Ice Guardians Page #4

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to destroy another person's confidence

and to present one's self as omnipotent,

as all-powerful.

It's not just a physical thing.

I think that's why you can't

really tell somebody about it.

They need to live it

to really understand it.

I've done it at every level.

From junior to the

East Coast Hockey League,

to the American League,

to the NHL.

And it's worked at every level.

You had to be very careful and

not every time did it work.

There are just some fights

where it just happens

and nothing emotionally

changes in the game.

Just like you can have a

powerplay and nobody scores.

Does that mean it's a waste?

There's a lot of people that

think "momentum" is bullshit,

that it's a phantom element.

And I think that's completely wrong.

I'll defer to the guys that are

on the ice on this one.

I don't play the

authenticity card very often

but in this situation, I don't

know what that feels like!

Mike Cammalleri played here

two seasons ago

and he tapped me on the shoulder

and he's like,

"Man, do you know how easy it is

for me to play

when you're on the bench?"

You don't even need to play.

Just sitting on the bench.

I remember when I got to Montreal,

my stall mate was Davey Desharnais.

And when we played Ottawa,

every time, he goes,

these guys played

so differently against us.

He goes, "They don't say nothing

when you're around."

I would like to have an enforcer

on my team always.

And hopefully the toughest one.

When did fighting start in hockey?

Oh, I couldn't tell you that one.

The beginning of time?

I don't know.

I have no idea.

Fighting started in hockey...

Was there a time when there

was no fighting in hockey?

The first guy on a pond

who had a couple too many

schnapps trying to stay warm,

I assume he whacked a guy

with his stick at some point.

I've been going to hockey since

the mid-60s, late-60s

and it's always been a

part of the game all my life.

I have no idea, but hopefully

the first match they had.

I'm hoping that's when it started.

Go back every year

since the game started.

There's always enforcers.

Fighting has been

part of the game since day one.

The first hockey game ever...

...ended in a fight.

Literally, the first time we

ever played it in an arena,

bench-clearing brawl!

This is always how we've played it.

Sometimes, in the first few games,

there's scraps between

the players and the referees

or even the fans over ice time.

The term "enforcer" didn't come

in until maybe the 70s and 80s.

But, players were protecting players

all the way back into the 20s and 30s.

You can't help it when you've

got skates like knives

and sticks like clubs

in a game where everybody

fights for a small puck.

In the first year of expansion,

that's when hockey changed.

In a number of ways.

You added six more teams,

you doubled up the league.

You had to double up the talent

but you didn't have double the talent.

And for them to stick,

they had to do something

to make themselves known.

It was almost like the beginning of...

The era of specialization of players.

Well, they started bringin' in players

who were just great at fighting.

The first enforcer in the NHL

was probably John Ferguson.

While other players were brought in

because they were tough,

and that was an element of their game,

he was specifically brought in

to not just be tough,

but to fight.

Ferguson was so effective because

he could play the game and he

didn't care who he went after.

He would go after the smaller guys.

He'd start fights with anyone.

And he scared the opponents.

I think that may have started

something of an arms race

and obviously you could name handfuls,

and dozens and dozens

of enforcers from there.

The Broadstreet Bullies,

the Philadelphia Flyers,

were the ones that started

this whole thing

with intimidation and fighting.

The Broadstreet Bullies were created

because of the St. Louis Blues.

They had taken advantage of them

and their owner had said

this isn't gonna happen anymore.

Mr. Snider, the owner,

said y'know if we can't find

all these superstars,

these great skaters, right away,

we can certainly find guys

who can beat other guys up.

Because I do not want see

a Flyers team intimidated ever again.

They almost went over the top with it.

They said alright,

if the Bruins can do this,

if they can have a series of

very skilled players

surrounded by some pretty tough players,

maybe we can have some

pretty skilled players

and really, really tough players.

And they drafted Schultz and Saleski,

and they traded for DuPont,

and they changed their

whole team around.

They took it to a whole other extreme.

And that became pack fighting

and that became the idea that, well,

the referees aren't gonna fill

the penalty box for 60 minutes.

Teams in those days

had y'know, 1 or 2 tough guys

that could duke it.

That could take care...

The Flyers had like seven of 'em.

We'd go into cities...

and seriously... headlines,

"Hide the women and children,

here come the animals!"

At one point my mother, back in

Rosetown, Saskatchewan

read that Dave Schultz should be

kicked out of the league.

The league hated 'em.

Y'know, everybody hated 'em.

The only people that loved 'em

were Philadelphia

and, and Ed Snider.

All of our guys said, look,

they think we're tough.

We better live up to our reputation.

They went out there with that mentality

that they were just gonna

beat the sh*t out of anyone

who stepped on the ice with them.

And they did it, and they won.

We were winning, all four years

I was here.

Two Stanley Cups, went

to the finals the fourth year.

That advantage of that intimidation

really helped them.

At that time, they could do that

and get away with it.

What they did was make teams... copy it.

That's when it dovetailed

right into the 80s as well.

Even in the Wayne Gretzky era.

That high flying 80s era.

The Ranger-Islander games

would take three and a half hours.

The Battle of Alberta would

take three and a half hours.

Do I even need mention what

Montreal and Quebec

would do to each other?

Of those six teams,

probably half the players

should have been in prison

for what happened on the ice

during some of those games.

So there was that uber-violence

in the 80s as well.

Like anything, it became...

a culture developed around it

for better and for worse.

By... early 90s, things started

to change a little bit.

You didn't have those

2 or 3 guys anymore.

It went from the three

down to two, down to one.

Enforcers were...

probably what we think of

now as enforcers.

They were prototypical

fighters and tough guys.

They were able to play...

But they weren't always allowed to play.

It was when players really

went from being big to gigantic.

When the "staged fights"

started to happen.

The showboat fight,

the centre ice fight,

the spotlight fight.

And here we go!

Line brawl to start this game!

Up until the 90s there

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