Vancouver coach Harry Neale fights Quebec Fan

[Schultz]

Watched this last night on a Quebec fight dvd I have and had never seen it before. It showed Vancouver coach Harry Neale slugging it out with a Quebec fan on a news clip. I'm wondering if the whole incident is available and does anyone know what started this? I remember seeing Curt Fraser in the stands.

[mikebflorida]

Here you go-

1982 Vancouver Canucks vs Quebec crowd - YouTube

[shaud19]

Originally Posted by mikebflorida

Here you go-

1982 Vancouver Canucks vs Quebec crowd - YouTube

I love how the broadcaster is defending Neale. "If a fan is crazy enough to attack a player or a coach then the guy deserves what he gets." I think there would be much different response if this happened present day.

[GassiusClay]

It was obviously a different time and place. You could say and do things you could never even think about today.
One of those things you could say back then that you would never ever say today was referring to the French Canadians in Quebec as 'frogs'...

Well, we had 'Tiger' Williams, and he didn't care much for being politically correct. He was old school, and was very vocal about his dislike of french canadians. He referred to them publicly as 'frogs' on numerous occasions (as Cherry used to at times back then).

Well, this (amongst other reasons; it was 'Tiger' Williams after all) did not make for a welcome to Quebec type of visit that night.

Tiger was shadowing Peter Statsny that night, trying his best to throw him off his game (Tiger didn't think much of Europeans either). They got into a skirmish by the glass, at which time the bald fellow in the first couple rows, beside the Nucks bench, tried to get in a couple of shots at Tiger.
The skirmish b/w Tiger and Statsny was nothing significant though (esp in the context of 80's hockey)...It was more about the hatred many in the crowd had for Tiger.

That is when it got crazy.
According to Canucks goalie Richard Brodeur, who grew up in the area, he said the bald dude was a known boxer/thug in the area, who was often in trouble with the police.

The Canucks had JJ Daigneault and Michel Petit as highly regarded young defenceman prospects while Tiger was on the team. There was a lot of friction b/w those two and Tiger, including a near mutiny after a hazing incident in which 'Tiger' and Snepsts were said to have led a group that shaved the 2 youngsters, and were not very careful during the shaving process. Petit especially was livid.

[mikebflorida]

Originally Posted by shaud19

I love how the broadcaster is defending Neale. "If a fan is crazy enough to attack a player or a coach then the guy deserves what he gets." I think there would be much different response if this happened present day.

If it would have happened in Boston, their announcers would have claimed that Vancouver has set hockey back 10 years.

But when Milbury went in the stands and beat a guy with his shoe it was funny and justified. Good grief.

Fraser got some nice shots in on that dude. LOL