OT: Return of the hockey goon?
As hockey fan that started watching in the mid 80s, I watched a good fight almost every game. Growing up in Philly, it was guys like Dave Brown racking up 275 penalty a year with little actual hockey skill, and players like Rick Tocchet and Craig Barube who actually had some skill.
Looks like this kid on the Rangers is a real throwback player. Article is paywalled but the twitter links below are to videos of couple of his fights.
The Gigantic Rookie Bringing Fighting Back to Hockey
The New York Rangers are a first-place team with cerebral passers, ace shooters and a pair of experienced goalies. But that’s not what’s made them the buzz of the hockey world this week.
That would be a 21-year-old rookie who loves serving knuckle sandwiches.
Matt Rempe joined the Rangers from the minors on Feb. 18. The puck hadn’t even dropped on his first shift before he started firing a barrage of punches at New York Islanders tough guy Matt Martin. In Rempe’s first five games, he spent a total of 20 minutes actually playing on the ice—and racked up 32 penalty minutes after participating in three separate fights.
Rempe, a 6-foot-7 native of Calgary—he’s about 7 feet in skates—is far from the biggest star on a Rangers squad that entered Wednesday having won 10 of its last 11 contests. New York selected him in the sixth round of the 2020 draft, and he spent the next couple of years knocking around the lower levels of the game.
But less than two weeks into his rookie season, Rempe has emerged as an unlikely sensation by challenging several of the league’s most ferocious enforcers to fights. By the time the Rangers faced the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, his reputation was already preceding him. Nicolas Deslauriers, who has never shied away from a tussle, asked the new kid during warm-ups if they could go a round.
February 28th, 2024 at 3:08 PM ^
Makes you wonder how Tex Cobb can still function after Larry Holmes used his head for a punching bag for 15 rounds.... That was brutal.
February 28th, 2024 at 3:32 PM ^
Same for Larry and Ali. Larry cried afterward knowing how brutal the beating was. Not sure what percentage of Ali's brain damage was due to Larry Holmes, but it wasn't insignificant.
February 28th, 2024 at 3:11 PM ^
I miss real hockey fights.
February 28th, 2024 at 4:04 PM ^
Ah, the great Warren Zevon (with assists from David Letterman and Mitch Albom).
February 28th, 2024 at 5:12 PM ^
NHL peaked in the period bookended by Patrick Roy getting beat down by two different Detroit Redwings goalies: Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood.
February 28th, 2024 at 3:24 PM ^
I covered quite a few NHL games back in the '80s. Many of the fighters were quite serene about their roles on teams. In most cases (Probert being an exception - he had some serious skills in front of the net), they grew up playing every winter wherever they could, and were humbled by the guys who could skate and score. They knew what they needed to do to keep playing - protect those guys.
Whenever I did interviews after a game, I could always count on them to provide a solid analysis of the game. They loved being in the league and they loved helping the star players stay on the ice.
One veteran I interviewed after most games was Harold Snepsts - had a few years with the Wings late in his career. One of the most intelligent, calm, players I talked to in any sport. He could tell you anything about the strategies both teams were using out on the ice. He immediately became a minor-league head coach after retirement. I was very surprised he didn't make it back to the NHL in that capacity.
Joey Kocur was another player I interviewed regularly. The fights were planned and not an every-game thing. Many times, especially once he had some experience in the league, he was out there and everyone knew he wasn't fighting unless he absolutely had to. He showed me his hands. Took pride in them - there was scar tissue on top of scar tissue, but he could barely hold a stick properly a lot of the time he was playing.
I don't like that fighting is or was such a part of the sport. The players and coaches genuinely believed (many still do) that enforcement, as they called it, kept the sport relatively clean and pure. But now we know that getting punched in the head shortens lives. Probert died at 45.
I think the sport would definitely benefit from long suspensions for dropping the gloves. But that has to be paired with long suspensions for dirty play of other types - stickwork, blind-side checking, launching someone into the boards. The game is so fast that it's too easy to play dirty and it's effective.
February 28th, 2024 at 4:04 PM ^
respectful disagreement. it is part of the sport and, within limits, does exactly what kocur and others (including me) say about keeping it cleaner.
February 28th, 2024 at 3:30 PM ^
One of the best fights I have seen actually took place at Yost between Myles O'Connor and Jim Cummins (goon for MSU) in the late 80's. The refs let them go, so they did....in a punishing way you don't typically see in a college hockey game. I believe both were suspended.
February 28th, 2024 at 3:31 PM ^
love probie and mccarty, but the toughest of all time was also the greatest of all time:
here is the aftermath of the fight above, where gordie takes out the rangers tough guy lou fontanito:
February 28th, 2024 at 3:38 PM ^
Christ...bear in mind that Gordie only had 22 fights in his career. I'm quite certain that his coaches told him his being on the ice instead of in the box was better for the team. Same thing was true for Shanahan; very capable fighter, better sniper.
February 28th, 2024 at 3:58 PM ^
not that era, they wanted him to do what he needed to do. there's a reason there is a thing called a 'gordie howe hat trick': a goal, an assist, and a fight. and i'm real skeptical of only 22 fights.
February 28th, 2024 at 4:05 PM ^
He was as tough as anyone, but he averaged less than a penalty minute per game. The Fontanito fight was the stuff of legends - he destroyed the guy. But the 22 fights is believed to be correct.
February 28th, 2024 at 4:31 PM ^
At 6.0 ft. 205 ibs., Gordie would be an average sized player today. He would have had his hands full with Probert. I assume the reason that he only had 22 fights during his career is due to the lack of many willing dance partners.
February 28th, 2024 at 11:08 PM ^
Old Time Howe story told by Phil Espositio:
During the 1963-64 season, it was finally time for him to enter the league. Esposito made his NHL debut against Montreal but only had one short shift.Two games later, with Esposito not getting on the ice at all in his second game, the Chicago Black Hawks played the Red Wings in Detroit. Esposito finally got a chance to play, and the first shift was going to be special. On the other side, he faced Gordie Howe.
“I go out there and I’m like, ‘Holy **; Gordie Howe, Hall of Famer. Alex Delvecchio. Teddy Lindsay. Billy Gadsby. Terry Sawchuk, Pierre Pilote and Bobby Hull.’ All these Hall of Famers.
I’m going, ‘Oh my God.’ Then Bobby says to me, ‘Phil! You got that old son of a **?’ and he’s nodding at Howe. I said, ‘I got him,’ and Gordie just smiled at me.
However, when the puck dropped, Esposito, 21 years of age, wasn’t able to keep an eye on Howe. The Hall of fame forward got him first with an elbow under Esposito’s nose, cutting him for six stitches. The shift lasted for six seconds.
Esposito swung his stick against Howe, who was 14 years older, with the duo getting two minutes each.Once in the penalty box, they started screaming at each other. Esposito wasn’t a fan anymore. Instead, he was screaming at his biggest childhood idol.
“We went into the penalty box, with only an usher between us. I went in first. I had a towel with ice in it, trying to stop the bleeding,” Esposito recalled. “I lean around the usher and I say to Gordie, and you can write this the way you want, ‘And you used to be my *** idol!’ He says, ‘What did you say, ***?’ And I replied, ‘Uh, nothing, Mr. Howe. Absolutely nothing,”
A couple of years later, Esposito and Gordie Howe met once again, but this time during the All-Star Game. He finally got an answer of why Howe swung the elbow at him.
“He said to me, ‘That’s the first time in my life somebody said to me that I was his idol. I was flabbergasted.’ I said, ‘So why did you elbow me in the head?’ He said, ‘Phil, I tested every rookie. If you didn’t respond, I owned you. For as long as you played, or I played. And you responded.’ And you know what? He never bothered me again, and I never bothered him,” Esposito.
February 28th, 2024 at 4:42 PM ^
Chris Tamer was one heck of a tough guy at UM and for the Pens but you would never know it if you met him now. The whole family is very athletic and both daughters play(ed) field hockey for UM at a high level swinging sticks :) Seeing him fight Probie is hard to believe.
I worry about CTE for the Rangers kid joining the NHL and all he does is fight. I'll take the Wings power play with skinny little Kane over a team of goons any day.
February 28th, 2024 at 6:40 PM ^
For those too young to have seen Bob Probert, the guy was an animal. He would play games totally drunk even.
February 28th, 2024 at 8:20 PM ^
and i'm sure his blood would've tested 'positive' for coc
February 28th, 2024 at 11:21 PM ^
Once I was at a matinee game vs Calgary and sat first row behind bench, and Probert came out first shift and made a stumbling bee line for the other player and got in fight and they threw him out and the team was shaking head in disgust. He was wasted from the night before and or morning.
February 28th, 2024 at 9:48 PM ^
While the refs just watch? And the same white racist fans will tell you how uncivilized the NBA is.
Thugs.