Of all the unintentional humor that appears on HF, nothing brings a smile to one's face quicker than to read Scott Stevens being decried as a dirty headhunter.
This thread is amusing.
Stevens definitely belongs in the HHOF, imo. He was an excellent player.
While I agree with a lot of what you say Trottier, I disagree here. While Stevens was a great player, he was a headhunter. Maybe not to the level of some other players, but he did try to hit player's heads with his shoulder. He didn't care if he injured players (which can be also noted from some of his interviews I've seen). Frankly, I don't see much difference between getting hit in the head with a shoulder or with an elbow. It's just easier to elbow someone than to hit 'em with a shoulder. I'm personally surprised, and happy, that Stevens didn't cause any serious permenant damage to someone.
He knew he was going to utterly crush his target on at least some of his more notable hits. It isn't like he did it once or twice where he got a little "excited".
Don't bother telling me I should go watch another sport (I like physical play) or that the players should play a different sport if they don't want to get hurt. That's like saying what Bertuzzi did was "just hockey". He over stepped the boundaries, just like I think Stevens overstepped them too. Bertuzzi's attack would've been considered simply dirty, goonish hockey in the 60s or 70s instead of being labelled as assault. What is acceptable changes, and imo how Stevens hit players shouldn't be acceptable.
As a note: I am not comparing Bertuzzi's incident with Stevens' hits, so lets not open that can of worms.