22-Years-Ago The World Witnessed 'The Brawl In Hockeytown' One Of The Most Insane Hockey Games Ever Played
22-years-ago the world witnessed one of the most insane hockey games ever played. The Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings played in a game dubbed “Bloody Wednesday” and “The Brawl In Hockeytown” due to the madness that ensued.
There were nine total fights on that March 26th night in 1997. But that drama didn’t start that night, it started the season prior when Kris Draper was hit from behind by Avs forward Claude Lemieux in the 1996 Western Conference. Draper would break his jaw and the Red Wings would go on to lose the Western Conference finals.
Darren McCarty, linemate of Kris Draper, saw the opportunity to get revenge for his teammate and when he did, Lemieux turtled. When goalie Patrick Roy saw his teammate getting his shit kicked in he left his crease to help. He was met by Brendan Shannahan with a clothes line.
Think about this for a second, we are talking about two Hall of Famers here and one is a fucking goalie who is getting clotheslined at center ice. You will never see anything like that again. We then saw Roy and Detroit goalie Mike Vernon full on brawl. There were so many different scraps that night it puts your brain in a pretzel just trying to think about it. Being a ref in this game would have been a god damn nightmare.
Watching these videos really makes you miss the Avalanche-Red Wings rivalry. Two of the best teams in the league that just despised each other. It seemed like it was a complete bloodbath every time they played.