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Bruins tough guy reacts to watching Cam Neely fight Sabres coach back in 1988
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- Bruins tough guy reacts to watching Cam Neely fight Sabres coach back in 1988
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Nikita Zadorov perked up at the question. Had he ever seen video of the fight between Cam Neely and Lindy Ruff?
“I’ve seen a lot of Cam’s fights, but not against Ruff,” Zadorov said.
Neely is now the Bruins team president and Ruff coaches the Sabres . Their teams began their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Sunday . But hockey history will remember both men as a pair of willing and capable scrappers in an era where that was accepted and glorified.
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Zadorov, who led the NHL with 152 penalty minutes in 2025-26, works for Neely and played for Ruff early in his career. So naturally he was eager to watch a fight from a game that had 216 PIMs on its own. He peered closely at the old video on the iPhone in front of him.
Ruff and Neely fought more than once over their careers, but the readily available video on YouTube is from Game 3 of the Bruins-Sabres first-round playoff series in 1988.
With 42 seconds left and Buffalo coasting to a 6-2 win , Buffalo tough guy Kevin Maguire sucker-punched Bruins enforcer Jay Miller off the face-off and things went off the rails fast. A game is only 60 minutes, but there were 72 minutes of penalties called in the final 37 seconds.
Neely and Ruff initially paired off to prevent the other from affecting the fight that was already ongoing. But with tensions running high, it didn’t take long for them to drop their gloves.
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Zadorov let out an “Ooh” when Neely unleashed an uppercut and another when a straight right sent Ruff sprawling to the ice.
Was it hard for Zadorov, who made his NHL debut with the Sabres, to picture Cam Neely being that sort of player during his career?
“No,” Zadorov said emphatically. “I can picture it many times.”
Zadorov’s 152 penalty minutes would have ranked 75th in the NHL and seventh on the Bruins in 1988. Bob Probert led the league with 398, while Miller’s 304 topped the Bruins.
Ruff joked he was happy to come out of Bruins-Sabres games alive in those days.
“Back then I had a hard time sleeping when you knew that night was going to be one of those nights,” he said. “You feared for your life sometimes. The game is different. Intimidation was a huge part of the game back then. ... When you lived through the game, it was fun.”
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The Sabres coach said he still steers clear of Neely.
“I still try to avoid him,” Ruff said chuckling. “Cam is a helluva guy. He was one of the toughest players to play the game.”
Neely still appreciates the rough stuff. When Tanner Jeannot fought Nicolas Deslauriers in Philadelphia , Neely sought him out after the game.
“It meant a lot,” Jeannot said. “He’s a legend. Obviously someone I look up to with the style of game he played.”
Could Jeannot have held his own against Neely?
“It was a different game back then,” Jeannot said. “I’m lucky that I don’t have to find out.”
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