The Free Press is excerpting two sections of former Red Wing Darren McCarty's “My Last Fight: The True Story of a Hockey Rock Star” that he wrote with Kevin Allen. The memoir is published by Triumph Books. Below is an excerpt of the excerpt.
Darren McCarty's memoir went on sale Saturday.
If you want to appreciate how much anger I was carrying when I went after Claude Lemieux on March 26, 1997, take a close look at my left fist in the famous photo where Lemieux appears to be “turtling.”
My fist is so tightly wound that there is a stress indentation that runs down from hand to my forearm.
Many times since then I’ve tried to ball my fist tight enough to reproduce that stress line. I’ve never been able to do it.
Even though I fought close to 200 times during my professional hockey career, it’s fair to say that I brought more intensity and anger to the Lemieux confrontation than any bout I ever had.
Years later, Lemieux told me that the first blow I delivered was the hardest punch he ever received. During my career, there were other times when I wanted to pound the crap out of an opponent, but I’d never wanted to hurt anyone as much as I wanted to hurt Lemieux.
Related coverage: Darren McCarty Looks Back: 'Off The Ice, I Wanted To Think About Music,' Nov. 30
