Joey Kocur

I recently read an interview with Donald Brashear describing what it was like to take on Joey Kocur in a fight:

"Kocur was hitting me in the helmet like a power hammer and in the end the helmet split! I remember the next day I had a terrible pain, my gums on the left side of my head were hurting even though he was hitting me on the right side of my face. I couldn't chew anything. I wonder what it would be if I did not have a helmet? Too scary."
Too scary indeed. Joe's punching power is legendary. He was regarded as being the hardest puncher of them all. When he caught someone with that right sledgehammer, it was lights out.

What Brashear learned that day was what many others learned on many other days: Don't mess with Joe Kocur. Don Jackson tried it, and had his jaw broken by a single punch. Big Jim Kyte took him on, then had to be helped off the ice. Brad Dalgarno got worst, though, when he had his orbital bone crushed. Dalgarno underwent several operations and missed over a year of action.
Kocur's reputation as a tough 'hombre' began in the junior leagues where he racked up 1053 penalty minutes in only 226 games. He also scored 177 points. Detroit drafted Joe in the 5th round, 88th overall in 1983.

Kocur's professional career almost came to an end before it had begun. While playing for Adirondack (AHL) in January 1985 he engaged in a fight with Nova Scotia's tough guy Jim Playfair. One of Joe's punches connected with Playfair's teeth so that Kocur suffered a deep cut on his knuckle. Soon the wound got infected. Doctors gave him antibiotics but his hand didn't get better. The infection was in fact so severe that the doctors were ready to amputate Joe's hand to save his life. But only hours before the operation, the antibiotics started to work and his hand was saved.

When Joe made Detroit's lineup it meant that they had the most feared one-two punch in the league. Tag-teaming with Bob Probert, the dastardly duo were quickly dubbed "The Bruise brothers."

Kocur has fond memories of these times:

"Back then me and Bob carefully used to go through the opponents lineup before each game. That way we could put up a strategy against the guys we were supposed to go up against."

Kocur led the entire NHL in penalty minutes 1985-86 when he had 377 PIMs. The following five seasons he never collected less than 213 Pim's per season.

Interestingly, Kocur never saw himself as a "goon."

"A goon is someone who deliberately tries to injure his opponent. I'm was more of a "policeman" who defended my teammates. There are players who tries to make a name for themselves by fighting smaller players. I've never did that. I only fought against players who could defend themselves."

Kocur, who grew up idolizing Terry O'Reilly and Al Secord, was not a raging headhunter like so many goons. Like Philadelphia's Dave Brown or Edmonton's Dave Semenko, Kocur was honorable in his fighting, and once he bested his opponent he would never throw extra punches. He would simply tie up the other guys arms and wait for the linesmen to step in.

Kocur's reputation masked the fact that he was a serviceable role player. Occasionally he was used in a shut down role, notably against cousin Wendel Clark of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was a thunderous body checker thanks to good speed and balance on his skates. He had a heavy shot which he didn't use often enough. Though his hands were soft enough to take and give good passes, he never forgot why he was employed in the NHL.

"You do what it takes to stay in the game," he says. "I can't get away from doing what I do best."

Kocur's career in Detroit lasted until March 5, 1991. That's when he got traded to New York Rangers. The Rangers were a smaller, skilled team and were looking for that physical presence. In retrospect, GM Neil Smith called Kocur "the final piece of the playoff puzzle."

It was an interesting time for Kocur.

" It was tough in the beginning. I missed Detroit and it's great fans. After all, I had played for Detroit during my entire NHL career. But I quickly understood that Rangers was a very good team to end up in. The New York fans instantly made me feel welcome. They are not very different from the fans in Detroit. They both love tough play, combined with technique and finesse."

Of course Kocur eventually went on to win the Stanley Cup with Rangers in 1994.

" I thought the whole city was going to explode when the final buzzer sounded. Those were unforgettable days."

On March 20, 1996 Kocur was traded to Vancouver. His stay in Vancouver was brief as he only played 7 games for the Canucks. The Canucks management thought he was washed up and that his hands were done. He had undergone four operations on his right hand so they left him unsigned after the season.

Kocur was 31 years old at the time and started to play some recreational "Beer league hockey" for Lakeland in the OAL league (Over 30 Amateur league). Instead of retiring he surprised everybody by coming back where his NHL career had started...Detroit. Scotty Bowman thought Joe could add something to the lineup and signed him as a free agent on December 27, 1996.

Kocur immediately struck gold as he and Detroit won the Stanley Cup two years in a row. Who would have thought that while he was playing for Lakeland in the OAL league ?

Kocur, also a cousin of NHL player/coach/ESPN analyst Barry Melrose, announced his retirement in October, 2000 it marked the end of one of NHL's most fearsome fighters in NHL history. He kept in the game by trying his aching hand as an assistant coach. Undoubtedly he also spends lots of his time playing the more civil sport of golf, where he is a scratch handicap.