Early hockey fights could be brutally dangerous, and the Blueshirts’ brawls were no different.
Many of their most vicious bouts featured familiar rivals for Toronto hockey fans: the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens. When the Senators came to town in 1915, several fights broke out – one so violent that Toronto’s Roy McGiffen and Ottawa’s Art Ross were arrested, released on $100 bail, and fined $1 plus costs. The following year the Canadiens paid a visit to Toronto, and a Montreal player assaulted Blueshirts’ right-winger Alf Skinner, which led to another arrest. Skinner himself was arrested two years later following a fight with the Canadiens’ Joe Hall. After several players died in the wake of on-ice brawls, some called for hockey to be banned entirely.
