Best hockey fighters of all time...Gordie Howe is #1

No Nick Fotiu?

 

When Howe made his one-shift comeback with Detroit of the IHL in 1997 or thereabouts, somebody asked him if he was concerned that someone on the other team might try something with him.

His response was something like, "if they do, they'll taste lumber." How can you not love a guy like that?

And I'm glad Dave Semenko is ranked above Bob Probert. When Probert retired people acted like he was this ultimate fighter who was never challenged, let alone beaten. But I remember watching a Hockey Night in Canada broadcast one night when Semenko, who was then with the Leafs, absolutely destroyed Probert. It was a beautiful thing. Probert, of course, claimed afterward that Semenko had jumped him but that was just a bullshit excuse. He got clocked and cleaned, fair and square.

Also nice to see Tiger Williams in the Top 10 of the HM list. I just got an old copy of his autobiography for Christmas.

 

When he was still in Vancouver, Cam Neely fought quite a bit as well and handled himself pretty well.

 

WOW:

BEST OF THE REST

1. MAURICE RICHARD

The Rocket could throw with the best of them. He once punched Rangers' defenceman Bob (Killer) Dill unconscious twice in the same game.

 

Funny you mention that because we just watched "The Rocket" last night where they showed that scene.

And Bob Dill was played by Sean Avery. Too bad someone didn't do it to that puke in a real game.

Mike Ricci played Elmer Lach and Vinnie LeCavalier Jean Beliveau.

Good flick but probably hard to find down there (dialogue is half French and half English with subtitles). Oh, they even had English subtitles on the English dialogue.

 

I don't know how many times they would've fought during their careers, but when Howe was a rookie he apparently beat the shit out of the Rocket.

But Richard didn't come away without a victory -- Gordie's linemate Sid Abel taunted Richard after the fight was over, whereupon the Rocket skated over and broke Abel's nose with one punch.

 

I think Howe was like Orr. Most guys wouldn't fight them.

Some tough guy went after Orr in his rookie year and Bobby beat the crap out of him.
Wasn't challenged much after that.

 

Reading through this list, I was wondering where Keith Magnuson was...

I've seen highlights of him in plenty of fights...and I guess the writer is right, Magnuson was usually on the bottom first in all of them.

Bill Butters from the WHA was a bastard, too.

Something fun to listen to is this:
http://www.brassbonanza.com/Sound/fight.wav

It's the radio call of a bigtime brawl between the Whalers and Minnesota Fighting Saints at the Civic Center in 1975. It was the 'B' side of the Brass Bonanza theme.

 

You need to scroll down to find Magnuson - he's among the worst fighters.

 

Stephen Brunt's new Orr biography talks a decent amount about his fighting ability. Talks about how he seemed to unleash a dark side of his personality in the fights. Also says that being the youngest in the league so often forced him to be able to stand up for himself early on, but once he did people usually gave him wide berth. There was one ugly incident where he beat the $h!t outta somebody and took a lot of heat, but I'm not enough of a hockey nut to remember who it was.

 

Didn't Orr get leveled early in his career in Toronto? Around like '67 or so. I remember hearing/reading about that somewhere and that was the last time he really got his ass handed to him.

I'll tell you what, that whole 69-73 Big Bad Bruins team had a bunch of players who could knock you into yesterday. Pie McKenzie, Wayne Cashman, Orr, Phil Esposito...that musta been a fun team to watch.

 

I think you're referring to Pat Quinn's check on Orr which sent him into next week. It wasn't a fight. Orr got him back, though in a later game against the Leafs.