Ice Guardians Page #6

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as being the best ever.

Bob Probert.

Yep, I think Bob Probert is

hands down, the man.

Bob Probert, I mean he was the best.

He was always a little...

I dunno, I guess the word

would be a little 'crazy.'

When he did decide to fight...

He was unstoppable.

He would control you

for the first 30 seconds of the fight.

He may get hit 5, 10 times in that time

but... he never got hit hard enough.

And after you got tired

maybe throwin' a few punches,

he would start takin' over.

He scored goals, too.

He put up numbers

in a time when the league

was probably at its toughest.

I think he had 72 points

and 395 penalty minutes one season.

And was on the all-star team.

He was nuts.

I always tried to like...

mould myself after him.

He was, hands down,

the greatest... ever.

And they've gotta stop the fight here

because that busted the visor

right off his helmet.

And check if Beaulieu's hand is alright!

Injury-wise...

It's gotta be the toughest

out of any position.

Easily.

My hands, for the first 4 or 5 years,

it was to the point where

it always hurt to put the glove on.

You're putting an open wound

into a dirty glove.

I've never seen knuckles

like the likes of yours.

At one point, as soon as I hit somebody,

I had one knuckle that would

just turn deep purple.

I'd soak my hands every period in ice.

Yeah, these old meat claws,

they don't look as pretty

as they used to.

My career as a hand model

may have been over before it started.

Over the years I've had

a few surgeries on it.

I don't know if you can get those.

I've got a nice Band-Aid

on it right now.

I've broken pretty much

all the bones in here.

There's four bones here,

four bones there.

I had a boxer's fracture here.

I broke this knuckle here.

They took a ligament

out of my wrist here

and they put it into my thumb

to repair it.

Basically, I kinda snapped

the tendon in it.

I wish this f***in' thing

would heal quicker

because... these Band-Aids look gross.

Before I turned 24,

I've had four surgeries on my shoulders.

I popped both of my shoulders

out from takin' a body check.

You get cuts over the eyes, the nose.

I got a tooth knocked out.

I broke my nose a couple times.

It was only a couple times.

I've thankfully actually been

pretty lucky.

I think the most I had was maybe

30 stitches in my forehead

That mighta been the worst one

on my face that happened.

There's a plate here.

A plate here with a mesh that

goes back into the head.

Two plates here supporting

the cheekbone.

Three implants for teeth.

Upper jaw was broken up here.

Break here in the cheekbone.

Diagnetic arch here.

Another plate here.

Right here there's three plates

where I got a slapshot in the face.

Broken molar obviously back here.

And then the cuts and

you can see where the scars are.

They put me back together.

The doctors are good.

Sometimes after I fight,

I wake up in the morning

and I feel like I got in a car accident.

You're lyin' there and your...

body is just... mangled.

And you gotta play through it.

We'd break our hand and go out

the next night and fight again.

It's a wear on the body

but it also takes a mental toll

on you as well.

The nice thing is,

punches never hurt while

you're in a fight, because...

...either your

adrenaline is goin' too much

for you to notice it

or if you really got clocked...

You're knocked out before

you even know what happens.

It's a hard way to earn an easy living.

The enforcers in hockey

have the toughest job in all of sports.

The emotional part takes a toll

more than the physical part

Going home and seeing your kids

and having a pre-game meal and a nap.

Thinking about this the whole day.

I couldn't imagine anything harder

than to wonder ...who

you're gonna fight.

Or if you're gonna have to fight at all.

When you were a kid...

The playground fight all

lined up for you after school,

and you gotta wait from

lunchtime till 3:30,

for that bell to ring.

That's how it feels.

Before games, I'd get the stomach going.

I'd almost be like...

...sick to my stomach.

But if you don't get yourself amped up,

if you aren't ready for it,

then you're gonna be -

run over by a semi

and wonderin-what the hell jusppened.

There would be times...

before I'd fight Georgie Laraque,

when he was playin' for

Edmonton, I mean...

I would have to fight him in my mind...

500 times

and then come to find out

he's scratched or I don't play.

I used to get on a plane, y'know

and you're flyin' some place

to play or whatever

and you know that there's

somebody on the other team

that you're gonna fight.

And inevitably if I didn't

have my hands strapped in...

I'm gonna be like,

Like this, I'm gonna hit

somebody sittin' next to me!

As stupid as it sounds,

I would literally have them...

Put the seatbelt right over my hands!

Crazy, but it's true.

True story.

I'd be sweatin' in my bed.

In my pre-game nap... cold sweats.

Wake up, usually

have a snack, can't eat.

Try and put a cup of coffee down.

Just go to the rink

and sit in your stall

and think about it.

Now you're about 20 minutes

away from game-time

and it's startin' to get real.

The emotions get even higher, y'know...

You skate in the warmup,

you got the wind blowin' in your face,

you got people chanting,

you got the signs everywhere.

You got the haters, you got the lovers

And you got the tough guy

starin' across from you

across the red line.

And he's thinkin' the

same thing you are.

I usually can't even

really stickhandle the puck.

I kinda just uh, sing

the music to my head

that's on in the warm up and...

Fire a couple shots.

Right up to the moment of the fight,

your heart is beatin'

right through your jersey

and the longer you sit,

the worse it gets.

As soon as you grab on and

you're engaged in that fight

all that goes out the window.

Everything that you've thought of

everything that's surrounding you,

it just goes out the window

and you don't hear anything.

It's the most bizarre thing.

I can't really hear anything.

It's like this silence comes over it.

I don't think that thought

of that fight ever goes away

until it happens.

And then once it does, you're

thinkin' about the next one

so it's a constant struggle.

And balancing emotions and...

Energy the right way.

If I start worrying about just

playing and stuff like that,

my game's a lot better

but if I go into the fight,

I don't have that edge.

The mental part is a part of

your whole day.

Your whole year.

Your players expect it,

your coaches expect it,

the fans expect it.

Can't take a night off.

Every time you're playin',

you gotta think the worst

is gonna happen.

It's not an opportunity where

you're allowed to say "no."

If you want to you can but...

You're probably not gonna be

in the NHL for very long.

You could be here one day,

king of the town,

the next day they ship you

outta town and you're nothin'.

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