As a keen student of hockey fights dating back before Gordie Howe rearranged Lou Fontinato’s nose, I place ice bouts into three categories.
1. MILD JERSEY-GRABBING. These yawners do not deserve discussion.
2. HYBRIDS: With one arm grabbing the jersey, the other hopefully pounds away.
3. KNOCKOUT OR TKO. Matt Rempe suffered a wobbly-legs TKO from Blue Jackets Mathieu Olivier late last season.
You may not have loved Glen Sather as a general manager but this not-very-large bloke could slug with anyone. Exhibit A involved Rick Foley, a dirigible-sized Philadelphia Flyer who generously qualified as a Broad Street Bully.
Towering over 99 and 44/100th percent of the opposition, Foley had intimidation written all over him, yet – on this night – Slats Sather was not impressed..Nor was Emile Francis who was coaching at the time.
Here’s what my buddy George Grimm got from his interview with Francis for Grimm’s gem, We Did Everything But Win:
“I was giving it to Foley because he was running our guys on the ice and there was a face-off near our bench. Sather happened to be sitting right in front of me. I was yelling at Foley and he tried to spit at me.