Mickey Redmond tells hilarious tale of bench clearing brawl in Boston
Hudson rules, baby!
Detroit Red Wings color commentator Mickey Redmond is a national treasure!
The game of hockey certainly was a bit different when Redmond was lacing up the skates for the Detroit Red Wings during the 1970's, and in one way in particular. Of course, that would be the phenomenon known as the "Hudson Bay Rules" - essentially, where anything goes.
Following last night's victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Little Caesars Arena, Redmond shared an absolutely amazing story from his playing days of a Canadiens matchup against the Boston Bruins - during which six bench-clearing brawls took place.
"When John Wayne was fighting in "The Quiet Man", the rules were just that," Redmond recalled. "The Hudson Bay rules are biting scratching kicking, whatever it takes. Bite an ear off, hit him over the head with a two-hander, it doesn't matter. There's no wall. Hudson Bay rules are anything goes! It doesn't matter!
"I can tell you this - one time at the Boston Garden, it was...your life was in your hands. In those days, the benches...we had to go off through the Boston bench to get to our dressing room, if you can believe that. The benches were on the other side of the ice. Right wingers had to go through the Boston bench twice in a game, it was not fun. One game at Boston Garden, there were six-bench clearing brawls in one game."
"In one of them, I got tripped - I saw the replay about a month ago, I was tripped in front of the Boston net, Gerry Cheevers. A donnybrook ensued that went on for eight minutes - nobody had jerseys on, fights were all over the place. Now, in that whole thing, John Ferguson was the resident tough guy. Teddy Green was their resident tough guy. So, the first time the benches cleared, the thing was $100 fine for the first guy leaving the bench. Fergy jumped onto the ice, everyone was just throwing $5 to pay the fine."
"The second donnybrook took place, Fergy is on the bench. He goes, 'I can't afford it, I'll get thrown out!' He jumps down the end of the bench and picks up the spare goalie and throws him on the ice!"
