Knoxville Ice Bears

Sookie’s Snap Shots - Fighting 101

date: 12/20/2011

The Enforcer – David Segal [Pt.1]

 

                Let’s all admit it: We love it when the play gets intense and a fight breaks out on the ice – It’s probably the reason I started liking hockey in the first place as a young girl. No matter how old we are or what gender we are, it’s always exciting when the players throw their gloves and hockey sticks on the ice and revert to their animal instincts of bare knuckle brawling.

The Knoxville Ice Bears, as we all know, have an incredible enforcer that does the job of entertaining us with his fighting: The one and only David Segal. When that beast of a man starts throwing those powerful blows at the likes of Aaron McGill or Denis Sicard, I stand at the tip of my toes and stretch my neck out, all goggle-eyed like a crazy giraffe, making sure I don’t miss even a split second of that action. And to commemorate this past Saturday’s “Fight Night” against the Fayetteville FireAntz, Segal was happy to talk about his experience as an enforcer and some of the random facts about hockey fights. (You can read part one below; part two will follow next week!)

                We already know that we feel proud of our fighting man, but what does Segal have to say about his duties? “Honestly, it feels pretty good to be an enforcer. It comes pretty naturally and I feel it’s my responsibility to take care of the guys on our team.” Also, unlike the “complete donkey” that he was back in the day who fought all the time, he says that he has matured more now in terms of balancing himself as an enforcer and player, knowing when and when not to fight. He says that he now will actually reject the “opportunity” to fight if there’s no gain for the team by him fighting. This is common sense, really. I don’t think any of us would want Segal to be in the penalty box when he could be out on the ice helping the team that is in desperate need of a player like him. Segal is fast, hard on the forecheck, a top PK guy and can find the back of the net as evident of his two goal game on Saturday night.

                The reason for refusing to fight is simple, Segal is a valuable player on the ice. However, Segal explains that the reasons for agreeing to a fight are just a little more complicated. Personal reasons like getting revenge and team reasons such as motivating the team when they need momentum are only a couple of the many reasons why he would drop his gloves and throw a powerful punch at another player. However, he says hockey fights aren’t like those fights outside on the parking lot of the local bar where anything goes – the fighters have a sort of “Gentleman’s Rules” among them. “I like to square up in a fight and [I’m] not a big fan of jumping players, although in the heat of the moment it happens. A big one for me is that once a player goes down you stop. No cheap shots when the refs come.”

 

Tune in to Sookie’s Snap Shots next week for part 2 of The Enforcer – David Segal about his mortal enemies, his memorable fight stories, and more.

 

-Sookie-

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