'I Could Have Died!' | Marty McSorley's HORRIFIC Attack On Donald Brashear

throughout hockey history few players have epitomized goon like Marty murly over his 17 seasons in the NHL the menacing murly racked up nearly 3400 penalty minutes striking fear into the hearts of opponents with his violent streak and pugilistic prowess and ultimately cementing himself as one of the most tenacious enforcers the game has ever seen he's got no chest protection no back protection and is still that big as the sun was setting on his career however murly went overboard on a tense night in Vancouver bewind my respect you know I I couldn't show him any respect committing an act of on Ice violence so reckless that it not only earned him a dubious place in NHL history but effectively ended his career I don't know what Marty Murley was thinking [Music] the truth is even before that fateful night in 2000 Marty murly was always going to be remembered as a thug he spent the prime of his career and became a household name serving as Wayne Gretzky's bodyguard protecting the great one at all costs in both Edmonton and Los Angeles Marty has one thing on his mind retaliate for the hit that kachak put on grety and Murley compiled a pretty extensive rap sheet in the line of duty prior to the 1999 2000 campaign murly was suspended seven times for various goonish incidents including most notably gouging an opponent's eye during a fight and nearly two decades of intimidating bruising and pummeling ultimately landed murly in the top five alltime in penalty minutes and the top 10 alltime in fighting Majors that said murley's well-deserved reputation obscured the fact that he was also a versatile player who could play both forward and defense and whose skill set extended Beyond ey gouging throughout his career the two-time Stanley Cup champion tallied double digit goals five times and in 1990 1991 murly actually finished tied for the NHL lead in plus minus a feat typically accomplished by guys like Gretzky or Bobby or at his best Murley was a more complete player than people give him credit for but certainly by the end of his career murley's usefulness resided entirely in his ability to intimidate and his willingness to throw down that's what landed a 36-year-old Murley a one-year deal with the Boston Bruins Midway through the 1999 2000 campaign the Bruins needed some toughness and Murley whose career was seemingly over after he' recorded just five points in 46 games the season prior in his second stint with Edmonton was available little did everyone know however that murley's last ditch effort to prolong his career in Boston would produce one of the most regrettable moments the NHL has ever seen heading into the home stretch of the 1999 2000 campaign the Bruins were scuffling the team that had gone to the Conference Finals the season prior was on the outside looking in at a playoff spot and longtime Captain Ray bour was weeks away from from being traded things were Bleak and when the Bruins took the ice at Vancouver's General Motors place on February 21st they hadn't won a game in more than 2 weeks the stage was set for things to pop off and sure enough barely 2 minutes into the game with the Bruin somehow already trailing murle got into a fight with Vancouver's foremost enforcer and another all-time goon Donald Basher let's see who makes the first move oh Murley through one lost his balance here's Basher very tough guy as is Marty Murley and Brer has become an all-around player this season by all accounts Brasher won that fight and as he settled into the Penalty Box he even taunted Murley and this wasn't the first time that rasher got the best of murle throughout their careers the two heavyweights threw down at least a half dozen times and if the scorecards on hockeyfights.com are to be trusted Brasher emerged Victorious more often than not all of that is to say murly wanted Redemption that much was clear in fact later on in the first period murly cross checked brashier to try to provoke him into another scrap but brashier didn't take the bait instead murle earned himself a 10-minute misconduct things only escalated from there with murle in The Penalty Box brashier ran some interference in front of Boston's net and ended up injuring Bruins goal tender Byron defo and as if Murley and the Bruins weren't already steamed enough in the third period with Vancouver up big brashier in an obvious time a flexed his muscles at the Bruins bench he's flexing and and challenging our bench now as a tough guy that's not acceptable well that was the last STW with the third period winding down and Brasher out on the ice Bruins coach Pat Burns sent murly out there for one explicit purpose and I'm basically told get out there get out there just get out there so now I got to go get him and I'm going to make him fight me only they didn't end up fighting instead in a desperate attempt to get Brasher to throw down with time expiring m delivered a vicious Reckless cheap shot for the ages oh Murley is out there as well oh Murley slash for sheer and caught him in the helmet wow Donald rasher is down and maybe out look hockey is a violent game but that slash to the head was so far beyond the pale it was sickening Murley later apologized and stressed that he wasn't trying to hit him in the head special play in the NHL and go and do something like that I didn't mean to that's not what I had intended to do I wanted to go fight but well that was little consolation for Basher who was rendered unconscious and went into convulsions after the back of his skull crashed into the ice and then all hell broke loose and G snow has gone after mcle boy I tell you what the ugly part of this is is what's being throwing on the ice oh it appears that Donald Brer is bleeding from the nose I don't know what Marty Murley was thinking no kidding it was just horrific eventually brashier was stretchered off the ice and the game wrapped up but this Saga was far from Over the Canucks understandably were apoplectic Vancouver defenseman Matias Olen described mle's Blindside slash to bashir's head as the worst thing he'd ever seen and called for the NHL to throw the book at him as he told the Vancouver son if murly plays another game in this league then this league is a bleeping joke that guy should be treated the same as if he tried to kill a guy on the street and as it turned out olan's comments were quite preent first the NHL suspended murly for the remainder of the season a total of 23 games which at the time constituted the longest suspension for an on ice incident in NHL history and critically Murley wasn't guaranteed reinstatement at the end of his suspension he'd have to meet with NHL commissioner Gary bman and vice president Colin Campbell who could decide at that point to extend his suspension which in the end they did after murle was convicted in court for his on I violence an attack that ultimately gave Brasher a Grade Three concussion and sidelined him for 20 games that's what kind of sucked because they had like 11 goals that year and that was the last year of my contract too so had I scored like 20 goals I would have been able to show that I can be the player that I want to be in October of 2000 a British Columbia judge found Murley guilty of assault with a weapon rejecting murley's claim that he tried to hip rier in the shoulder it marked the first instance of an NHL player getting convicted for an on ice incident since 1988 when Dino cicerelli was sentenced to one day in jail for attacking Luke Richardson with his stick however murle didn't serve any time instead he received a conditional discharge which not only allowed him to skirt jail time but also meant that his conviction was eventually expunged from his record still in the wake of his conviction the NHL decided to extend his suspension ultimately the league decided on a one-year ban for Murley an unprecedented judgment that effectively ended his career see murley's contract expired while he was serving his suspension and by the time he was eligible to return to the ice no NHL team was interested in the much demonized 37-year-old so in addition to being the defining moment of his career murley's attack on Brasher was also the Final Act of his career a reality that was both upsetting and fitting given his history people want to view that or whatever that ended your career what have you I'm comfortable with the fact that I went out the same way I came in I challenged Donald brashier to a fight I wanted him to fight me I felt that he should fight me I was disappointed in him as a hockey person on the other hand though Bashir ended up playing nine more seasons in the NHL after the attack he bruised his way to more than a thousand career games and ultimately solidified himself as one of the most prolific fighters in league history and and get this as of 2024 rasher was still playing professional hockey banging it out in a Quebec base League despite being in his 50s but who knows where Bashir would be now had he gotten a bit more unlucky on that awful night in Vancouver almost 25 years ago he really tried to to injur me and uh I mean I could have died and today it's fair to say that mle's attack on Brasher was an inflection point in hockey's Evolution away from the blatant thuggery and hyper-violent culture that colored the game for so long with the possible exception of Todd Bru's Infamous attack on Steve Moore years later no incident of on Ice violence more effectively laid bare the senselessness and destructiveness of hockey's code of violence and as an institution hockey has since moved farther away from those Antiquated ideals in favor of a better safer game but that change came at a great cost to Donald Brasher of course but also to Marty murle the consumate Goon whose most famous act of grotesque violence was also his last in the NHL thanks for watching if you like this video and want to see more content like this hit that subscribe button