignited the best rivalry in hockey over the past 20 years. March 26, 1996 was the first time Lemieux returned to the Joe Louis Arena since the hit from behind on Draper. The game was the most memorable regular season game maybe in history, the game featured 9 fights, several linebrawls, one of which seen Red Wing enforcer Darren McCarty jump and beat-up Lemieux then McCarty scored the overtime winner.

Dale Hunter was beyond a pest, he had no limitations for how far he would go. Whether its fighting his own brother Mark Hunter, running dozens of goaltenders over time. Hunter is most infamous for his hit from behind on NY Islander Pierre Turgeon, oh yes after Turgeon scored. The Isles advanced to the third round but without Turgeon who had a separated shoulder because of the hit. Hunter was suspended 21 games the next season, but one-year to the day, Hunter scored an overtime goal in game 7 helping his Caps advance to the second round.

        The next generation

        The 21rst century version of Dale Hunter is Steve Ott. Like the grizzly Hunter, Ott is not one dimensional, he’s got the ability to score 20 goals, plays a solid two way game and extremely hard to play against. The PEI native has the ability to get under the skin of the other teams best players just ask Joe Thornton. You then have pains in the ass like Sean Avery & Daniel Carcillo, both can pay an undisciplined game, but when they are on their games they’re above average third liners. Both can score 12-15 goals, and both are always in the top 5 in PIM’s in a year. There are also “rats” that play in the NHL nowadays. Matt Cooke who needs to say more, every year he elbows an unsuspecting opponent. Eventually Cooke will get what’s coming to him or the league will finally suspend him long enough where he finally gets it. Cooke is like Lemieux except more dangerous  because of his unsuspecting hits, just ask Mark Savard. Another player who can go to far at times is Kaleta, who hits to hurt, the problem is most of the time you cannot see him coming. He has just as big if not a bigger mouth on him than anyone else. His problem is he is a band aid, who’s career will be over within 5 years.

        Who are we kidding?

        Who are we trying to kid? These guys are like heels (bad guys) in pro wrestling, while we pay to see the superstar, the pests add that element that also makes you want to tune it. Who’s going to get them, will it be the enforcer, the other teams pest or nobody at all.