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Tips for surviving as an enforcer


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8. Your best fights will wind up on YouTube
People have been posting video of my fights for as long as I've been playing pro hockey. Yeah, sometimes I check it out. I didn't mind going on there and watching my fight from this season with Dallas' Krys Barch. He came at me, I one-punched him and he was out cold. Of course, my fights with Ivanans and Hordichuk are on there, too, so it isn't all good.

9. Even if you're a middleweight ...
Remember: You wouldn't be in the league if you couldn't play the game. I had a discussion with Wayne and Shane Doan, our captain, toward the end of the season. They reminded me that I can be a guy who gets under other players' skin but that I also have a lot of skill. For a true tough guy, that's pretty rare, but most smaller guys who like to fight also can skate and handle the puck. I had only 13 goals overall, but I scored five in the last two games. Wayne and Shane both think I can be a 30-goal scorer, and I'd love to prove them right.

10. For fighters of all sizes ...
Learn where competitiveness ends and chaos begins. I didn't set out to have 324 penalty minutes. There were too many major penalties and game misconducts in there. I crossed that fine line too often, and I guess I'm still learning where it is. In Nashville, I lost the fight to Hordichuk — my first loss all year — and I got really pissed off and pretty much just lost it. I pushed a linesman, got a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. Wayne got ticked off at me and sent me down to the minors for a week. You talk about a wakeup call. Why would anyone want to mess with his own career like that?

© 2008 Sporting News


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