Stu Grimson is known to all hockey lovers as “The Grim Reaper,” and during his playing career, he was one of the most feared guys in the league. But—there was also Bob Probert. And one time, the two of them ran into each other at a restaurant during the Stanley Cup playoffs…
During the 1992 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Chicago Blackhawks were up against the Detroit Red Wings. The Blackhawks won the series 4–0, but during the series, there was an off day in Chicago. That day, Stu Grimson and his wife went to a restaurant in downtown Chicago. Everything was as relaxing and romantic as you might expect—until Stu heard someone shouting his name.
Stu Grimson meets Bob Probert
“Hey Stu! Hey Stu! It came again, and at first, I couldn’t find the source of the voice. By now, everyone in the restaurant was looking at the big man walking toward me, and many of them undoubtedly recognized him as Bob Probert,” Stu wrote in his autobiography The Grim Reaper: The Life and Career of a Reluctant Warrior.
“As I turned to greet him, I really didn’t know what I was supposed to do. We had fought four times during the regular season. At that point in my career, I wasn’t yet clear on what kind of relationships NHL tough guys had with each other off the ice. I wondered if I was going to have to fight Probert in the restaurant in front of my wife,” Grimson wrote.
What Probert said to Grimson
Stu Grimson did not have to fight Bob Probert in that restaurant. Instead, the two of them spoke quietly about life—and, of course, hockey.
“He could not have been friendlier. We were just a couple of guys standing there with our fists jammed in our jeans, trying to figure out why my Blackhawks were up in the series (3–0), when his Red Wings had got the better of us during the regular season that year,” Grimson wrote.
The unlikely conversation made Grimson realize something about the mutual, unspoken respect that NHL enforcers have for each other.
“That meeting helped me realize that most NHL tough guys probably see their role the same way I did. It’s our job, but it doesn’t define who we are as people. Probert was an intimidating, monstrous force on the ice. But he was a pretty engaging guy off of it,” Grimson wrote.
Such a heartwarming meeting between two of the most feared guys to ever lace them up.
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