Tie Domi has always been known as one of the nicest guys in the NHL. At least when outside the ice. But when he was on the ice, boy, that was a different story.
Domi is considered one of the toughest NHL players of all time and often ranks as a top 10 NHL Enforcer of all time. He wasn’t the best in scoring or skills, but he always defended his teammates and left everything on the ice.
Tie Domi accumulated a whopping 3,515 penalty minutes during his NHL career. He’s mostly remembered for being the protector of Mats Sundin in Toronto, and he did it so well that the two of them remained friends long after their careers ended.
They share a special band that will live on forever, and that doesn’t just go for Domi and Sundin. That pretty much goes for all enforcers.
On the ice, they were competitors, always battling against each other and often dropping the gloves to fight.
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Tie Domi has often talked about how special his encounters with the likes of Bob Probert and Dave Brown actually were. They were rivals on the ice but knew exactly what the other went through of the ice.
Tie Domi has previously said that Bob Probert was the toughest he ever fought. But Domi also revealed that Dave Brown is the person that hit him the hardest.
”Him and Dave Brown (were the toughest). Dave Brown hit me the hardest, for sure. Nobody ever hurt me, right? I started fighting real young, street kid. Fourteen years old I’m playing Junior C fighting 19- and 20-year-olds. Fifteen years old, fighting 19- and 20-year-olds, I had 315 penalty minutes,” he said on a Sportsnet Q&A.
Domi also claimed he never, ever got scared. Not once.
”The way I was brought up. I was one of those fearless people. The path. When I was in that laundromat with my dad (in a rough area of Detroit) and he said, “Make sure you don’t show you got money in that bag,” I could barely walk, but I did it for my dad. It was very heavy, but I had no choice. I had to do that for my dad and I was 12 years old,” he said.
