Rough House Hockey

[Sittler]

Our first pic on the new board is Chicago's Keith Magnuson unloading on Chris Oddleifson of the Canucks, from December 1974:

[Axelinger]

This was after Harold Snepsts had beaten the Bejesus out of Magnuson earlier in the game, and Magnuson went looking for revenge on any Canuck considerably smaller than Dirty Harry...
_________________
Barry Bonds game-worn jockstraps available on E-Bay. Any takers?

[Sittler]

Good memory, Axe. Snepsts and Magnuson fought at 3:09 of the 1st period, then at 12:07 of the same period Magnuson apparently jumped Oddleifson. One account I came across had Magnuson with a cast on his hand; in any event, he broke Oddleifson's jaw in this fight. They both got majors, and Magnuson got a game misconduct as well (for using the cast, maybe?).

Vancouver's Gerry O'Flaherty also fought Chicaco's Darcy Rota at 1:06 of the 1st period.

From the The Toronto Star, December 16, 1974:

----

Vancouver dropped a 4-2 loss to Chicago Black Hawks yesterday. Chicago outshot Vancouver 45-34 in a fight-filled game.

"A lot of people might complain that we spent too much time fighting, but I like a game where there's a little feeling," said Hawks' coach Billy Reay.

"As a matter of fact, that's the way it should be between our two teams. I think we can get a great rivalry going."

[Sittler]

One of my favorite square-off pics, Barnaby vs. Scatchard from October 2001:

[Sittler]

Fotiu vs. Durbano, Madison Square Garden, February 1979. This one ended with Durbano mooning the crowd!

[Sittler]

Brashear vs. Godard from October 2005. Brashear gets tagged and bloodied early, and then, of course, he just... no, wait, he doesn't hug... he mounts a comeback, and earns the edge in this one!

Good fight!



One more pic from this fight:

[Sittler]

Tiger Williams vs. Dave Hutchison from April 1975.

Believe it or not, this went down in the deciding game of a playoff series... early in the third period... OF A CLOSE GAME!



Maple Leafs oust Kings in game marred by stick-swinging brawls
Staff. Globe and Mail. April 12, 1975.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- The Toronto Maple Leafs eliminated Los Angeles from further pursuit of the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory last night over the Kings in a game marred by a vicious stick-swinging incident early in the third period.

The win gave the Leafs two of the three games in the first round series. The will meet the Philadelphia Flyers in the next round. First game of the best-of-seven series will be played in Philadelphia tomorrow.

George Ferguson in the first period and Inge Hammarstrom in the second had given the Leafs a 2-0 lead entering the final 20 minutes. Don Kozak scored in the final period for the Kings.

The stick-swinging began after Dave (Tiger) Williams bowled over Kings' goalie Rogatien Vachon in the first minute of the third period. King Gene Carr then charged Williams, and persisted in his pugilistic efforts, for which he was awarded a game misconduct. With Williams in the penalty box, Dave Hutchison came off the Los Angeles bench and skated toward Williams in the penalty box.

Hutchison's departure from the Kings' bench led an exodus of all players. Hutchison, on the ice, and Williams took a number of healthy swings at each other as the referees were slow to step in between them.

Hutchison was finally wrestled from the area of the penalty box, but an unidentified King fan then began to climb into the box, Williams flailing away at him, as well.

Order was restored after an 18-minute milling around period, and both Williams and Hutchison were assessed a minor penalty for high-sticking and a match penalty (game misconduct) for deliberate attempt to injure.

The incident, which turned a close-checking, entertaining game into a debacle, involved at least one overexuberant fan whose seat was located near the penalty box. He attempted to climb into the box to get at Williams, but was restrained by arena personnel.

The Maple Leafs went ahead after less than five minutes of play when Ferguson grabbed a pass from Dave Dunn with the teams playing three a side, churned past Larry Brown and beat Vachon with a shot high to the glove side.

The goal came after the Kings had given a demonstration of their apparent tactics for the night. The idea was to nullify the Darryl Sittler line, the one Toronto combination able to dominate play in the previous two games.

Just after the opening faceoff, Sittler was surprised by Gene Carr, who pushed and poked the Leaf player to the point of a scuffle. The Kings' desire to intimidate continued shortly after the penalties expired. After Dave Williams and Mike Murphy started pushing, Carr again raised Sittler's ire, and the Toronto centre was penalized again, giving him negligible ice time in the opening five minutes. Needless to say, Sittler is more valuable to Toronto than Carr is to the Kings.

However, Ferguson's goal during the penalties seemed to get the Leafs moving in the free-wheeling manner which earned them victory in overtime Thursday.

Los Angeles responded with further attempts to keep the game chippy, even inserting defenseman Dave Hutchison, a poor replica of the Philadelphia Flyer brutalizer Dave Schultz. It seemed to work, as the Leafs looked more carefully where they were going, and the Kings, in their cautious way, carried the play.

[Sittler]

Dave Manson vs. Warren Rychel from March 1999.

I haven't seen this one, but from the pic it looks like it was probably a Draw/Edge Rychel.

[plett]

Notice how the ice is backing away in fear of Manson's stare?

I ask you, how often do you see that?

[Sittler]

That ice isn't stupid!

Here's Kevin McClelland getting the better of Ed Hospodar in 1985.

[Sittler]

This one's for junior.

[Sittler]

J. Bob "Battleship" Kelly, circa 1975.

[Sittler]

Brian Sutter vs. Scot Kleinendorst, January 1984.

According to DYG.com, they fought twice in this game. They were Kleinendorst's first two NHL fights.

[jay]

I only remembered him as a Whaler 1 punching Neely in their first fight. Next fight Cam laid a very 1 sided beating on Scott and it was reported Cam broke his nose. I believe he fought Miller once or twice as well.
Adams was fun back then. Every team had fighters and there was at least 2 fights every night. The good ol days.

[Sittler]

Yeah, the TKO of Neely was the high point of Kleinendorst's career, I would think.

Here's Oliwa from the 2001-02 season making Billy Tibbetts pay for being a bad boy.



NASTINESS PREVAILS AS TIBBETTS RETURNS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. March 24, 2002.

Billy Tibbetts came back to town yesterday.

And, by no coincidence, so did trouble.

In his first game at Mellon Arena since the Penguins traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers last Sunday, Tibbetts was the target of a fistful of fury from enforcer Krzysztof Oliwa in a 4-4 tie and a barrage of boos from the capacity crowd of 17,148.

But the nastiest shots were delivered away from the rink.

Several members of the Penguins' organization spoke privately of Tibbetts making threatening phone calls earlier in the week to right winger Eric Meloche, a prospect who was demoted Wednesday to the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre. The messages, purportedly left on Meloche's cell phone, would have been made before Tibbetts knew Meloche was in the minor leagues and would not face the Flyers yesterday.

Tibbetts was aware of the Penguins' accusations, but he denied every aspect of them.

"No truth to any of that. No truth whatsoever."

No one associated with the Penguins addressed the accusations on the record, but Oliwa suggested strongly that they had a pronounced influence on the two times he and Tibbetts tangled in the first period yesterday.

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice," Oliwa said. "That's what I think is a big thing that you have to understand. It's not acceptable ... to threaten people on the way out. He knows what I'm talking about. It's not acceptable, and it's not going to happen on this team. We're not going to let this happen."

Asked if he was referring to the Penguins' charges of the calls to Meloche, Oliwa replied: "It's a lot of things. I don't want to get into it. He knows exactly what I'm talking about. ... The guy was here. We know what Tibbetts was all about, and the way he acted is simply not acceptable. You have to respect people, and you don't get respect until you respect other people."

For his part, Tibbetts insisted he had no issues with Oliwa, Meloche or anyone in the organization. He pointed out that it was Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick who brought him into the NHL last season despite a criminal past that included a rape charge and a 3 1/2-year prison sentence for parole violations.

"I love the Penguins. Love them," Tibbetts said. "They gave me a chance, so there will always be a special spot in my heart for Craig, the Penguins and the city of Pittsburgh. What happened with me and Oliwa out there is just part of the game. Nothing at all. I have no ill will toward any of them. I have nothing but good memories here."

Tibbetts' turbulent history predictably became the focus of talks shows and letters to the editor in Philadelphia this week. But, just as he did when a similar furor was raised in Pittsburgh last year, Tibbetts has tried to shrug it off.

"It doesn't bother me. It's actually been a really exciting, fun week for me. I'm happy to be a Flyer. I'm happy to be on a first-place team. I think we have a great chance to win the Stanley Cup."

Flyers Coach Bill Barber had Tibbetts centering his fourth line yesterday, between Rick Tocchet and Paul Ranheim, and praised him for making a significant impact despite logging only eight shifts.

"He's going to be a big part of our team, our chemistry," Barber said. "Yes, he plays with a bit of an edge, but you could see in this game what he can do for us. He was a big factor. We're very pleased, and we're looking forward to seeing more."

Three minutes after the opening faceoff, Tibbetts lured Oliwa into roughing him and turtled, leaving Oliwa the only man sent to the box. That led to a Philadelphia power-play goal.

At 13:21 of the first period, Tibbetts instigated a fight with Oliwa, and they went hard for nearly a minute before Oliwa landed two rights to send Tibbetts to the ice. And at 15:08 of the second, Tibbetts showed his skill, setting up Justin Williams' one-timer from the low slot with a blind pass.

But even that assist ended up generating trouble for Tibbetts.

In a corridor outside the Flyers' locker room shortly after the game, Tibbetts gave an interview with a group of reporters. One of them, Tim Panaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer, asked Tibbetts if he knew Williams was in front of the net or if he was simply sending the puck to that area. Tibbetts responded angrily first by questioning the reporter's knowledge of hockey, then by cutting off the interview.

Five minutes later, inside the locker room, Tibbetts began vocally upbraiding Panaccio, causing his new teammates to fall silent and take notice.

"Got any more stupid questions, Tim?" Tibbetts shouted across the room as Panaccio was interviewing another player.

"It wasn't a stupid question, Billy," Panaccio replied in a calm tone. "Just because you decided to give a bad answer doesn't make it a bad question."

"What's the matter?" Tibbetts said, noticing that all eyes were on them. "Are you feeling a little uncomfortable, Tim?"

The fuss died down after that, and Tibbetts later called Panaccio to apologize.

With Tibbetts, though, it likely is only a matter of time before a new one kicks up.

[Sittler]

Bryan Marchment taking the loss against Tony Twist, March 1995.

[Sittler]

Willi Plett vs. Curt Fraser, April 1985. One of 10 scraps these two had in the NHL.

[brianz]

As evidenced by this pic, Plett NEVER was willing to open up against Fraser. His KO of Plett in the playoffs of the early 80's may have had something to do with that.

[Sittler]

Matt Johnson getting the upper hand on Dave Morissette, February 2000.

[brianz]

Never liked Morrisette...he's a cheap shit who was running scared of Secord when Al was old enough to be his dad. He got lucky in the 1st fight, then Al unloaded on him until he lost his balance. It also bothered me that he got a lucky shot in against Probert in '98..no rematch, of course.