BUFFALO – John Muckler’s voice cut through the din of the crowd that night 32 years ago as Sabres tough guy Rob Ray squared off with hulking Philadelphia Flyers heavyweight Dave Brown.
Muckler, having coached Brown with the Edmonton Oilers, knew him well. He feared Ray could be in way over his head.
The 6-foot-5 Brown, after all, ranked among the NHL’s most feared and punishing fighters. Few dared to challenge him.
So from the visiting bench in the Spectrum, as 17,000 fans howled in anticipation, Muckler yelled to Ray, imploring him to back out of the scrap.
“I could hear Mucks going, ‘Don’t do it!’ Rayzor, don’t do it!’” Ray recently told the Times Herald.
Amid the chaos and noise, with Brown ready to throw, Ray said Muckler’s words sounded like he was whispering in his ear.
“I’m like, ‘Too (freaking) late now. I’m in this. I got to do it,’” said Ray, who will be inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame prior to tonight’s game against the Nashville Predators at KeyBank Center.
In Ray’s mind, he had to face Brown.
The memories are a bit fuzzy now. The fight took place on Jan. 26, 1993. Ray can’t remember if he decided during the game to go after Brown, or if it was premeditated.
But former Sabres defenseman Gord Donnelly, another top fighter, said Ray told him the day before the contest he planned to do it.
“And I said, ‘Really … are you sure about that?” Donnelly recalled. “… I was kind of worried about him.”
Humble beginnings
After Ray arrived in Buffalo for his first training camp in 1988, he had to find a role in the AHL if he wanted to crack the big leagues someday.
He believes the Sabres had drafted him in the fifth round earlier that year because of how tenaciously he played as a winger.
Like most junior players in that era, he fought. He also scored a bit, compiling 52 points in 61 games in his final season with the Cornwall Royals. That offense, however, wouldn’t translate to pro hockey.
About 30 games into his rookie season with the Rochester Americans, coach John Van Boxmeer said Ray asked him if he would ever score a goal.
“I said, ‘You know, Robby, just keep your stick on the ice and go to the net. One will hit you,’” Van Boxmeer said.
As the year progressed, Van Boxmeer said he told Ray the Sabres might be looking for a tough guy. If he was willing to play that difficult role, he would have a good chance to make it to the NHL.
“Boxy was like, ‘Hey, this is what they’re looking for there. Do you want to try to do it?’” Ray said.
Ray dove in headfirst. Van Boxmeer played him on a line alongside Kevin Kerr and Scott Metcalfe, two players known for their toughness.
They helped Ray grow into his new job as an enforcer.
“A lot of help from them,” said Ray, who also lived with Kerr and Metcalfe. “We played as a line and we just destroyed everybody.”
Van Boxmeer said his favorite line played “like a pinball machine.”
“Every one of them hit everything that they could,” he said. “And you know what? They were not fun to play against, and it got the fans into the game, it got the team into the game, and they were a huge part of our success.”
Once, as they all fought in front of the Halifax bench, Metcalfe yelled to Ray they needed to buy milk when they got home to Rochester.
“He started talking about groceries we had to get home while we’re fighting these guys,” Ray said. “I remember looking at the bench and they were like, ‘What the (heck) is this?’ That was just the way it was.”
Ray said he doesn’t remember much of that 1988-89 season “because most of that year your eyes were (freaking) shut and beat up.”
He took on all comers – “There was no real direction of when and where,” he said – as he tried to hone his craft, fighting 46 times.
But it worked. In the beginning of 1989-90, he made it to Buffalo.
The growth of a fighter
The role of an enforcer can sometimes feel like a thankless job. But like Van Boxmeer, Ray’s first coach with the Sabres, Rick Dudley, a tough customer in his playing days, had a special appreciation for Ray.
“But Duds had an unbelievable respect for it and understanding of it, and it was more the teaching of when to, when not to, and reasons for doing it instead of just going to do it,” Ray said. “In a lot of cases, it meant nothing, but when and where and who, that was something he taught me. And you kind of figured it out from there.”
Ray fought six times in 27 games as a rookie, according to hockeyfights.com, first sparring with the Boston Bruins’ Nevin Markwart on Oct. 26, 1989 in Memorial Auditorium.
He cemented a roster spot in Buffalo the next season, growing into his role and fighting 25 times in 66 appearances.
That era was perhaps the toughest of any era for an enforcer.
“All of a sudden, the tough guys were huge men,” Dudley said.
Every team featured at least a couple of tough guys. Philadelphia had Brown, who was five inches taller than Ray. The Detroit Red Wings had 6-foot-3 Bob Probert. The undersized Tie Domi, a frequent opponent of Ray’s, was making a name for himself with the New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets.
Ray had his work cut out for him on a nightly basis.
“Robby was one of the toughest players that ever played the game,” Dudley said. “There’s no question about that. But he grew up and filled that role at a time when there were more gigs, strong tough guys, that at any time I remember. I mean, that was the apex of tough fighters in the game.”
Looking for every advantage
Ray worked at his craft, experimenting and looking for every little edge he could find. He refused to wear anything tight, so he sported a goalie-cut jersey with a wider body and arms. He only wore a jockstrap underneath – “No underwear, no nothing,” he said – and made sure his shoulder pads were loose.
He never wanted to feel restricted.
In a couple of his early fights, his jersey came off, giving his opponent nothing to grab and freeing him to unleash punches.
“And it’s like, ‘Hmm, well, maybe this is it,’” Ray said.
As he began grappling with his opponents, they would inevitably grab his jersey and yank it off.
“Almost every fight the guy would go to try to grab his jersey and start pulling, and he would just extend his arms out, and as the guy pulled, the whole jersey and everything came off, he would come right through there with a left or a right and just, bingo,” former Sabres winger Dave Hannan said. “Players were almost stunned.”
Ray said fighting is all about balance and leverage.
“When that wasn’t there, they were screwed,” he said.
Eventually, the NHL instituted rule 46.13, commonly referred to as the “Rob Ray Rule,” penalizing any player who deliberately removed his jersey before a fight or wearing a modified jersey.
So Ray started snapping his jersey to the front and back of his pants.
“It went from going off to being ultra-tight that you couldn’t lift the jersey up in the front and you couldn’t pull it off the back,” he said.
As Ray morphed into one of the NHL’s prominent policemen, making life more comfortable for Pat LaFontaine, Alexander Mogilny and the Sabres’ other stars, he became wildly popular in Buffalo.
“We want Ray!” chants became common at the Aud.
“One of the best times of my life was at the Aud, and they did the chant and my mom and dad were there,” Ray said. “That night it was like, ‘(Heck), this is cool because my mom and dad are here.’ But there was a lot of nights when you were up or down and people would start doing it, and you’re like, ‘Aw, (heck), don’t, don’t. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go do it.’
“Especially Mucks, when he heard that (stuff), he’d feed right into it. ‘Hey, go.’ Then you were kind of obligated to do … something entertainment-wise. Bottom line, our business is entertainment.”
Battling Brown
Ray’s career-changing bout with Brown, his 63rd regular-season NHL fight, broke out 12:19 into the first period of Buffalo’s 4-3 overtime win.
As Sabres defenseman Grant Ledyard began breaking the puck out of his zone, Ray and Brown decided to go and dropped their gloves.
“That was kind of the fight that even in my eyes, at that point … you looked and go, ‘Holy (crap), Dave Brown,’” Ray said.
After sizing each other up in the right circle, Ray went in and grabbed Brown.
“He was such a big guy you had to get in tight, because you just can’t stand there and throw with him at the beginning,” he said.
Seeing an old fight fires Ray up – “You get pumping,” he said – and makes him feel like he’s in it again.
As he watched his match with Brown again earlier this month, Ray explained his plan of attack. He tried to let himself get set by coming at him from the top.
After trading some punches on each other, their jerseys started coming off. As the fight neared the 50-second mark, Ray, who liked to let his opponents tire themselves out, landed a solid blow on Brown’s left cheek.
“He waited, he waited, kaboom, kaboom,” Hannan said.
After that blow, Brown let him know the fight was finished.
“I caught him at the end, he leans in, (he said), ‘That’s enough, that’s enough,’” Ray said.
Following the game, Ray said Brown went up to Muckler asked, “What the (heck)?”
“I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s pretty cool,’” Ray said. “So you kind of gain that respect of somebody that you looked at as one of the kings there at the time.”
The fight infused Ray with confidence – “Through the roof,” Donnelly said after whistling to illustrate his point – and earned him respect around the league.
“(I was) thinking that OK, maybe I can do this type thing,” Ray said.
Beating Brown elevated him to heavyweight status. Instead of, say, Donnelly having to face the opponent’s toughest player, it opened the door for Ray to take him on.
“For me, it was, OK, he’s taking over, and I’m good with that,” Donnelly said.
In Ray’s role as an enforcer, that was the ultimate.
“If you’re going to fight,” he said, “do it right, you know?”
Bill,
Outstanding piece on Ray. I hope we get to talk soon.
Be well, my friend,
Chuck
Thank you, Chuck! I look forward to catching up!