Game - Minnesota North Stars vs Toronto Maple Leafs
Fighters - John Kordic vs Basil McRae
Announcers - Bob Cole, Harry Neale
Toe to toe like Rock'em Sock'em robots, Basil McRae and John Kordic threw caution to the win in this all time great fight.
More fight talk and a look at Kordic and McRae after the jump.
John Kordic
John Kordic played close to 250 NHL games and was suspended multiple times for incidents on and off the ice.
Kordic battled addictions to drugs and alcohol and died in 1992 after and apparent steroid rage in a Montreal hotel room.
That night it is reported Kordic fought with 9 police offers before he died of of heart and lung failures caused by drugs and alcohol and his fight with police.
It is reported he was fighting off all of the police officers at the same time before they eventually subdued him.
During his time in hockey he had many stays in rehab and was kicked off many teams because of his lifestyle. Many coaches removed him from their team because he was " corrupting" the younger players.
The Toronto Maple Leafs traded Russ Courtnall to the Montreal Canadiens in return for John Kordic.
To get an idea of his game and what he did while he was on the ice, in the 1990-91 season with the Washington Capitals Kordic had 101 penalty minutes in just 7 games played with them. That's just under 3 major penalties a game.
Basil McRae
During this December 16th 1989 game, McRae had a goal and an assist and had over 15 penalty minutes in the North Stars 4-3 win.
McRae played 4 games with the Maple Leafs before catching on with the Red Wings and the Nordiques before settling in with Minnesota.
He retired with close to 600 NHL games played.
McRae also made a cameo appearance in the movie Mighty Ducks with Mike Modano.
He is now a part owner of the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League and a part time scout for the St.Louis Blues.
The quote
" This is a...........beauty"
Bob Cole is at the top of his game and a prime Bob Cole is the best hockey announcer in the history of the game. Unfortunately age has caught up to him now and unfortunately he and Harry Neale have been replaced by Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson and Glen Healy.
Another quote
" This is better then the Leonard fight I watched this afternoon"
I thought Harry Neale was talking about a Sugar Ray Leonard fight but the closest fight he had was against Roberto Duran 9 days earlier. I don't know if that was it or not.
Ray Scapinello
He had hair but as you can see in the video he is just starting to lose it
The fight
These two both went for the kill and didn't care that they had to eat a punch to throw one.
The fight itself is a draw in my mind, both threw and landed so many punches that its impossible to name a winner.
More fights next Monday and Tuesday and keep an eye out for more Leafs talk from me this week and once the season begins I will make a fight post of the Leafs fights from the night before.
