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The NHL has largely moved beyond the days when most teams had at least one “enforcer” on the roster whose primary job was to fight other players to keep them in line. Tie Domi fully embraced that role during his time in the league, but his exploits weren’t limited to the rink—as evidenced by a wild story involving the Maple Leafs and a group of Marines at a bar in Chicago.
Domi was born in Ontario and made a name for himself playing junior hockey in the province before Toronto selected him in the second round of the 1988 NHL Draft. While he was technically a winger, he wasn’t exactly an offensive machine, as he posted 245 points in the 1,050 regular season games he played in during an NHL career that spanned 16 seasons.
By the time he’d hung up his skates, Domi had racked up 333 fighting majors (which is still an all-time record) while spending a grand total of 3,515 minutes in the penalty box (there are only two other players in the history of the league who ended up with a higher total). He also had a reputation for throwing cheap shots, but he was still a valuable asset for teams who had him on their roster.
His most memorable trip to the sin bin transpired during a game between the Flyers and the Maple Leafs in 2001, as Domi opted to spray his water bottle at a Philly fan who was heckling in before the man in question fell over the glass partition and into the box with the fearsome Toronto veteran.
While the fan in question escaped relatively unscathed considering the circumstances, the same can’t be said for an unfortunate member of the military who probably had a very awkward conversation with his superiors after an incident that unfolded during a night out on the town.
A Marine broke his fist on Tie Domi’s face after the enforcer gave him a free punch during an altercation at a bar
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You typically want to avoid getting into a bar fight if you’re an NHL player (although there’s at least one person who can credit one of those brawls for helping them land their first contract). On the other hand, you also typically want to avoid getting into a bar fight with an NHL player—even when you’re a member of a military branch known for attracting people with a similar temperament and capacity for pain.
That’s a lesson some members of the United States Marine Corps who encountered Domi and a few other guys on the Maple Leafs in a drinking establishment in Chicago learned the hard way, a tale one of the players who was there to watch things unfold recounted in an old interview with The Toronto Star.
The Marines in question were supposedly harassing the Maple Leafs before Domi arrived on the scene only to be greeted with a diminutive comment about his height. While a brawl could’ve easily broken out, the two sides apparently came to an agreement: the biggest Marine would get the chance to punch Domi in the face and the enforcer would be allowed to respond in kind.
Here’s what unfolded from there:
“This guy hauls back and punches Tie in the face and Tie looks at him and says, `That’s not your best shot. I’ll give you one more.’
Now, I can tell this guy has broken his hand and his buddies are like, ‘Oh, s***, it looks like we picked on the wrong guy.’ He can’t punch with his right, so he gives Tie a little baby punch with his left and then Tie must have hit this guy 50 times.
He was begging Tie to stop.”
NHL players are truly a different breed.