Robinson Hammers Dornhoefer

Larry Robinson crushes Gary Dornhoefer into the boards during the 1973 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game had to be halted as the force of the bodycheck damaged the notoriously unforgiving Montreal Forum boards. The Canadiens beat the Flyers 4-1 in this series and go on to win the Stanley Cup.

Excerpt from Red Fisher's article on #19:
In his book, Robinson on Defence, Robinson recalled his hit on Philadelphia's Gary Dornhoefer, a thunderous bodycheck fans with long memories recall even to this day. It happened in the third period of Game 2 of the 1973 playoffs:

"Dorny and I had hammered each other at will. It seems as if we had an unspoken agreement: whenever we met on the ice, it would be a collision. There was no animosity, just two pros acknowledging that the other had a job to do.

"We were leading 2-1 midway through the third when Dorny led a rush up Philadelphia's right side. I was playing left defence and I angled towards him, trying to get a hip into him. He was just inside our blue line when I got my hip into him. Bang into the boards he went, and down he went. When he got up, he was looking at the boards curiously ... we had broken the boards, as it turned out. There was this big dent near the top. Players on both teams skated by the area, sneaking looks and shaking their heads.

"After the game," Robinson wrote, "Gary took great pains to tell the reporters that 'Robinson hits like a pussycat.' "