As The Hockey News looks at enforcers week, we look at some of the toughest women's hockey players ever to play the game.

Fighting is primarily a topic in men's hockey. That's not to say fighting has always been absent from the women's game. Body checking is another portion of women's hockey history only removed from the women's game following the 1990 World Championships.

Women's hockey has always been tough, it's always featured physical play, and it's always featured athletes who use their size, strength, and aggression to control the game.

According to the authors of Coast to Coast: Hockey in Canada to the Second World War, "as early as the 1920s, female hockey players were challenging the residual Victorian notions of women as weak and passive and, by extension, their imposed inferiority status....Newspaper reports from women's hockey during the interwar years suggested that, like the men's game, women's hockey was also fast, aggressive, and, at times, violent."

Through the 1930s, headlines told of on-ice fights reading 'Sticks and Fists Fly Freely as Girl Hockeyists Battle,' 'Girls Wanted Another Fight but Referees Stopped Them,'  and 'Girls Draw Majors for Fistic Display'.

As Julie Stephens and Joanna Avery, hockey scholars and authors of Too Many Men on the Ice: Women's Hockey in North America wrote, "Bodychecking, hooking, slashing, scrapes, cuts and stitches were all part of the women's game."

More recently, the rivalry between Canada and USA has been central in reproducing the physical contests tied closely to elite hockey. There have been many occurrences when pushing and shoving has turned to more, including a memorable line brawl in 2013 following Monique Lamoureux running over Canadian netminder Shannon Szabados.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAp_hPxZT2Q[/embed]

Body checking remained fierce in Canadian women's hockey throughout history. It was removed unofficially following the opening game of the 1990 World Championship, and officially prior to the 1992 Championship to the dismay of many.  During the opening game of the 1990 World Championships between Sweden and Canada, only the on-ice officials knew body-checking had been quietly banned, leading commentators like Michael Landsberg to state on air, "Well I think we should yell down [to the referee] and say, ‘there is body-checking allowed here!” Writers described of the opening moments of that game, stating Canada's France Montour "led the Canadian hit parade, twice leaving Swedes decked on the ice surface writhing in pain for several moments.”

“I lined up a few opponents and afterwards thought, ‘I’m lucky I didn’t get a penalty’” said Team Canada member Shirley Cameron about checking at that tournament.

For women, the 1990 World Championships was a farewell tour to body checking, one that 1990 Best Defender and MVP Dawn McGuire spoke of fondly.

“I always loved to hit other opponents. I played a lot of full contact and it was difficult switching from stepping into an opponent to riding them off into the boards,” said McGuire.

It was a sentiment echoed by many stars from the 1980s and 1990s like Angela James who said, “You know hitting was a big part of our performance and how we played it...Every now and then you know, I hit someone because it was hockey.” 

Recently, Sweden extended their pilot project re-incorporating body checking into women's hockey. It's a sign that the physical elements of women's hockey are not gone.

Past and present, tough women have patrolled the ice. So who are some of the toughest women in hockey? Here's five.

1. Angela James

When Angela James stepped on the ice in the 1970s and 1980s, she was the most feared player in the game. Not only was she a dominant scorer, but she intimidated her competition with "bone-rattling body checks." As Deb Maybury, an official at the first World Championships said about the rough play in women's hockey at the time, "if you wake up people like Angela James, you’re waking up a beast that can play with a high level of skill and intensity you’ve probably never seen before." James learned to hit playing against older women as a teen, developing a forceful style. “I remember getting the snot literally knocked out of me. Then, finally, I grew. It was like, ‘OK, revenge for all these years that you guys beat up on me.’ From that point it was my style. I didn’t know any other way to play. Hitting was part of the game and I loved it.”

2. Helen Schmuck

Alongside superstar Hilda Ranscombe, Helen Schmuck was one of the stars of the 1930s with the Preston Rivulettes. While Ranscombe racked up points, Schmuck did the heavy lifting. At one point in the 1931 playoffs in a series against Port Stanley where "[a]n impromptu and short-lived fisticuff display" occurred during a game, Schmuck was accused of being a man due to her physical dominance and toughness on the ice. The opposing team demanded she prove her womanhood before they would resume the series. If there was a scrum, fisticuffs, or a big hit being thrown, Schmuck was the likely culprit, and the last woman standing regardless of the altercation. In 1936 describing Schmuck's Preston Rivulettes, journalist Alexandrine Gibb wrote that "the girls on the ice have demonstrated this year they are as good scrappers as any boys’ team, and mostly they punch and forget the hair pulling idea." No doubt that description centred around Helen Schmuck.

3. Gillian Apps

The all-time leader in penalty minutes in the CWHL with 369 in 128 games, ninth all-time in NCAA penalty minutes, and 12th all-time in World Championship penalty minutes, Apps played a physically imposing game using her five-foot-eleven frame. Apps was a centrepiece of many physical contests between Canada and USA over the years, including an infamous moment where she ran over USA's netminder at the 2007 World Championships. Few have imposed their will, drove the net (and opponents to t the boards) or created space for themself in the 21st century like Gillian Apps.

4. Jocelyn Larocque

She's not the biggest player on the ice, but Larocque has never shied away from physical play. From net front scrums, to playing the body in the corners and along the boards, Larocque is a competitor. As the CBC described Larocque, she "takes no prisoners on the ice. Push her and she'll push back, only harder. Get in her way when she's chasing down a loose puck and there's a very good chance you'll end up on your backside." Larocque is also one of only a handful of women ever to top the 100 PIM mark in a single season in NCAA hockey. Larocque makes opponents think twice before entering her space.

5. Kaleigh Fratkin

"Fratkin plays one of the most physical styles," wrote the Boston Herald of the longtime PHF defender. Playing in the PHF, Fratkin is the league's all-time leader in penalty minutes with 202, the only player in league history ever to reach 200 PIMS. In her youth, Fratkin played boys hockey, including at the U-18 'AAA' and Junior B levels, learning to bodycheck and play a physical style, which carried over throughout her career. Few compete like Fratkin, few know how to play on the edge like she does every shift.

Others: Courtney Kennedy, Hayley Wickenheiser, Angela Ruggiero, Madison Packer, Hilary Knight, Sammi Bowers.