5 Dirtiest Vancouver Canucks Players In Franchise History

John Tortorella, Vancouver Canucks — The Vancouver Canucks are the pride of western Canada. Yes, they have won 10 divisional championships, two Presidents' Trophies and have gone to the Stanley Cup Finals three times in their history. As great as that might be, this team has not won its first Stanley Cup.

However, over the years, the team has had players on its roster who have behaved foolishly.

5. Rick Rypien attacks Minnesota Wild Fan

Yes, this may not really fall under the dirty plays on the ice. In August of 2011, our world lost Rick Rypien to suicide. It was discovered that he suffered from a clinical depression. As horrible as that is to go through, one cannot deflect this play by Rypien. You may stand on one fence or the other when it comes to physical violence on the ice, but you simply cannot attack fans.

4. Alexandre Burrows hits Montreal Canadiens Alexei Emelin

Say what you will about the NHL and how the heads of disciplinary call dirty plays into question. There’s no doubt that this play was an illegal hit to the head. This disgusting hit earned Burrows a three-game suspension. Burrows might be considered a scoring threat on the team. However, he is not immune to delivering silly, dirty hits.

3. Michael Peca hits Winnipeg Jets Teemu Selanne

During the 1980s and even into parts of the 1990s, there would always be an unhidden rule that you cannot throw dirty hits to the superstars. Well, Mike Peca didn’t get that memo. In this play, he catches former Winnipeg Jets star forward Teemu Selanne with his head down and delivers a dirty hit. After the hit, you see a clearly shaken up Selanne try and get up. This hit definitely falls under the dirty category!

2. John Tortorella goes to confront the Calgary Flames team and head coach Bob Hartley during intermission

Who can forget this game between the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks in January 2014? The Canucks and Flames are known to have some heated games. As each team heads to its dressing rooms, John Tortorella wants to confront Flames head coach Bob Hartley for a play earlier in the period. This confrontation earned Tortorella a 15-day suspension (that equaled to six games away from the team) without pay. He was also not allowed to be in contact with the team during that time.

1. Todd Bertuzzi hits Colorado Avalanche Steve Moore

NHL hockey fans, as well as non-sports fans, are very familiar with this play. After this hit, Colorado Avalanche Steve Moore never played another game in the NHL. Bertuzzi faced legal trouble in Vancouver courts as well as the NHL head office. This play is probably well engraved into the minds of people when they think of the Vancouver Canucks franchise.

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