Canadiens’ Enforcer Doesn’t Like Fights

Rookie John Kordic’s biggest fear about going head-to-head with the goons of the NHL is displeasing his parents.

The Montreal Canadiens defenseman, who has yet to lose a hockey fight, is basically a pacifist.

“It’s nothing I love doing,” the 6-foot, 190-pound Kordic said after pummeling physical New York Ranger Mike McPhee during the Stanley Cup semifinal. “I like to hit and take the body but I don’t like fighting.

“I know what people are thinking right now; that I’m just a goon. I heard (Hockey Night in Canada commentator) Dick Irvin say, ‘Well, that’s why he’s out there.’ That doesn’t make me feel good.

“I’m sure my parents heard that on TV and they’ll be upset, too. I’m not worried so much about myself, more about my parents. I just wish they’d understand that this is how I’m getting my chance.

“They’re European, and hockey is new to them.”

Kordic’s parents, Ivan and Regina, came from Yugoslavia to settle in Edmonton, Alberta, and John’s father took him to see the Canada Cup competition in 1972.

“He liked it,” Kordic said. “I was nine, so I started late. He just liked what he saw.”

What Kordic didn’t see, in fast-flowing international competition, was fighting.

“I never fought until junior,” Kordic said. “I was fat, up to Grade 4, I didn’t know any English. They called me ‘DP,’ for Deported Person. I always got beat up, I was always scared.”

What scares Kordic now is that the Canadiens won’t give the hockey player a chance to surpass the fighter.

“I know why I’m here,” he said. “I just turned 21, and I’ll pay my dues, but I wouldn’t mind playing a little more. I know it’s not going to happen this year, they’re going with the guys who got them here.”

The problem for Kordic--not to mention his victims--is that his punches are what got him here. Kordic’s flying fists and immovable body have a way of making intimidators think twice about slashing Montreal’s fleet center Guy Carbonneau or running at goalie Patrick Roy a second time.

Slashing Carbonneau’s face was McPhee’s ticket to an introduction to Kordic. Immediately after Carbonneau left the ice for stitches to his gored chin, Montreal coach Jean Perron sent Kordic on the ice.

“He just told me to go out there,” Kordic said. “He didn’t tell me anything but I don’t need to be led to water.

“I gave McPhee a shove and said, ‘Keep your stick down.’ He gave me a slash and said ‘Let’s go.’ Later, when I was in the penalty box, he came over to me again and told me we weren’t finished yet and called me a few four-letter words and I thought ‘Geez, I don’t know why he’d want to go on with it,”’ Kordic said, amazement showing in his eyes. “I thought, ‘Either this guy is very intense or he’s forgetting what’s going on.’

“I didn’t want to have to remind him again. I didn’t want to have to do it the first time but . . . he slashed Carbo and Carbo’s one of our main players. It wasn’t fun but maybe it got our guys a little excited.”

Absolutely. Immediately after Kordic made McPhee look like a punching bag, the Canadiens scored again and ended up with a four-goal second period, capped by Carbonneau’s second goal, short-handed and unassisted.

“I was just scared I broke my jaw,” Carbonneau said. “I’m not happy John did it, but it’s good to know people care for you.”

Apparently that’s something Kordic hears often from his teammates.

“Guys on this team come up to me all the time and say, ‘What you do--well, I’d never be able to do your job.’ They appreciate what I do though and make me feel wanted.

“I’ve talked to Chris Nilan (Montreal’s other enforcer, a veteran who plays a regular shift on Carbonneau’s checking line). I was sitting down on the bench once and I was discouraged, not playing. I asked him: ‘Chris, did you start out this way?’ He’d tell me he used to just sit on the bench never knowing when he was going to play. He told me to keep my head up. He’s probably not aware of it, but he really keeps my spirits up because no one else in the world would know better how I feel.”

Nilan knows, not only because he’s had Montreal’s enforcer role for so long, but also because he’s had the same view of it; the same pressure from parents who drove to minor league games only to see him be thrown out for fighting.

“I understand it from the viewpoint that that’s how I came into the league,” Nilan said, “how I got my chance to play hockey. I know it’s what got me here and you shouldn’t forget what brought your game out. I fight but I don’t like it. Some guys in this league like it, I don’t. I know anybody looking at my penalty minutes (274 season, 1699 career) would have a hard time believing that, but I don’t like to fight. I do it because it’s part of my job.

“I like John. I don’t think it’s an enviable position for anybody. When you have to do it, sometimes it’s lonely. He definitely has the tools to develop into a much better hockey player. He’s big and strong, he can shoot the puck, he can skate OK, he’s a natural defenseman,” the right winger added. “If he works hard on all those things, he can improve. But the way I look at it, he can get that chance by the physical part of his game; he has to be there. It’s not fun, but if a guy like John wants to make it . . . “

Kordic badly wants to make it as a defenseman, and is willing to go Nilan’s fighter turned complete player route, but not remain solely an enforcer.

“If I have to keep doing this, I’ll probably quit, go back to school,” Kordic said. “I wouldn’t mind being a police officer or a fireman, it’s something different every day.”

That, Nilan says, Kordic will have to decide soon in order to endure the wait and work required to play a regular role for the Canadiens.

“His parents are against it,” Nilan said. “But he’s a big boy, and he’s got to be able to say, ‘What do I want to do?’ I tell him you’ve got to put things in perspective and say, ‘Do I want to be a hockey player, do I want to be in the league for 10 years, or do I want to start another career?’ ”

Kordic’s father had wanted John to go to University of Alberta at Edmonton, like his sister Tony, who played for Canada’s 1984 Olympic women’s basketball team.

Instead, Kordic went to the Portland (Ore.) Winter Hawks of the junior Western Hockey League, where the Canadiens discovered him--after he discovered his fists.

“When I got in junior, I got in a fight and he was supposed to be a really tough guy,” Kordic said of Troy Loney, now with the Pittsburgh Penguins. “I never thought I was fighting out of fear. But I got a bad temper, eh? So I beat him. I didn’t find him so tough. I won a few fights after that, and Montreal drafted me because I was tough. But by my second year, I didn’t have to fight as much because I got my respect, so I had a chance to play my game and work on my hockey.”

When Kordic did return to Edmonton, it was not to attend the University, but as a Montreal Canadien facing the mighty Edmonton Oilers--and his first NHL fight.

“Against Kevin McClelland, on my first pro shift,” Kordic said, smiling. “I’m from Edmonton, I’ve seen him fight a lot of times. My friends work for the Oilers, one’s a stick boy. They told Kevin McClelland, ‘Kordic’s coming to town and he’s going to fight you,’ and they tell me, ‘Kevin McClelland wants to fight you,’ so the fight was set before the game, it was a pre-set fight but we didn’t know it. They were even building it up on the radio in Edmonton.

“My dad liked it--that one time he did--my sister and brother were cheering . . .

“Kordic smiles when he tells the story. He has a great smile that reaches his eyes and comes often but for no other fighting story.

Yet, if he doesn’t enjoy the fighting, he clearly likes his superiority at it.

“If I’m going to fight, I want to win,” Kordic said, giving the impression that physical pain is not the issue. “Have I ever lost? No, I never had a busted nose or anything like that. I’ve heard people say here and there a fight that I was in was pretty even. Every lopsided fight I’ve ever been in, though, I’ve totally won. I can’t say I’ve ever been beat like that or heard anybody say I was. If you find one, I’d like to talk to him.”

Not many NHL players should be rushing.