[WATCH] Buffalo Sabres Player Beats Up Fan Who Jumps Glass
Fighting in hockey used to be a very common occurrence. It was normal for teams to have an enforcer on their team, otherwise known as a "goon," who would protect star players and pick fights with the other team's goon. Time shave changed though, and fighting is much less common in today's NHL.
Also, less common in today's NHL are fans getting on the ice. Not that it happened all the time, but there are several instances of fans and players getting into altercations back when stadiums simply didn't have the rules and security measures they have today. Today's rinks have MUCH higher glass that is very difficult for anyone to climb over, plus much more security around the rink itself.
That was not so much the case back in, for example, 1992, as you'll see.
Rob Ray
Rob Ray is one of the all-time great enforcers and fighters in NHL history. Having spent most of his career for the Buffalo Sabres, Ray has an actual NHL rule named after him. Because Ray used to intentionally allow players to rip his jersey off during a fight and use it to his advantage, the NHL actually created a strap-on to jerseys and rules accordingly. More about that here.
April 14, 1992
It was this day that the Buffalo Sabres played the Quebec Nordiques (now Colorado Avalanche) in Quebec. A fan managed to jump over the glass and attack the Sabres bench. Rob Ray proceeded the make that fan pay, dearly, for that choice, as you can see in the video below.
Do you remember this happening?
Here's the youtube video of the French call. This all came about because of a brawl between the teams.