Ulf Samuelsson was a controversial player, to say the least. He was beloved by his teammates and fans – but hated by his opponents.
To this day, Samuelsson is known as one of the toughest but also dirtiest and most hated players in NHL history.
Samuelsson won two Stanley Cups, both with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but he’s mostly remembered for his dirty plays and how much his opponents wanted to see him go down.
The New York Times once described him as ”the lowest form of human being,” and that his play was all about ”trying to hurt you and knock you out of the game.”
Samuelsson was in plenty of controversial incidents during his career and is perhaps most remembered for his knee-to-knee hit on Cam Neely, contributing to his early retirement. Samuelsson always played with a target on his back, and especially from Tie Domi.
In an infamous game from 1995, when Samuelsson was a member of the New York Rangers, the Swede was knocked unconscious by a punch from Maple Leafs’ Domi. Domi received an eight-game suspension.
When Domi appeared on the Raw Knuckles podcast, he revealed what made him take out Samuelsson, and it was all because of one word.
”His job was to piss off the best players,” Domi said.
”That situation … we had a little history from when I was in New York. I hit him in the corner, and he said, ’Come on, Dummy.’ I said, ’What?’ He says, ’Dummy.’ I said, ’You call me Dummy again I’m gonna knock you out.’ He goes, ’Dummy.’ And boom. Knocked him out.”
Domi said he was expecting a longer suspension than he actually got but that Samuelsson had it coming.
”I thought I was gonna get 20 games, and Brian Burke called me in, he was the discipline guy, and he said, ’What did he say?’ And I’m like, ’He called me a dummy. And I told him that if he called me that again I’m gonna knock him out.’ My dad just died, and I take respect to my father’s last name, and it’s insulting when someone calls me Dummy.”
