Hip Check: Dirty or Not

[John Corn]

After much discussion at work I decided to post this question here.

Is a hip check dirty?

I believe that a hip check is a clean hit and shouldn't be considered a cheap shot.

Many people call Tucker's hit on Peca a dirty hit, when it was nothing more than a hip check that led to an injury.

A player could do just as much damage with a shoulder to shoulder check, but it is not considered dirty.

Your thoughts...

Please leave opinions of Tucker as a player out of this.

 

[tlove]

Hip checks are great, to bad it's a lost art. Before I left Maryland I was a regular at the Caps games. Scott Stevens was still there and he was probably the last of the greats at using the hip check. To many players today are sloppy with it or just don't do it right at all. If it's done wrong then it is dirty, even if unintentional. To many knees get taken out. When done right, there's nothing better and it's deffinately not dirty.

I'll leave the particular check in question up to your own judgement.

 

[angiodan]

There is no better feeling than lining a guy up and giving him a hip check! (Ah, I miss playing contact hockey)

As tlove said, done properly, its a great check. The guys that crouch way down are the ones blowing out peoples knees.