The "Down Goes Brown" History of the NHL Quotes

“The NHL: the only league where somebody mentions a massacre named after a day of religious observance and you have to ask them to be more specific.”
― Sean McIndoe, The "Down Goes Brown" History of the NHL: The World's Most Beautiful Sport, the World's Most Ridiculous League

“It all began the previous summer, when Ted Lindsay visited Marquette Branch Prison as part of a promotional tour with GM Jack Adams. The star winger got along well with the prison’s inmates, and the warden issued an invitation: Come back in the winter for a friendly game. Adams accepted, and on February 2, 1954, the Red Wings arrived to face a pickup team of convicts, surrounded by guard towers and razor wire. Needless to say, there was significant concern over the safety of those involved, and the potential for acts of serious violence. But once the inmates were assured that Gordie Howe would try to keep his elbows down, the game went ahead as scheduled.”
― Sean McIndoe, The "Down Goes Brown" History of the NHL: The World's Most Beautiful Sport, the World's Most Ridiculous League

“From that 1982 realignment onward, the Norris Division basically devolved into a decade-long bar fight on skates, one that featured virtually every notable tough guy of the era. Everyone from Bob Probert to Joey Kocur to Stu “The Grim Reaper” Grimson to Basil McRae to John Kordic to Shane Churla passed through the division at some point, and none of them were there to run the power play.”
― Sean McIndoe, The "Down Goes Brown" History of the NHL: The World's Most Beautiful Sport, the World's Most Ridiculous League