Biography
Samuelsson is perhaps best remembered as an NHL player for his heavy body checks and ability to agitate opponents. He earned the English nickname "Robocop" for the suit of armor-like padding he wore and Tuffe Uffe ("Tough Ulf" in Swedish) in Sweden.
Samuelsson was selected 67th overall by the Hartford Whalers in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft. In February, 1987, Samuelsson played in the "Rendez-vous '87" series as a member of the NHL All-Stars. The two game series between the NHL All-Stars and the Soviet national team took place in Quebec City and replaced the NHL's mid-season All-Star Game for the 1986-87 season.
He was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins along with Ron Francis in 1991 and was a member of Pittsburgh's Stanley Cup winning teams in 1991 and 1992. He scored the 1991 Stanley Cup-winning goal in Game 6 of the Finals against the Minnesota North Stars, at 2:00 of the first period in what became an 8–0 blowout victory for Pittsburgh.
In a game versus the Boston Bruins during the 1991 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Samuelsson hit Bruins' star forward Cam Neely with a knee-on-knee check which injured Neely and caused him to develop a condition known as Myositis Ossificans which ultimately ended his career. Many observers still hold Samuelsson responsible for shortening Neely's Hall of Fame career.
As a member of the New York Rangers in 1995, Samuelsson was famously knocked unconscious by a sucker punch to the face from Tie Domi of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Domi received an eight-game suspension and a fine for the incident, described by some as one of the cheapest shots in NHL history. Domi insisted that Samuelsson provoked the punch by repeatedly calling him "dummy". Samuelsson himself occasionally received criticism for his style of play during his playing career, sometimes referred to as "the undisputed king of the cheap shot".
Samuelsson played 1,080 career NHL games, scoring 57 goals and 275 assists for 332 points. He accumulated 2,453 penalty minutes over the course of his career.
During the Nagano Olympics, he was ejected from the Swedish team when it was discovered that he had requested and received US citizenship. His Swedish citizenship was revoked and he wasn't allowed to play. In 2003, when Sweden permitted dual citizenships, Ulf got his Swedish citizenship back. The entire ordeal was listed as the seventy-second most important international story by the IIHF in their centennial celebrations in 2008.
Read more about this topic: Ulf Samuelsson
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