Fighting For A Living

It was as if the hockey gods were making their own little joke when, eight years ago, Tony Twist and Guy LaFleur wound up as teammates on the Quebec Nordiques. Said the young pugilist to the ancient artist, "When I was a boy I had a Guy LaFleur lunch box."

"Kid," said LaFleur, wearily, "you're making me old."

The Twister had idolized the Flower, which is like discovering that the boy who admired Matisse grew up to excel at paintball. Although the nicest thing one can say about Twist's stickhandling is that he does not break the puck, it would be inaccurate to describe him as unskilled. It takes a special talent to stand on skates and beat someone senseless, and no one does it better than the St. Louis Blues left wing.

He is 6'1½", 240 pounds of pure deterrence. Thanks to the Twister's lurking presence, Blues snipers such as wings Brett Hull and Geoff Courtnall enjoy much more elbow room. "The respect he gets on the ice for our team is huge," says Courtnall. The momentum swing that a Twist ass-whuppin' can bring is, likewise, considerable. "When there's a good fight, everybody on both benches is standing up watching," says Courtnall.

"But with Twister," Hull interjects, "the fight's over before you get a chance to stand up."

"He throws hammers," says San Jose Sharks right wing Owen Nolan, who also played with Twist on the Nordiques in the early 1990s. "He throws to kill. I've seen him crack a helmet with a punch. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it."

"It's not complicated," says St. Louis right wing and fellow tough cookie Kelly Chase, of Twist's fighting style. "He holds you at arm's length and rocks you with big, hard rights."

"You don't want to see him looking at you the wrong way," admits Los Angeles Kings heavyweight Matt Johnson. "No one in the league matches his pure punching power. He's an honest player but as tough as they come."

Indeed, Twist abides by the unwritten code of the NHL tough guy: no sucker punching, no taking advantage of an injured foe, no jumping a guy when he's gassed at the end of a shift and no pairing off against a nonheavyweight unless he's a jerk who really has it coming.

These pugs on ice are a surprisingly honorable and amiable bunch. In the first period of a game against the Phoenix Coyotes last season, Twist lined up for a face-off opposite Jim McKenzie, with whom he's traded blows since their days in the Western (junior) Hockey League. "You guys are up a couple of goals," said Twist. "We gotta go."