Remember way back to 2003-04 with the trap that led to the clutching and grabbing making end-to-end rushes scarce? Goal scoring became as tough as pulling teeth. While true, isn’t that gritty, hard nose attitude an aspect of our sport which makes it unique? Getting to the goal, losing a couple of teeth in the process, then having blood streaming down your face as you raise your hands after a goal – now that’s hockey! Every night, these NHL workhorses left more blood, sweat and tears on the ice than Tanya Harding.
Gino Odjick
Tough Guy Cred
: Known as "The Maniwaki Mauler"
A full-blooded Algonquin from Maniwaki, Quebec (hence the nickname), Odjick was six-feet-three-inches, 225 pounds of "What are you looking at, paleface?" During his stint in Vancouver, Odjick was put on a line with superstar Pavel Bure for the sole reason of steamrolling everyone out of the diminutive Russian's way.
Todd Bertuzzi
Tough Guy Cred
: Everything leading up to "The Incident"
Bertuzzi will forever be blacklisted for cheap-shotting Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore and breaking his neck, and that's kind of a shame. Before that, he was the prototypical power forward—wracking up goals by going through defensemen, not around them, and wracking up penalty minutes by shutting up anyone who complained.
Doug Gilmour
Tough Guy Cred
: Only 5'11'', 175 pounds, still known as "Killer"
Given his size and his ability to tap dance around dumbstruck defensemen, Gilmour could have gotten away with being a finesse player. Instead, he set out to prove the Fight Club line, "skinny guys fight 'til they're burger." If Gilmour ended up in the locker room without blood trickling down his grinning face, he played a bad game. Defined "fearless."
Wendel Clark
Tough Guy Cred
: It's not fair when goons can score, too
If Doug Gilmour was the scrappy Chihuahua nipping at your heels, fellow Maple Leaf Wendel Clark was the bulldog. It's demoralizing to an opposing team when one guy goes out and beats up their whole bench—it's abject humiliation when that same guy also unleashes his killer wrist shot for two or three goals in between penalties. Any wonder why, six years after this retirement, #17 is still bigger than Jesus in Toronto?
Dave Semenko
Tough Guy Cred
: Gretzky's bodyguard
The term "cement head" was practically coined for Semenko. He played helmet-less for most of his career, and had a Cro-Magnon brow ridge that would rattle even the toughest guys in the league if it frowned in their direction. The guy so intimidated everyone that he had to look for fights outside the rink, and even there he didn't think small: In 1983, Semenko fought an exhibition against Muhammad Ali.
Billy Smith
Tough Guy Cred
: Did nothing to dispel the notion that all goalies are batshit insane
"Battlin'" Billy Smith hated the other team. Not in a healthy, competitive way, but in a dangerous way. He still holds the record for most penalty minutes by a goaltender for his liberal use of a goal stick. He also once got so angry at Mike Bossy that Smith had to be tackled and held down to keep from killing the superstar — and they were teammates at the time.
Scott Stevens
Tough Guy Cred
: "The Hit"
Eric Lindros was nicknamed "The Next One" because he was supposed to be the talent of Wayne Gretzky in the body of a pro wrestler. But we'll never know, because once the hulking youngster's head met Scott Stevens' shoulder in a vicious-but clean-open-ice hit during the 2000 playoffs, he was forever reduced to a glass-jawed pushover. Stevens, already a feared hitter, was now canonized as one of the most intimidating blueline warriors ever.
Don Cherry
Tough Guy Cred
: Hockey's answer to John Madden
He may dress like a mafia pimp, but the former coach and Hockey Night in Canada commentator is adored by the beer-and-lunchpail hockey faithful. In a sport where every player spouts the same, politically correct clichés, Cherry shoots off at the mouth every chance he gets (loves tough guys, hates Europeans, thinks French-Canadians are wusses). Cherry doesn't care if you can deke a goalie blindfolded—if you can spit out your own teeth and keep playing, you're one of "his boys."
Tiger Williams
I felt pretty good out there, and I’ve got to hand it to my teammates, but it’s only one game, so we better come to play tomorrow night.” We’ve all heard that Bull Durham-esque claptrap before. Jocks live by the cliché. They don’t want to piss off their coaches, they don’t want to piss off their teammates, and they certainly don’t want to piss off the companies paying them millions to promote their products. All of this means that, sadly, the best sports secrets and stories never make it onto the airwaves to bless our anxious ears.
Tiger Williams, however, has nothing to lose he's emptied his locker for the last time. He couldn’t care less what anybody thinks, because he's already a god. The former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer who holds the NHL career record for penalty minutes. Life in the penalty box ain’t exactly a Martha Stewart soiree. "The box was kind of a gross place to go,” recalls Williams. "The guys in there are bleeding and got bloody noses. They have greenies and yellows and drip all over the boards, and no one’s cleaned the place since 1938.”
So before Williams went to this minimum-security sewer, he made sure he got his licks in, as in this classic confrontation with pugnacious New York Islander goalie Billy Smith. "Smith was good and sneaky, and he’d use his stick like a fuckin’ ax,” laughs Williams. "I remember one time, he fucking two-handed me in the back of the calf—there’s no padding there—and I thought he broke my fucking leg. He cut me down like a tree.”
But payback, as Smith would learn, is a bitch. "I was waiting to get him. I can’t remember if it took me one game or 10 more games. But I hit him right across the neck, as hard as I could. I was going to cut his head right off. The only thing that pissed me off was that I didn’t cut his head off (what to do with an opponent’s head after you’ve cut it off). I was going to catch his head and throw it in the fucking stands.” Although Maple Leafs fans were deprived of what would have been the ultimate souvenir, Smith was knocked as cold as the ice he kissed.
Allen St. John. . July 1999.
Bad Face Day
We get up in New York Ranger Darius Kasparaitis’ grill and ask: What’s up with your face, bro?
Black Eye
I got this black eye from breaking my nose, which I’ve done five or six times. I just stop the bleeding, snap it back, take an Advil to forget about the pain, and keep playing.
Split Lip
Sometimes you pay a price for how you play. I’ll pay the price. Like when I split my lip playing in Russia—they stitched it right there on the bench, without Novocaine.
Busted Brow
I head-checked Tim Connolly of the Buffalo Sabres. He was out for two months. The Sabres called me a dirty player. I just play hard, and if you play hard, you get hurt.
Hard-Nosed
I don’t have rivals, but other players try to sucker-punch me. It’s not like I’m a mean person—my wife thinks I’m beautiful.
