Knoxville Ice Bears

Sookie’s Snap Shots - Fighting 201

date: 01/03/2012

The Enforcer – David Segal [Pt.2]

 

            In the last article, David Segal, the Ice Bears’ enforcer, explained to us a little bit about the “basics” of hockey fights and how he felt about being the man to step up and throw his fists at the other player.  (Missed part one? Go and read it here.) This week in part two, I decided to get a little bit more personal, because let’s be honest, his personal experiences are what we really want to hear about.

            I found out that Segal wasn’t always the tough enforcer that we now know him as. “I was always a mouthy kid and got in a lot of fights and never won.” These losses prompted him to take up boxing as a teenager in order to “learn how to give and take a punch.” And thanks to his young boxing days, he now destroys his opponents with ease, even though he doesn’t practice it anymore.

            Now that we know the fighting background of his teenage years, we fast-forward a little bit into the future, to David Segal the professional hockey player. Being a player who seems to fight at least once every game, I had to assume that Segal had a  story or two to tell us. When I asked to share his most memorable fight, Segal described to me his rookie year in Knoxville when he fought during the preseason. “I think I had 5 fights in the 2 games and those were probably the only reason I am playing today.” And now, aren’t we all glad he fought so much.

            He was also happy to share his most unforgettable “injury”  from a fight. It was during his time playing for the Muskegon Fury in the then International Hockey League, when David got knocked out cold by the Fort Wayne Komets player Olivier Legault. “No excuses, he just caught me right on the chin and I was out cold. All I remember is laying on the table in the dressing room asking how it went.”

            Segal says he’s had many memorable moments as a fighter, and naturally some of these have resulted in the creation of mortal enemies. In the past it was Denis Sicard, the current Huntsville Havoc player. Both being around the same height and weight, he says it is a “good toe to toe fight,” as neither of them were at a disadvantage when fighting. And the current mortal enemy is? You guessed it – Aaron McGill of the Augusta RiverHawks. “He only agreed to square up once this year and is more of a cheap shot artist who doesn’t back up his actions,” a characteristic that we all witnessed during the post-game skirmish on December 22^nd. “But I look forward to playing him and fighting him every game this year.”

            Even with the boxing background and the numerous counts of fighting on ice, unfortunately Segal is cursed with a chronic handicap – his small stature. This created a need for a double fight strap – a measure that only a few players use. “Being a smaller guy, my jersey can still come over my head from the front. So having two ensures that I can’t get jerseyed.” However, even with precautions, players need an attitude that makes up for their various disadvantages. “My mindset is that I am going to win; every time I fight, I’m going to win. I don’t care how big a guy is or how small he is. I’ve won to bigger on occasions and lost to smaller on occasions as well,” Segal says when I ask about his mentality going into a fight. “There’s an old saying, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.’”

 

~Sookie~

 

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