Undrafted by Nick Kypreos

Author:Nick Kypreos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2020-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9 Not the Way I Wanted to Go

I prepared for the new season as I always did. I trained with the same group of guys at the Fitness Institute. As with any team that misses the playoffs, there were personnel changes. The Leafs made some off-season moves, acquiring Derek King, Glenn Healy from my Ranger days, and Kris King. Both Derek and Chris were left-wingers like me, so it put more pressure on me to make an impact and keep my place on the team.

On September 15, 1997, the Leafs had an exhibition game back at MSG. Going into the final year of my contract, I knew I’d have to make a statement for the management to take me seriously. And it was no longer about just the Leafs. With the new additions to the roster, I knew I might be traded and I had to prove myself to any other team that was watching. As I said before, teams have short memories. Most likely a fight was in the cards for me, whether I liked it or not.

Studying the names on the “most likely” list wasn’t hard in the nineties. On the Rangers lineup Darren Langdon and Ryan VandenBussche definitely stood out. At age twenty-three, Ryan was considered a young up-and-comer, looking for a full-time job in the NHL. I had fought players just under that weight class in the past. Guys like Lyle Odelein and Ron Stern come to mind.

For most of Ryan’s hockey career, he had been an enforcer in the minors, annually racking up more than two hundred penalty minutes a season. He had played eleven games for the Rangers the previous year, recording four fights, including bouts with Stu Grimson and Dan Kordic, two of the NHL’s true heavyweights at that time. Both were five to six inches taller than him and outweighed him by thirty to thirty-five pounds. VandenBussche was not afraid to take on anyone.

Knowing all of that as I did, he still didn’t strike me as a true heavyweight. As a middleweight, I was bold enough to fight heavyweights like Marty McSorley, Chris Simon, Shane Churla, or Tony Twist. I knew deep down I had no business fighting guys so far out of my weight class, but I also knew the upside to holding my own. For me, this exhibition game in New York stacked up to feature a young, hungry kid who wanted to make a name for himself versus a veteran who wasn’t quite ready to give up.

Early in the first period, Ryan and I were on the ice at the same time. I gave him a good shove after the face-off and we squared off. I initiated with two of the most famous fighting words in hockey: “Let’s go.”

Within a few seconds I knew I was in trouble. Although I initiated the fight, he was by far the aggressor with two lightning-quick punches. It felt like a jackhammer. I had underestimated my opponent. Like me he was a dominant left-handed fighter, but he could switch hands better.

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