Rick Letinsky and Marko Kapanen had sparred their entire careers and were no strangers to the rough stuff. But in game six of the 1983 Mid-western Hockey League finals, the rivalry turned ugly. They hacked, chopped and speared each other for sixty minutes. They fought three times - twice on the ice and once in the dressing room corridor. It wasn't until 12 years later, in Letinsky's book Blades of Steel, Fists of Fire that fans learned what really happened that night. The clash had nothing to do with hockey, and everything to do with a three-way phone conversation between Letinsky's uncle, Kapanen's sister, and Ansii Suhonen, enigmatic commissioner of teh Finnish Elite League.

Labels: Drawings and Paintings