Fight

More on That 2007 Fight Between Eric Fehr and Troy Brouwer

Caps Outsider

There is a legendary fight that almost went forgotten. Two titans clashed on the rink. A standoff occurred, with a slow twirl around a slow turning circle. Glaring each other in the eye, fists clenching with each deep, long breath. The crowd went silent as the two stood across from each other, sweat slowly streaming down their faces. The story would pass down from generation to generation as each slowly moved toward one another, waiting for the other to pounce.

It was Eric Fehr vs. Troy Brouwer.

“You know, me and him ever since Juniors have kinda been butting heads a little bit, and I tried to fight him for a while, and he wouldn’t, and all of a sudden he said yes and so we fought,” Brouwer told Caps Outsider back in December.

Jan. 5, 2007. It was the last time Fehr had ever fought. His AHL Hershey Bears were at the top of their league. The 21-year old at the time was one of the Capitals’ prize possessions. He would finish the year with 22 goals and 19 assists for the East Division champions.

But Brouwer and his Norfolk Admirals were chomping at Fehr and his Bears’ heels. Brouwer would end up leading his team in goals, with 41 on the year. But this particular game, Brouwer and his Admirals were out for blood.

The puck dropped at 7:18 p.m. And after just 2 hours and 32 minutes, history would be made.

The scoring started off in the first, and it was none other than Fehr’s mortal enemy, Brouwer. Just 6:21 into the first, Brouwer netted a power play tally, his 19th goal of the year.

Fehr fumed.

Fast forward to the second period. Fehr and his Bears found themselves down 3-0 in the second after a pair of Craig MacDonald goals.

But with just 33 seconds remaining in the second period, the Bears finally found the net. Joey Tenute added his 13th goal of the year, with Alexandre Giroux and Tomas Fleischmann assists.

But the Bears needed more momentum.

Fehr took the ice, and knew he needed to give his team a jolt. And just six seconds after their first goal, he knew it was the right time to finally fight Brouwer.

“He hit one guy on our team from behind – put him out of the game,” Brouwer said. “And then, I think he hit another guy on our team, put him out of the game as well. So, we were down two guys, and Fehrsie was to blame, so I went after him. I came out early in the fight and he came on late.  It was a pretty fair brawl.”

Brouwer’s Admirals would snag the win, as Fehr just couldn’t give the Bears momentum.

Both the Admirals and the Bears would make the playoffs. Brouwer and his teammates fell short in the Division semi-finals to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 4-2 series. Fehr was a critical part in the Hershey Bears regular season, where they were the top team in the league with 114 points, but he wouldn’t play in the playoffs. The Bears went all the way to the championship, where they fell in a five game series to the Hamilton Bulldogs.

“We actually have a fight tape,” Brouwer said. “He’s got it on his computer. It was back and forth a few times but it was a pretty good scrap.”

But this footage isn’t out there for anyone to see. Is it best to just let the legend live on? Must we need to know what truly happened on Jan. 5, 2007? Can it remain a memory that so few witnessed?

When Brouwer and Fehr became teammates in Washington, they eventually made up.

“My wife and his wife went to New York with Jeff Schultz’s wife my first year here, so when the girls got to be friends, we just kind of followed suit. Most hockey guys are great guys off the ice. On the ice is business, but it was kind of an ongoing thing for a while.”

Editor’s note: Caps Outsider discovered this information after Fehr released his anti-bullying book, the Bulliest Dozer, then attempted to obtain the fight video, which still hasn’t surfaced. Along the way, Chuck Gormley reported the story for CSN, so now Caps Outsider is filling you in with the extra information we learned from Brouwer. Let’s hope they share the video!

Ben Sumner contributed to this report.

Tommy Chalk

Tommy Chalk is a recent journalism graduate at the University of Maryland. He loves hockey, numbers and pretty much anything covered in ranch. Writes about fights and stuff that goes on in the Capitals world.

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