Today In NHL History - Hextall Fights Felix Potvin

On November 10th in 1996, Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers skated the length of the ice to engage netminder Felix Potvin when a melee broke out at the end of a match against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Hextall was met with a willing and able opponent who quickly bloodied the Flyer backstop with a serious of blows to the left eye. Not surprisingly, the Philadelphia feed (below) hailed Hextall's win while Toronto commentators (further below) praised Potvin's performance.


The highlights clearly show the damage inflicted by Potvin on the NHL's single-season penalty minute record holder for goalies, a fact Toronto enforcer Tie Domi was happy to share with Hextall from the bench.

Philadelphia beat Toronto that night by a score of 3-1.

That's today in NHL history.