Tony Twist and Kelly Chase were a different breed, as simple as that. During a couple of seasons, the St. Louis Blues assembled one of the best fighting duos the NHL has ever seen.
Both Twist and Chase weighed in at over 200 pounds and standing at 6 feet, they took no prisoners when they played. Twist is widely acknowledged as one of the best fighters ever, and Kelly Chase once led the WHL in penalty minutes with 343—all of them fighting majors.
If you did something you shouldn’t against Chase, you could bet on having Twist going after you, and that even went for teammates. Reed Low played with the St. Louis Blues from 2000 to 2004, and during one of his first training camps, he made the mistake of trying to ’sheriff’ a game during practice.
”It’s my second year as a pro. I already played a year in the minors,” Low said.
”I come back for my second year, training camp, and Kelly Chase kind of laid a little spanking on Tyson Nash. Nash is on my team and in training camp. You know, there are not even referees out there. Stuff is crazy.
”Chaser tries to get after Nasher again, and it’s right in front of the bench. So I just step over to the ice, and I step in front of him and I’m saying, ’Hey, you beat him up once, he deserved it. Now, leave him alone.’”
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Kelly Chase wasn’t happy with Reed Low interfering, so he decided to challenge him to a fight.
”I drop my gloves, and give it to Chaser pretty good.
”That night, everyone’s like, ’Oh, Twisters coming to get you, Lowsie.’ I’m like, ’Oh, God!’ I didn’t sleep, I had diarrhea. So we have these little stretch-out warm-ups in the morning, and he’s not there. I don’t see him anywhere in the rink, and his bike’s not out back. I’m like, ’Maybe he got sick and he’s not here!’”
But when Reed Low saw the lineup for the upcoming game during training camp, he saw Tony Twist’s name on the sheet and on the opposing team.
”But he was on the first line, I was on the third. I thought, ’Maybe I won’t get out there against him today.’ This went through my head. So we got onto the ice, and sure enough, he’s on the ice and he’s kinda starring me down. I’m like,’ God damn, this is crazy!’ First line gets out, second line gets out. I get ready to go out for my shift.”
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Reed Low also revealed that his grandfather and Tony Twist’s grandfather were close friends after fighting in World War II together. But this time around, Twist didn’t really care about that.
”When the second shift is over, I jump over the boards and Twist just jumps over the board. He didn’t wait for nothing. He sees me on the ice, he jumps the board and he’s like, ’Hey, Low!’ So I dropped my gloves, and I stood there shaking. So I grab on to him, and I try to hit him, but he swings a couple of misses, but I landed on the ice, helmet on, on my stomach, and he’s sitting on my back.
”He’s open handcuffing me across the helmet, yelling, ’I’m the f—king sheriff in this town, boy!’ I was just like, ’Yes you are, just get off me please! Please stop hitting me!’ So he stands up, we play the rest of the game, and he gives me a hug after the game, and says, ’Welcome to the league, buddy!’”
