St. Louis Blues: Top 5 St. Louis Blues Fighters Of All-Time
Tony Twist was pound for pound one of the best heavyweights to ever strap on the skates. He was listed at 6’1″ and 220 lbs. He wasn’t the biggest, and he wasn’t afraid to drop the gloves with anyone in the league.
Twist played a total of 294 games with the Blues before having to retire due to injuries suffered in a motorcycle wreck in 1999. During his time with the Blues, he had a total of 64 fighting majors.
During his career, Twist had 12 fights against members of the Chicago Blackhawks. Twist fought no one more during his career more than Jim McKenzie.
Twist was never in the lineup for his scoring prowess. He was inserted for one reason and one reason only; to protect the star players on the Blues. The likes of Brett Hull, Wayne Gretzky, Pierre Turgeon, and countless others.
While Twist was in the lineup, opposing players knew that if they took a run at one of the Blues players, they were going to have to answer to Twist. And for this reason, the top players for the Blues could move around the ice a little more freely.
For a few years of his Blues career, Twist was on the same roster with two other players on this list. He was a linemate with one and had one of the best fights I’ve seen in person with that linemate, but more on that later.
Twist knew exactly what his job was while on the ice, and he did it very well. It is no surprise that Twist shows up in the top five blues fighters of all time.
The next person on the list did his job well enough that five different NHL teams wanted his services during his career.
Number four on our list is Jamal Mayers. Mayers played 915 career NHL game, and 595 of those games were with the St Louis Blues
Back in the 2001 playoffs, the Blues thought it would be a good idea to dye their hair blond. Since Mayers was bald, he died blond tiger stripes in his eyebrows.
Some feel this bold move against tradition is what jinxed the Blues in the first round of the playoffs, but I digress.
Thank goodness he was a better fighter then he was an eyebrow connoisseur. Mayers was listed at 6’1″ and 220 lbs, and during his 12 years with the Blues, Mayers had 67 fighting majors.
Mayers played a heavy brand of hockey and was not afraid to get in on the forecheck and punish the other teams’ defensemen with heavy and sometimes crushing hits.
The 2005-2006 season was one of the best for Mayers. Mainly regulated to third or fourth line duty, Mayers had 15 fighting majors. The more interesting stat from that year was the 15 goals that Mayers scored.
Mayers is one of the more prolific scorers on this list. Mayers had two years with double-digit goals scored and a career mark of 90 goals and 219 points to go along with 1200 penalty minutes.
Although he had a knack for finding the back of the net, Mayers is still number four on our list. During his career, Mayers fought Ian Laperriere five times, the most of any other opponent.
Mayers also fought members of the San Jose Sharks a total of 9 times, the only member on this list that didn’t square up with Blackhawks more than any other team.
The next person on the list racked up over 50 PIM in a game twice during his career.
Coming in at number three on our list: Reed Lowe. Lowe was listed at 6’4” and 220 lbs. He was considered a heavyweight and was by far the biggest Blues player on this list.
Lowe played 256 career games in NHL, 250 of those were while wearing the Bluenote. While with the Blues, Lowe had 78 fighting majors. Lowe came up for the Blues in their winning season during 2000-2001.
Lowe played in 56 games that year with 159 penalty minutes. This doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but then you realize out of the 159 PIM, 115 of those were from fighting majors.
That year the Blues had 60 fighting majors, the third-highest total since 2000. That year Lowe led the Blues with 23 fighting majors.
His rookie year he was tasked with protecting the likes of Pierre Turgeon, Al MacInnis, Pavol Demitra, Craig Conroy, and Scott Young. That was quite a few snipers to ensure weren’t receiving cheap shots on the nightly.
Lowe currently holds the number two and the number five spots for most penalty minutes in an NHL game. He had 57 penalty minutes vs. the Calgary Flames on 2/28/2002, and 53 vs. the Detroit Red Wings on 12/31/2002.
During the game vs. the Flames, he had three fighting majors, one vs. the Blues current head coach Craig Berube and one vs. Robyn Regehr. He also was assessed four misconducts and an instigator penalty.
During the New Years Eve game at Detroit, Lowe received four misconducts, one fighting major against Maxim Kuznetsov and four 2-minute minor penalties.
As with most on this list, Lowe had the most career fights against the Blackhawks with seven. Throughout his career, Low spread out his fights. He had three fights against Matt Johnson, and this was his high for any player he fought.
Up next on the list, an all-time fan favorite
Coming in at number two on our list is an all-time fan favorite; Kelly Chase. Chase was listed at 5’11” and 201 lbs. This makes Chase one of the smaller players on the list.
Chase seems like he played his entire career with the Blues and would be on their all-time games played list. Chase was and still is an all-time favorite with the fans.
The truth is, Chase only played 254 games with the Blues, second-fewest on this list. But he earned this moniker by having the second most fighting majors in Blues history.
Out of those 254 games played, he had a whopping 123 fighting majors during his two stints in the Bluenote. That is almost one fight every two games. Not to bad for someone under six feet.
Of course, Chase had the most career fights against the Blackhawks, but you will never guess who he fought the most in his career. Not a Blackhawk, but none other than the Cheif, Craig Berube.
On March 9, 1996, I attended one of the best Blues games of my life vs. the Hartford Whalers. One year prior Chase had been claimed by the Whalers. Just weeks before this game the Blues had traded for some guy named Wayne Gretzky.
This game had so much leading up to it. Not only was Chase on the Whalers, but they had also traded another fan favorite to the Whalers over the summer, Brendan Shanahan. Shanahan came out for a pre-game skate on his own, and the crowd went crazy.
The real fireworks started in the first period. The first frame consisted of three fights, Shayne Coryson had one fight and Twist had two. Twist’s second fight was against Chase.
At the time Twist was living in Chase’s house while he was playing in Hartford. Even though they were friends, they both knew they had a job to do, and boy did they do their job.
They were both throwing haymakers, and in this one, Twist got the better of Chase. This goes to show that even though Chase wasn’t a heavyweight by size, he had the heart of a heavyweight.
Chase retired after the 1999-2000 season. On April 7, 2000, Chase fought his last fight in the NHL against none-other, then the player considered the greatest: Bob Probert. Not a bad way to go out if you ask me.
Up next is number one on the list. This player played almost 800 games with the Blues.
Coming in at number one on the list, non-other than the captain, Brian Sutter. Sutter was listed at 5’11” 173lbs. He is the smallest player on this list by almost 30 lbs, but he did not lack heart.
If you ask anyone in hockey who is the greatest hockey family of all time, a good majority of them will name the Sutter family. A family of six brothers that all made it to the NHL.
Brian was drafted by the Blues in the second round of the 1976 NHL amateur draft and went on to play 35 games for the Blues that year, and a total of 779 games, all with the Blues.
During his career, Sutter had 157 fights and in the 1980-1981 season a total of 26 fights, the highest total in his 12-year career. Once again he had more fights against the Blackhawks than any other team in the NHL.
Also, out of all the players on this list, Sutter had more career fights against any one opponent. He fought Pat Price, a defenseman with five different teams, a total of seven times. Something tells me these two didn’t like each other.
The Blues have always been known as a hard-working, blue-collared team. And in my opinion, there is not one player that best personifies this mentality then Brian Sutter.
During the last nine years of his career, Sutter was the captain of the Blues. The longest-tenured captain in Blues history. Not only was Sutter a hard-nosed player, but many consider him the greatest leader of the Blues, ever.
In 1988, Sutter was forced to retire due to a nagging back injury, and almost immediately was hired as head coach of the Blues. And in the 1990-1991 season won the Jack Adams award for coach of the year.
Next. How The Sammy Blais Deal Affects The Offseason. dark
Pat Maroon lead the Blues last season with six fights. Based on that average, a player would have to play over 10 years for the Blues before they would ever crack the top five based on fighting majors.
If we continue to see the current trend of fighting decline in the NHL, I don’t know that anyone on this list will ever be surpassed.