Friday, October 26, 2007

LNAH Hockey Fights

With the NHL turning soft on us (actually fights are up this year, but its the "lesss than heavy" guys that are fighting), let's turn our attention to a league where you are almost guaranteed 2+ fights a night per game... the LNAH. A little about the LNAH for Wiki:


The Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (LNAH) was founded in 2004 and is a low-level professional league based in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was called the Quebec Semi-Pro Hockey League from 1996 to 2004 when it turned pro. It has no connection with the similarly-named North American Hockey League (NAHL), an American junior league for players under twenty.

Unlike higher-level professional leagues, such as the American Hockey League or the ECHL, the LNAH is not known for its skill level. Its teams employ many enforcers and has a rather infamous reputation for on-ice antics that mostly include fisticuffs. The LNAH has the unofficial reputation as the world's roughest hockey league.


I really don't know where to start with the LNAH. There are line-brawls on a weekly basis. I would liken a lot of the tough guys to an early-version of Tie Domi, as they dust off their hands, shadow box, and do other entertaining things to play to the crowd before and after fights. You can expect a fight a night per tough guy. It's not like the NHL where 25 fights might lead the league at the end of the year. Some of these guys will have more than 25 fights midway through the year. There are a lot of goals scored in games which keeps things fun for the finesse fans as well.

But really, if you go to watch an LNAH game, you know what you are in store for. Former NHLers Link Gaetz and Gino Odjick have played in the league. It is rumored, although I don't think it is much of a rumor, that Link got paid by the fight. Legendary AHLer Frank "the Animal" Bialowas played in the LNAH. Caps tough guy Donald Brashear played in the LNAH during the lockout and was promptly banned from the league after punching his opponent multiple times while he was down. Former AHLers Brandon Sugden and Sean McMorrow currently play. Rumored-to-be a Hershey Bear last year, Steve Bosse, resides as the current champ of the league. Current Syracuse Crunch that can't find his way into a game, Jon "Nasty" Mirasty, is #2 behind Bosse and is probably the most entertaining fighter in the world today.

So the only way to really explain the LNAH is to watch some of these guys in action for yourself.... enjoy!













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