Best Goalie fighter ever?

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
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Being a Flyers fan I hated Billy Smith as a player with a passion but you can't ignore a goalie with 489 career regular season PIMs and another 91 PIMs in the playoffs. He was mean and took crap from nobody and played at 5'-10" 175lbs.

21 career fights and only 3 against Goalies. Fought the likes of Dave "Tiger" Williams twice, Moose Dupont, Paul Holmgren, Danny Gare, Tracy Pratt, Steve Durbano, Dave Brown and Dave Semenko. All have over 1000 NHL PIMs.

Ray Emery seems to be getting the most votes so far and he has 42 career PIMs and 2 career NHL fights according to HockeyFights.com

Yeah but it's not just about the number of fights. Emery also fought a lot in the juniors and minors against enforcers and tough-guys. He's just a beast.
 

BrutuS

Registered User
Jul 24, 2007
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I actually have the Broome Dusters throwback jersey Emery is wearing in this video... and the entire game tape from the B-Sens. Youtubing the fights from that game is on my to-do list. eventually.

And my vote is for Razor. One hell of a fighter and goalie IMO. Saw him fight a good amount in Binghamton (who also had McGrattan and Bonvie at that time)
 

Steelhead16

Registered User
Jan 29, 2005
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Yeah but it's not just about the number of fights. Emery also fought a lot in the juniors and minors against enforcers and tough-guys. He's just a beast.


I didn't judge it by the numbers. I judged it by the fact that Emery fought almost all goalies which I downgraded him for. I give him full marks for fighting Gratton, Peluso and McMorrow in Junior but that was it. He sorta fought Peters except for the part where he didn't land a single punch. And he tried to fight the trainer in Russia. But to compare those guys to Williams, Dupont, Holmgren, Brown, Semenko, Gare, Durbano and Pratt is night and day. I only used NHL numbers for Smith because I was only 10 when he started in the NHL so I was too young to know about any Junior or Minor scraps. But judging by his PIMs in Junior and the AHL there had to be a few mixed in there as well.
I would certainly put Emery in my Top 5 but Smith having that fight card along with also having 4 Stanley Cups, a Vezina, a Conn Smyth and a Hall of Fame member there isn't a question who I have at #1.
I can't believe I can even say anything good about an Islander from the late 70's and early 80's because I still dislike all of them immensely.
 

Lunatik*

Guest
not the best fight... but lets be honest how often do 2 Euro's fight?... and how aften are both of those Euro's goaltenders?...

thats right... March 20th, 2004... Miikka Kiprusoff vs. Tomas Vokoun...

they start about a minutes in




edit: my bad thought it said fight not fighter... its definitely Emery
 
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Topp Spin

STIHL 286
Dec 4, 2010
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Alberta
pretty sure if you beat the crap out of someone its more than just a narrow win

I can't believe I'm arguing with you about this but...

Have you ever been in a fight (be it in high school, college, on the ice, etc.), where you and the guy you were fighting, were beating the hell out of each other, and then it got separated; after the smoke settled, did either you have a broken nose, a fat lip, a black eye, or any other bruises/injuries?

I know I've been in a few situations like that in the past, and I'm sure most people have...

It is very much possible to beat the crap out of someone, and then narrowly win, or even lose the fight...
 

Bob Clarke Fan Club

Registered User
Feb 14, 2003
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Emery, Cloutier, Hextall and Sean Burke...in that order. For stickwork, Smith and Hextall. For overall insanity and unpredictability Hextall.
IMO Emery and Cloutier were much better fighters than the rest of the group.
 

Retsmra2010*

Guest
Billy Smith gets my vote. Honourable mention goes to Gump Worsley for fighting the puck with his face. I know it's not standard fight but anyone who says "my face is my mask" is a tough guy in my books.
 

BlackDog13

Registered User
Jun 4, 2010
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Being a Flyers fan I hated Billy Smith as a player with a passion but you can't ignore a goalie with 489 career regular season PIMs and another 91 PIMs in the playoffs. He was mean and took crap from nobody and played at 5'-10" 175lbs.

21 career fights and only 3 against Goalies. Fought the likes of Dave "Tiger" Williams twice, Moose Dupont, Paul Holmgren, Danny Gare, Tracy Pratt, Steve Durbano, Dave Brown and Dave Semenko. All have over 1000 NHL PIMs.

Ray Emery seems to be getting the most votes so far and he has 42 career PIMs and 2 career NHL fights according to HockeyFights.com

Not to discredit Emery's pugilistic skills but I think a lot of the support for him comes due to the age dynamic here. So many of the HF members are probably too young to have witnessed the wars between the Isles and Flyers or Smitty in general. I'm in total agreement with you though, except that I was an Islander fan during that period. :D

BTW, how's the winter run so far this year?
 

Bring Bak Damphousse

Fire Bergevin...into the Sun
May 27, 2002
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Hextall would rip emry apart. Why does this guy get credit for being peters punching bag? Hextall went after forwards on a daily basis.

Yeah in full gear, helmet included, with the rest of the flyers piling on behind him. Did he ever drop his gloves, remove his helmet, and go one on one with the other teams enforcer? Doubtful.
 

MXD

Original #4
Oct 27, 2005
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A nasty tender like Hextall who gets bloodied by an unknown combatant in Potvin... yeah, that constitutes as as "getting the crap beat out of you" in by book.

The guy comes from a family of tough fellows...
It wasn't unknown at all (at least to me).
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
2,560
Not to discredit Emery's pugilistic skills but I think a lot of the support for him comes due to the age dynamic here. So many of the HF members are probably too young to have witnessed the wars between the Isles and Flyers or Smitty in general. I'm in total agreement with you though, except that I was an Islander fan during that period. :D

BTW, how's the winter run so far this year?

I think most of the support comes from the fact that he beat the snot out of any goalie he's ever fought, and he beat up enforcers in the minors, while not being afraid to drop the gloves with pretty much anyone. The Peters fight in the NHL was kinda silly as it just looked like Emery wasn't really fighting. He was smiling and leaning back. He didn't get caught with many good shots if any in that tussle, but it looked as though he couldn't reach Peters cuz of the goalie equipment.

I think Emery would lay a beating on any of the other goalies mentioned in this thread.
 

AHockeyGameBrokeOut*

Guest
Gotta go with Billy Smith.

This year? I think it's Brent Johnson... one punch and done...
 

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