In the late 80s and early 90s, the St. Louis Blues were perhaps the toughest team in the league and a complete nightmare to play against.
And that was mostly thanks to two men and two legendary enforcers, by the names of Tony Twist and Kelly Chase.
With both weighing in at over 200 pounds and 6 feet, Tony Twist and Kelly Chase took no prisoners on the ice, and they had a reputation for the potential to damage any players in a fight.
Kelly Chase led the WHL in penalty minutes, but just two years later, he was in the NHL. In the WHL, he had a career-high of 343 penalty minutes, but not one of them was misconduct; they were all fighting majors.
Together, they formed the St. Louis Bruise Brothers, and the word around the league was that they fought to injure. Forming a special bond as enforcer teammates, Twist and Chase became lifetime friends.
It didn’t really matter that they fought each other when one of them got traded; it was just part of their jobs. There are so many stories and legends about the two, and there, during those NHL days, everything was crazier—more hits, more fights, more parties, and yes, way crazier rookie parties.
When Tony Twist had his rookie party with the Blues, you bet it didn’t go as they had planned it, with everything leading to Kelly Chase having to convince their GM that he was actually worth keeping.
”On the rookie party I had the opportunity to be treated as the rookie, as the hazing went,” Twist said in a KSDK program.
”Chaser got the opportunity to go stamp in to the general manager’s office, because the day after I had my eye completely black, because I ended up in a fight. My hands were all tore up and he (Chase) had to go to the GM’s office to sell me, and to give reasons of why that happened.”
Kelly Chase confirmed the story, and also added, ”It wasn’t his fault, and I said that a lot during our days, ’it wasn’t his fault!’”
