I wrote this up for another (non hockey) site so bear with the 'hockey-splainin'' - by far my favorite live memory
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A hockey story, it takes a while to get there but the background is somewhat important...
Way back in the dark ages of the previous century the AHL came (back) to Cincinnati in the form of the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks ('97ish iirc). At the same time Detroit was without an AHL affiliate so there was an agreement to share the team between the two big clubs. This arrangement lasted about five years before Detroit bowed out & took over the Griffins (key point to the story). One would think that between the two clubs feeding the Baby Ducks their good prospects that there would be a good team. Sadly if one thought that they would be wrong, but there were lots of fun times going to the games.
Through the years quite a few players came through who later went on to have decent/good/great careers at the NHL level (along with quite a few who were just there for a cup of coffee...) - Matt Cullen, Getz & Perry (only for a couple of game though), Giguere, Lupul, Andy Mac, Shane O'Brien, Ruslan Salei, Chris Kunitz, Bylsma & even Babcock behind the bench for a couple of years. This story however deals with two others, Sean Avery & Ilya Bryzgalov - which if you know them were two of the odder characters in the NHL in the immediate post lockout era.
If you remember Avery came up with Detroit & Bryz with Anaheim, not a big deal as they were both on the same team at the time. Then 2002 arrived & the Red Wings pulled their players to staff the Griffins. Fast foward to the late part of the season & both teams were out of the playoff hunt & just trying to make it through the season.
It was a Sunday afternoon game being played by two relatively uninspiried teams. It was nice seeing a lot of familiar names out on the ice (albiet in different uniforms), but it was otherwise a boring game to watch. Many in the crowd went home & the rest were lulled into a quiet stupor. Around the middle of the third period, during a break in play, players skating around keeping loose, not much going on. All of a sudden there was a roar that shook the rafters & all eyes (now suddenly awake) snapped to the Ducks end of the ice where Bryz, still screaming in outrage, was chasing Avery all around the ice, every few strides trying to chop him in half with overhead swings of his goalie stick. He didn't catch him but they made it 3/4s of the way around the rink before the shock sort of wore off & the officials attempted to step between them...attempted. Bryz bowled over one of the linesmen & continued his chase of Avery with the other one hanging on his back. Eventually the ref joined up with the recently upended linesman & the three of them dog piled Bryz to the ice, eventually getting him calm enough to be tossed out of the game. Throughout the whole minute or two episode though, 'nobody' else moved, the remaining fans sat in shocked silence, the players all stood there slack jawed, coaches silent, the only sounds in the arena were Bryz's screams & the officials yelling at him to calm down (yeah right).
Sadly no video of this exists (YT was still 3 years away, smart phone, what the hell is that?), but the speculation was that back when they were teammates, Avery learned some 'very' personal details about Bryz's then girlfriend - perhaps not to the level of Dunlop's goading of Hanrahan in Slapshot but pretty close....
