Every night, these NHL workhorses left more blood, sweat, and tears on the ice than Tonya Harding.
4. <strong>Gino Odjick</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: Known as "The Maniwaki Mauler"
A full-blooded Algonquin from Maniwaki, Quebec (hence the nickname), Odjick was six-feet-three-inches, 225 pounds of "What are you looking at, paleface?" During his stint in Vancouver, Odjick was put on a line with superstar Pavel Bure for the sole reason of steamrolling everyone out of the diminutive Russian's way.
14. <strong>Doug Jarvis</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: Still the all-time "Iron Man"
Sure, Jarvis looked exactly like the scrawny red-haired kid in Can't Buy Me Love who gets his house shat on, but you can't play 964 consecutive NHL games without a high pain tolerance and a set of steel nerves. In fact, Jarvis still holds the league record for least time spent pussing out in the press box with an injury.
10. <strong>Todd Bertuzzi</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: Everything leading up to "The Incident"
Bertuzzi will forever be blacklisted for cheap-shotting Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore and breaking his neck, and that's kind of a shame. Before that, he was the prototypical power forward—wracking up goals by going through defensemen, not around them, and wracking up penalty minutes by shutting up anyone who complained.
12. <strong>Doug Gilmour</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: Only 5'11'', 175 pounds, still known as "Killer"
Given his size and his ability to tap dance around dumbstruck defensemen, Gilmour could have gotten away with being a finesse player. Instead, he set out to prove the Fight Club line, "skinny guys fight 'til they're burger." If Gilmour ended up in the locker room without blood trickling down his grinning face, he played a bad game. Defined "fearless."
11. <strong>Wendel Clark</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: It's not fair when goons can score, too
If Doug Gilmour was the scrappy Chihuahua nipping at your heels, fellow Maple Leaf Wendel Clark was the bulldog. It's demoralizing to an opposing team when one guy goes out and beats up their whole bench—it's abject humiliation when that same guy also unleashes his killer wrist shot for two or three goals in between penalties. Any wonder why, six years after this retirement, #17 is still bigger than Jesus in Toronto?
10. <strong>Dave Semenko</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: Gretzky's bodyguard.
The term "cement head" was practically coined for Semenko. He played helmet-less, and had a Cro-Magnon brow ridge that would rattle even the toughest guys in the league if it frowned in their direction. The guy so intimidated everyone that he had to look for fights outside the rink, and even there he didn't think small: In 1983, Semenko fought an exhibition against Muhammad Ali.
9. <strong>Peter Forsberg</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: This guy's Swedish?
European players are supposed to skate real pretty-like and butcher our language—that's it. They aren't supposed to dominate a game the way Forsberg does. He has moves gorgeous enough to be immortalized on a Swedish postage stamp (his game-winner against Canada in the 1994 Winter Olympics), and the badassness to come back to hockey after having his fucking spleen removed.
8. <strong>Billy Smith</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: Did nothing to dispel the notion that all goalies are batshit insane
"Battlin'" Billy Smith hated the other team. Not in a healthy, competitive way, but in a dangerous way. He still holds the record for most penalty minutes by a goaltender for his liberal use of a goal stick. He also once got so angry at Mike Bossy that Smith had to be tackled and held down to keep from killing the superstar—and they were teammates at the time.
7. <strong>Gordie Howe</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: The "Gordie Howe Hat Trick"
Although he's known these days as the NHL's most prolific goal-scorer and biggest star before that Gretzky kid came along, back in the day Gordie was known as a tough bastard. His patented "hat trick" included a goal, an assist, and a fight. He also played a shift in the IHL at the ripe old age of 80, when most men consider fully emptying their bowels into their own personal Stanley Cup.
6. <strong>Maurice Richard</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: The "Blackout" Goal
They don't make 'em like they used to. In 1944, Maurice "The Rocket" Richard once spent an entire day lifting furniture—including a piano—while moving into a new house, then went out that very night and scored five goals for Montreal. But his toughest moment came in the 1952 Stanley Cup Finals: With blood streaming down his face from a previous blow to the head, Richard scored the Cup-clinching goal. He would later claim to have no memory of doing so.
5. <strong>Bob Probert</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: The All-Time Heavyweight Champ
The term "goon" is usually used to describe guys who can't contribute anything to a game, so they just go out and beat people up. But in Probert's bruised hands, this actually became an art form. Other teams would dress notorious fighters only when they played against Probert, and soon, people began to refer to certain games like title fights. It wasn't, say, "Red Wings vs. Devils" or "Red Wings vs. Maple Leafs," but rather "Bob Probert vs. Troy Crowder" or "Bob Probert vs. Tie Domi."
4. <strong>Bob Baun</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: "It's just a sprain."
Think about this the next time some New York Yankee billionaire sits out six weeks for a an over-extended pinkie finger: In the 1964 Stanley Cup Finals, Leafs defenseman Bob Baun blocked a slap shot with his ankle and shattered it. He limped off the ice for a few minutes, wrapped up the ankle, came back on the ice for overtime, and scored the game-winning goal.
3. <strong>Scott Stevens</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: "The Hit"
Eric Lindros was nicknamed "The Next One" because he was supposed to be the talent of Wayne Gretzky in the body of a pro wrestler. But we'll never know, because once the hulking youngster's head met Scott Stevens' shoulder in a vicious-but clean-open-ice hit during the 2000 playoffs, he was forever reduced to a glass-jawed pushover. Stevens, already a feared hitter, was now canonized as one of the most intimidating blueline warriors ever.
2. <strong>Mark Messier</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: "The Guarantee"
Messier already had a rep as big, strong, fast, and mean, but he really showed what kind of brass ones he was packing in 1994: With the Rangers a game away from elimination at the hands of rival New Jersey, "The Captain" gathered the notoriously unmerciful New York press around and flat-out guaranteed victory. He then went out and scored three straight third-period goals to beat the Devils. The Rangers went on to win the series and their first Stanley Cup in 54 years.
1. <strong>Mario Lemieux</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: He beat cancer
The six-foot-four, 220 pound Lemieux has scored with more guys on his back than Paris Hilton, but he really proved he wasn't as soft as his French accent would suggest when he stared down Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1992. Not only did he let the disease sideline him for all of two months, on the day of his final radiation treatment, he went out and scored a goal and an assist against Philadelphia. He also continued to be one of the game's all time greats for another 10 years.
BONUS: <strong>Don Cherry</strong>- Tough Guy Cred: Hockey's answer to John Madden
He may dress like a mafia pimp, but the former coach and Hockey Night in Canada commentator is adored by the beer-and-lunchpail hockey faithful. In a sport where every player spouts the same, politically correct clichés, Cherry shoots off at the mouth every chance he gets (loves tough guys, hates Europeans, thinks French-Canadians are wusses). Cherry doesn't care if you can deke a goalie blindfolded—if you can spit out your own teeth and keep playing, you're one of "his boys."