ShakeyWalton wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 16:15 pm
Hopefully some of you guys watch the Hull and Chase podcast. They did one with Butcher that was hilarious. Bobby Smith, Ron Wilson and Brian Bellows all wore hair pieces back then and the Blues were whistled for being offsides by the North Stars bench. The ref mentioned they were offsides by just a hair, after which Butcher pointed at the Minnesota bench and said “but not your hair.”
Priceless!
Ugh. Garth Butcher. Would gladly have foregone that "wit" to have ronning, mommeso and courtnall back. As valuable as steve ott. "But these guys are good in the room" .
I really don't get why people revere Ron Caron. He made decisions like a kid playing video games.
Agree. He followed up that doozy with then sending dan quinn and rod the bod to get ron sutter and murray baron. He made some amends later jettisoning butcher for steve duchesne but listened to brian sutter too much.
exactly his problem. Sutter had fought Butcher once and thought they needed a 'tough guy' for an assumed PO series vs CHI (which iirc, never happened that year)
but will give him this, in the series vs DET Probert was going after Stevens every chance he got and Butcher got in his face and for whatever reason, Probert would just skate away
ShakeyWalton wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 16:15 pm
Hopefully some of you guys watch the Hull and Chase podcast. They did one with Butcher that was hilarious. Bobby Smith, Ron Wilson and Brian Bellows all wore hair pieces back then and the Blues were whistled for being offsides by the North Stars bench. The ref mentioned they were offsides by just a hair, after which Butcher pointed at the Minnesota bench and said “but not your hair.”
Priceless!
Ugh. Garth Butcher. Would gladly have foregone that "wit" to have ronning, mommeso and courtnall back. As valuable as steve ott. "But these guys are good in the room" .
I really don't get why people revere Ron Caron. He made decisions like a kid playing video games.
Agree. He followed up that doozy with then sending dan quinn and rod the bod to get ron sutter and murray baron. He made some amends later jettisoning butcher for steve duchesne but listened to brian sutter too much.
exactly his problem. Sutter had fought Butcher once and thought they needed a 'tough guy' for an assumed PO series vs CHI (which iirc, never happened that year)
but will give him this, in the series vs DET Probert was going after Stevens every chance he got and Butcher got in his face and for whatever reason, Probert would just skate away
Yes, he got Probert so mad that Probert attacked our goalie Riendeau (sp?). I am not sure why Probert didn't fight him? They did a lot of hacking and whacking with the sticks but no fights. Didn't Probert skate by the bench and clip Butcher with his stick? I know it happened but I can't recall if it was the playoffs or if it was a regular season game? The regular season games against the Chicken Hawks were like playoff games anyway. Good times!
Caron wasn't the problem it was the unholy alliance of Jack Quinn and Brian Sutter that basically were behind the scenes orchestrating these stupid deals. Remember Caron was on a lake in the middle of Ontario with no access to a phone when the Blues offer sheeted Shanahan. Sutter was the defacto GM with Quinn’s blessing and they were the original Dumb and Dumber.
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
This thread is for those of us who have gray hair, if hair at all.
I was thinking back to one of my favorite eras of Hockey. The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division. Every game was a guaranteed rough and tumble affair. I picked 2 players off each opposing roster that I absolutely despised playing against, but secretly wanted on the Blues roster. For some of the old timers here, who were some of yours?
Dino Ciccarelli and Neal Broten with North Stars.
Wendel Clark and Rick Vaive with Maple Leafs.
Peter Kilma and Darren McCarty with the Wings.
Steve Larmer and Chris Chelios of the Black Hawks
Hated Draper and McCarty more than any players in the league.
Couldn't stand either but always remembered that McCarty would always turtle and never fight!
ShakeyWalton wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 16:15 pm
Hopefully some of you guys watch the Hull and Chase podcast. They did one with Butcher that was hilarious. Bobby Smith, Ron Wilson and Brian Bellows all wore hair pieces back then and the Blues were whistled for being offsides by the North Stars bench. The ref mentioned they were offsides by just a hair, after which Butcher pointed at the Minnesota bench and said “but not your hair.”
Priceless!
Ugh. Garth Butcher. Would gladly have foregone that "wit" to have ronning, mommeso and courtnall back. As valuable as steve ott. "But these guys are good in the room" .
I really don't get why people revere Ron Caron. He made decisions like a kid playing video games.
Agree. He followed up that doozy with then sending dan quinn and rod the bod to get ron sutter and murray baron. He made some amends later jettisoning butcher for steve duchesne but listened to brian sutter too much.
exactly his problem. Sutter had fought Butcher once and thought they needed a 'tough guy' for an assumed PO series vs CHI (which iirc, never happened that year)
but will give him this, in the series vs DET Probert was going after Stevens every chance he got and Butcher got in his face and for whatever reason, Probert would just skate away
Yes, he got Probert so mad that Probert attacked our goalie Riendeau (sp?). I am not sure why Probert didn't fight him? They did a lot of hacking and whacking with the sticks but no fights. Didn't Probert skate by the bench and clip Butcher with his stick? I know it happened but I can't recall if it was the playoffs or if it was a regular season game? The regular season games against the Chicken Hawks were like playoff games anyway. Good times!
I was at that game. The crowd was ready to go after him as I remember.
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
This thread is for those of us who have gray hair, if hair at all.
I was thinking back to one of my favorite eras of Hockey. The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division. Every game was a guaranteed rough and tumble affair. I picked 2 players off each opposing roster that I absolutely despised playing against, but secretly wanted on the Blues roster. For some of the old timers here, who were some of yours?
Dino Ciccarelli and Neal Broten with North Stars.
Wendel Clark and Rick Vaive with Maple Leafs.
Peter Kilma and Darren McCarty with the Wings.
Steve Larmer and Chris Chelios of the Black Hawks
Hated Draper and McCarty more than any players in the league.
Couldn't stand either but always remembered that McCarty would always turtle and never fight!
Pretty sure that was Draper. McCarty was very tough and a good fighter.
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
This thread is for those of us who have gray hair, if hair at all.
I was thinking back to one of my favorite eras of Hockey. The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division. Every game was a guaranteed rough and tumble affair. I picked 2 players off each opposing roster that I absolutely despised playing against, but secretly wanted on the Blues roster. For some of the old timers here, who were some of yours?
Dino Ciccarelli and Neal Broten with North Stars.
Wendel Clark and Rick Vaive with Maple Leafs.
Peter Kilma and Darren McCarty with the Wings.
Steve Larmer and Chris Chelios of the Black Hawks
Hated Draper and McCarty more than any players in the league.
Couldn't stand either but always remembered that McCarty would always turtle and never fight!
Pretty sure that was Draper. McCarty was very tough and a good fighter.
Draper and Maltby were the turtle boys.
McCarty was a decent fighter, but just like Rob Ray, he always managed to get his jersey off. It is such an advantage when the other fighter can't hang on to anything.
Not sure if it was directly them, but it was that era that the rule finally came in to tie down the jersey.
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
This thread is for those of us who have gray hair, if hair at all.
I was thinking back to one of my favorite eras of Hockey. The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division. Every game was a guaranteed rough and tumble affair. I picked 2 players off each opposing roster that I absolutely despised playing against, but secretly wanted on the Blues roster. For some of the old timers here, who were some of yours?
Dino Ciccarelli and Neal Broten with North Stars.
Wendel Clark and Rick Vaive with Maple Leafs.
Peter Kilma and Darren McCarty with the Wings.
Steve Larmer and Chris Chelios of the Black Hawks
Hated Draper and McCarty more than any players in the league.
Couldn't stand either but always remembered that McCarty would always turtle and never fight!
Pretty sure that was Draper. McCarty was very tough and a good fighter.
Draper hid behind Mcarty. Typical of his career. . Lemieux did the league a favor in sending him into the boards.
ShakeyWalton wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 16:15 pm
Hopefully some of you guys watch the Hull and Chase podcast. They did one with Butcher that was hilarious. Bobby Smith, Ron Wilson and Brian Bellows all wore hair pieces back then and the Blues were whistled for being offsides by the North Stars bench. The ref mentioned they were offsides by just a hair, after which Butcher pointed at the Minnesota bench and said “but not your hair.”
Priceless!
Ugh. Garth Butcher. Would gladly have foregone that "wit" to have ronning, mommeso and courtnall back. As valuable as steve ott. "But these guys are good in the room" .
I really don't get why people revere Ron Caron. He made decisions like a kid playing video games.
Agree. He followed up that doozy with then sending dan quinn and rod the bod to get ron sutter and murray baron. He made some amends later jettisoning butcher for steve duchesne but listened to brian sutter too much.
exactly his problem. Sutter had fought Butcher once and thought they needed a 'tough guy' for an assumed PO series vs CHI (which iirc, never happened that year)
but will give him this, in the series vs DET Probert was going after Stevens every chance he got and Butcher got in his face and for whatever reason, Probert would just skate away
Yes, he got Probert so mad that Probert attacked our goalie Riendeau (sp?). I am not sure why Probert didn't fight him? They did a lot of hacking and whacking with the sticks but no fights. Didn't Probert skate by the bench and clip Butcher with his stick? I know it happened but I can't recall if it was the playoffs or if it was a regular season game? The regular season games against the Chicken Hawks were like playoff games anyway. Good times!
I was at that game. The crowd was ready to go after him as I remember.
Was it the playoff game where Butcher got the stick in the face? Couldn't remember playoffs or regular season. I thought it was playoffs.
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
This thread is for those of us who have gray hair, if hair at all.
I was thinking back to one of my favorite eras of Hockey. The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division. Every game was a guaranteed rough and tumble affair. I picked 2 players off each opposing roster that I absolutely despised playing against, but secretly wanted on the Blues roster. For some of the old timers here, who were some of yours?
Dino Ciccarelli and Neal Broten with North Stars.
Wendel Clark and Rick Vaive with Maple Leafs.
Peter Kilma and Darren McCarty with the Wings.
Steve Larmer and Chris Chelios of the Black Hawks
Hated Draper and McCarty more than any players in the league.
Couldn't stand either but always remembered that McCarty would always turtle and never fight!
Pretty sure that was Draper. McCarty was very tough and a good fighter.
McCarty is most known for pummeling Claude Lemieux who supposedly turtled. There is a video on You Tube of McCarty and Lemieux talking years later about the incident in front of an audience in Detroit. Lemieux stated he was hurt (probably concussed) when McCarty jumped him from behind to start that fight as payback for the incident Lemieux badly injured Draper. Lemieux actually fought a lot with Montreal when he came into the league. He wasn't a great fighter bad wasn't bad either. They fought toe to toe next meeting and Lemieux did well probably slightly losing a decision to McCarty. Those Avs RedWings rivalries were epic. McCarty didn't back down from fights.
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
This thread is for those of us who have gray hair, if hair at all.
I was thinking back to one of my favorite eras of Hockey. The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division. Every game was a guaranteed rough and tumble affair. I picked 2 players off each opposing roster that I absolutely despised playing against, but secretly wanted on the Blues roster. For some of the old timers here, who were some of yours?
Dino Ciccarelli and Neal Broten with North Stars.
Wendel Clark and Rick Vaive with Maple Leafs.
Peter Kilma and Darren McCarty with the Wings.
Steve Larmer and Chris Chelios of the Black Hawks
Hated Draper and McCarty more than any players in the league.
Couldn't stand either but always remembered that McCarty would always turtle and never fight!
Pretty sure that was Draper. McCarty was very tough and a good fighter.
Draper and Maltby were the turtle boys.
McCarty was a decent fighter, but just like Rob Ray, he always managed to get his jersey off. It is such an advantage when the other fighter can't hang on to anything.
Not sure if it was directly them, but it was that era that the rule finally came in to tie down the jersey.
McCarty deifintely gained advantage in scraps not having the tie down secured. I hated that (bleep).
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division.
+!
And Dan Kelly in the booth.
We had it good.
I have heard many good hockey announcers over the years, but Mr. Kelly takes them in spades. No one better in my opinion. I go back to those days and remember that I could not wait for the hockey game to get started. Thought about it all day long with anticipation. I still love hockey, but it is different now. The 80's and 90's were just so entertaining. No, we didn't win a cup, but I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.
zuck698 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2026 13:18 pm
This thread is for those of us who have gray hair, if hair at all.
I was thinking back to one of my favorite eras of Hockey. The Norris Division time frame has always been my favorite era in hockey. The old "Chuck Norris" division. Every game was a guaranteed rough and tumble affair. I picked 2 players off each opposing roster that I absolutely despised playing against, but secretly wanted on the Blues roster. For some of the old timers here, who were some of yours?
Dino Ciccarelli and Neal Broten with North Stars.
Wendel Clark and Rick Vaive with Maple Leafs.
Peter Kilma and Darren McCarty with the Wings.
Steve Larmer and Chris Chelios of the Black Hawks
Hated Draper and McCarty more than any players in the league.
Couldn't stand either but always remembered that McCarty would always turtle and never fight!
Pretty sure that was Draper. McCarty was very tough and a good fighter.
Draper and Maltby were the turtle boys.
McCarty was a decent fighter, but just like Rob Ray, he always managed to get his jersey off. It is such an advantage when the other fighter can't hang on to anything.
Not sure if it was directly them, but it was that era that the rule finally came in to tie down the jersey.
Too young to remember much of the 80s but I absolutely hated Steve Larmer, Belfour, Ciccarelli, Probert, Draper, McCarty, Roenick, Chelios, Baumgartner, Pearson, Macoun. Mike Foligno on the Leafs and his weird helmet too.
