Ice Guardians

Kevin Westgarth: I still remember I was probably 12 or 13.

We were at one of the stables and there was a couple guys.

It was like "Oh, what are you gonna do?

You gonna be a vet like your dad?"

Y'know, being a 13 year old and still a dreamer,

I was like "No, I'm gonna play in the NHL."

Todd Fedoruk: Saturday night, you sit around, and...

if you're not playin' in a tournament,

you're usually watchin' it on TV.

Kelly Chase: We saw how good these guys played

and how hard they worked and how tough they were.

We wanted to be like them.

It's all you think about your whole life

is playin' in the NHL.

Luke Gazdic: There was a point

that I realized that my skillset that I had...

It was only gonna take me so far.

Brett Gallant: Every league I went into,

I was always a little bit slower than most players

and I had to establish myself in some way

to stick in the league.

Derek Boogaard: It was just one of those things where...

you just, kept wanting to prove whoever wrong

that kept saying that, y'know,

you're not gonna make it.

Dave Semenko: Eventually, y'know, their skill level

and everything else levels off

and all of a sudden you grow and your abilities change.

Westgarth: I could just kinda feel like...

guys lookin' outta the corner of their eye

to like, see what I was gonna do.

Scott Parker: Then I finally looked in the mirror

and I was like, God it's me.

It's, it's my role.

Newscaster: Good evening and thanks for joining us.

It is one of the most disgusting brutal parts of NHL hockey

and last night, Canadians watched it all happen yet again.

They are the most feared players in the NHL

whose role isn't scoring goals,

it's - knocking out the opponent.

They're enforcers.

Scouted, drafted and put on the ice for one thing...

To fight.

Producer: What do you think of fighting in professional hockey?

It's got its place. I mean...

Hell, two thirds of the people in here,

that's probably all they're looking for.

Producer: What do you think of fighting in professional hockey?

There isn't enough of it.

I don't think it's a problem. It's just...

they shouldn't fight so hard.

We're not talkin' about MMA, we're talkin' about hockey.

"What do I think of fighting in professional hockey?"

I think it's part of the sport.

I do not like it at all, to be honest with you.

In any sport, especially professional athletes,

it just is not professional.

It's immature and not necessary.

It stops the flow of the game.

Really?

You're a fan of it?

Yeah!

It's fun.

Girl: Gets the fans goin', right?

I love it.

It's why I come for the entertainment.

I think it makes the game more interesting actually.

I still think it plays a role in the game.

So is there something about hockey

that really lends itself to violence?

Intellectually, it doesn't make sense.

Jeff Marek: You're trying to take a round black thing

and put it over a red line.

That's the game!

And whoever does it the most times, that wins.

Where does the fight come from?

Marek: Why does this not happen in football?

Why does this not happen in rugby?

Why does this not happen in these types of sports?

At the alarming rate that it does,

or more specifically, did,

in the game of hockey?

There's a big difference between hockey

and most other games

because you're moving at a far higher speed.

Commentator: Pass to Hall at full speed and he's hammered!

When you've got guys who are skating at 30 miles an hour,

and they've got a massive stick in their hand

which could be a weapon,

you're going to get some kind of tension

that comes from that game.

Bloom: And in an environment where a body suddenly

becomes a lethal weapon

because of the speed at which it's moving,

the danger, the adrenaline level,

the need to protect yourself

is far higher than it is in a normal environment.

Dave Semenko: At first you may not feel that...

This is exactly what you wanna do.

You have to make that adjustment. Like, y'know, I...

This wasn't...

This isn't what I signed up for.

Dave Schultz: I didn't start playing hockey

to go out on the ice and fight!

It's the last thing I woulda thought of.

Schultz: But once you start...

I was never able...

To... stop.

Brian McGrattan: To each their own. I mean...

Some guys are...

they do the role because they have to do the role.

See, I'm a little different I mean...

I look at another guy and I wanna beat his face in

every time I see that guy on the ice.

George Parros: I started to fight in development camps.

It was a completely conscious decision.

It was a matter of self-preservation.

If I'm gonna be playin', the way I want to play

I'm gonna probably have to fight at some point.

Semenko: I came out, they sent somebody out after me

during a scrimmage

I had no idea what I was doing.

I just sort of grabbed'im and started throwing punches.

I was watching my fist like it was in slow motion.

I'm doing pretty well here.

This is easy.

Semenko: As soon as I did that, that changed everything

I just had a coach there. He's like, you know,

I think you could actually...

Have a shot at bein' a pro hockey player.

I'd never heard that before.

Rob Ray: It became real.

It became that guys were playing hard and playing for jobs

and playing for positions.

You had your defensive guys, your offensive guys

Everybody specialized in something.

Mitch Fritz: They said y'know, you're gonna play in the NHL.

It might take ya ten years.

But you're gonna hafta fight every step of the way.

And I said, you know what? I'll do it.

Todd Fedoruk: Even just to be mentioned

in the breath of you might be getting drafted.

It's like...

You're like "Wow, this might be a reality!"

Scott Parker: That's the time

agents start knocking on your door

and people telling you what might happen

and talking to scouts and getting letters in the mail.

I remember I waited by the phone all day.

I didn't actually go to the draft

because I was a later draft pick.

And I got the call from the Philadelphia Flyers.

And I remember the first thing my dad said.

Well you're their type of player, that's for sure.

Luke Gazdic: I signed a pro contract when I was 19

and I thought it was all...

It was all "up" from there.

And then I realized that was only the start of the battle.

Kevin Westgarth: You have a very short... amount of time

to show what you have.

And if you're not kind of... pegged, it's...

it's gone in an instant.

Every NHL team has an AHL team that they're affiliated with.

Parros: The difference between the AHL and the NHL,

the AHL being the feeder system for the NHL.

Parros: Guys get called up and down all the time.

It's a free-market economy.

I was always competin' for jobs.

Never had a "for-sure" thing.

Just, fightin' anybody I could.

Just to, just tryin' to get a shot.

Gazdic: It was four years in the minors,

250-something games.

No call-ups.

Parker: The minors were actually a lot rougher than the NHL, I believe.

I call it "The Jungle."

And the jungle is full of all sorts of specimens

and like, you never know what's gonna getcha!

These guys were tough and I mean they were tough.

I was fighting these guys twice a night.

For an entire season.

Parker: Guys that get sent down from the NHL,

people hone in on that.

It's almost like, there's blood in the water.