This was one of the early meetings in this relationship. I’m not going to post the last significant time these two came together. It pains me too much.
I don’t care how good of an actual defenseman he was, how good of a leader, and all the other stuff. Scott Stevens was dirty and I will hate him forever. He apologized for the Lindros hit, but I don’t believe him one bit. He had a history of dirty hits prior to that, and he kept playing the same way. There’s a way to hit people to make a play, and there’s a way to hurt people because you’re just a douche.
Not for one second do I think the hit he threw on Big E was clean. He went for his head and came up with the arm. He wanted to hurt Lindros and that’s exactly what he did. He could have planted Eric if he hit him in the chest, or went shoulder to shoulder. He went high knowing full well what he was doing and who he was doing it to.
He should have gotten major fines and suspensions for the hit he threw on Kariya. It was similar to the Lindros hit, except Paul Kariya didn’t have the puck when he got steamrolled. When Stevens hit Francis, again it was a headshot. I can’t remember off the top of my head, but there were plenty of other moments. I know there was no specific rule regarding headshots prior to this season, but didn’t players have some sort of protection against attempt to injure? There were suspensions when guys blatantly tried to hurt each other.
That’s what Stevens did for his entire career. I’ll always hate the Devils for their boring brand of hockey. I’ll always hate how they used their damned clutch and grab to slow other significantly more talented teams down. I’ll hate them for beating the Flyers twice en route to the Cup. But I hate them most because of Scott Stevens and how much of a dirty bastard he was.
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