Hockey is somewhat of a special animal in the pantheon of team sports. It’s the only major team sport ever in which the officials employed to enforce the rules will regularly simply stand back and watch players engage in pugilistic pursuits to settle their differences throughout the course of a game. Not only that, there are many players who have made their living and carved out legitimate careers in the sport simply by being the big, fearless, rough and tumble kind of guy who can step in and violently regulate on a player his team has deemed to have stepped out of line.
One such man to have made a name for himself in professional hockey by fearlessly facing violent situations is Brian McGrattan. Originally drafted by the Los Angeles Kings and later making his debut with the Ottawa Senators, McGrattan currently plays for Anaheim Ducks affiliate San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League.
In the video above, McGrattan squares off against San Antonio Rampage defenseman Daniel Maggio, who was drafted by the New York Rangers in 2009, but who has yet to seen ice time in the National Hockey League.
The action begins with both men clutching onto the other’s jersey with their left hands and throwing absolute bombs with their rights. While both men connect with punches, it is McGrattan who bears the brunt of the exchange, eating a vicious and clubbing punch that turns out his lights and sends him crashing face first onto the ice.
McGrattan regained consciousness shortly after and was not seriously injured.
Jeff Warsaw is the former executive editor of Long Island MMA Magazine, professional combat sports public address announcer for several NY/NJ MMA and kickboxing promotions, and a proud one-stripe white belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under the famed Joe D’Arce. He is currently a musician, coffee enthusiast and host of the Stranger In A Strange Land podcast on YouTube.
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Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in Hockey
Neuropathologists at Boston University diagnosed Reg Fleming as the first hockey player known to have the disease. This discovery was announced in December 2009, six months after Fleming’s death.
Rick Martin, best known for being part of the Buffalo Sabres’ French Connection, was diagnosed with CTE after his brain was posthumously analyzed. Martin was the first documented case of an ice hockey player not known as an enforcer to have developed CTE; Martin was believed to have developed the disease primarily as a result of a severe concussion he suffered in 1977 while not wearing a helmet. The disease was low-grade and asymptomatic in his case, not affecting his cognitive functions. He died of a heart attack in March 2011 at the age of 59.
Also within a few months in 2011, the deaths of three hockey “enforcers”—Derek Boogaard from a combination of too many painkillers and alcohol, Rick Rypien, an apparent suicide, and Wade Belak, who, like Rypien, had reportedly suffered from depression; and all with a record of fighting, blows to the head and concussions—led to more concerns about CTE. Boogaard’s brain was examined by BUSM, which in October 2011 determined the presence of CTE. One National Hockey League player known in part for leading “the thump parade”, former Boston Bruin and current Florida Panthers right winger Shawn Thornton mulled over the “tragic coincidence” of the three recent league deaths and agreed that their deaths were due to the same cause, yet still defended the role of fighting on the rink.
