Ice Guardians

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1

I still remember

I was probably 12 or 13.

We were at one of the stables

and there was a couple guys.

It was like "Oh, what are you gonna do?

You gonna be a vet like your dad?"

Y'know, being a 13 year old

and still a dreamer,

I was like "No, I'm gonna

play in the NHL."

Saturday night, you sit around, and...

if you're not playin' in a tournament,

you're usually watchin' it on TV.

We saw how good these guys played

and how hard they worked

and how tough they were.

We wanted to be like them.

It's all you think about your whole life

is playin' in the NHL.

There was a point

that I realized that

my skillset that I had...

It was only gonna take me so far.

Every league I went into,

I was always a little bit slower

than most players

and I had to establish

myself in some way

to stick in the league.

It was just one of those things where...

you just, kept wanting

to prove whoever wrong

that kept saying that, y'know,

you're not gonna make it.

Eventually, y'know, their skill level

and everything else levels off

and all of a sudden you grow

and your abilities change.

I could just kinda feel like...

guys lookin' outta

the corner of their eye

to like, see what I was gonna do.

Then I finally looked in the mirror

and I was like, God it's me.

It's, it's my role.

Whoa oh-oh-oh-oh! Whoa oh-oh-oh-oh!

I'm not looking for a fight

If you come at me tonight

I'm gonna make-a you sorry!

Don't try my patience, son

There's a reason I'm the one,

People stand aside for

Just play the game you know,

And we won't go toe-to-toe

Tomorrow you'll feel better

You know this ain't a road

For you to freely go,

This is a dead end!

And on it goes

Someone begs for a broken nose

Under the lights, my justice reigns

Oh whoa-oh-oh-oh

Crossing my line, will put you in pain

Oh whoa-oh-oh-oh

You'll be praying to God,

When will it end?

Oh whoa-oh-oh-oh

This is not a fight you can win

here, my friend!

Oh whoa-oh-oh-oh

Oh yeah!

Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh...

Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!

Good evening and thanks for joining us.

It is one of the most disgusting

brutal parts of NHL hockey

and last night, Canadians

watched it all happen yet again.

They are the most feared

players in the NHL

whose role isn't scoring goals,

it's - knocking out the opponent.

They're enforcers.

Scouted, drafted and put

on the ice for one thing...

To fight.

What do you think of

fighting in professional hockey?

It's got its place. I mean...

Hell, two thirds of the people in here,

that's probably all they're looking for.

What do you think of

fighting in professional hockey?

There isn't enough of it.

I don't think it's a problem.

It's just...

they shouldn't fight so hard.

We're not talkin' about MMA,

we're talkin' about hockey.

"What do I think of fighting

in professional hockey?"

I think it's part of the sport.

I do not like it at all,

to be honest with you.

In any sport, especially

professional athletes,

it just is not professional.

It's immature and not necessary.

It stops the flow of the game.

Really?

You're a fan of it?

Yeah!

It's fun.

Gets the fans goin', right?

I love it.

It's why I come for the entertainment.

I think it makes the game

more interesting actually.

I still think it plays

a role in the game.

So is there something about hockey

that really lends itself to violence?

Intellectually, it doesn't make sense.

You're trying to

take a round black thing

and put it over a red line.

That's the game!

And whoever does it the

most times, that wins.

Where does the fight come from?

Why does this not happen in football?

Why does this not happen in rugby?

Why does this not happen

in these types of sports?

At the alarming rate that it does,

or more specifically, did,

in the game of hockey?

There's a big difference between hockey

and most other games

because you're moving at

a far higher speed.

Pass to Hall at full speed

and he's hammered!

When you've got guys who are

skating at 30 miles an hour,

and they've got a massive

stick in their hand

which could be a weapon,

you're going to get some kind of tension

that comes from that game.

And in an environment

where a body suddenly

becomes a lethal weapon

because of the speed

at which it's moving,

the danger, the adrenaline level,

the need to protect yourself

is far higher than it is

in a normal environment.

At first you may not feel that...

This is exactly what you wanna do.

You have to make that

adjustment. Like, y'know, I...

This wasn't...

This isn't what I signed up for.

I didn't start playing hockey

to go out on the ice and fight!

It's the last thing I woulda thought of.

But once you start...

I was never able...

To... stop.

To each their own. I mean...

Some guys are...

they do the role because

they have to do the role.

See, I'm a little different I mean...

I look at another guy and

I wanna beat his face in

every time I see that guy on the ice.

I started to fight in development camps.

It was a completely conscious decision.

It was a matter of self-preservation.

If I'm gonna be playin',

the way I want to play

I'm gonna probably have

to fight at some point.

I came out, they sent

somebody out after me

during a scrimmage

I had no idea what I was doing.

I just sort of grabbed'im

and started throwing punches.

I was watching my fist like

it was in slow motion.

I'm doing pretty well here.

This is easy.

As soon as I did that,

that changed everything

I just had a coach there.

He's like, you know,

I think you could actually...

Have a shot at bein'

a pro hockey player.

I'd never heard that before.

It became real.

It became that guys were playing

hard and playing for jobs

and playing for positions.

You had your defensive guys,

your offensive guys

Everybody specialized in something.

They said y'know,

you're gonna play in the NHL.

It might take ya ten years.

But you're gonna hafta fight

every step of the way.

And I said, you know what?

I'll do it.

Even just to be mentioned

in the breath of you might

be getting drafted.

It's like...

You're like "Wow, this

might be a reality!"

That's the time

agents start knocking on your door

and people telling you what might happen

and talking to scouts and

getting letters in the mail.

I remember I waited

by the phone all day.

I didn't actually go to the draft

because I was a later draft pick.

And I got the call from the

Philadelphia Flyers.

And I remember the first thing

my dad said.

Well you're their type of

player, that's for sure.

I signed a pro contract when I was 19

and I thought it was all...

It was all "up" from there.

And then I realized that was

only the start of the battle.

You have a very short... amount of time

to show what you have.

And if you're not

kind of... pegged, it's...

it's gone in an instant.

Every NHL team has an AHL team

that they're affiliated with.

The difference between

the AHL and the NHL,

the AHL being the feeder system

for the NHL.

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