Reid Simpson vs. Darin Kimble

[ewen21]

This one would also be a barn burner, imo

[rondo]

This would no doubt be a barn burner. Simpson is one of my favorite guys..
He was a bit underrated imo. He was not real big around 6'2 215lbs but he made up for it in many of ways. He was very good technically but did not sit back and wait for openings because he seemed to like the action. Had a few classic battles that I recall. He beat a very good Marty Mcsorely in a marathon bout and also bloodied Sandy McCarthy in a long bout in which he probably scores a W/edge....Kimble basically had one style and that was toe to toe. He was alot of fun to watch. His style probably cut his career a bit short but it was good while it lasted. I think these guys were buddies in junior hockey if im not mistaken, along with Ken Baumgartner in Prince Albert.

Anyway I'll take Simpson in a close one 4-3-3.......

[ewen21]

Originally Posted by rondo

I think these guys were buddies in junior hockey if im not mistaken, along with Ken Baumgartner in Prince Albert.

Anyway I'll take Simpson in a close one 4-3-3.......

I never was so sure about the validity of it, but I remember some guy from the OTHER hockey fight site claiming to be R. Simpson's brother. Come to think of it, he told stories about Kimble and Reid during one summer before they were NHLers. There were stories of drinking and fighting. I can't do much better than that, sorry....but I do remember the guy's screen name being "ryanwhiskey' and he'd talk about these guys like he'd actually hung out with them.

Oddly enough, none of that occurred to me when I started this thread.

[rondo]

Originally Posted by ewen21

I never was so sure about the validity of it, but I remember some guy from the OTHER hockey fight site claiming to be R. Simpson's brother. Come to think of it, he told stories about Kimble and Reid during one summer before they were NHLers. There were stories of drinking and fighting. I can't do much better than that, sorry....but I do remember the guy's screen name being "ryanwhiskey' and he'd talk about these guys like he'd actually hung out with them.

Oddly enough, none of that occurred to me when I started this thread.

You are right. I think that was the story I was falling back on when referring to the friends thing. It would not have stopped these two crazy bastards from doing their jobs though. Did they ever fight..

Side note: I have skated with Simpson and had beers with him on more than one occasion. He is a pretty damn good guy liked to have fun but he worked his azz off.

Played against Kimble a few times in the minors (AA) he was a loose cannon. He made you feel a little uncomfortable. He had a big mellon.

[Juha82]

Reid Simpson is a winner in this matchup.
He was my favourite fighter.

[OLLBLUEEYZ]

Got to Party with and watch last years Winter Classic with Mr Simpson...
Loved talking to him about all the crazy stuff he's seen/done in the NHL.
One story he shared was when he fought Vandenbussche (prob when he was a Ranger) and Simpson (a Devil) and he hit Vandy so hard, but Vandy wouldn’t give up. Reid was like "Vandy ! Dude fights over stop getting backup already...."

I laughed.

Either way.. I see Simpson winning this matchup.

[ewen21]

Originally Posted by OLLBLUEEYZ

Got to Party with and watch last years Winter Classic with Mr Simpson...
Loved talking to him about all the crazy stuff he's seen/done in the NHL.
One story he shared was when he fought Vandenbussche (prob when he was a Ranger) and Simpson (a Devil) and he hit Vandy so hard, but Vandy wouldn’t give up. Reid was like "Vandy ! Dude fights over stop getting backup already...."

I laughed.

Either way.. I see Simpson winning this matchup.

That was pre-season one year. I had a brief clip of it at one time. Looked like Reid totally decked him at centre ice.

I think people are underrating Kimble a little bit. I see this series as being almost dead even

[RUSH]

Yeah, it was RyanWhiskey who is Reid Simpson's bro who posted on FC awhile back. He may still post there from time to time but I'm not sure. He had some good stories about Simpson and Kimble.

I think a prime Kimble has the edge on Simpson in a series but the problem with Kimble is that he seemed to fizzle out fast after leaving Quebec whereas Simpson was much more consistent over the course of his career and seemed to fair well against the bigger guys then Kimble did. But a series between these 2 guys would be pretty close, regardless of what stage of their careers they were fighting each other. But this is a moot point anyway because they were good friends and would probably never fight each other anyway.

I was watching some fights on DYG the other day and was looking at Simpson's fight card and there was video of a couple of fights he had with Andy Sutton quite some time ago and Sutton beat Reid quite handily in both fights. I was very surprised at these results. Sutton is huge and was a pretty good fighter when he first came into the NHL but for him to beat Simpson twice in such convincing fashion left me a little astonished. Apparently, they fought for a 3rd time and the reviews gave Simpson the clear win over Sutton, which is more like a result I would've expected in a fight between these 2 guys. But the way Sutton handled a legit tough guy like Simpson in their first 2 bouts really impressed me because I've never thought much of Sutton as a fighter.

Rondo, you've dropped plenty of hints in your posts that you've played hockey at a higher level at some point in your life. Now it's time for you to reveal to us your true identity.

[brad houghton]

great match up.......you're on a roll Ewen21

these guys came in to PA on the heels of Bomber who was a legend..... Ken was a community guy and the smartest player in the WHL (all scholastic team).....kenny worked for Princewaterhouse in the summers and was a killer on the ice but a total gentleman off the ice

however.....the next wave was the Kimble Simpson era and that was a bit more lively off the ice

I use to live in Prince Albert during that time frame when both Kimble and Simpson plied their trade for the Raiders.....it was exciting times in and out of the rink and i can tell you it is probably one of the only times i am familiar with that the stories probably don't live up to how crazy it really was. RyanWiskey and i chatted a bit on a thread and his stories seem to line up with things i had heard.



i met both guys a few times over the years.....Reid was very friendly and an all around good guy who was kind of a happy fighter......Darin was a friendly enough guy but he tended to be a darker guy when drinking.... there were a couple of wild summers and the craziest was about 1988....Kimble had played on a tough nasty Raider team and two of his mates were Reid Simpson and Rich Pilon and Modano was the top player....saskatoon was the heated rival and had Kevin Kaminski, Tony Twist, Kelly Chase, and Kerry Clark (Wendel's brother).....the fans just loved going to those games.....these guys hated each other and fought all the time

as far as Reid and Darin's off ice exploits they were plentiful especially in the off season. Darin loved to drink and fight and in small town saskatchewan you will never have a shortage of guys who will step up

there are many stories i heard 1st hand from friends that witnessed them and too many to talk about......its safe to say every weekend provided at least one new story

the most famous one i have sharred before but what the hell........Kimble and Simpson were north of PA in the lake district and one night after the bar closed they arranged a fight with two of the very tough local head kickers.....they all went outside the bar....turned on the lights to the cars....beers in hand...shirts off.....and had a nice little set of fights......lots of blood and one of the locals broke his leg in the fight with Kimble....i think he fell on it during a knock down....the entertaining part was Kimble and Simpson would do the full on high fives after the fights.....i heard the story and was in the bar the next weekend where Kimble happened to be at the table beside the guy who's leg he broke ......they were about 6 feet appart and never looked at each other all night. the guy who had his leg broken was very tough, he was about 6'2" 265 a bit fat, but fighting fat. i didn't hear much about Reid's bout except that it was bloody and after the fight he was laughing his ass off while he spread the blood around his face and pounded his beer....not pysco laugh....just farm boy having fun laugh......based on what the guys who watched told me they must have based the movie "fight club" off it years later!!

as far as them ever fighting i dug up this quote from an interview with Simpson on another site


Can you recall what it was like being a teammate of Darin Kimble?

We were roommates, and he was probably the toughest guy in the WHL during that time. He was one of the nastiest guys to play against. He also had some very good skills. I saw him and Ken Baumgartner graduate to the professional level, and that gave me a huge confidence boost. We fought each other in camp, as well as we shared the workload when it came to fighting. We fought a lot. Darin was one of those guys who I constantly messed around with. We would get into all out legitimate fights, even during practice.


Kimble had a real passion for fighting and was an "anywhere, anybody, anytime" type guy.....he had the face of a boxer

i agree with Ewen these two had slightly different styles but it would be a war and they would both get their wins....Kimble was faster and tenacious....Reid was a warrior with stamina.....neither seemed to mind getting stroked so what's not to love about the match up....nice thing is i think they would have given us allot of different looks in their fight series......really interesting, fun, match up

two of my all time favorites that rarely cheated the guy that bought the ticket to their games

[ewen21]

Terrific job, fellas. These are a couple my personal favorites. I think Rush summed it up best with Kimble perhaps reaching a higher crest than Reid, but he fell off after his time in Quebec. He had a couple of bad losses against Chicago getting TKOed by a young Peluso, by Marchmet and then later on by Cam Russell of all people. But then again Kimble did fight some pretty tough customers and faired well. He had a fight with a prime McKenzie where I thought he held his own very, very well. He had the better of Ray in his series against him and he did manage to topple Troy Crowder when he was pretty much destroying everyone. He also had a really long one with Jay Miller that was probably draw.

Kimble had probably the fastest hands I've seen. Berube gets credit for having fast hands, but Kimble had a rapid fire style that was exciting. And with that style he could either win big or lose big at any time.

Simpson really didn't lose big all that often. Of course there was the Stu Grimson fight.....which was referred to here ad nauseum for the longest time, but other than that he fought Twist, Probert, Kocur, McCarthy, etc....and didn't get killed! Reid pretty much fought all comers (and often wide open) and a fine job holding his own.

But again, I have to say that early version of Kimble was probably the fighter capable of the most damage. Reid was a better fighter for a longer period of time and able to hold his own with anyone, but Kimble was (arguably) a top 5 fighter at one point.

Great stories by you guys, btw. These two perhaps best embodied that western Canadian fighting attitude

[bigtoughguy]

This thread is what makes this site great and a must see every week!

[GIANTSFAN]

Honestly, I think a prime Simpson would outlast Kimble. Simpson's stamina is outstanding & he was a great technical fighter. Kimble was more of a toe to toer, but didn't have much if any defense. Love both these guys, but I think Simpson would win.

[Blues 34]

Great stories in this thread, As far as who would win in a series it would be close but as entertaining as hell for sure.

[Shoryuken]

Ive always been a big fan of Simpson, a very good technical fighter with stamina that definatley compares favourably with all-timers like McSorley, Probert etc.. also unafraid to take a good slug in the face for his troubles as well unlike some 'technical' fighters that seem to use the tactic as a way of avoiding getting hit.

Would be a classic series for sure.