In defense of David Smith, whom John Haeussler earlier today christened
the dirtiest player in the CCHA (sorry, but I haven't learned how to move
text from an incoming message to an outgoing one):
 
I don't think that he's a dirty player at all.  Agreed, he is very
aggressive, and when he lines up a player for a hit, he hits that player
hard.  Also, he ALWAYS comes to the defense of a teammate who is drawing
the abuse of his opponents.  When a player is playing on the road, this
style of play gets the crowd riled up, but it isn't particularly dirty.
Still, this style results in crowd abuse directed toward the "dirty" player
that often results in his just playing more agressively, or "dirtier."
 
Dirty play, though, I think is more along the lines of intent to injure--
putting players in headlocks while taking them into the glass, butt-ending,
and running guys after the whistle.  If you were sitting on my end of the
rink Saturday night, you saw that Cam Stewart's late hit was pretty clearly
intentional.
 
I'm sure that if you ask fans in other CCHA cities for candidates for
"dirtiest player in the CCHA," you'll hear several Michigan players
mentioned.
 
Incidentally, I think that a Michigan player who plays a style comparable to
David Smith's is Ted Kramer.  While I don't think that too many Michigan
fans would look on his play as dirty, remember that a couple of years ago
Kramer drove Bowling Green coach Jerry York to nickname him the "Charles
Manson of the CCHA."  Given that, I don't think it's very fair to name
David Smith as dirtiest.
 
 
Paul Grochowski
Univ. o' Michigan
GO BLUE