In December 1979, the Boston Bruins were front-and-center in a fight in New York City that carried into the stands. As chronicled in this story from THN's Archive, NHL president John Ziegler came down hard on a slew of Bruins players.

One of the most infamous NHL fights in league history took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City between the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, and fans at the game in December 1979. 

In this cover story from THN’s February 8, 1980 edition (Vol. 33, Issue 19), writer Tom Henshaw provided exclusive details on the fallout from the melee.

(And don’t forget, for complete access to THN’s 76-year archive, you can subscribe to the magazine.)

In the wake of the Dec. 23, 1979 brawl – which carried into the Madison Square Garden stands and saw Bruins forward Mike Milbury strike a fan with their shoe – the NHL lashed out with notable suspensions. 

League president John Ziegler conducted an investigation of the incident, and a handful of weeks later, he dropped the hammer on the Bruins, suspending three of them – Milbury, Peter McNab and Terry O’Reilly – for considerable lengths of time. O’Reilly received an eight-game suspension, and Milbury and McNab were each suspended six games. In addition, Ziegler fined Bruins Craig MacTavish, John Wensink, Gilles Gilbert and Al Secord $500 apiece, and all other Bruins on the ice at the time of the fight received $200 fines.

Needless to say, Ziegler’s ruling did not sit well with Boston players and management.

“It seems too severe,” McNab said. “I never hit anybody. I never even threw a punch. I just grabbed the (fan) who was hitting my teammate. (Ziegler) is treating us as if we started it. He’s making the whole thing sound like we were wrong.”

“The whole thing is a joke,” added O’Reilly.

Bruins GM Harry Sinden was even more direct in his criticism of Ziegler and his ruling.

“I hope the governors of this league recognize this individual (Ziegler) for what he is: Someone who is trying to make something out of himself that he really isn’t,” Sinden said.

For his part, Ziegler made it clear any similar eyesore for the league would be met with severe repercussions.

“From this point forward,” Ziegler said, “each and every player and all club personnel are on notice that any such future involvement may result in the revocation of their privilege to be employed in the National Hockey League. We will not tolerate abuse of our players or officials or other personnel. Anyone who chooses to conduct himself in a disorderly fashion can expect that our clubs and the league will utilize all legal remedies to deter and remedy such abuse.”

Although such an incident never happened again, the Bruins were not swayed by Ziegler’s threats. To the contrary – they felt good about their players looking out for one another.

“We do not accept his findings,” Bruins President Paul Mooney said. “We are proud of our players and the way they conducted themselves under very, very difficult circumstances.”

BRUINS APPEAL ZIEGLER’S SUSPENSIONS

Vol. 33, Issue 19, Feb. 8, 1980

By Tom Henshaw

BOSTON – It was an exciting hockey weekend around Boston, although most of the action came in the courtroom and the executive suite rather than out on the ice.

The hassle centered around an eight-game suspension to Terry O’Reilly and six-game sentences to Peter McNab and Mike Milbury for going into the stands after harassing fans following a game in New York Dec. 23.

It began at noon Friday when NHL President John Ziegler finally arrived in Boston to hold a hearing into the affair.

This was 33 days after the incident but only three days after four of the fans who were involved filed a $7-million suit against nine Boston players, the Bruins team, the New York Rangers, Madison Square Garden, the NHL and New York City.

First, Ziegler addressed the whole club in the dressing room. He called it a grave matter. He mentioned Don Murdoch, the Ranger who was suspended for 40 games last year for possession of cocaine. The Bruins suspected then they were in deep trouble.

The NHL president next met with seven other Bruins — Stan Jonathan, Brad McCrimmon, Al Secord, John Wensink, Craig MacTavish, Bob Miller and Gilles Gilbert. All but Gilbert are defendants in the $7 million suit.

Then, one by one, Ziegler turned to O’Reilly, McNab and Milbury, who were the central figures in a videotape clip from the Dec. 23 game that has been more widely shown in North America than “Gone With The Wind”.

By 3:30 p.m. the hearing was over. Ziegler was on his way to Atlanta. A couple of hours later, the Bruins were winging to Pittsburgh for their Saturday night game. The media was promised a decision shortly after 8 p.m. from Ziegler’s New York office. It came about 10 p.m.

Ziegler acknowledged that the Bruins may have felt they had to go into the stands to protect themselves and their teammates but that “is not justification or excuse for violation of the principle that no league or club employee, official or player is to engage in confrontations with spectators or to enter into spectator areas.”

“From this point forward,” he went on, “each and every player and all club personnel are on notice that any such future involvement may result in the revocation of their privilege to be employed in the National Hockey League.

“We will not tolerate abuse of our players or officials or other personnel. Anyone who chooses to conduct himself in a disorderly fashion can expect that our clubs and the league will utilize all legal remedies to deter and remedy such abuse.”

Then, the sentences:

O’Reilly, an eight game suspension and a $500 fine. McNab and Milbury, six game suspensions and $500 fines. MacTavish, Wensink, Gilbert and Secord, $500 fines. All other Bruins on the ice at the time, $200 fines. Only Gerry Cheevers, who was in the dressing room, escaped with wallet intact.

The Boston players learned of the decision in their Pittsburgh hotel from Kevin Dupont, the hockey writer for the Herald American, who in turn had learned of it from his office in Boston. The Bruins expected something but hardly this.

“It’s unbelievable,” said McNab. “It seems too severe. I never hit anybody. I never even threw a punch. I just grabbed the guy who was hitting my teammate. He is treating us as if we started it. He’s making the whole thing sound like we were wrong.”

And, he added bitterly: “He (Ziegler) didn’t have the courage to call me himself.”

“The whole thing is a joke,” said O’Reilly, who was the first Bruin into the stands after a fan had reached over the glass and punched Jonathan. “The whole thing’s stupid. I question his competence.”

“We do not accept his findings,” declared Bruins President Paul Mooney in a statement. “We are proud of our players and the way they conducted themselves under very, very difficult circumstances.

“It’s curious to me that in reaching this decision Ziegler absolves both the Rangers and Madison Square Garden of all responsibility and somehow makes the Bruins players both the victims and scapegoats of an unprovoked attack.”

General Manager Harry Sinden, who doesn’t care very much for Ziegler anyway, expressed the Bruins’ feelings more bluntly.

“I hope the governors of this league recognize this individual (Ziegler) for what he is: Someone who is trying to make something out of himself that he really isn’t,” he said. “He is out of his element in all aspects of the game.

“I never wanted him in the first place. He isn’t qualified. He has no background in this game. I didn’t want him yesterday. I don’t want him tomorrow. I don’t want to see him.”

At 2:30 a.m. Saturday, the Bruins notified the NHL office that they were exercising their right to appeal to the Board Of Governors. The appeal was granted for Wednesday. But…

“In the meantime,” Ziegler wired, “as has been the policy of this league, there is no stay of the decision during the pendency of the appeal.”

“I’m amused,” said Mooney, who really wasn’t. “We have been granted an appeal but it’s too bad the execution will be carried out before we have an opportunity for that appeal.”

There was one more legal avenue open to the Bruins. Two hours before the team was scheduled to take the ice in Pittsburgh, they went before the U.S. District Court in Boston for a restraining order that would have delayed the suspensions.

Heavyweights were getting involved in the case now. The attorney for the NHL was James St. Clair, who last made the front pages as legal representative of President Richard M. Nixon when Congress was considering his impeachment.

The hearing lasted an hour. Judge Robert E. Keeton refused the restraining order, ruling that the Bruins had not exhausted their appeals through the NHL’s administrative process. It was the end of the legal line for the Boston club.

Out in Pittsburgh, Brad Park, who was just about ready to come back from knee surgery, suited up for the first time this season to fill in for Milbury. Wensink, nursing a sprained wrist, also dressed and Tom Songin was called up from Binghamton to replace McNab and O’Reilly.

Almost lost in the flow of weekend acrimony and legal niceties was the Bruins 6-4 victory over Pittsburgh, their eighth straight win, an emotion-charged game with O’Reilly, McNab and Milbury cheering from the stands. For the Bruins, it was “us against the world.”

But it remained for Ziegler to have the last word, at least for now.

“The Bruins apparently do not comprehend the seriousness of what they did,” he said from a Florida retreat. “Such acts will not be justified or excused under any circumstances. If we’re going to control the games we can’t have a policy that allows this kind of behavior.”

The Hockey News Archive is a vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 articles exclusively for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit the archives at THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com