February 5

1934 - Former NHL defenseman Don Cherry born in Kingston, Ont. Cherry played just one game in the NHL in 1954-55 with Boston, then coached the Bruins 1974-1979.






1978 - Steve Durbano going nuts in a WHA game.




"If blood bothers you, stay home"
Allen Abel. The Globe and Mail. March 30, 1978.

Item: Philadelphia Flyers - the most penalized team in the National
Hockey League - attract an average of 1,000 more customers to out-of-town
games than do Montreal Canadiens, the league's best team.

Item: Pittsburgh Penguins - fourth in the sin-bin sweepstakes thanks
to Dave Schultz - will not make the Stanley Cup playoffs. But the
Penguins have drawn more fans on the road than the Sabres, Maple Leafs,
Kings, Red Wings, Rangers, Islanders or Flames, all of whom will be in
the playoffs.

Item: Birmingham Bulls - by far the most penalized team in the World
Hockey Association - pull in more fans on the road than at home. As the
WHA season entered its final two weeks, the Bulls and their Gang of Four
(Dave Hanson, Steve Durbano, Frank Beaton and Gilles Bilodeau) had
climbed from eighth in road attendance a year ago to fourth this season,
only 600 patrons per game behind the league's best road draw, Gordie
Howe's New England Whalers. Approximately 30,000 more people have paid to
attend Birmingham's visits to their cities this year than last.

Who are these misguided souls who rather would watch Moose Dupont and
the bellicose Schultz rough up the home team than see Guy Lafleur and
Bryan Trottier demonstrate their superb skills? Who are the 30,000 WHA
customers who stayed home last year, only to be lured to the arena this
winter by the smell of blood on the gloves of Birmingham's brawlers?
Perhaps they have been attracted by the game's own anti-violence
sermons. When Durbano went on a typical rampage recently and tried to
assassinate Bobby Hull even before he could be elected to Parliament, WHA
executive director Larry Gordon took to the soapbox and proclaimed that
Durbano would be suspended for life, if not longer, should he ever behave
so naughtily again.

To the naive family sitting at home in Houston or Indianapolis,
wondering where to deposit their so-called discretionary income, Gordon's
words rang a bell. He sounded just like one of those wildly dressed
wrestling managers who appear on television between matches.

"My guy is so strong, he'll rip Sammartino's head off and stuff his
body with popcorn! No ladies or children will be admitted! Stay at home
if you can't stand the sight of blood! Don't dare come to the Civic
Auditorium, Broadway and Fifth, just off the expressway, plenty of free
parking, doors open at 6:30!"

Durbano will return to action April 5 in Cincinnati. When the battling
Bulls played there in mid-February, the game drew 13,608. When a less
raucous side from the Soviet Union visited Cincinnati this season, the
crowd numbered 2,571. In contrast, the relatively peaceable Edmonton
Oilers lead the WHA in home attendance, attracting 10,092 patrons per
game. On the road, the Oilers are the worst draw in the league.

If the obvious conclusion - that brawling remains the game's No. 1
selling point among novice fans in the United States - sickens the
purist, it does not seem to nauseate those who stand to profit. Open the
Atlanta Flames' game program and you are hit with a full page of fight
photos. Read the article in the Phoenix Roadrunners' magazine entitled
Watch And Enjoy. This breezy paragraph catches the eye:

"Each player carries a potential weapon in his stick . . . often the
stick will hit another player, tempers will rise and a fight will result
. . . even if the players drop their gloves and fight, there is rarely an
injury . ."

So just sit back, watch and enjoy.



1987 - A bench-clearing brawl at the end of the game, Boston Bruins vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

February 4

1994, Bob Probert vs. Marty McSorley, in one of the best fights ever, a classic marathon!





Damien Cox TORONTO STAR. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Feb 6, 1994.

Marty McSorley had cuts on his lip and near his left eye and an ugly purple welt across his forehead, and he couldn't have been happier.
The Pittsburgh defenceman had incurred the battle scars in a titanic fight with Detroit enforcer Bob Probert Friday night in Motown. It may have been the punch-up of the season.
The fight lasted 93 seconds, included a knockdown of McSorley by Probert, and ended with McSorley finishing off the fight with several straight rights that appeared to stun Probert.
"That's the closest I've come this year to playing how I want to play . . . letting guys on my team know I'm going to put my butt on the line for them," said McSorley.

McSorley joined the Penguins in the summer after being signed to a five-year, $10 million free agent sheet by St. Louis. Los Angeles matched the Blues' offer, dealt McSorley to Pittsburgh for forward Shawn McEachern and have been paying the price ever since.
McSorley admitted to being frustrated with the criticism he received earlier in the year for his play in Pittsburgh.
"What did they expect of me? It took me five years in L.A. to build things up to the point where I could stand up in the dressing room and ask any player on that team if he was putting out," said McSorley.
"I've always said I'm not going to score 100 points. But when it gets to the more physical play, and you need that extra grit, someone to take a punch in the head or get his head drilled into the glass, I'm willing to do those things."

Rumors suggest the Kings officials had been miffed by McSorley's militant union activities and role as team spokesman on grievances with management, and therefore didn't try to keep McSorley.
"I don't think Barry Melrose undervalued me, and I don't think the players did, and that's all that matters to me," said McSorley. "(The Kings) never sat down to negotiate with me, and that was disheartening because I tried to do so much for the team.
"But there's more wrong with that team that just me not being there."
It was Kings general manager Nick Beverley and team president Roy Mlakar who made the decision to dump McSorley over the objections of Melrose, and both could end up losing their jobs if the Kings don't make the playoffs.

February 3

1987, a Bench-Clearing Brawl between Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.




1995, awsome toe-to-toe fight, Cam Russell vs Paul Kruse.

February 2

1988, Joe Paterson vs. Gerald Diduck, in a bloody fight.

1998, Darren Langdon vs. Marty McSorley, in a marathon bout.

Rangers Nearly Waste 3-0 Lead, but End Slump
By JOE LAPOINTE. The New York Times. February 3, 1998.


Despite entering tonight's game with a five-game streak without a victory and a ninth-place standing in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers still held reasonable hope for a respectable pre-Olympic road trip and a fair chance for one of the eight playoff berths in the conference.
A victory over the Sharks would mean 3 points in the first three games of their six-game tour. And it would keep the Rangers 3 points behind eighth-place Buffalo, which beat Tampa Bay earlier in the evening.


The night started well, with the Rangers taking a 3-0 lead on goals by the three players who started on the fourth line. Mike Eastwood scored in the first period, Kevin Stevens in the second and P. J. Stock in the third, the first goal of his National Hockey League career. But San Jose cut the lead to 3-1 at 5 minutes 29 seconds of the third period on a goal by Bernie Nicholls, and then to 3-2 at 9:59 on a goal by Owen Nolan.
With the help of their penalty killers and some terrific saves by Mike Richter, the Rangers held on for a 3-2 victory. The Sharks had two power plays in the final 10 minutes, but they were even more dangerous at even strength. Sprawling and lunging, Richter managed to keep anything else from crossing the goal line.


Ulf Samuelsson, the Rangers defenseman who will play for Sweden in the Olympics, left the game in the second period with a hyperextended right knee. No prognosis for his return was immediately known.
The Rangers scored the only goal of the first period and the only goal of the second. Getting the first was Eastwood, who had been a healthy scratch in all but one game in January. He scored on a rebound at 15:20 after Bill Berg's shot was stopped by goalie Kelly Hrudey during a three-on-one break. The Rangers made it 2-0 on a power-play goal by Stevens at 10:09 of the second period. Wayne Gretzky set it up, and Mike Keane got the other assist after clearing space with a perfect moving pick block.
Late in the second period, the Rangers played two men short for two full minutes. Although the Sharks threatened, they could not beat Richter.


Injured and prone on the ice briefly in the first period was the Rangers' Darren Langdon, who crashed into the corner boards while racing for a loose puck with Marcus Ragnarsson, who may have tripped him. Langdon got up, flexed his left knee and returned for his next shift.


Early in the second period, when the two skated in the same area, Langdon jostled Ragnarsson and rubbed a glove in his face. On Langdon's next shift, he dropped the gloves with Marty McSorley, San Jose's best fistfighter. The officials allowed them to engage in a long, brutal fight that left McSorley bleeding from the nose.
Langdon is known mostly for fisticuffs, but he had scored his first two goals of the season in the previous two games, a tie in Ottawa and a defeat in Boston. He discussed his scoring before tonight's game.


"I'm playing the way I usually play," Langdon said. "I'm getting a few more shifts and getting into the game a little more. You get a few more hits. As for the goals, I don't know what to say. Maybe I've got a little more confidence. I'm not a goal scorer. But whether I score or not, I'd like for our team to get a couple wins."
Langdon leads the Rangers in one statistic: penalty minutes, with 143 after his fight. In accordance with the code of hockey culture, it is common for him to fight the best brawler on every opposing team. On Saturday, Langdon took on Ken Baumgartner of the Bruins in a long bout. Earlier this season, he fought Tie Domi of Toronto.
When the fight with Baumgartner ended, the television camera clearly showed Baumgartner saying to Langdon, "Good one." After his fight with Domi was broken up by the linesman, Domi reached over and gave Langdon a friendly tap on the helmet to acknowledge Langdon's performance.
"Most fighters are nice guys, and I respect them," Langdon said. "I usually say 'good job' almost every time, no matter what happens, unless someone gives a cheap shot. And that doesn't usually happen with tough guys. They are all pretty honest fighters. When the fight is over, the two of us have done our jobs. There's no bad feelings after that. You just go and play your game. Even after the game, you might go out for a beer. It's an honor for me to be fighting these guys. I like doing it."
Langdon, a 27-year-old from Deer Lake, Newfoundland, was signed by the Rangers as a free agent in 1993. In his last season as a junior, with Summerside, he had 441 penalty minutes. With Dayton in the minor East Coast league, he had 429. Last season with the Rangers, he had 195, a total that he will probably break this season.

February 1

1986, Behn Wilson vs. Wendel Clark. One of the best ever against one of the best pound for pound all-time. 1987, Nevin Markwart vs. George McPhee, two middleweights goin' toe to toe. 1995, Cam Russell vs Bryan Marchment, two rugged defensemen in a great fight!