30 Dirty Players in 30 Days. The Philadelphia Flyers

Posted Saturday, August 22. 2009 by Warren Baker
Filed under 30 Dirty Players in 30 Days, Clarke, Bobby, Philadelphia Flyers

Comments (2)

The NHL.com's 30-in-30 feature on the Philadelphia Flyers. highlights the off-season aqcuisition of dirty player alumni Chris Pronger. This choice is fitting since the Flyers dirtiest player ever is now part of the management team

Since the days of the Broad Street Bullies, the Philadelphia Flyers have always had the reputation of being a dirty team. 1n the 1970's, they slashed, hacked and punched their way to back-to back-Stanley Cups. Their captain, Bobby Clarke, was the epitome of the team - tough, skilled and not afraid to bend the rules to win. Clarke is, without a doubt, Philadephia's all-time dirtiest player.

If Clarke was a dirty player in the NHL, then he was downright criminal in international play while playing for Team Canada. He is well known for his vicious slash on Valeri Kharlamov during the 1972 summit series. The slash put the Russian's star forward out of commission for the remainder of the series, which Canada went on to win.

The fiercely contested series continued in Game Six, and Canada had to find a way to stop the skilled Kharlamov. "Kharlamov was killing us," recalled John Ferguson, the assistant coach of Team Canada. "I called (Bobby) Clarke over to the bench, looked over at Kharlamov and said, 'I think he needs a tap on the ankle.' I didn't think twice about it."

Bobby Clarke of Team Canada took his coach's suggestion to heart, chopping Kharlamov's left ankle. "I gave Valeri Kharlamov a tap on his sore ankle with my stick," stated Clarke several years later. "When (journalist) Dick Beddoes asked me about it, calling my shot 'a wicked two-hander,' I simply told him, 'Dick, if I hadn't learned to lay on a two-hander once in a while, I'd never have left Flin Flon!'"

A few days later, while traveling home from Moscow, the Canadian Team was playing a "friendly" match against Czechoslovakia. During the game, Bobby Clarke stalked the Czech captian František Pospíšil across the ice before hitting him in the face with a vicious butt-end

Bobby Clarke is one of the dirtiest players of all time, he is an embarassment to Canadian hockey and one of the biggest jackasses the NHL has ever seen.

He's also on the Armchair Pools 30 Dirty Players list.

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Damon August 22, 2009 at 1:06 pm

Wow, that hit on Pospíšil is absolutely disgusting. What an embarrassment.

Warren Baker August 22, 2009 at 10:14 pm

It is pretty amazing. No question about intent to injure there.

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