A testament to how reviled former National Hockey League defenseman Ulf Samuelsson was among fans is that he can still inspire reactions like this one:

For those of you out there who don’t know who Ulf Samuelsson is, he’s the dirtbag ex-Penguins defenseman whose dirty hit hastened the end of the career of Cam Neely. Let me put this in perspective. If I saw Ulf Samuelsson 50 years from today in a Swedish nursing home, I’d pull the cane out of his lap, jack it into spokes of his wheelchair, and push him down the stairs. Then, as he lay helpless and muttering at the bottom of the stairs, the warm liquid he felt dripping onto his neck would not be blood. It would be urine. My urine.

So I can’t read Samuelsson’s latest Hockey News blog entry, about how to play defense under current league rules (written in his current capacity as Phoenix Coyotes associate coach) without chuckling at this part:

The way I played, I would’ve been close to being in jail. I did try to take full advantage of the rules and I wasn’t a terrible skater, even though (Phoenix coach) Wayne (Gretzky) tells me everyday that I am…

There’s a fair number of Cam Neely fans, among others, who would have gladly escorted Ulfie to his jailcell, and promptly melted down the key. Personally, I recognized him for being the quintessential dirty player, probably the dirtiest ever to play in the NHL. But even I appreciated the skill level that underlay all those bone-rattling checks; he could skate well enough to consistently line himself up for the game-changing hit, and was never boring to watch.