Posted by Scott Burnside
Many of the league's GMs are, of course, former NHLers themselves. Many of them have had their own fair share of fights. Some were fights they would just as soon forget.
Phoenix Coyotes GM Don Maloney, a former New York Ranger, remembers one charged night at Madison Square Garden against the New York Islanders circa 1979, when he bumped into Islanders forward Bobby Nystrom near the bench.
"He hit me so many times on the top of my head, I was sore for a week," Maloney recalled.
Does it ever come up in conversation when Maloney runs into Nystrom, whose son Eric is with the Calgary Flames? "I'm still a little afraid of him," Maloney quipped.
Told of the story, Minnesota Wild GM Doug Risebrough said he, too, recalls being beaten up by Nystrom. Risebrough played 740 NHL regular-season games and accumulated 1,542 penalty minutes during his career. He recalled one particularly nasty fight with tough guy Marty McSorley when Risebrough was with the Calgary Flames.
At the end of the fight, Risebrough ended up with McSorley's tattered jersey.
"Yeah, you got licked a couple times," Risebrough said. "I remember a very famous McSorley fight that I got in and I ended up with his sweater and the sweater got the worst of the incident. I kind of salvaged a bad fight with a sweater in my hand."
The next day, Calgary GM Cliff Fletcher blasted the rest of the Flames, saying he never wanted to see a player getting as badly pummeled as Risebrough did without getting some help from his teammates.
Chicago GM Dale Tallon, the second overall pick in the 1970 draft, recalled having to fight to prove himself, sometimes against teammates in training camp. One exchange involved veteran defenseman Pat Quinn, who, of course, went on to a long and distinguished coaching career in the NHL and internationally.
Tallon also found himself engaged with notorious Philadelphia enforcer Dave Schultz one night in front of the Vancouver Canucks' net. "That wasn't very productive," Tallon said.
And then, there was Brian Burke, who jumped over the boards during a summer college league game to challenge Paul Holmgren, one of the game's fiercest players and current GM of the Philadelphia Flyers.
"It was a very bad business decision," said the current Maple Leafs GM. "I did all right. I tell everyone we had a draw and I'm sticking with that story. He challenged our bench, so I didn't have a whole lot of choice. I jumped over the boards and fought him. And look at his nose -- I did that."
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