So, here's Tiger Williams tooling his way home along the Queen Elizabeth Way after a Toronto Maple Leafs game and another motorist cuts him off.
Road rage erupts. Williams and the other guy end up on the shoulder of the road trading punches. Williams much later reveals the story.
"Next day (teammate) Borje Salming asks me if I took the QEW to get home after the game," Williams said. "I told him I did and he asks if I saw the two crazy guys fighting at the side of the road. I told him, 'As a matter of fact, I got a really good look.' "
There were no charges, just as in many such incidents of the times. Things change.
Fast-forward a decade or so and here's Eric Lindros emerging from a police car in Oshawa after turning himself in as the result of a rather humorous evening in a place called Koo Koo Bananas in nearby Whitby. Somebody sprayed somebody else with beer and before you know it, geysers of suds are flying.
A woman claims that in the midst of this fountain of lager, Lindros poured some on her head. He claims she got him first and the he-said, she-said finds its way to court as one of the rare instances of somebody getting into trouble for an external, rather than internal, application of firewater.
It's the price of fame.
"I've seen it happen lots of times to guys," former NHLer Dave Hutchison offered when asked about past experience.
"When you're in the limelight, there's always somebody wanting to challenge you. I don't know if it's jealousy or what."
Even George Chuvalo knows all about it. When he was a contender for the world heavyweight boxing crown, more than one well-fortified individual challenged him.
The well-fortified part -- courage in every drink -- is the operative term. George was cruel. He just laughed at them.
All this is by way of saying whatever happened early Saturday at a St. Thomas watering-hole known as Burty Bob's Two Tavern has happened before and will happen again.
A brawl erupted after some patrons taunted Boston Bruins star Joe Thornton and nine people, including Thornton, were charged.
Anyone who knows Joe Thornton expects that June 17, when the trial date is set, all should be much clearer. Police said Thornton wasn't involved in the melee when they arrived and appeared sober.
Charges arose, they said, when he sought to help his brother, who was being handcuffed and pushed an officer.
"Know what bothers me?" Hutchison asked. "Joe is a terrific kid from a great family who returns to St. Thomas every year and goes to a lot of expense to help charities and various causes. He's like a Darryl Sittler. He's not like some other guys getting into trouble. I mean, even the cops said he's a super guy."
That doesn't buy any free passes but Thornton's personal history suggests there's much more to all this than we now know.
First off, his off-ice persona is like that of Gordie Howe, a hockey legend whose surpassing on-ice ferocity was in stark contrast to a gentle, almost laid-back demeanor away from the game (one shudders to imagine either of them applying any mayhem in a saloon setting). The entire thing is entirely out of character.
Al MacInnis of the St. Louis Blues was involved in a saloon shirt-ripper before his wedding in Calgary. Same with Blues Keith Tkachuk's post-nuptial celebrations in Phoenix. There is a common denominator and it's not just hockey.
It's about famous people being among friends and not being able to completely relax. Based on available information, Joe Thornton's experience doesn't even approach athletic bar-room misadventures of the past.
He probably can't wait for his day in court, either.
