Throwback: Dave Taylor drops Wayne Gretzky with one punch in November of 1985.

For this throwback we are going back to one of the most infamous moments in the career of former Los Angeles Kings forward Dave Taylor, and it occurred almost exactly 35 years ago today. The date was November 6th of 1985 and the scene was a matchup between Taylor and his Los Angeles Kings, and the Edmonton Oilers. 

Although Wayne Gretzky would eventually go on to become the most famous player to wear a Los Angeles Kings jersey that would come later in his career and in this particular clash Gretzky and Taylor were enemies on opposite sides of the battlefield. Although Taylor has gotten a fair bit of flack over the years for sucker punching Gretzky during this incident a lot of fans are quick to forget that Taylor was actually retaliating against Gretzky who had just delivered a slash to the leg of the Kings' forward. 

On the other side of that coin there have been many who have tried to claim that Gretzky was knocked out by a single punch from Taylor, but I must say looking back at the incident I do believe that Gretzky was doing his best here to sell this one to the officials. Gretzky is clearly moving at all points after he hits the ice and although he does a good job of looking shaken up as he rises to his feet, both his facial expressions towards Taylor following the incident and the way he acted when he first hit the ice tell me that he was relatively none the worse for wear. 

If you haven't had the chance to see this before, it's an all time classic moment in the National hockey League.

Here's the video: