Ice Guardians Page #5

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wasn't that "staged fight"

and that's when, in a lot of ways,

things got really dangerous

and things got really serious.

Here's Boogaard and

King dropping the gloves!

This is as heavy...

this is as big as it gets

This is a super-heavyweight bout!

King lands a right!

The evolution of training for enforcers

and much more skill-specific training

has gone along with

the better and more

specific skill training

in hockey and... a lotta sports.

Once upon a time,

you just had to be... tough

and willing to do it

and throw a lot of punches

really quickly.

Now it's at a point where people

are takin; Uh, boxin' classes

or martial arts classes.

Jiu-jitsu and grappling

and stand up Greco-Roman wrestling.

Tae-kwon-do.

Lifting the weights,

bungee cord sprints.

Sled pulls, sled pushes.

They're running hills,

they're doin' plyometrics,

they're jumping,

they're doing band weight lifting.

Where, y'know ten years ago,

no one would have lifted with a band.

Everyone's got their own

personal trainer.

They've got psychologists.

They're workin' with everybody

to try to make themselves better.

Training now for players

is an all-year-round thing.

I had a comparable VO2

to almost Lance Armstrong one year.

It was just insane.

Probably 4 to 6, sometimes

8 hours of workouts a day.

In my offseason, I started

to adapt some kind of medieval workouts.

I had some issues with the hands

and I almost had the Palmolive hands,

like dishwasher's hands,

you know, just soft.

I used to wrap my hands with

these types of chains

and then just go around

and just whack trees

and tried to beat my knuckles up

as much as I possibly could

until they started callousing up.

And then you make 'em like leather

and they can take a lot more abuse

when you use 'em as hammers.

On people's faces.

Guys would laugh and say, "let's train."

It's like an executive workout

to what they, how they train now.

All we did was win cups and drink beer.

I guess, Idunno...

Which wasn't too bad either.

Boogaard and Orr going at it.

Early on, strategy wasn't there for me.

I was just gonna go out and

throw 'em as hard as I can.

When I was younger,

it was kinda just... chuck away.

Wasn't too worried about defence, 'n...

...there was, uh, lots and lots

of punches thrown.

You lose a couple points

early in a boxing fight,

you can come back in the

later rounds and win the fight

But in a hockey fight,

you've got a one shot window.

Most fights happen

within 20, 30 seconds.

For me, the most important

part of any fight

was always the first second,

the first couple seconds,

the initial grab.

Gimme your shoulder, man.

And, and where's his head?

I could close my eyes.

I know where it is.

It's right next to my hand!

Basically if I got a hold of him,

I would just start pullin' in

and start puttin' my fist

through their face.

So I just get the double momentum goin'.

Now, there's certain technical things

that come into play

like if they're a lefty,

if they're a righty.

You are gonna get hit.

It's gonna happen.

But you're just tryin'

not to get hit square.

You gotta be within

striking distance all the time

otherwise you're not

gonna get in a fight.

From fight to fight,

or from season to season,

you mould into your,

your style of fighting.

You know, Tie Domi, he was a southpaw.

And the way he fought, it was just...

it was different.

Georges Laraque, a lefty as well.

He was notorious for swinging

guys in a circular pattern.

And then you have Donald Brashear.

Which kinda hugs you, pulls you in.

Pushes you out,

gives you a couple rat-a-tats,

pulls you back in, pushes you out.

Or Joey Kocur,

he goes for the big right.

If he doesn't land the right,

that's your time to attack him.

Some of the big boys,

like Boogie and some of those boys,

they would grab a hold and

try to punch through your head.

I used to love watching Tony Twist.

He would just rear back from

two postal codes over

and throw from there.

It's just the evolution of the sport.

And not being stagnant

and just stuck in a rut.

Kinda like, yeah I do this.

I drop the mitts and I throw down.

For me, I found that

by wearing a bigger jersey,

when they grabbed on to it,

I could get my arm out.

So you went to, maybe if

the shoulder pads came off too,

then it would help even more.

Through trial and error,

it got to the point where

you don't even wear the tie-down.

You'd cut that right off the jersey.

There's no straps on the shoulder pads,

you just have them sit on.

You put a little Velcro

on the shoulder pads.

When they'd pull,

everything would come right off.

And you'd just see

their eyes in most cases

like "Uh-oh what the hell

am I gonna do now?"

There was no way for them

to keep their balance,

there was no way for them

to get any leverage.

It worked until, y'know

they put a stop to it.

Rob Ray's got the magic uniform,

he really has!

One tug and it's all off.

One time I was fightin' George Parros

and I was just like, "What

have I never done before?"

And I was just like, "I got this."

Threw my glove at him and

kinda caught him off guard

...just like that.

And I was like "gotcha!"

And then he tried to throw

his glove back at me

I caught it in midair and

threw it into the stands

and it was like "It's on."

You could almost see him go like...

"Damn it."

"Really, Parker?"

"Like, really?

You just did that?"

Sometimes I'll let a guy kinda hit me...

because it makes me... my eyes turn...

and this switch goes off

in my head when I get hit

and I just wanna kill the guy.

It's not really the safest thing

...to be doing.

But that's why there's only a select few

of us maniacs that do it.

The greatest enforcer of all time?

Who do I regard as the

greatest enforcer of all time?

I was not one, but I'm not

a bad-lookin' guy.

There's so many players

that were doing that,

it's pretty hard to pick one player.

McSorley,

Dave Brown

Dave Semenko,

The Hammer, ' Dave Schultz

Toss up between Knuckles Nilan...

Put Kordic on there too.

Tie Domi was always fun to watch.

The little, little guy.

When he was younger,

the spinning, the ducking

and beating guys that were

like 6'5" and 6'6".

Not just beating them -

like, knocking them out.

In my opinion,

the toughest guy in the league

was Joe Kocur.

Joe Kocur was somebody,

not a big guy - but he hit,

y'know, like a ton a'bricks.

When people say, "Who's the

toughest guy you ever fought?"

I say Terry O'Reilly.

I fought him 8 times.

I mean he wouldn't let me

fight anybody else on that team.

Wendel is up there for me,

pound for pound.

Have to say I honestly think

Georges Laraque is a contender.

Because, how many...?

Google him.

How many fights did he lose?

Stu Grimson and Bob Probert.

Thank God I wasn't playing then

because I wouldn't want

any part of any of 'em.

When you look at a

well-rounded player...

Who is known as an enforcer

and nothing else,

it's really hard to get past Bob Probert

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