As the 2013 NHL playoffs begin, a tournament that many fans didn’t expect to see, it’s a good time to pause and think about some of the perhaps lesser known players of the league.  Well, maybe not lesser known, but players whose primary role didn’t involve making plays, scoring goals, or stopping shots.  It is a role that is much maligned, but that many would say is essential to making hockey the beautiful, brutal sport that it is.  That role is the Enforcer, the Tough Guy, or disparagingly, the Goon.

The Last Gladiators looks inside the world of the hockey tough guy through interviews with several of the most famous of these players, their friends and family, as well as some well-respected hockey observers.  Those interviewed are players that are well-remembered by hockey fans, including Terry O’Reilly, Donald Brashear, Tony Twist, Todd Ewen, Marty McSorley, and Bob Probert, who died during the making of this film.

The focus of this documentary, however, is Chris “Knuckles” Nilan, Boston-born, drafted fourth last by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1980 draft.  The players interviewed fought for many reasons, for the sake of dominance, for intimidation, to protect star players.  Some were reluctant fighters, while there was one who relished it, anticipated it, got off on it.  This player was Tony Twist of the St. Louis Blues.  At the end of his first contract with the team Twist felt he had earned a renewal.  However, the team opted not to renew.  He went on a long motorcycle ride to clear his head, but suffered injuries in a collision that ended his career.  I’m not surprised that the Blues didn’t renew his contract.  The way he described his role as a fighter sounded to me that he was doing it mostly for glory and personal gratification.  Of all the players interviewed, he probably is most deserving of the label of Goon.

Chris Nilan was not quite any of those things.  He was not the biggest guy in the world, but he was fearless.  From a young age he despised bullies, and took it very personally when he saw a weaker person being picked on, particularly one of his friends.  So, he would never hesitate to come to their defense.  He carried that attitude into the game he loved to play, right up to the NHL.  For that, even though he was from hated Boston, the players and fans of Montreal loved and embraced him.

His career peaked in Montreal when they won the Stanley Cup in 1986.  However, the attitude that had served him so well caused him to clash with a new coach who Nilan felt did not respect his teammates.  This clash forced the team to trade him to the New York Rangers.  Nilan saw this as the beginning of the end.  He was devastated to leave Montreal.  While he continued to play his role of tough guy with the Rangers and then Boston, that sense of fierce personal loyalty was gone.  When he retired, he found he could not fit in.  Again, the attitude that had served him so well as a player, failed him in the outside world, but he couldn’t find a way to turn it off.

He turned to and became dependent on alcohol and the painkillers he was taking for the numerous injuries he had suffered as a player.  They caused him to lose his marriage and nearly his life, and he is only now starting down the road to personal redemption, of which, I believe, this documentary is a part.

Human beings are hard-wired to enjoy sport.  Fans, not having the physical tools to perform at the highest level, live vicariously through these elite athletes.  This is not only true of the thrill of watching a highly skillful play, but in watching a fight.  Check yourself the next time you watch a hockey fight or an MMA fight.  I can guarantee that your hands will be balled into fists, throwing punches in the air.  Next to a goal being scored, a hockey fight brings the loudest cheers from the fans.

This film is called The Last Gladiators for a very good reason: NHL rule changes have greatly diminished the role of Enforcer.  If a player is deemed to have “instigated” a fight, he will be given an extra penalty.  So, while there are still fights, the era of personal protection for the star players is virtually over.  This raw, honest, unflinching film gives us a keen insight into the type of player that has essentially vanished from the NHL.  It has helped us to get to know them, not just as players, but as human beings with all their flaws.