This piece was originally intended as a response to a comment posted by Mike concerning a rise in fighting majors in 2019-20 following several seasons of decline, not to mention the importance of physical play in today’s game. Which started me on a ramble. Always dangerous.
So, Mike, this one’s for you.
For a while it appeared as if fighting in hockey was going to die a natural and spontaneous death…especially after our Penguins won back-to-back Cups without employing anyone remotely resembling a heavyweight. Then the Capitals won the Cup in 2018, in part, by embracing a physical style. The equally muscular Blues followed suit last season, while speed-oriented teams like Toronto and Carolina fell short.
Yes, I do think it reinforces the notion that there will always be a place for physical play (and physical teams) in the sport. Since the two generally go hand-in-hand, I’m going to shift the focus to fighting for a bit.
To my eyes, hockey appears to be returning to its pre-1970s roots, which is good for the sport and the collective welfare of the players. With the notable exception of the “Big, Bad Bruins” and the equally nasty Blues, teams of that era generally carried a “policeman” or two using the vernacular of the day…usually a forward and a defenseman…to protect their teammates and occasionally stir up a little mayhem of their own.
The Pens had the two Bryans…Hextall and “Bugsy” Watson. Fights generally weren’t premeditated or staged, but were more of the “heat of the moment” variety, which is what we’re seeing more of these days. Often they involved guys who weren’t fighters but rather honest players standing up for themselves and/or protecting their patch of ice.
Then the Philadelphia Flyers came along. In an effort to shield themselves against the Bruins and Blues, they loaded up with a veritable rogue’s gallery of thugs…Dave “the Hammer” Schultz, Bob “Hound” Kelly, Andre “Moose” Dupont and Don “Big Bird” Saleski…not to mention second-tier toughies like Gary Dornhoefer, Ross Lonsberry and Ed Van Impe. Suddenly, teams that carried only one or two tough guys were at an extreme disadvantage.
The Flyers were downright mean. They’d target your stars for abuse and dare you to do something about it. Most of the old-school tough guys like Hextall and Watson were overwhelmed. To digress, prior to the Flyers’ emergence linesmen were instructed to break up scuffles at the earliest opportunity. More often than not, fights in the pre-“Broad Street Bullies” era were brief skirmishes rather than knock-down, drag ‘em out affairs, where each combatant maybe threw a punch or two before they were separated.
Again, that changed with the Flyers. Schultz would hook on to a foe’s jersey with his left hand…in the beginning often against smaller and inferior opponents…and proceed to batter them with his right (hence the nickname “Hammer”). He was much like the Capitals’ present-day marauder Tom Wilson in that regard…a bully in the truest sense.
And make no mistake, Schultz was very effective…and intimidating. His one-sided pummeling of the Rangers’ much larger (albeit pacifist) defenseman Dale Rolfe during the 1974 playoffs arguably served as the spring board for the Flyers’ first Cup run.
It sent other teams scurrying to find guys who could protect their stars. Within a couple of years, the Pens added rough-and-tumble types like Bob “Battleship” Kelly, Steve Durbano, Bob Paradise, Colin Campbell, Dennis Owchar and Harvey Bennett. Suddenly, we could fight fire with fire.
An arms race ensued. Pretty soon you had guys arriving on the scene like Toronto’s Kurt Walker, whose sole purpose was to fight. Thus, the modern “heavyweight” was born.
This led to a further escalation that spanned nearly four decades. During the ’80s, Detroit featured the infamous “Bruise Brothers,” Bob Probert and Joey Kocur, perhaps the most lethal pair of fighters ever to skate for one team. “Joey KO’s” brutal knockout of then-reigning heavyweight champ and future Pen Jim Kyte was particularly chilling.
However, the Flyers remained the poster-team for toughness. Their 1988-89 squad that defeated us in the playoffs featured such notable brawlers as Dave Brown (a huge mallet-fisted lefty…truly fearsome), Craig Berube, Rick Tocchet, Scott Mellanby, Jay Wells, Terry Carkner, Jeff Chychrun, Al Secord and Don Nachbaur. To say nothing of monsters like Tim Kerr and Kjell Samuelsson and combative goalie Ron Hextall (Bryan’s son).
No wonder visiting teams got the “Philly Flu” when they visited the old Spectrum…literally a den of horrors.
As Pens color man Phil Bourque recalled, “When we went to the Spectrum, as much as you wanted to believe you were going to win, you just knew something bad was going to happen. You had the feeling you were going to get beat up, and not just on the scoreboard. They never took their foot off the gas pedal. They kept hammering us. It wasn’t enough to rub our noses in it, they grabbed us by the hair on the back of our heads and shoved our faces into the pile.”
Fighting reached its zenith in the first decade of the 2000s. By then “staged” fights were in vogue. Each team would send out its heavyweight and they’d agree to fight so neither would receive an instigator penalty. Then they’d drop the gloves and slug it out, often immediately following a face-off. Everyone knew it was coming. It was almost as if someone called time out and said, “Okay let’s get this over with and get on with the game.”
Then three well-known enforcers, Wade Belak, Derek Boogaard and Rick Rypien died during the summer of 2011, altering the landscape on fighting. Around the same time, a heightened awareness about the potentially crippling effects of concussions and other brain conditions such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy began to emerge.
Although the NHL enacted no new rules to curb fighting, the tragic and untimely deaths essentially put an end to the madness. Gradually, over the next several seasons a deescalation occurred as teams divested themselves of heavyweights. Which led to a precipitous decline in fighting as Mike so duly noted.
On a personal level, I’ve always enjoyed the physical aspect of hockey…including fighting. But as the frequency of fights has decreased over the past several seasons, I confess I don’t miss it. Hockey’s a beautiful and often breathtaking sport, combining supreme athleticism and passion with an incredible degree of skill, agility, speed and grace.
Will there always be a place for physical play in hockey? As long as two or more players engage in battles to possess a chunk of vulcanized rubber…yes. While quickness and speed can mitigate to a degree, size does matter. If you have two guys of equal ability involved in a scrum, the bigger, stronger guy is going to win his share of battles.
It’s an element I wish our Pens had more of. Especially come playoff time, when refs tend to tuck their whistles in their pockets and attempted homicides are often overlooked.
Anyway, my 10-cent ramble for what it’s worth. Mike…that’ll teach you to ask for my opinion…lol.
Hi Rick,
You know where I stand on the chippier side of hockey. I loved when the Russians refused to come out of the locker room against the Flyers. It pains me to watch our boys be manhandled. It proves to me that Sully’s mantra of putting players in the best situations to succeed are nothing but hot air.
Another Borque quote about the Flyers was when he mentioned, in and interview a few years ago, how there was some level intimidation when they were hunched over for the face off and they could see the snot bubbles coming out of the Flyers players noses. Made me chuckle at the time.
I doubt sullivan will ever change his views on the subject as the injury bug this year has given him every opportunity to address it and he hasn’t, and won’t, ever.
— 55
Hey 55,
I don’t think Sullivan will, either. I give Rutherford credit for trying…he’s brought in Reaves, Oleksiak and Gudbranson over the past few seasons. But as quickly as JR acquires ’em, Sullivan weeds ’em out.
This is one area where I wish JR would assert himself. But our coach always seems to get his way in matters of personnel. Sometimes, I think, to the detriment of the team…
Rick
Rick
I really enjoyed your article and the subject in general. I am old enough to remember when Bobby Clarke slashed the Red Army’s star Valeri Kharlamov to purposely break his ankle in their Canada-USSR series….. so the Flyers always had a mean streak, even in their skilled players.
Gretsky was an actual 150 lbs when he first came up in Edmonton (although listed higher on the program) and there are stories of Dave Semenko skating to the other teams bench, pre-game to warn them that Wayne was off limits and if gooned, he would personally follow it up after the game with the player(s) responsible. Talk about having someone’s back.! It kept Gretsky healthy and hockey in total benefited.
I equally think about Pat LaFontaine. I believe his career was substantially diminished due to the goon beatings he took in Buffalo. At the time he was one of the greatest rising American players and Buffalo suffered from his injuries. He had to have his jaw wired shut for months .
So long as there are Tom Wilson’s there will be a need for an enforcer. Coach Sullivan is putting his players at risk and frankly losing a valuable edge come playoff time. The other Capitals feed off of it and guys like TJ Oshie step up their toughness (which I don’t think happens if you control Wilson).
I personally like to see physical hockey, especially open ice checks. Its an artform when done right and not so easy to do . When I lived in Detroit, Niklas Kronwall was a master of destroying guys with open ice checks looking down at the puck. I have met him and he’s not that big either. I guess everyone draws the line on physicality at different points.
I do struggle with the consistency of the league in dealing with obvious dirty hits. Wilson and Ovechkin were clearly coordinating their simultaneous hits (from opposing directions) a season or two back and I thought that was bush league.
Thanks for keeping Hockey alive during the shutdown.
Best
PensFanBoy17
Hey PensFanBoy17,
Great comments and insights, as always.
One of the wildest brawls in Penguins history occurred for precisely the reason you mentioned. It took place on January 19, 1980…the Pens vs Gretzky’s Oilers. Fresh out of college, I happened to attend that game.
What started out as a rough affair…the Oilers were very physical, much more so than the Pens…exploded around the 7-minute mark of the second period when Kim Clackson flattened Gretzky behind the Pens’ net.
As Gretzky lie prone on the ice, the Oilers’ trainer was escorted to the scene by…you guessed it…Semenko. Of course, he went right after Clackson, which set in motion a wild, bench-clearing brawl.
Clackson, no shrinking violet, was a former WHA penalty king who had something like 30 fighting majors one season. He was game and very tough for his size (5’11” 195) but was dwarfed by Semenko, who gave it to him pretty good as I recall.
With fights breaking out all over the ice, the linesmen somehow got the combatants to their respective penalty boxes. But as soon as they turned their backs Clackson and Semenko popped out and engaged in Round Two.
My enduring memory was of a linesman trying to usher Clackson off the ice through the Zamboni door…I think with the help of a security guard…and Clackson applying a death grip to the edge of the boards and refusing to go.
Anyway…I got way off on a tangent.
I do wish the Pens had kept Reaves. He really was the perfect deterrent. But again, unless they fit perfectly into Sullivan’s system (and we haven’t found one who does), our coach simply doesn’t abide guys who can fight.
Thanks for sharing your memories of Kronwall…I do remember some of the hits he dished out. I have similar memories of Darius Kasparaitis (talk about a wrecking ball) and Brooks Orpik, who launched Boston’s Daniel Paille into orbit with an open-ice hit during a nationally televised game.
Rick
PS–It is a shame that great players such as LaFontaine and Eric Lindros have had their careers cut short by head trauma (Marc Savard, too).
I have no doubt Mario Lemieux’s career was shortened (and his greatness diminished to a degree) due to the abuse he absorbed, particularly through his early years. There was no legal way to defend against him. So the refs literally let guys climb on his back.
Quebec’s Marc Fortier wrapped his stick around the big guy’s waist one night at center ice, so Mario dragged him half the length of the ice to score. But the refs tolerated that kind of nonsense in a way they never would’ve with Gretzky.
A whole other issue…
Rick
Great article and I would never hesitate to ask for your opinion!! LOL
Quick assessment – IMO fighting will always be present in Hockey but
it should be left to the fighters. The problem I have with the Pen’s is
with no protection your stars “Malkin” end up having to defend for
themselves. This is an ingredient for disaster. One broken hand and
your entire season can be terminated.
I will never understand the Pen’s philosophy – you send a message to the
Caps that you mess with Malkin, Crosby, Guentzel etc…etc….Then we’re
sending our tough guy after Ovi, Backstrom, Kuznetsov and Carlson.
I know I’m preaching to the choir but Reeves was the perfect guy – not a
goon, great 4th line player who can a pop 10 goals a year with limited ice
time and won’t take bad penalties.
Done rambling – have a great week, stay indoors and pray the virus begins
to dissipate and we can return to playing hockey.
GO PEN’S
Thanks Mike … 🙂
Other Rick mentioned a while back that we’re the only team that doesn’t protect our stars and he’s right. And I agree…Reaves was the perfect man for the job. Tom Wilson is scared to death of him.
IMHO, this falls directly on Sullivan. I think he has an anti-fighting bias…and a bias against fighters. Every time Rutherford acquires someone who remotely plays a physical style (and fights), Sullivan eventually weeds him out.
This is where I wish Rutherford would’ve leaned on Sullivan a bit and said, “I don’t care if you don’t like Reaves. Play him.”
Rick
Rick
Couldn’t agree more although it’s tough to know what takes place
behind closed doors. I would like to think that with our smaller
skilled players taking a beating someone in the organization would
have backbone to talk about the the long term affects it will have
from an injury stand point.
I still believe that the injury bug is directly related to the two years
we won the cup. Everyone used the approach of slowing us down
by physically beating us up – What most people don’t understand
is our star players were 3 or 4 years younger – your body can handle
more punishment. I’m convinced the injuries being endured by the
team now in a lot of instances is associated with our cup years.
I look forward to your comments. Maybe another article??
Go Pen’s